by S. J. Sylvis
“Aw, I knew he was a softie!”
I laughed. “Yeah, he is. But anyway… so one of his students—or whatever you’d call them—is a freshman, and he just joined the baseball team. The seniors all give the freshman one thing they have to do to truly be… accepted. It’s kind of like hazing, but it’s pretty innocent. It’s not like that crazy hazing shit that ends in a beating or something.”
“Okay…” Fallon was looking at me like I was insane, but I kept going.
“Well… Jackson’s initiation is to steal Mr. Mertle’s flag that he hangs on his back porch. No one comes out here because he’s a mean son of a bitch, hence the name Mr. Mertle. They even say he has his own version of The Beast.”
Fallon’s eyebrows shot up to her forehead. “Huh? The Beast? Mr. Mertle? Do you know this person?”
I closed my eyes briefly. “You know, from the movie The Sandlot.”
Fallon’s face scrunched up. “The Sandlot?”
This time I really couldn’t believe it. “You’ve never seen The Sandlot?”
She swallowed and shook her head no. “I’m adding that to the bucket list asap.”
She giggled. “Okay, so we’re just gonna steal some flag for some kid?”
“Yep,” I said. “It’s just through that hayfield.” I flicked the headlights on so Fallon could see a little farther.
“You mean… past the “No Trespassing” sign?”
“Yep,” I said again, holding back my laughter from the worry in her voice.
“Why can’t the kid just go get it himself? Isn’t this his thing?”
“Eh. Yeah, but like I said… he’s underprivileged. He can’t sneak out of his house at night because of the neighborhood he lives in, and Axe also said that his mom works through the night, so he has to stay with his younger sisters. I just know that he can’t do it and he’s a good kid who’s trying his hardest to fit in, so I thought I’d help out. I told Axe if he covered at the shop tonight, I’d do it. Tyler’s a good kid, and he deserves to have some good in his life, you know?”
Fallon only stared at me. She was so hard to read sometimes. One second, she was making me feel like the luckiest guy on the earth just for making her smile, and the other, I was feeling confused as fuck, wondering what she was truly thinking.
“I like you, Emmett,” she whispered. “You’re just so… good.”
I flicked an eyebrow up. “I’ve been called many things before, but never good. I’ve been told that I’m a bad boy… and I’m not gonna lie…I have the tattoos to match it.” I winked, trying to lighten the shift in the air.
A small grin appeared. “You can pretend you’re a bad boy, Emmett. You do have that mysterious enigma about you… at first. You can come off as dangerous, and you’re right, the tattoos are a clear indication that you could be labeled as a bad boy. But you’re the kindest man I’ve ever met.”
My heart flipped.
My mind was going in a million different directions, and then she continued on.
“I was just some crazy girl with a bizarre life who wanted her belly button pierced, and somehow, you were able to swoop in and make me feel all sorts of things I’d never felt before but so desperately wanted to. You decided to help me with this absurd bucket list that I created due to my impending arranged marriage, and now you’re here, stealing some flag for a young kid that Axe knows just so the boy can have a chance at a normal life on his school’s baseball team.”
My heart was still flipping and seemed to be growing in my chest to the point that it felt too big to stay in my ribcage. It was trying to escape, and I was so desperately trying to push it back inside. “It’s not that big of a deal, Fallon. Plus, have you ever looked in a mirror? And I mean truly looked? How could I stay away from you? I felt compelled to help you. There’s just something special about you, even though you can’t see that.”
“No turning this back on me. You’re a good guy. The best. Just admit it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Never. I’m a bad boy for life.”
She threw her head back and laughed, which did nothing for the swell inside my chest.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“But once again, you just can’t stay away from me.” I gave her my most charming smile, and she sighed.
“I really can’t.”
I felt the shift in the air again, and instead of inhaling it like it was my only source of oxygen, I opened the car door. “Let’s go be reckless.”
Chapter Seventeen
Fallon
It felt like I was living two lives.
One life that I usually had to put a front on for, but it was the one that kept me afloat in this gigantic world. One that I was used to. One that I had lived in for twenty-three years. But then there was this other life. The one where I could be free, and the one where I laughed and smiled. One that didn’t necessarily seem to keep my life going in the direction that it should, but it was the one that kept my heart beating.
When I was home, away from Emmett and Oak Hill, I was the prestigious Fallon. The one who had her hair curled and styled to perfection, smiled politely, and helped plan functions alongside her mother and other women at the club, laughing and acting as if she really cared about the drama occurring around her.
Then, when I was in Oak Hill, I was this other Fallon. The one who had uncontrollable laughter and smiled a real smile. The one who went on crazy escapades, like fooling around with Emmett in a public bar bathroom, too high on the thrill of it to really care what people thought.
And now, here I was, sneaking around in some hayfield with frogs croaking in the background and the twinkling of the stars above my head.
I loved it.
I loved that I was giggling while holding on to Emmett’s arm.
I loved that we were trying to quiet our footsteps only to bust up laughing in the midst because I’d slipped and fallen in the mud three times since exiting my car.
I felt so juvenile, but it was the most fun I’d ever had.
Spending time with Emmett and his friends was easily the best part of my life right now, and it terrified me to know that I’d be giving it up soon.
“Okay, there it is,” Emmett whispered from beside me. I squinted my eyes and looked through the tall, scratchy grass and noticed a teeny, tiny light from a poor rendition of a house.
I whispered back, “What’s our plan of action? Is there really some type of beast? Don’t think I let that slide from our earlier conversation.”
Emmett chuckled. “I guess we’re about to find out. And there’s no plan. We’re just going to walk quietly up to his porch and take the flag. Done deal.”
There were a lot of likelihoods and possibilities of things going wrong with this plan, but I decided not to care. I felt the flutter of a smile on my lips and followed after Emmett. We walked slowly—almost tiptoed—our shoes squishing in the mud. I didn’t even care that my expensive boots were, no doubt, ruined. Who needed luxurious boots anyway?
Emmett swiped away the tall grass for me to walk through, and before I knew it, we were only a few yards from the old, wooden bungalow.
I stifled a laugh as my eyes zeroed in on the target. “That’s the flag? It has bunnies on it!!”
Emmett struggled to hold in his laughter. “I guess so.”
“I thought this was some scary old man we were stealing from? Are we at the right place?” I looked around the high grass.
Emmett nodded his head and brought his attention over to mine. I could barely see him with half a moon’s worth of light, but all I wanted to do was reach out and run my fingers over the dark lines and edges of his face. Being in the dark, sneaking around with Emmett, made me feel energized. My heart was humming… racing… and the feeling was something I’d only felt with him.
“We’re at the right place. Maybe he’s just excited for Easter.”
I snickered and then slapped my hand over my mouth.
“We can’t get arrested for this, right?” I quietly aske
d as we walked the next few feet toward the house. I looked a little closer at the hut and noted a small, flickering light bulb swinging with the night breeze.
Emmett glanced over at me and smirked. Then he shrugged and turned his attention back to the flag. He was basically indicating that yes, we could indeed get arrested for this.
“It wouldn’t be a felony, unless the flag is made of gold or something. Relax, Fallon. I won’t let anything happen to you. This is all for fun.”
I nodded sheepishly.
I believed him. I trusted Emmett more than I’d ever trusted anyone, and that was sad because I’d known him for way less time than anyone else in my life. But did that really matter? I was starting to believe that time didn’t matter at all. It didn’t have a say in feelings or trust. The heart didn’t care about the minutes passing on a clock. The heart didn’t care how many days the sun had set. The heart just didn’t care. It took what it wanted, and it felt what it felt—no matter the span of time.
Emmett and I were only a foot away from the flag hanging off the porch pillar. The entire porch looked as if it were about one step away from completely caving in. The wood was split in several spots, slivers of it standing upright. It looked like it was painted white at some point, but over the years, it had cracked and flaked off due to the weather.
Emmett leaned down, his breath hitting my ear. “Well, go on.”
I angled my head back, his lips only an inch away from mine. “You want me to take it?!”
“You wanted to be reckless, right?”
I looked into those navy eyes and found myself falling a little further. I clenched my teeth and turned my head, distracting myself with stealing the cute little bunny flag for some kid I didn’t know.
I tiptoed one foot onto the bottom stair and reached my arm up, feeling all the muscles in my body protest with the strain.
“Shorty,” Emmett whispered just loud enough for me to hear.
I shot him a glare, and he silently laughed, causing a small smile to slip onto my face.
My foot went up another step, and I was able to get my hands on the silky material. I pulled the flag upright, and then my eyes opened wide as my foot caved inside the porch step. I yelped due to the pain I’d felt in my leg.
“Oh shit,” Emmett groaned.
Before I could even say anything, he was right there beside me, pulling me up by my biceps. My head snapped up to the small house when a light flipped on.
I gasped. “Oh my God. We gotta go!”
Emmett pulled me up the rest of the way and moved me to the ground.
“Who’s out there?” A loud, gruffy voice boomed.
I wanted to scream with fear, but Emmett interrupted me.
“Fallon, run.”
My breath caught in my chest as I turned to run, but I froze. The bunny flag!
I spun around quickly, slipping slightly in the mud—again—and ran up to the gaping hole in the porch step. The flag was lying right beside it. I hurriedly snatched it up and then took off. I saw a proud look appearing on Emmett’s face as I passed him.
“I’ve got a gun, you hooligans!”
“A gun?!” I cried, glancing over at Emmett.
“Keep running,” he said, pulling on my free hand.
I was barely keeping up with his pace. He was fast, and I would have been too, but my damn boots kept causing me to fall like I was on a freaking slip-and-slide. This is the last time I wear a pair of boots because they’re cute! There’s no traction!
“Ouch!” I yelled, tripping over something sharp. Whatever the sharp thing was that caught on my jeans sliced right through the fabric and sliced my skin. “Emmett!”
“What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?” Emmett bent down beside me, crouching on the ground.
“My leg,” I hissed. I tried to pull at it, but it ended up poking my fingers, too.
“Stop. Let me do it.” Emmett’s voice came out in a soft whisper. I slowly lifted my butt up and pulled out my phone, turning on the flashlight. My throat closed when I pointed the bright beam down and saw a silver-colored strand of barbed wire caught on my jeans. Blood was trickling from my leg. “Angle the light right here, babe,” he said quietly. It took him no time at all to unhook the barbed wire from my jeans and pull my leg free. It didn’t even hurt.
I glanced up at him, the flashlight still in my hand and shining light on my injured leg. “Thanks.”
He smiled lovingly, and even though we were in the middle of some desolate hayfield—my leg bleeding, critters making all kinds of chatter around us, and a stupid bunny flag clutched in my hand—it was the perfect moment to be in. Emmett leaned his angular face in, his beanie half off his head, and wrapped his arm around my torso, pulling me closer to him. Heat emitted from our bodies, blocking out the cool night air, and he leaned in and kissed me softly. Intimately. His tongue wheedled its way into my mouth and stroked me so slowly that I felt like I was lost. Butterflies fluttered their wings gently in my stomach, and my heart felt as if it were blooming inside my chest.
Nothing mattered, in that moment, other than being with him.
It didn’t matter where we were.
It didn’t matter that some crazy guy who loved bunnies was currently yelling at us in the distance.
All that mattered was the way my heart was beating for him.
My heart was beating in my chest for Emmett.
“Where you at, kids? The police are on their way!”
Emmett broke away from me, and his blue eyes widened. “Shit. We gotta go.”
I nodded my head slowly, still fazed by the moment, as Emmett helped pull me to my feet. “Can you walk? Are you okay?”
“Ye… yeah. I… I think so. Let’s go,” I stuttered, still holding on to his hand.
“Let’s go slow. Running will only make more noise. And walk behind me; I don’t want you to get hurt again.”
I wasn’t sure why, but my eyes actually started to well up. Did he care about me? Like, really care? All of a sudden, things between us didn’t feel… light. Things weren’t fun, or flirty, or even new. Something felt different.
Maybe I was just different.
Maybe I was just truly falling for him now.
Before I could gather my thoughts, Emmett and I were at the clearing of the hayfield. I hadn’t heard the bunny-loving man with the shotgun again since right after I’d fallen, which was a good sign.
I’d never been happier to see my car sitting on a gravel bend in the road.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Well, that was… interesting.”
Emmett laughed. “It was fun, right? Except for your leg. Are you sure you’re okay? Let me see it again.” Emmett stopped right before we’d gotten to my car and bent down.
I could feel his warm breath on the little bit of skin that was showing, and then his hands touched my leg delicately. It sent jitters all the way to my heart. I gulped and shifted on my one foot, eagerly trying to get myself under control. But then Emmett peered up at me, those dark eyes and sharp jaw only pulling me in further.
I could feel the words on the tip of my tongue. I knew what I wanted to say. What my heart wanted me to say. I was falling for him. I really was.
This wasn’t just fun and games anymore.
I was marrying another man, and here I was, running around with Emmett at all hours of the night, feeling my heart go into sync with his.
My mouth opened to say something—anything, really—but then my head snapped up to the sound of a car coming down the road. Gravel was flying in several different directions, bouncing into the hayfield.
“Uh…” I murmured, and then that was when the blue and red lights appeared in front of my face. My heart sank to the muddy ground.
“Emmett! The cops!” OH MY GOD.
“Nice observation, Fallon.” Emmett snickered as he stood up.
“Stop joking!” I cried, still clutching the plain-as-day evidence in my hand. “We’re going to go to jail!”
Emmett ro
lled his eyes as a small laugh escaped his mouth. “Just let me handle this, okay? I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I’m literally just as guilty as you are! What if we go to jail?!”
Emmett spun around and placed his hands on my shoulders, grounding me. “Fallon.” He looked into my eyes intensely. “Do you trust me?”
I didn’t even bat an eyelash. “Yes.”
He smiled, that surprise dimple popping out. “Then relax. Act natural.”
I breathed out of my mouth and nodded my head slowly. “Relax. Okay. I can do that.” I leaned back nonchalantly on my car, kicking one leg up behind me. I totally look chill right now. Right?
I watched as Emmett started to walk over to the police car. I started to sweat, albeit still trying to act relaxed, while I watched the tall police officer exit his car with the lights still flickering their red and blue hues down the empty, gravel road.
I clutched the bunny flag so hard in my hand that there may have been holes afterward. I cannot go to jail! I wouldn’t last a second! I don’t even know how to make a shank! I wonder if they’ll let me make a phone call. Who the hell am I going to call?!
I kept my eyes trained on Emmett and the police officer as they talked back and forth. I felt my cheeks blaze as their heads both turned toward me. I instantly snapped my neck back and looked out at the field.
When I felt the coast was clear, I turned my head back and trailed my eyes over Emmett. He appeared totally cool, calm, and collected, acting as if everything was all fine and dandy. He didn’t even look nervous or flustered.
My heart began to gallop in my chest the longer Emmett and the officer talked.
What on earth are they talking about?! Negotiating going to jail?
Then, my world began to slow its spin when Emmett reached his hand out and shook the officer’s hand. They exchanged a few more words, and then the police officer glanced over to me and smirked, nodding his head.
