by J. Nathan
“He’s that good?” Eric asked as he threw down a card.
“Dude. The guy can crush a ball like nothing I’ve ever seen. Either he’s on some serious ’roids or he’s not human.”
We all laughed at Pete’s exaggeration.
“Speak of the devil,” Pete beamed as Caynan stepped into the kitchen with Monica latched to his arm.
Wow. They worked fast. Earlier in the week we’d seen him between two girls in the cafeteria. Monica clearly wasn’t deterred by his player ways.
Caynan scanned the kitchen before his eyes latched onto mine. His smile faltered, but he quickly recovered, stepping up to the table and eyeing the cards in our hands. “Hey.”
Pete congratulated him on a great game while I focused on my cards.
“Hey, Hadley,” Monica said.
I cringed at the sound of my name. My eyes lifted, just in time to catch Caynan’s eyes expanding. I’d made it through the entire week without Ms. Atwood calling on me. Instead of giving Caynan the chance to gloat over the revelation, I glanced to Monica. “Hey.”
“You guys heading outside?” Caynan asked.
“After this game,” Pete answered for us.
“If Cass and I don’t win all their money.” I threw down my king. “They always want a rematch when we win.”
Eric and Pete groaned, mumbling lame excuses for their poor card playing skills.
Monica tugged on Caynan’s arm. “Let’s go get a drink.”
I looked up briefly, catching Caynan’s eyes. Instead of showing excitement to get his buzz on with a willing female, he appeared unaffected—distracted even. But he nodded before following her outside into the crowd.
“Jealous, Hadley?” Cass teased.
My eyes shot across the table at her. “What?”
“Puh-lease. Every time you two are in the same room, I can feel the sexual tension.”
I cocked my head, drilling her with a fierce glare.
Pete looked to me, his freckled face scrunched up. “Sexual tension?”
I shook my head. “She’s delusional.”
“Am not.”
I wanted to wipe the smug grin right off her face. “We sit next to each other in English class. That’s all.”
“He bought her a coffee,” Cass announced like that would win her case.
“To thank me,” I explained.
“Sure.”
I scratched my nose with my middle finger and threw down my last card.
“Thank you for what?” Eric asked, completely interested in Cass’ theory. Of course he was. Most. Whipped. Boyfriend. Ever.
“Katie’s party. We kind of collided.”
“Was that when his shirt was on or off?” Cass asked, purposely trying to get a rise out of me.
I jumped to my feet with heat pulsing in my cheeks. “Anyone want a drink?” All three of them thrust their empty red cups my way. I grabbed them by the rims and stepped outside, maneuvering around the bodies filling the massive deck. Beyond it, on the back lawn, the band raged on a stage with flashing lights and huge speakers.
I burrowed my way to the keg in the corner of the deck. There was a line. No big surprise. I kept my eyes on the prize as I inched closer, wondering why I bothered coming to these parties in the first place. I mainly kept to myself, sitting with Cass and Eric the majority of the time.
Once it was my turn, I balanced the cups on top of the keg and rotated them until they were all filled. I picked them up by the rims and maneuvered back through the swaying crowd, spilling beer as I did.
Out of nowhere, the cups were pulled from my hands. My head flew to my right. Caynan strode toward the back door with the cups in his hands.
“I had them,” I huffed.
“Now I have them.” He grinned over his shoulder as he walked through the open door, setting the cups down on the table in front of each of my friends and handing me mine as I sat down.
“Did someone find a friend?” Cass asked, as irritating as ever. “You wanna play?” she asked Caynan, jumping up from her seat as she did. “You can be Hadley’s partner.”
My wide eyes bore into hers. Could she not take a hint? I wasn’t interested.
“I just need to use the bathroom first,” Caynan explained.
“Don’t you mean the loo?” That was my best attempt at being cultured—which really translated to me catching a few episodes of that show about an English family and their servants.
He shot me a wide grin. “Right. Where is it?”
Pete pointed down the hall. “Last door on the left. Or if the line’s too long, there’re a few upstairs. Mark won’t mind if you use one.”
Caynan nodded, before taking off down the hall.
My face shot to Cass. “Seriously?”
She pressed her hand innocently over her heart. “What?”
I shook my head. “I’m not interested.”
“Yeah. Okay. What girl wouldn’t be interested in that?” She nodded toward the hallway where he’d disappeared.
“Someone who knows it’s got heartbreak written all over it,” I countered.
“No one said you have to date him.” Cass sipped her beer. “Just go out with him and have a little fun. You’re entitled you know.”
Monica stumbled through the French doors in her three inch wedges. “Has anyone seen Caynan?”
I lifted my drink into the air. “I rest my case.”
Caynan
My eyes shot around, taking in the dark-wooded, paneled walls in the shadowy office. I’d already searched the closet and the spot on the wall behind his father’s framed jersey. I circled the mahogany desk. Framed pictures of Mark and his mom sat at the front and a blotter covered the center. My gloved hands tugged on the desk drawers. They were locked. Typical. But no one kept anything of any real value in a desk anyway.
I stood behind the leather swivel chair, looking at the room from a different angle. I leaned back against the wall, hearing a click as the wall unhitched behind me. I stepped away, turning to examine it. My hands moved over the wall until I located the raised portion. I dug my fingertips into the horizontal groove and pulled. A portion the size of a mini-fridge swung open.
Bingo.
I pulled a tiny flashlight from my pocket and stuck it between my front teeth, shining the light on the safe’s dial. Unlike most young millionaires who went all high tech, demanding the most expensive electronic locks, Mark’s dad was more like the old-money millionaires, sticking with the old-school combination dials. Truthfully, if didn’t matter. I hadn’t met a safe I couldn’t open.
Try putting that on a college application.
Footsteps in the hallway tore my attention away from the safe and to the closed door. I switched off the flashlight, closed the wall panel, and ducked into the closet.
“Caynan? Are you up here,” Monica called from the hallway.
I waited, knowing even if she opened the office door, except for the intermittent glow of lights from the stage outside, the room was cloaked in darkness. Her heavy footsteps eventually moved away from the room and clomped noisily back down the stairs.
I didn’t have much time.
I slipped out of the closet and hurried back to the safe. With my ear to the metal door and my fingers gripping the dial, I twisted it back and forth, listening for the magical clicks and the scrape of gears unlatching, indicating success was near. Don’t get me wrong. Cracking a safe took time. But I had patience. And somehow, a calmness always came over me when the pressure was on.
Having some difficulty hearing with all the noise outside, I slipped my phone from my pocket and pushed my ear buds in. I tapped the mobile stethoscope app and held the phone to the door of the safe, twisting the dial with my free hand. The screen showed each click, while the earbuds carried the sound. I waited for a double click indicating the notch inside had slipped under the lever arm giving me the first number.
I leveled my breathing, drowning out every other sound, until all I heard were the first set of double clicks. Fifty-
six. Talk about music to my ears. I took a quick breath, then started again. Click, click, click-click. Twenty-four. Another couple minutes passed before I heard the final click, click, click-click. Eighteen.
Knowing I’d been in the office far longer than I should’ve been, especially with a party raging downstairs, I entered the combination and turned the handle.
The once-locked door swung open.
The flashlight’s strobe cast light on piles of envelopes, different sized documents, and stacks of cash. I opened the envelopes quickly, sliding the contents into my hands. I flipped through them: mostly personal documents, contracts, deeds, birth certificates. Nothing of any use to me. I shoved them back in and returned the envelopes to their initial spots, beside the towering stacks of cash.
Not wasting anymore time, I grabbed the wrapped hundreds, stuffing them half-way down the front waistband of my boxer-briefs. Reaching around, I tucked more stacks down the back to keep everything even. I left some cash in the safe so it wasn’t obvious at first glance that anything had been touched. Digging into the back of the safe, I checked for anything else worth grabbing. My hand grasped a small ring box. I pulled it out and snapped it open. A diamond ring sat tucked inside. Even under the dim flashlight, the massive diamond sparkled like crazy. It had to be at least five carats. I wondered why they kept it hidden away in a safe. I shook off the thought, learning a long time ago not to think about the people I stole from. It made it easier.
I jammed the ring back into the box and returned it to its spot in the back of the safe. My dad would’ve killed me for leaving it behind. But what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. I closed the safe quietly and snuck out of the room. I made my way downstairs, my eyes on the front door.
Laughter from the kitchen stopped me in my tracks. Feisty’s laugh. Throaty and deep and all woman. Yup. I just said that. I glanced down at my jeans. My shirt concealed the cash, but could I really stay with eighty grand tucked into my drawers? I’d done some ballsy shit. But that was pushing it for even me.
Hadley
I threw down my final card, winning the hand for Cass and me. “Pay up, boys. Cash, please.”
Pete and Eric groaned, demanding a rematch.
“Look who’s back,” Cass exclaimed like some celebrity just entered the kitchen.
I looked up as Caynan stepped into the room. I couldn’t stop myself. “Monica came down a few minutes ago fixing her lipstick and readjusting her knickers,” I explained with my newly discovered British mojo. “I take it she found you?”
Caynan’s lips slid into a smile. A freaking smile. Did he have no shame? He glanced to Cass. “Mind if I be Feisty’s partner?”
A smile sprang to Cass’ face as she bounded up from her seat and onto Eric’s lap.
Caynan slipped into her empty seat, directly across from me, as Pete shuffled the cards.
“You know how to play?” Pete asked him.
He nodded, his eyes locked on mine.
I averted my gaze, picking away at my chipped plum nail polish. What had been wrong with me? I sounded like such a jealous bitch. It was like I couldn’t stop myself from poking the proverbial bear.
“Don’t do that.”
I pulled up my gaze.
“Don’t avoid me now that you’ve got me in front of you,” Caynan said. “What happened to the Feisty I know and love?” The second the L-word left his mouth, his lips tipped up in one corner, conspiratorially.
I lifted my brows. “Good to know where you stand.” I picked up my cards, eyeing the assortment of red and black in my hand.
“Oh, I don’t think you have any idea where I stand.” The gruff tone in his voice and the flirty glint in his eyes zapped all the way down between my legs.
Screw that.
“Nice try. But I know your game. Haven’t you heard that song about players playing?” I picked up my cup with my free hand and dangled it out in front of Cass. “Be a dear and go fetch me some ale.”
She lifted a brow. “Sounds like you’ve been hanging around with the exchange student too long.”
“Bugger off, wench.”
Caynan laughed, probably at the fact that she just called him the exchange student.
Cass took off outside with my empty cup as Eric threw a card into the center of the table, starting the game. “She just wants you to be happy.”
My head flew back as if I’d been yanked by my hair. “What?”
Caynan threw down a card, his attention now on Eric.
“She hates that you’re alone. Hates that you’re by yourself in that big house most weekends. Hates that you feel like a third wheel whenever you’re with us.”
I knew she worried about me, but she actually discussed it with her boyfriend? I waited for Pete to throw down his card, then followed suit. “For the record, I don’t feel like a third wheel. I love sitting next to you two in the movies while you make out. It’s a fun time. Maybe next time I’ll try sitting between you.”
Caynan and Pete laughed, but Eric didn’t. “You know what I mean.”
I shrugged, pretending what he said didn’t bother me. Like none of what he said was the truth. But it was. I was currently alone. I did spend a lot of time in that big house by myself while my mother flew off to different functions to support my grandfather and my dad worked long shifts. And I did feel like a third wheel with Cass and Eric. How could I not? “Thanks. But I’m fine.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
That pushed me over the edge. “Seriously, Eric? Why is tonight the night for everyone to dump on me? I’m just sitting here minding my own business. And I’ve got Cass trying to hook me up with the town player.” My hand shot out at Caynan who sat quietly for a change. “Now I’ve got you reminding me that I’m alone. Do you think I need reminding?” I jumped to my feet, my eyes jumping between Caynan and Pete. “Sorry, guys. I gotta head home.”
“Hadley, wait.” Eric pushed his seat back, ready to jump to his feet.
I held up my hand. “Don’t. Don’t take it back because you think poor Hadley’s upset. I told you. I’ve gotta go.”
I took off down the hall, walking right out the front door. The light evening breeze grasped hold of my hair and whipped it around my face as I walked down Mark’s driveway.
“Feisty.”
Great. I stopped as I hit the road, glancing over my shoulder so I didn’t look like a total bitch.
Caynan walked toward me. “Let me drive you.”
I shook my head. “I’m fine. I don’t live far.”
He scratched the back of his head like hot guys always did when they didn’t know what to say. “Then let me walk with you.”
I crossed my arms. “You can’t seriously want to leave a party to walk me home.”
He nodded. “Hot girl? Moonlit night? Hell, yeah I wanna.”
I laughed, strangely eased by his enthusiasm. I started down the road in the direction of my house.
Caynan’s long strides kept an easy pace at my side. “Sorry that guy upset you.”
I shrugged. “He’s entitled to his opinion.”
We walked in silence for a little while, the moonlight and scattered street lights guiding our path.
“Was he right?” Caynan asked.
I shrugged.
He nodded, like he already knew the answer. “Well, I felt like he blindsided you, and that wasn’t okay.”
“He’s actually a really good friend. If it came from someone I didn’t like, it would’ve been a different story.”
Caynan’s dark eyes flickered under the street lights. “Oh, yeah?”
“There would’ve been definite bloodshed.”
He grinned. “I figured.”
We shared a quiet laugh in the silent night. Caynan’s attention quickly shifted to the neighborhood playground tucked behind some trees. “You’ve got your own playground?” He took off toward it like an eager little kid.
I followed him, standing on the edge of the beach sand that filled the area.
His eyes jumped from the swing set to the seesaw to the jungle gym liked he’d never played on a playground before.
He walked behind one of the swaying swings and grasped the chains to stop it from moving. “Come over here.”
I paused for a minute, torn between getting home and not wanting to be a total bitch. Ah, what the hell. I kicked off my flip flops, my feet sinking into the grainy sand as I walked toward him. “I take it you like the playground?”
“It’s definitely cool sitting smack dab in the middle of the neighborhood like this.”
I dropped down onto the swing and grabbed hold of the chains at my sides. “My dad had it built.”
“What’s he some kind of contractor?”
I shook my head, glad I wasn’t looking at him. People made a habit of steering clear of cops, evading them on roads, slowing down when they spotted them hiding with radars. I knew the normal reaction was more disgust than admiration, even if he was a detective. “Well?” I prompted him, wanting to change the subject.
“Well what?”
I glanced over my shoulder at him behind me. “You planning on pushing me or what?”
He snickered as his hands pressed against my back.
I tried ignoring the almost-electrical zap that shot through his hands, buzzing straight through my body. I really did. But WTF?
“Tell me something about you I don’t already know.” His question came out of nowhere.
“Something? You don’t know anything about me.”
I could hear the smile in his voice. “Yeah, that’s why I’m asking.”
I stifled a grin as he propelled me forward, each time gaining more momentum. “Fine. I eat red licorice like it’s going out of style.”
“How about that. I like licorice, too.”
I laughed, knowing his game and upping the ante. “I have five guinea pigs.”
He paused. “Guinea pigs?”
“Oh yeah. They’re so cute and cuddly. I actually sleep with them in my bed every night.”
“Oh.” Though I couldn’t see him, I assumed his repulsed tone mirrored his expression.
“Oh,” I said, really getting into it. “I know something most people don’t know about me. I hate shaving. Like absolutely loathe it. My legs, my armpits. You name it. It’s totally annoying. So I don’t do it. Do you think that’s weird?”
