by L. P. Maxa
She nodded. “Great, thanks.” She leaned forward, reaching for the radio and turning it up. “I love this version of this song.”
“You know who Aaron Watson is?” Would this girl ever cease to amaze me? She didn’t answer my question, just sang along with the cover of an ancient Merle Haggard song.
That was how we drove the rest of the way home in comfortable silence; listening to a song on the radio older than we were. I’d been miserable for the better part of a year. The whole time I was angry at Crue for asking me for such a big favor. I was angry at Avory for going along with it. And I was angry at myself for saying yes. I thought anger had everything to do with my attitude about life. I thought it was my biggest problem. But the last day or so, being around Katie and basking in her light, I realized something. Anger wasn’t my only problem, loneliness was too.
I was constantly surround by people I loved, and people who loved me. But at the end of the day, I’d been missing something. And with Katie sitting beside me, singing to the radio, it finally fell into place. I reached across the console, taking one of her hands in mine. I brought it to my lips and kissed it gently. “Thank you.”
Her smile was bright, and a little wary. “For what?”
“For today, for last night. For letting me in. For that amazing first kiss. For making me laugh. For making me work for your affection.” I shrugged. “For all of it.”
***
I took Katie home, and I walked her to the door. She let me kiss her again. Then she let me pick her up and kiss her some more against the front of the house. I told her I would pick her up in the morning. During the few hours that she hasn’t been talking to me, I’d worked with my brothers to come up with a fun day for her tomorrow.
“Hey, son, you just getting back?” I stopped short when I came in the house and found my dad awake and on the couch.
“Uh, yeah.” I stepped down into the living room. “What are you still doing up, old man?” I sat next to him, taking his whiskey glass from the coffee table and taking a small sip. There was a pill bottle on the table too. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?” I eyed the prescription label, suddenly a little concerned.
He took the glass from my hand. “Isn’t it past your curfew?” He raised a parental eyebrow. “You first.”
I wasn’t a hundred percent sure when my curfew actually was to be honest. I leaned back, putting my hands behind my head. “I was with Katie. We went on a little drive after dinner.” Where she somehow convinced me to try and tip a damn cow. I couldn’t help but smile at the memory.
My dad elbowed me playfully. “Is she the reason you’re grinning like a lovesick fool right now?” He wagged his eyebrows and elbowed me again. “Huh? Huh?”
I snorted. “How much whiskey have you had tonight?” When he shoved me to the side, I started to laugh. “Yes. Yes, Katie is the reason I’m smiling like an idiot.”
“You know, you can talk to me about girls.” My dad stuck out his bottom lip, still in a playful mood. “None of my boys ever want my advice about the ladies.”
“Don’t feel bad, Dad. Jett is too busy planning to take over the world with Marley, and Crue…”
He held his hands up, surrender style. “Crue is a fuck boy. I get it.”
I barked out a laugh. “Did you just say fuck boy?” I shook my head. “I don’t think you should use that phrase, old man.”
He shoved me to the side again, but then handed me his whiskey drink back. “I won’t say fuck boy anymore if you tell what’s going on in that head of yours.”
I took another sip then let out a sigh. “Honestly, I feel a little unhinged or something. I’ve only known Katie for like, a day. But I want to be with her all the time. I want to hold her hand and listen to her sing along to the songs coming out of my radio.” I shrugged. “It all seems unreal, you know? Like there is no way I should feel like this about someone I just met.”
My dad smiled, clapping his hand on my shoulder. “Son, time means nothing when it comes to feelings.” He grabbed his phone from the coffee table and pulled up a picture, turning the screen to show me. It was my parents and all my aunts and uncles. I’d seen it before. It was for an old Texas Monthly cover they’d done back in the day. “If you tell any of the other kids the secrets I’m about to spill, I’ll murder you and let Jett and Marley think of a clever way to dispose of your body.”
I crossed my heart. “I won’t tell a soul.”
“Okay.” He pointed to my Aunt Lexi. She was perched on the edge of a gaudy throw that Uncle Dash was lounging in like the ultimate player. “Dash and Lexi hooked up the first night they met, and Halen was conceived like forty-eight hours later.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “They had an instant connection. It was intense. We could all see it. Dash loved Lexi from the get-go, and when they found out about Halen, they were both over the moon happy.”
Dad pointed to Uncle Smith, who was sitting on the ground at Dash’s feet, looking down at Aunt Dilly who was lying with her head in his lap and her face turned toward the camera. “Smith changed everything about himself to be good enough for Dylan. He stopped using drugs, and he stopped whoring around. He stayed on the tour bus and binge-watched Netflix instead of partying with Uncle Jacks.”
My brows went up and he nodded. “Smith and Dylan were inseparable after, maybe, four days?” He laughed quietly. “Jacks and Bryan? That’s a crazy insta-family story too.” In the picture Uncle Jacks had Aunt B slung over his shoulder, his hand on her leather legging-clad ass. They were both looking at the camera, mock-serious looks on their young faces. “Jacks and B were friends first, but the second Landry came into his life, Bryan was there. They became a family of three in about a week. They had their issues, and it was hard at first. But they never let any of it break them apart.”
“And you and Mom?” In the photo, they were sitting side by side on a velvet loveseat. My mom had one leg swung over my dad’s lap and his hand was dangerously high up on her thigh. If they weren’t my parents, I’d think it was hot.
“Your mother…I think I loved her after I heard her first ridiculous ramble, which probably happened about five minutes after we met.” He looked at me. “Falling in love, fast and hard, it’s real. It happens all the time. Hell, it’s in your blood, kiddo.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “If you feel something for Katie, then go with it. Don’t balk at the emotions because you’re using your brain instead of your heart.”
“Thanks, Dad.” It’d been a really long time since I’d sat down and talked to my father. I’d been so consumed in my own shit, with my own problems, that I’d pushed my parents to the side. “I think us kids forget that you guys lived whole lives before we ever came along.” Us against the world—it was what our parents had taught us. I wasn’t sure when we’d decided to leave them out of our pact, but tonight, it was making me a little sad. “Now, you want to tell me why you’re up after midnight, mixing booze and pills?”
His forehead wrinkled. “Huh?” I pointed to the pill bottle on the table. “Oh.” He laughed. “Your mother and I have to head to the New York office for the day tomorrow. I’m making her special flight cocktail.” He put his finger to his lips. “Shhh.” My dad opened the bottle and started crushing pills into a fine powder.
Almost twenty years later and my mother still didn’t realize that someone drugged her every time she stepped foot on a plane. She thought that planes had suddenly started to make her real sleepy. Maybe it was those kind of things that made us kids feel like some lies were okay.
Chapter Fourteen
Katie
“It’s broad daylight.” I rolled over in bed when I heard the window being slid open. “You couldn’t use the door?” I sat, pulling my hair into a messy knot on the top of my head.
Cash posted up on the foot of the bed, his hand going to my shin through the covers. “It’s so much more fun this way.”
“It’s nine o’clock in the morning. I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet.�
�� I put my hand over my mouth and scooted away from him. We kissed for the first time last night, and I was hooked. I thought of kisses as my gateway drug; they only made me want more. “What are you doing here so early?” And looking so damn good. He was dressed in boots and jeans with a thin white t-shirt tight in the biceptual region. So far I’d only seen him in shorts. The cowboy look was working real well for him though.
“Well, Katie Baby, we have a full day ahead of us.” He got to his feet, reaching for my hands and dragging me out of the comfy confines of Halen’s bed. “We are going to do all things teenager today.”
I stumbled to the closet, grabbing a dress, longer than the one I’d been wearing the night I’d met Cash. Then I head to the en suite bathroom to brush my teeth. I wanted to get that out of the way in case Cash felt like kissing me before we left the house. And I really hoped he did.
“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing? All things teenager?” I pasted up my hot pink toothbrush and then ran it under the water for exactly two seconds. That was the magic number.
“Yes.” He’d followed me and was leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed and a little smirk on his face. “But those were teenager spurts. This is a full day and night. It’s a crash course, baby.”
When he called me Katie Baby, it seemed like a sweet silly nickname. When he called me baby, only baby? It made me feel all warm and tingly further south than my stomach. “Let me change real quick.” I put my palm on his muscular chest, stiff-arming him out of the bathroom. He put his hand on mine, digging in his heels and halting my momentum.
“Wait.” He grabbed me by the hips, setting me on the bathroom counter and then stepping into my space, wedging himself between my knees. “I’ve been thinking about these lips since I woke up this morning.” He put his hands on my cheeks, and then he kissed me.
It was as good as I remembered from last night. And like last night, I got a little lost in it. I tightened my legs around his waist, making him groan against my mouth. His hands went to my hair, tugging lightly. I nipped at his bottom lip in response and he snaked an arm around my middle, bringing me even closer to his body. Cash was teaching me desire; he was teaching me what it felt like to want more. And I was loving every damn second of it.
Eventually he pulled back, smirking. “Get dressed before I change my mind and beg you to stay locked in your room with me all day.”
When he walked out, shutting the door behind him, I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. Cash made me feel like my whole body was going up in flames, like that bonfire at the old red barn.
I changed quickly and put on a minimal amount of makeup, then Cash and I strode hand in hand down the hallway.
“Cash? Where did you come from?” Mr. Conner—I mean Dash, he’d asked me to call him Dash like ten times now—looked between Cash and the front door. His forehead was wrinkled and he seemed super confused.
“I’ve been here for like an hour, Katie let me in.” Cash cocked his head to the side, his thumb pointing toward the entryway of the house. “I said hi to you when I walked in. You don’t remember?”
“Jett came in, but then…” Dash shook his head. “Uh, yeah, I guess.” He blinked a few times rapidly with a frown still on his face. “What are you kids up to today?”
“Since all the parents are headed to NYC, we figured we’d stay around the compound.” Cash shrugged in an “aw, shucks” kind of way. “Keep an eye on the younger kids.”
Something told me that this was mostly bullshit, but I didn’t dare call him on it. That didn’t seem like the teenager thing to do.
“Okay, great.” Dash clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks for doing that.” He headed off toward the master bedroom, walking backward. “We won’t be back until well after midnight. We have dinner reservations in the city. Emmie is staying at a friend’s house, but could you guys handle Jett and Marley?”
“Of course.” Cash spoke like it was almost ludicrous that Dash would even have to ask.
“You’re the best, C Money.” Dash spun around and was out of sight.
“You’re full of more shit than that cow pasture we were in last night.” I crossed my arms over my chest, shaking my head in mock disappointment. “On top of all that, your poor uncle probably thinks he’s on the verge of losing his mind. I bet he’s still trying to figure out if he really saw you come through the front door.”
Cash grinned, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the house and to his black truck. “Number one, Uncle Dash needs to pay closer attention to the things that are happening around him. The fact that I could confuse him so easily is on him, not me.” He opened the car door and helped me inside, resting his hand on my thigh. “Number two, I fully intend to watch out for Jett and Marley today, as well as feed them.” He winked. “They’re part of the festivities.”
***
We were in a part of the compound I’d never seen before. I could kind of spot the old red barn in the distance, and maybe the roof of Landry and Beau’s house. But that was it. My family’s ranch was big, really big. The Devil’s Share’s place was bigger. Right now, we were way out in the middle of a field, sitting in the bed of Cash’s truck. Crue, Avory, Halen, and Beau were all in attendance for the day’s festivities as well. Brody and Landry were at home with Wyatt. Jett was holding a hose, soaking the ground and manufacturing mud. And Marley? Marley was in the driver’s seat of a water truck. You heard me correctly, a WATER TRUCK.
“This seems indulgent.” I pursed my lips, watching as gallon and gallons of water poured out on the ground. “And wasteful.”
“Apparently, all this water came from the stocked tank we have on the property. Jett said they wanted to put in a new filtration system and make their operation self-sustainable.” Cash gestured to the large truck. “They drained the tank in the middle of the night, and they had to put it somewhere.”
“So of course you immediately thought, let’s use the mud pit to our advantage?” I turned to look at him, my eyebrow raised.
He leaned in a couple of inches, putting his hand on the back of my neck and urging me the rest of the way. Our lips met and my skin heated. Every kiss with him was hot, literally, I could feel the flush on my cheeks. He pulled back, smiling. “This is living, Katie Baby.”
“L-I-V-I-N.” Crue hopped up into the bed of the truck, making the whole thing shake a little. “You’ve never been mudding before?” I liked that no one batted an eye at the fact that Cash and I were on kissing terms after two days of knowing each other. Sort of spoke to their level of crazy, but I’d take it.
“Nope.” You’d think I would have since I’d grown up on a ranch in Texas. But alas, I had not. “I’m assuming that typically one would wait until after a big rain for this sort of activity.”
“One typically would.” Crue smirked. “We would not.”
“Don’t feel bad, Katie, I’ve never been either.” Halen had climbed into the bed, and was now was sitting on the roof of Cash’s truck, her legs crossed at the ankle. “And I live with all these yahoos.”
“We were always a little busy, Sweets.” Beau looked up in her direction, winking.
I liked those two. I liked their story. I liked the way they were together. You could tell that there was so much history, so much life led. But at the same time, they couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other. It was like they were already a frisky old married couple.
“Okay, that’s all we’ve got.” Jett called out to us spectators and then flipped a switch, guiding the hose back into its home. “Everyone get started before this Texas sun evaporates all the damn water.” He got back in the passenger side of the water truck, slapping the side as he and Marley drove off.
“They aren’t going to play too?” I felt bad. They did all the work, after all. “I thought you said they were part of today’s activities.”
Cash helped me down from the bed of the truck then opened my door. “They’ll meet up with us later. They have to return the truck before the comp
any realizes they rented it to two minors.”
I was beginning to think that Jett and Marley were the craziest out of all the Devil’s Spawn. The craziest, and the most brilliant. Which typically resulted in the most damage, if history was any indication. I climbed into the cab, buckled my seat belt, and then turned up the radio. Obviously, this was my first gig, but it seemed like loud music always went well with reckless teenage behavior in the movies.
When Cash climbed in I pointed to the dash. “Is all your music obscure Texas country from over thirty years ago?”
“Yeah.”
“Just checking.” I started doing a little dance in my seat and singing along to the old Cross Canadian Ragweed tune. I knew that Cash loved it when I did this; I knew because he’d always get that look in his eye. The look that let me know he was thinking about kissing me. I liked that look. And I liked making it spark in his eyes.
He positioned the truck right at the edge of the mud pit and we watched as the rest of his cousins climbed into Crue’s truck. Did he plan that? Did he want us to be alone? “You ready?”
“Yeah?”
“Was that a question?” He grinned, kissing my knuckles.
I shook my head and he floored the gas, shooting the truck forward. We immediately started to slip and slide all over the place. The wheels peeling out and mud spraying the truck. He needed both hands on the wheel to keep control, so I gripped the handle on the roof with one hand and the side of my seat with the other. “This is fun.”
He laughed and spun us in a circle, throwing mud onto Crue’s truck as he whizzed past. The song went from “Wanna Rock and Roll” to “The Road Goes on Forever,” a tune that even my Uncle Park called a classic. We kept going and the longer we drove in the pit, the larger it got. After what felt like an hour, Cash drove onto the dry ground, put the truck in park and turned to me with a big smile on his face. “You like?”
I didn’t realize it until the spinning had stopped and the radio was no longer blaring, but I was breathing heavy. “Yeah, it’s like an adrenaline rush or something.” Endorphins? Maybe I was so over-the-top happy that my body was spazzing out. Cash came around to my side of the truck and opened my door. He leaned against it, and I turned to the side facing the rest of the crowd. Crue was now parked next to us. “I feel like I could go run a marathon,” I called out.
