Shane and Trey[ Enemies to Lovers 01 ] (22 page)

I sat on the armchair opposite her. “Probably a good thing, don’t you think?” Flashes of Mom and Dad arguing leaked into mind. Mom always in her soft reflective manner, and Dad getting riled up, words daggers from his mouth. I’d once made the mistake of telling him to shut up. And he’d congratulated Mom on bringing up such a disrespectful son.

Hypocrite.

“In the last year,” June said, muting the TV, “things have been better between them. I think—I think he’s trying, Shane. Mom said he’s been seeing a councilor, and—”

“And nothing, June. Why didn’t he try back then, when we were kids?” I remembered how much enjoyment he got from waking me up out of deep sleep and making me walk down the street so I got used to the night. Or the way he forced me to ride a bike in circles until I’d learnt how to do it. Nine was way too old not to be able to ride. The way he laughed when I got angry. That my feelings didn’t matter a damn bit, only entertained him.

My grip had tightened on the arm of the chair, knuckles white. Why the hell did I let him get to me?

June switched off the TV and went into the kitchen. A sniffing had me following her. “June?” Her back was to me, as she filled a glass with water.

“Could you try, Shane, for me?”

I came to her side and leaned back against the counter. “Try what?”

“Don’t play dumb. You ignore him when he’s around, you give the shortest answers possible, and you always look at your watch. Could you just try to give him your attention? Maybe he surprises you.”

I took a begrudging breath. It’s only for an hour or so, and then camping. And June needs you.I nodded. “I’ll do my best. You seem to believe in him, and I trust you, so…you know. I’lltry.”

She looked at me, her eyes the warmest I’d seen them all week and shimmering slightly. “Thanks.”

 

“So what time did he say he’d get here?” June glanced at the microwave clock. “At ten,”a half-hour ago“must be caught in traffic.”

But another half-hour went by with no word, and I knew he wasn’t coming. Still, I waited twenty minutes longer, because I didn’t want to be the one to tell June to stop hoping. It looked like I would have to though. As much as I’d hated the idea of spending time with Dad, seeing him let June down was worse.

I moved over to her and wrapped an arm around her. She fiddled with her cell phone, waving it in the air as if perhaps it hadn’t any reception.

The bastard. Yet another thing to add to his list of failures. And he had no idea how lucky he was to have a daughter like June. Fuck—he didn’t deserve her.See, he’s not worth it,I wanted to tell her, but her saddened face stopped me.

I gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and slipped out of the room. I jabbed the buttons on my cell, moving to the far end of the house so she wouldn’t hear me.

He picked up on the fourth ring. “Hey—”

“That was the last fucking straw, Dad,” I said, struggling to keep from yelling. I shut the door to the bathroom adding to the buffer between June and me. “Why the hell didn’t you ring? You don’t deserve her forgiveness you know that? If you care at all, even a little, you’ll ring her right now and explain. Although, I hope you don’t, because then maybe she’ll accept that you’re a prick of a father, who has been nothing more to us than a constant disappointment.”

I hung up on him, throwing my cell into the laundry hamper. My fingers—my whole body trembled. Finally, I told him exactly how I felt. So why didn’t I feel liberated? Why did my gut churn, and why the hell was I crying? I clapp ~ pus, Ied the toilet lid shut and sat down, propping my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. I knew he’d do something to get me upset, he always did. Damn him.

I wiped my cheeks, scrunching up the tissues and chucking them into the bin. A soft knock had that same rush of anger coming over me again. How could she keep so calm? I yanked the door open, for no good reason annoyed with her too. If she hadn’t been so hopeful, I’d never have got so upset. Dad wasn’t worth any of our tears.

“He rang,” she said, her expression still miserable. I grit my teeth on a nasty retort, falsely directed.

“He apologized for not ringing. Something came up for him at work and he was called in. It was urgent. He said he’d meant to call and cancel, but with the stress at work it’d slipped his mind.”

I walked past her down the hall. “He’s definitely coming next Saturday.”

Sure. Of course. “Whatever.” I turned to her, and at her ashen face calmed my tone. A bit. “Just don’t get your hopes up again. It upsets me to see you get hurt.”

She shook her head. “I know that upsets you, Shane, but is that really the only reason you’re upset? Because I think a part of you wished you could believe in him too.” “I don’t.”

June held my gaze, but was the first one to break it. “I’m going to head to the library and have lunch with Mom.” I sighed internally, and felt for the keys in my pocket. “Give her a hug from me, okay?”

She nodded, but we didn’t hug like we would have only a week ago. I wanted to kick something. Instead I aimed for the front door, and slammed it behind me.

***

Most of my dark mood I shook off before I got back to Trey’s house. But a slither remained and when he opened the door for me, I didn’t go to kiss him, and barely responded when he brushed his lips against mine.

“What’s up, babe?” Trey hooked an arm around mine and pulled me to the living room where all our camping packs sat ready to be loaded into the car.

Gripping both sides of my shoulders he pushed me into a chair, and kneeled in front. “You don’t have to tell me anything, right? Just, if you do… I’ll listen.” He shrugged, and his voice grew an edge. Cheeky,mostly.“But either way, you’re going to enjoy this trip. Even if I have to peg a smile onto your face. Got it?”

The tone of his voice, the deepness, that edge of darkness in his eyes that warned me he might not be joking sent a rush through my body. Dad and June took a quick backseat in my mind and they wouldn’t be unbuckled any time soon. Certainly not the rest of this weekend with Trey.Oh baby, I’m all yours.

He moved to my ear and whispered, lightly running his hands down my arms. “That’s better.”

 

The small grin on my face widened to a fully fledged smile. “Well then, let’s go!”

 

“Just got to say goodbye to Mom, Dad and Patricia.”

He called out their names, and when there was no answer walked into the adjoining room where they all sat eating brunch. I gave a small wave to Patricia when she looked at me. Trey’d briefly mentioned that Patricia was going to be living at his house for a while. Until she had her alcohol problem more under control. She raised both her brows in a resigned way, looking from me to Trey, and I imagined the inner sigh that went with it. “Watch out!” she mouthed. I moved my gaze over to Trey hugging his mom. I could tell by the way he gripped her back, he held her tight. But her hands remained at her side. She gave him the weakest of smiles before facing Patricia again.

Trey watched her a moment longer, and then turned to his dad. Same build although slightly smaller, he looked a lot like Trey, but where Trey was an extrovert, this guy was held back, quiet. We’d met for the first time last night. I liked him the best of the three. When Trey had introduced me as ~ feehree.his boyfriend, he’d nodded and given me a small smile.

Now, he spoke softly to Trey. From my position at the door, I heard snippets on camping safely. Trey clapped a hand on his shoulder and then came back to me.

“Right. Let’s go then, shall we?” “Let’s.”

It took us less than an hour to pile into the car and reach the beginning of the round trip track. We hooked on our packs —Trey carrying the tent, and me carrying the most of the food and water so we had equal weight. I’d done a lot of hiking before, so despite Trey’s offer to supply the sleeping bag and camping equipment, I brought my own.

We started the track through a grove and over some fields leading to a bigger wood. The trail, well worn by families and mountain bikers, lead us surely through the trees, winding along a small stream to our left. Leaves latticed above us locked out the sky, except for moments when it opened up, allowing a lovely view of a distant lake surrounded by greenery.

At one such view point, a couple of hours into the walk— hours of comparing hike and camping stories—we stopped for a drink. Despite the cool air and low clouds, sweat ran down the sides of my temples and back where the bag had stuck to me. I aired my polypro top, and smiled as Trey did the same. The track was on the simpler side of others I’d— we’d, by the sound of it—had done before, but somehow this one was more intense. Meant more. It felt like a test or something. And it both unnerved and excited me.

“Want anything to eat now?” Trey pulled out a couple of bars.

 

I grabbed one. “Cheers.” And then we continued walking some more, crunching over the leaves of the deciduous trees.

Trey picked up a large red one. “As a kid when we came up here, I used to collect as many leaves as I could.” The path had narrowed so Trey slunk behind me as we continued walking. “I used to take an empty pillow case, and by the time I got to the camping spot, I had a pillow full of leaves.”

I chuckled. “You sure love your pillows.” A small breeze whirled my words to the front, away from him.

 

“What was that?” I thought about repeating, but held my hand back for him to squeeze instead.

“I thought about bringing one and doing it again, but—” Trey stopped as drops of rain splashed around and on us. “—crap.”

On the narrow path, we swung off our packs and got out our raincoats. Trey’s was a dark brown and mine a deep red. We continued through the shower. Trey laughed behind me.

“What?” I said as loudly so that he’d hear me. “Nothing… my little red riding hood.”

I spun around, startling him into a larger, way more mischievous grin. Oh, this was going to be fun. “And what does that makeyou?”

He dropped the smile, stepped closer, our chests almost touching. “Hungry.”
I clasped the back of his neck and smashed a kiss to his lips.SureI’mnot the wolf in disguise?I held myself back from saying it though. I was pretty sure if I said it out loud it would sound lame. In fact, it was embarrassing enough I thought such lines.

We kissed harder for a few moments, and my hands were trailing his body.

 

“Um,” Trey said, “we’d better keep this pg. Kids use this track.”

 

“Right.”

We created a small space between us, but it seemed the both of us needed a moment before we could comfortably continue.

For another hour we chatted as we walked. Laughing and joking away was perfect. I didn’t think anything would be able to break our good mood.

I rounded a narrow bend and our path began to decline. The contrast on the legs from going uphill to downhill felt refreshing. Although, I preferred going up, down was harder on the knees.

A set of stone stairs had been planted into a particularly steep drop. Trey had begun to hum Scarborough Fair behind me and the sound mad ~ed ht of e me itch inside and want to, want to—I jumped onto the first step and with a noticeable bounce in my step continued.

“Shane, careful babe.”

And he cared! I practically skipped the next few steps and —whoosh, fuck!I slipped on some wet leaves, landing hard backward and sliding down the last few steps. Thank God for my pack!

Trey swore and was at my side in no time. Embarrassed at falling, I avoided his eye as I picked myself up. He wouldn’t let me do it alone though, and gripped my arms adding his support. When he was sure I wasn’t injured he threw my arms down. “What the fuck was that about, Shane? I told you to be careful.”

His fists were balls at his side, pumping. I dared a glance at his face. Ah, not pretty—red and furious. “God, do you know how stupid—”

Why the hell was he getting so worked up about this?

“Shit. You could have… you might have…” Livid wasn’t strong enough to describe him right now. And his overreaction was…too much.
I met his eye. “It was a fucking slip, Trey. Don’t get so worked up about it.”

He held my gaze only a few moments longer before turning away. With energy and violence he kicked the nearest tree and stalked off, jumping over the small stream, opposite the path.

Fuck it. I stormed ahead, keeping to the trail. This whole thing was ridiculous in my mind, and I kept replaying the scene in my head trying to get his anger.
Yeah, so I hadn’t listened to him when he asked me to be careful. But that didn’t feel like where his reaction stemmed from. I looked at Trey slightly ahead across the river, weaving through trees. We pretended to ignore each other. When he glanced my way, I made sure to focus on the path ahead of me. But I’d see him look away and hit a tree or something. I wished I could understand—like a foul wind it hit me. Stupid. Shit, I was stupid! My falling, perhaps it reminded him of his Aunt?

I sucked in a deep breath and studied him. His slumped posture, the hurt in his walk. This time when he looked back at me, I met and held his gaze. We both stopped walking, a silent conversation between us. A begging on my behalf for him to get back over here.

Trey trudged down the small bank and leaped over the yard wide stream. When he reached my side, his eyes looked saddened. “Oh fuck Shane,” his voice was gentle, breaking slightly at my name, “I’m so sorry.”

“Talk to me about it?” I held my breath, letting it go in a sigh as he shook his head.

“I can’t. Not right now. But, I will. Trust me, yeah?” His lashes came together as he closed his eyes, waiting for my response. Hoping I trusted him?

“Of course, Trey.” I gripped his chin angling his face to look at me. He did. And in his eyes was that same something I’d seen so many times now, but still couldn’t place. Warm, caring, it was like looking into an embrace.

He linked his fingers through mine and silently—and side by side—we continued the last half an hour to the camping spot. The weather meant we shared the grounds with few other people. I counted two tents at the far end of the bank near the lake shore. We set up our tent at the opposite end on slightly risen ground to avoid being flooded in the night, should the drizzle turn into something more.

“It’s so good to be far away from everything,” I said, pushing in the last peg of our tent fly, and then looking out to the murky lake waters.