Flirting with the Bad Boy

by Michelle Pennington

  “Sounds lonely.”

  “It was sometimes. But it wasn’t all bad. When she was home, I had all of her attention, you know? I miss that.”

  Jason bounced the key on the cord a moment and then lowered it gently into the box again, just as if it was made of glass. Then he looked up at me. “Okay. So if I’m not going to call you rich girl anymore, what am I going to call you?”

  “Is there something wrong with calling me by my name?”

  He nodded. “Everybody calls you by your name. I want something only I call you.”

  I put everything back in my box. “Then you’re going to have to figure it out.” After the lid was back on it, I held the box out to him. “Will you put it back for me before we go?”

  He took it, studied me a minute—making me wish I could read his mind—and heaved himself up off the floor. Then he held his hand down to help me up. When he pulled me up, I was amazed at the strength he exhibited without even trying. I was no featherweight, but he almost made me fly into the air.

  I waited for him to go out ahead of me, but he paused to say, “Thanks for showing that to me.”

  “You’re the only one who’s ever seen it.” I shrugged. “I know people at school probably think I’m a spoiled brat. I just wanted you to know the truth.”

  His hand touched my arm again, but this time it was a caress. “And I want you to know I’m sorry––for judging you.”

  His sincerity felt like sunshine.

  “Want to get going?”

  “Not really. But we’d probably better. Brielle is waiting in the truck.”

  “What? Jason! You should have told me. She already hates my guts.”

  He laughed as he hurried down the stairs behind me. “No, she doesn’t. What are you talking about?”

  Clearly, he was blind where his ‘girl that was just a friend’ was concerned, so I only shrugged and grabbed my towel from the entry table.

  7

  Brielle sat in the passenger seat, fixing her hair in the visor mirror. As we got close, she turned and looked at us. She smiled, sweetness positively oozing from her expression. But I wasn’t deceived. Jason took my hand and led me around the front of the truck to the driver’s side door, and I could feel Brielle’s gaze on me the whole time. It sent prickles of unease down my spine. But I’d stared down enough tough girls through a volleyball net to know how effective my game face could be. Game on, Brielle.

  The door creaked open on its hinges as Jason opened it wide. I stared for a moment at how high the truck was from the ground. Well, nothing about this was going to be graceful. Planting one foot on the dirty metal step, I hoisted myself up onto the seat and slid over, managing to whack my knee on the steering wheel. My long legs proved to be a problem as I got to the gear shift that stuck up from the floorboards in front of the seat. I tried to figure out if I should put one foot on either side of it or scoot over enough to put them all on the right side. But that would squish me against Brielle, and that wasn’t happening. A foot on either side it was.

  “Am I okay here?” I asked.

  Jason turned the key and grinned down at me, making my heart flutter again. “It’s great with me.” Then he reached down to the gear shift and moved it into drive.

  He hadn’t even touched me, and his hand moved back to the wheel immediately, but the whole thing made me hyper-awkward.

  After a while, I relaxed...well, as best I could with my whole side pressed against Jason’s. He took up a lot of room on the seat.

  As we drove out of my neighborhood and onto the four-lane highway that stretched west to east across Sweet Water, my phone pinged in my right pocket. My jeans were so tight that I had to lean even harder against Jason’s shoulder to get it out.

  “Sorry,” I said, practically in his ear as I wiggled it out of my pocket. Could this get any more embarrassing?

  “Relax,” he said. But from the way a tendon twitched in his jaw, I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or to himself.

  It was Charlotte, asking in the group text with Maddie how things had gone.

  He’s taking me to a party on the beach tonight.

  Charlotte’s reply came back fast, with a lot of excited emojis. I guess it went good then!!! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

  Maddie chimed in then. But do a few things I would do.

  I laughed and swiped out of the message so Jason wouldn’t glance down and see it. He kept his eyes on the road, but Brielle was a whole other problem.

  “Who’s texting you? Your preppy friends? Did you tell them you’re slumming it tonight?”

  “Brielle.” Jason’s voice was sharp. “What’s wrong with you?”

  She shrugged and laughed like she was just joking. “Oh, you know you thought the same thing. Until today, I guess.”

  The tension in the truck was thick enough that it felt like a weight on my chest. Jason glanced toward me and let out a deep breath. Then his hand dropped softly onto my knee. My leg twitched in response, but it felt nice. Sparks radiated out from under his hand, and a thrill raced through me. I had no defenses against the way he made me feel.

  I was still trying to deal with my physical response to his gesture, even though he’d moved his hand back to the wheel, when he said, “I’ve already apologized to her. Amber and I figured a few things out.”

  “That’s nice,” Brielle said, turning away to look out the window.

  The awkwardness did not go away, but I did feel a bond with Jason that surprised me—like we were on the same team or something. Still, I couldn’t just sit here in silence. I looked down at my phone and gave a gasp. “Hey, I don’t have your number.” I opened up my contacts. “Okay, I’m ready for it.”

  Brielle started laughing as if I was an idiot.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Jason shifted next to me and cleared his throat. “Yeah, so, I don’t have a phone.”

  My mouth fell open—just a crack. I couldn’t help it. “You don’t? Why?”

  He shrugged. “I’d have to pay for it myself. Between school and football practice—and going back home to check on my mom when I can—I don’t have time for a job right now. All I have is what I saved up over the summer, and all of that goes to pay for this.” He tapped the steering wheel of his truck.

  “Oh.” I thought about it a moment, realizing I’d never even considered what my life would be like as a teenager without my stepdad to foot the bill. When I was a kid, I’d been okay being poor. But now? I had a car that I didn’t have to worry about paying insurance on. I had a debit card with money in the bank to pay for gas, my lunch at school, or anything else I wanted really. My phone was the latest model with unlimited everything.

  And then I thought about him offering to take me out to eat. What would that have cost him? I realized then how much it had meant to him. My heart melted, both at how sweet he was and with sorrow for how badly I’d handled that whole thing.

  “I never worried much about it before,” he said, his voice tight with regret.

  Before? Before me?

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I like talking in person better anyway.”

  He nodded, but I could tell his mood had shifted. I wished there was a way I could help bring him back to where he’d been, but I knew with sharp clarity that he was wrestling with demons that would not be slain by anything I could say or do. Knowing it wasn’t much, I reached up and wrapped my hand around his forearm, squeezing it slightly. With his eyes still focused on the road ahead, he dropped his arm and moved it back to grasp my hand, threading his fingers through mine.

  We drove across the bridge that stretched over the long, narrow bay between the mainland and the island that lay along the coast. Most of the housing on that part of town was for the super-rich and tourists. My stepdad had talked about moving out there, but he preferred having a shorter commute to his office downtown. Mom, Ryker, and I had spent as much time as we could at the beach all summer, since it was only a twenty-minute drive.

 
; But Jason took a different exit than we did. Curious, I asked, “What beach are we going to?”

  “Pacer Beach.”

  “Oh. I’ve never been there before.”

  “I’m not surprised. It’s kind of the redneck beach. They allow four-wheel-drive vehicles to drive out onto the sand there, and people can camp there too. During the summer it's crowded, but this time of year there won’t be anyone out there but a few locals.”

  “You drive on the beach?”

  He grinned. “Oh yeah. Some of my buddies are bringing their ATVs.”

  My eyes widened. Yeah, my mom would freak if I got on one of those. But I had to admit, it sounded fun.

  When we reached the turn off to the beach, the sun was already starting to go down behind us. It wouldn’t be long before the beach was completely dark. Jason stopped in a small parking lot next to a wide, sand-covered path between the sand dunes.

  “I need to let some air out of my tires,” he said, getting out. He dug around in the back of his truck for a second and then walked around to each of the four tires. While he was working, I sat waiting, almost cringing at the silence between Brielle and me. There was nothing to do but get on my phone and pretend I wasn’t bothered by the awkwardness.

  When Jason got in again, he grinned at me. “Here we go.”

  The access road opened quickly onto the beach. Jason was right. The beach was almost deserted. He drove for what seemed like almost a mile down the beach, which was a whole different experience than driving on the road. It was bumpy and rough, and sometimes one of the wheels would spin in the sand and send the truck veering slightly until it got traction again. Jason had to have both hands free. I had to use both of mine to brace myself, and sometimes, Jason’s leg was the only steady thing I could reach for.

  We went around a curve, and a line of trucks appeared in front of us, their tailgates facing the ocean. My eyes swept the scene, wondering if there was anyone there I knew. But aside from those riding ATVs in the distance, there was only one guy busy at a huge firepit and a couple of girls I didn’t recognize sitting in camp chairs nearby.

  Jason turned his truck in a wide arc, sending sand flying over the girls. They screamed and ran out of range as he pulled up next to one of the other trucks and parked with his tailgate facing the ocean. He looked a lot more relaxed now, as if being a butthead helped him release all his tension. He was still chuckling when he turned off the truck. When he turned to look at me and saw my raised eyebrow, he grinned. “What?”

  Yeah, he was totally unrepentant. How did he manage to look so charming at the same time?

  “That was a classy stunt.”

  “Oh, well, those are cousins of mine, so trust me, they’ll get their revenge.”

  Cousins? Interesting. Did cousins treat each other like that? I didn’t have any except step-cousins whom I rarely saw.

  Brielle had hopped out of the truck as soon as it stopped, so I was about to scoot across and get out through her door, but when Jason got out, he turned back and held his hand out for me. I maneuvered my leg around the gear shift and scooted to the edge of the seat, helped by Jason tugging my hand till I reached the edge of the seat. I paused there, looking down. It was a good drop to the sand. Before I’d figured out how to manage my exit gracefully, Jason put his hands at my waist and pulled me down.

  Surprised and flailing, I braced my hands on his shoulders and put my arms around his neck as he lowered me. For the two seconds I slid down, our eyes met and held. His eyes flamed, and his fingers tightened at my waist. His head inched down toward mine.

  “Jason, get your sorry butt over here,” someone called, breaking the moment.

  He sighed and let go of me, shutting his door. “See? They totally deserved getting sand in their hair. Come meet the gang.”

  I waited to see if this whole hand-holding thing was going to continue. I really shouldn’t let it, since we were sticking to just being friends, but when he reached for my hand again, I only felt a happy satisfaction. I was playing with fire, but I didn’t care.

  I looked over at the two girls. The tall skinny one must have been the one to yell at him because the other girl was still bent over, shaking sand out of her hair. They both wore skimpy bikini tops and cut-off shorts.

  “Hey, Tasha,” Jason said, strolling up to them, completely relaxed, as if he hadn’t just played a prank on them. “Brandy, you okay?”

  “Shut it, idiot,” the shorter, curvier girl said, almost growling at him. “Got some new arm candy, did you?”

  I stopped, flushing.

  Jason’s hand tightened on mine. He gave me a quick look that seemed both reassuring and apologetic and said, “This is Amber.” He didn’t qualify our relationship, just left it at that.

  Brandy looked me up and down. “Oh, so you were showing off.”

  “Maybe.” Jason’s lips twisted in a smirk.

  I gave him my best fake-glare. “Throw sand on me and see what happens.” They all laughed, and the tension inside of me relaxed.

  “Don’t tempt me,” Jason said.

  Brandy giggled and grabbed my arm. “Come on. Tasha and I were just about to go swimming before it gets dark.”

  I looked to Jason. He nodded. “Go ahead. I’m going to make sure Adam doesn’t catch himself on fire over there.”

  Sure enough, the guy working on the fire was squeezing a solid stream of lighter fluid onto the flames. A vortex of fire rose up in a pillar in the pit and bits of papery ash blew towards us on the breeze coming in from the ocean.

  But I didn’t have long to watch because Brandy was short, but strong. She towed me across the sand, stopping a few feet from the water. She unbuttoned her shorts and grinned at me. “We’ve gotta give the boys a good view while we still can.”

  Tasha didn’t seem as eager to get in the water. Since she had on a ton of makeup and jewelry, I was surprised she was going along with it. But she wiggled out of her shorts and proceeded to take some selfies while she waited.

  It took me longer to get my clothes off since I had to unbuckle my sandals and pull off my jeans. When I pulled my shirt off, I felt all my insecurities flood in. I knew I was in good shape. Really good shape. I had to be able to jump for volleyball, so squats, lunges, and box jumps were a big part of my life. But I had always been tall and solid. I’d hated the way it felt to always be twice the size of any other girl my age. I had stuck out, and that meant I’d been teased. A lot. It’s hard not to feel self-conscious after that.

  I took a deep breath and reminded myself that while I was still big, I was strong and beautiful in my own way.

  But still, I couldn’t help but look around to see if Jason was watching us.

  He was.

  We waded into the water lapping gently against the shore. The ocean was calm today with barely any surf. Because of that, it was pretty clear too. Even though the evening breeze was cooling the air a bit, the water was warm enough that I barely even winced as I went in deeper. When we got out to where the water was waist-high, I looked back toward shore. Jason was carrying an ice chest across the sand toward the fire pit.

  “So…” Tasha said. “You and Jason?”

  I should have known this was going to turn into a grilling session. I shrugged. “We’re just getting to know each other.”

  “Uh huh.” Brandy said. “Well, I’m so glad to see another girl with him besides Brielle.”

  That prompted me to scan the shore for Brielle, who I finally saw riding around on the back of some guy’s ATV. “Are you guys friends with her?”

  “Us?” Tasha asked. “Heck no. That girl is psycho. But Jason has a soft spot for her because they were friends as kids. I don’t even know if he’s figured out that she’s got the hots for him—in a bad way.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “It took me about thirty seconds to figure that out.”

  Brandy rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. She’s dating Troy. Of course, she’d drop him in a second if she thought she had a chance with Jason, but s
he knows she doesn’t. And she’s not the kind of girl to be single just because she wants a guy she can’t get.”

  I listened, taking in every crumb of info they dropped. “Where do you guys live? You don’t go to Sweet Water, do you?”

  Tasha shook her head. “No. We live over in Pine View. We come over this way a lot and camp at the beach with Jason and his friends.” She paused a moment. “He’s never brought anyone with him but Brielle.”

  An uncontrollable smile pulled at my lips. I didn’t hate hearing that.

  8

  The three of us were staring off at the sunset to the southwest, appreciating the streaks of pink and purple illuminating the sky, when the sound of quick splashing caught my attention. I barely had time to register the fact that Jason was charging through the water towards us. Distracted by the criminal perfection of his abs and chest, I didn’t realize until too late that he was going to dunk me. At least I was able to get a good gulp of air before he pulled me down with him into a rising wave.

  Our bodies tangled and twisted together underwater as the wave swept over us while streams of bubbles tickled against my skin. Somehow, I managed to plant my feet against the sand and push up, but all the movement proved too much for the knot on my halter-top swimsuit. All of a sudden, there was a loose, free sensation across my torso that didn’t register for several seconds. Horrified, I grabbed the floating edge of my top and bent my knees to keep my shoulders under water, even when another wave rose over my head and dunked me again.

  As it rolled away, I caught my breath and held on to my top with one hand while wiping the water out of my eyes with the other. When I could see again, I looked around for Jason. He was behind me, moving closer, a boyish grin on his face. “You okay?”

  Argh. He was such a brat. Gorgeous. Charming. And a complete brat. “I’m fine, except my swimsuit came untied.”

  Keeping my back toward him, I pulled my ponytail back from where it was plastered to my neck and shoulders and moved my swimsuit straps behind my neck. Then I felt his fingers against mine, nudging. “Let me help,” he said.