Unmaking Hunter Kennedy (10 page)

Seriously. Wow.

She swallowed.

Whatever! The kid was so gorgeous he was abnormal.

If she weren’t biting on her top lip to keep the blush under control, her jaw would have gaped open wide as she took in his perfectly, square chin.

Cheekbones and muscles and...are boys allowed to be this beautiful?

Her hand wobbled in front of him like a rubber chicken.

His eyes scanned her bun then her face, before he stepped away as though she’d burned him. That same flash of panic shot through his gaze before he cringed.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. He totally cringed. He did!

Vere shoved her hand behind her back. She wanted to die. If she had any remaining doubts that she wasn’t complete boy poison, they’d all just been instantly erased by this guy’s response to her.

I repel all guys. Now I have proof. PROOF.

Wait till Jenna hears. Maybe I need a different deodorant?

She ran her tongue over her teeth.

Or toothpaste?

“Vere—you dork!” Charlie dissolved into fits of laughter. “She’s clueless. She has no idea who you are!”

“What do you mean? Have I met you before? I don’t think so...” She scowled at Dustin, then Charlie.

“Charlie. Take it easy,” Nan said.

Vere’s afternoon headache returned full force.

She’d thought the day couldn’t get worse. At least Nan’s nephew had evened out the rude points for their mom by blatantly not shaking her hand in front of everyone. And one better,
Mr. Pretty
had managed to make her too angry to blush. Her firing cheeks, neck, and red hot ears faded back to fine.

Because I’m not bothered one bit by handsome, rude boys.

“Seriously, Mom, Nan, can you please explain?” Charlie asked.

Vere crossed her arms. “Yeah,” she added, making sure she sounded cranky and annoyed, like her time was being wasted.

Because it was.

I should be upstairs calling Jenna to tell her that Curtis talked to Charlie about me. I’ve got things to do!

She caught Dustin’s gaze and glowered bullets into him, reminding herself again that she was not at all affected by his looks or hurt by what he did. If he pulled creepy elevator-eyes like Curtis had done this afternoon, she would not hold back the punches. Curtis could look all he wanted, but this guy did not have any staring rights.

Just try it buster. Go ahead. Try it.

She intensified her glare.

She checked her bun from slipping, but refused to break his gaze. “You can quit staring at me any time,” she hiss-whispered.

“It’s you—staring at me,” he answered quietly, as though he totally understood exactly how beautiful he was.

“I am not! I don’t stare at guys. What are you?
Crazy
?”

His dark, arched, brows shot up as though she’d surprised him. “Truth? It’s possible that I am.”

“Well join the club and get in line then.” She rolled her eyes calling his bluff. “Our whole family is nuts, if you haven’t figured that out already.”

One side of his lip twisted up into a small smile. “You’re still staring.”

“You are,” she sassed back.

Feeling like a fool and a liar, she stared harder.

It was a standoff now, and she was determined to win.

She scrunched her brows and added a frown.

He cracked a small smile.

“Hilarious! Vere, you really don’t recognize him?” Charlie’s voice, holding at ten decibels louder than normal, was getting really annoying. Charlie turned and hollered again. “Dude. You rock! I have all your tracks on my iPod.”

Tracks? Tracks?

“I’m glad to know you’re a fan,” the guy responded woodenly, sounding as though he were on some strange autopilot. His gaze never wavered from skeptical and held Vere’s fast.

Vere tried to match Dustin’s expression as a taunt, but that backfired. For some reason, her attempts to mock him had made him smile wider.

She tripled her glower.

He tripled the smile.

“Vere.” Charlie stepped between them, breaking the stare down. “He’s Hunter Kennedy,” Charlie yelled again. “
The Hunter Kennedy.
Lead singer of
GuardeRobe.
DUH! And he’s in Monument, Colorado.” He turned to Hunter and got way too close to the guy’s face. “Holy Crap!
Hunter Kennedy! Dude, you’re in our living room!
Is the rest of the band here, too?”

Charlie looked around the room like a madman, still going on, “This is impossible. Nan, how can you be Hunter Kennedy’s aunt? Did we all
WIN
something? Is this for MTV? Where are the cameras hiding?”

Vere frowned and peered around Charlie as she tried to place the guy in front of her as the blond, clean-cut, boy-band singer she’d seen a few times on TV.

Charlie had a poster of
GuardeRobe
, but she honestly didn’t recognize
this kid
as the blond, guitar-holding, pimped out guy on Charlie’s closet door.

When he’d had that panicked look earlier, it had made him seem so real, but Hunter Kennedy wasn’t a real person. Was he?

Not in her world.

“This is not a TV show, Charlie.” Nan shook her head. “I’m Hunter’s
great
aunt. I don’t tell people about him. Too many odd requests for favors,” she added.

“He doesn’t even look like Hunter Kennedy.” Vere turned to back to him. “You don’t, you know? Do you? Are you really
him
?”

“Apparently not anymore,” he answered, sounding very cynical again. “You’re only supposed to know me as Dustin McHugh. So it should be easy to forget the famous part about me right away. Because that’s the goal here. Let’s try again. Say it with me: Nice to meet you,
Dustin McHugh
.”

His sarcasm had returned full force.

“Okay.” Vere crossed her arms and tried her best to copy his annoying, sarcastic mouth twist and ultra-low voice.

“Nice to meet
you
,
Dustin McHugh
. Happy?”

“Truth? Happier than I was a few minutes ago,” he answered, smiling. “Because you’ve been cracking me up.”

“Great.” She rolled her eyes.

It was then Vere realized she’d been talking to this guy minus all her usual stuttering and general color-changing weirdness. Somehow she’d managed to keep her anxiety in check. But how? Because he’d made her angry? By imagining she was talking to the poster in Charlie’s room?

Because this whole situation is so ridiculously strange?

“Why is it you’re here, and not with your band?” she went for another question, testing the situation—her reactions to him.

“And why do you need us all to use a fake name?” Charlie added. “Is that why your hair is brown?”

“I’m—I need—” He broke Vere’s gaze and looked at Nan.

Nan nodded. “Tell them,” she encouraged.

He crossed to the other side of the room but kept his back to them. The silence stretched as his hands moved lightly over the family photos lining the top of their upright piano. “I got into some trouble in Los Angeles. My mom thinks I need to be here...for a rest. She and my agent think I can’t do that well if people and reporters are swarming me as Hunter Kennedy.”

He turned back to face them. The look in his eyes seemed so bleak it made her heart clench. Vere sensed he wasn’t lying—but he also seemed to be hiding some of the truth.

Hunter went on, “They decided I could hang in Colorado best if I could be sort of—
unmade
. You know, completely disguised? Aunt Nan can’t coordinate the home-schooling and tutoring I’d need, so I’ll be attending your high school until they let me come home. Which should be soon. I think.”

His bright blue gaze found hers again.

God. But the color of his eyes is unreal. Completely. Not. Real.

This time, she thought she saw pure desolation hiding in there. Her heart twisted again and erased any new urges blush. Despite his fame, and his beautiful face, he seemed so sad.

He continued in a chipper voice that did not match what she saw in his eyes,“So, yeah. You two are also supposed to drive me around and hang out with me so I blend in better.”

“You’ve offered us to do what?!” Charlie interrupted. “Dammit Mom! It’s cool to meet this guy and all, but we’ve got real lives to live here and—”

“No. Stop. Not one more word out of your potty-mouth, young man. You have pushed me to my limit!” Mom took Charlie’s arm into her death-grip. She and Nan dragged him out into the hall. “Hunter, Vere, we will be right back.”

Charlie was going down. Way down.

9: gnomes and tumbleweeds

HUNTER

“You’re staring again,” she said finally, but this time her voice seemed forced. Tight, as though she suddenly had to struggle to speak to him now that they were alone together.

Worse, she was dead on.

He had been staring. Mostly at her lips. He liked the way she chewed the upper one off and on.

“Fine. I’ll own it. You caught me. Sorry,” Hunter said, but kept staring, despite her obvious discomfort.

Hell.

He couldn’t
stop
staring at this girl. Not since she’d entered the room spinning around on her brother’s back. Right now, it would be impossible for him to look away because his words had caused her to blush again.

Up close, the effect turned her lightly freckled, apple-round cheeks—not to mention practically every inch of her skin—a fascinating pink. It had also made her large, dark brown eyes seem deeper, luminous.

Girl was cute with that pink face.

“Would you stop?” She shifted her feet.

He went for honesty again. “I’ll try but, your cheeks! Makes you look like a little gnome.”

His comment caused her to glare again.

He’d never been glared down by a girl before. Not counting his mom, of course, but this girl was obviously way more charming than his mom.

He couldn’t resist teasing her again. “It’s that—
you
—are just so interesting to watch.”

He choked back a laugh when she turned even redder.

Her eyes positively snapped with that one.

“Back at you,
boy-band-freak.
You’re the one who came from another planet, not me. But don’t wait for me to swoon at your feet. If this is your attempt at flirting, you won’t make much progress with the girls around here.”

“Ooh. Claws,” he teased back, laughing.

Instead of the added pink effect Hunter had been hoping for, the color went the other way.

The blushing thing seemed to fade in and out.

Out—when annoyed.

In—every other second.

Funny.

Mrs. Roth and Nan marched back in with Charlie. “Hunter—er—
Dustin
, we have the driving thing settled. Consider these two your willing chauffeurs. A direct order, not a statement.

Hunter shot an apologetic glance at Charlie. The guy’s tight expression tagged him as beyond unwilling to participate in any of his
unmaking
crap. Hunter got that it might be awkward for Charlie at school to have a new guy hanging around his senior year. Either way, Mrs. Roth must have threatened something huge to make him comply with such a straight face.

Hunter could relate. Moms were a force few could beat.

“Once they get over the shock of this, they will act normally,” Mrs. Roth added.

“I’m sorry,” Charlie said. “I acted like a jerk. But don’t wait around expecting my little sister to act normal, ever.”

Hunter smiled down at the still glaring Vere. “Normal is boring on my planet.” He moved his attention to Charlie. “And the name is
Dustin McHugh
. Please. How about you and I start over? I’m sorry if I came off as—”

“An
ass
?” Charlie finished for him.

“Charlie Owen Roth, if you utter one more curse or say one more rude thing to poor Hunter—” Mrs. Roth had turned as red as her daughter.

“It’s okay Mrs. Roth. I was a complete tool when I met him. And I’m sorry. I’ve been really tired planning my move to Colorado. You can imagine this day is not up there on my top ten list.”

“And you did scream in his face, Charlie,” Vere said.

Hunter bit his own lip. Was the gnome girl defending him? “We can figure out a way I can be low impact on both of your lives. I won’t try to hang around with you if it’s not easy or natural, okay?”

Charlie seemed to relax. “Appreciated. I apologize right back. I went from screaming at you to dropping the ball on your situation. So, without screaming in your face,
Dustin
—it’s nice to meet you again. For real. Or...whatever.” Charlie flushed and shoved his hands in his pockets.

The kid was jumpy as hell—reminded him of Martin.

To Hunter, jumpy meant difficult to trust.

Hunter nodded. “Thanks...we’re cool. You’re not the first fanboy to lose it like that on me. I’ve had much worse.”

“You have?” Vere asked.

“You don’t even want to know. Let’s not talk about that stuff. Stories about who I’m NOT supposed to be anymore will throw off our focus. I only want you to think of me as just another kid, like you. If that’s possible,” Hunter evaded. “Nan is right, I’m sure I can’t do this without you.”

“I don’t know...” Charlie shook his head, his expression still not convinced.

“Mom, why didn’t you tell us about all this—
him
—sooner?” Vere asked, her expression also holding at skeptical.

“His identity has to remain a secret. Nan and I have known for a month. I didn’t want to tell you too early in case one of you slipped.”

“Well, the too-late option bites,” Charlie muttered under his breath. “This is no small assignment to pull off in one, long weekend.”