by B. B. Hamel
“The nature preserve,” I say. “So you’re a big hippie, huh?”
She laughs a little. “No, not at all. I didn’t even know I cared about nature and stuff until I got the job, honestly.”
“But that’s good, you have a passion. It’s attractive.”
She raises an eyebrow, blushing a little. “How’s it attractive?”
“Loving something that much, caring about it, having a passion. That’s sexy in a person.”
“Well, thanks, I guess,” she says, glancing down. “You can be a little forward, you know that?”
I laugh, shrugging. “What can I say? When I see something I like, I don’t mess around with it.”
She’s about to say something, but her words are lost as someone steps up to the end of our booth. I assume it’s the waitress, but when I look over, my stomach drops.
Dylan Carter, the younger of the two brothers, is standing there and grinning at Mia like an idiot. He’s of average height, pretty stocky, with little beady eyes and a big forehead. The guy looks like all he does is drink protein shakes, work out, and torture small animals.
“What’re you doin’ here?” he asks Mia.
She blinks at him. “Uh, hey, Dylan. Just having dinner.”
“Oh yeah? With this guy?” He grins at me then looks back at Mia.
“That’s right. Dylan, this is Lucas.”
Dylan turns to me but doesn’t extend his hand. I don’t bother either. I can already sense the tension in this guy, and I’m pretty sure I know what’s coming.
“You’re the Navy guy,” Dylan says. “Home because your bastard kid was gonna get sent off by his whore mother.” His grin gets a little bit bigger.
“Dylan, what the hell?” Mia says, but I keep it cool.
I stare at Dylan for a second before responding. “That’s right. And you’re the dumber of the two Carter brothers.”
“You better watch your mouth, you know what I’m sayin’?” he asks, turning toward me. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“In this diner?” I ask him. “Or like, in this town? Or on Earth in general?”
He screws his eyes up. “You bein’ funny?”
“No, idiot. But you’re being an asshole. So why don’t you walk away and leave us alone.”
His eyes go wide a little bit, clearly not used to people pushing back against his bully tactics. I bet most people let the Carter brothers do whatever they want, but I’m not most fucking people.
He sputters his reply. “You can’t talk to me that way, dick,” he says.
I slide out of the booth and stand. I have a few inches on him and probably twenty pounds of muscle. Despite how much he works out, I’m positive I could break this little ant under my boot if I wanted. I’ve fought and killed harder men.
“Back off, you little worm,” I say softly to him. “We’re having a nice meal. Don’t bother us again.”
“Lucas,” Mia says. “Dylan. Stop. This is so stupid.”
“You think you’re tough?” Dylan asks. “You’re just a big fucking pussy. Come outside with me, you fucking pussy.”
“Walk away,” I say again. “I’m not coming outside. And I’m not fighting you. I’m having dinner with Mia here, and you’re interrupting. So fuck off.”
He stares at me, completely surprised. I can tell he wants to hit me, but some people are starting to look over and a hush suddenly falls over the diner. Despite how stupid he is, he knows that he can’t just straight up attack me like this, not in a room full of people, no matter who his father is. Besides, he probably doesn’t want to get his ass beat in public.
“Watch yourself,” he says to me then looks at Mia. “You too.” He turns and storms off, leaving the diner.
I sit back down, shaking my head. “What the fuck was that about?” I ask her.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she says, her eyes wide. “You know what those people do, right?”
“Fuck them,” I say. “He was being rude.”
“It doesn’t matter. Lucas, you can’t do stuff like that.”
I laugh a little bit. “I don’t let meathead bullies push me around, no matter who they’re related to.”
Mia is clearly shaken up, so I motion for the check. It comes a lot faster than I would have expected, probably because the manager wants to get rid of me now that I just made a fucking scene. I pay up and we stand, our meals half-finished.
We head outside into the cool night air. “Come on,” I say. “Let’s take a walk.”
She hesitates. “I don’t know.”
“Just around the block. That was weird in there.”
“Yeah,” she says, nodding. “Okay. Come on.”
She sets off and I match her pace. I’m fucking livid that the scumbag would come over and mess with us like that, but it does make me curious. I saw her out with the Carters, and I wasn’t going to push that angle, but now I feel like I need to find out with her deal is.
“So, this is none of my business,” I say. “But how do you know him? Dylan Carter?”
She sighs a little. “He’s a friend of a friend. His brother . . . “ she trails off, shaking her head.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” I respond.
“No, it’s okay. I get it. I don’t know why he was such a dick back there.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“No, I mean, I don’t want you getting mixed up with those guys,” she says, looking concerned.
I stop and face her. She turns and faces me, and I take her hand, pulling her toward me. She’s a little surprised when I wrap my arms around her waist.
It feels fucking good and right. Most of my anger dissolves right there and then, feeling her against my body. She looks up at me, clearly surprised, but she’s not pulling away.
“Tell you what,” I say softly. “You agree to go out with me again, and I won’t mess with those guys.”
“Okay,” she says, looking up at me, her lips parted slightly.
I know she wants me to kiss her. I don’t know why I’m hesitating. I don’t normally hold back, but for some reason, I don’t kiss her right away.
As I move closer, a bus suddenly drives past, loud and close. She steps back away from me and walks toward it.
“Where are you going?” I call after her.
“Going home,” she says, grinning at me. “See you later, Lucas.”
“Shit,” I say softly. “You don’t have to take the bus, I’ll drive you!” I call after her.
She hurries up and catches the bus at the corner. She gives me another grin and a wave before disappearing onto the bus. It pulls off, taking her away from me.
“Fuck,” I say to myself, suddenly alone on the damn sidewalk.
I should have kissed her. But that fucking cock Dylan Carter threw a goddamn wrench into the date. It was going so fucking well into he showed up. Now there’s some complicated shit between us and I doubt she wants to be involved with that at all. I wouldn’t blame her if she turned and ran away, never looking back.
I’m an ex-SEAL with an infant and apparently a feud with the Carters. But goddamn do I want that girl, and I’m not giving up just yet. I’ll have her eventually, and she’s going to thank me for it.
6
Mia
It’s early in the morning and I’m already throwing beer cans into a trash bag. I’m sweating a little bit and I curse, annoyed that some teens decided to have a party on the preserve in the middle of the night again.
The least they can do is clean up after themselves. I toss more cans into the bag, plus some empty chip bags and other garbage. There’s a pile of vomit next to the dead and blackened campfire, which I am not freaking dealing with. Let some animal eat it up or whatever.
I can’t stop thinking about my date last night. It was going so well, I felt incredibly comfortable and excited, and I couldn’t wait to keep talking to Lucas. I was surprised that he has a kid, but that doesn’t really bother me at all. In fact, that he gave up his l
ife in the military and came home to take care of his son says so much about his character. I can hardly believe someone would give up their child like that and run off, but apparently his ex did, and he’s taking responsibility for it all.
It can’t be easy coming back to civilian life, let alone with a little baby to raise. He lives at home with his stepmom, which would normally be a red flag, but I can totally understand it in this situation. He needs her help to raise the child while he figures out how he’s going to support himself and this baby.
On top of all that, I’m insanely attracted to him. He’s so handsome it’s almost unreal. I don’t know how he’s single, but I guess he spent so long overseas that he just doesn’t really know anybody anymore. I can relate to that on some level. He’s ten years older than me, but that doesn’t matter at all.
Things were going to well, up until Dylan Carter showed up. I don’t know what Dylan wanted, but he really creeped me out. He was being such an asshole to Lucas for absolutely no reason. I wanted to scream at Dylan, tell him to fuck off, tell him to back off my nature preserve, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. He’s still a Carter, and everyone in this town knows not to mess with the Carters or else bad things will happen.
Everyone except for Lucas apparently. He stood up to Dylan and even scared him off, which absolutely shocked me. But it freaked me out a little bit. It felt reckless, dangerous, in a way that maybe I shouldn’t be around right now. Especially not when the Carters are trying to buy the nature preserve. I don’t want to mess with them and potentially make things harder for Laura.
But I can’t pretend like it wasn’t a little satisfying to see that smug Carter asshole go running off with his tail between his legs. He knows that Lucas could beat the crap out of him if it came to that, though of course I don’t want it to happen.
There was that moment outside when I knew he was about to kiss me. I wanted it, I felt excited and aroused, I was beyond ready, but something stopped me. When that bus came, it pulled me out of my dream-like state, and I just had to back away. I ran off and got on that bus without really thinking about it. I feel bad that I left him alone there, but I knew that if I stayed, I’d kiss him, and I need to think about things first.
I don’t know how this all happens at once. A week ago, I’m minding my own business, getting through my days with some measure of happiness. Now though, suddenly Lucas appears out of nowhere, and the Carter brothers are interested in me, and the nature preserve might get sold. I don’t even know what to think anymore.
I bend over and grab a can, tossing into my bag. I find a pair of glasses half hidden under a log and look at them for a second, smiling to myself. It must have been some party for a kid to actually lose his glasses. Come to think of it, there’s enough trash around here for like fifteen people. It was probably pretty great.
I hear a snapped twig and look up suddenly with a start, pulled from my daydreaming. I expect to see Lucas, and then I think it might be Laura, but the person that comes out from between some bushes is neither of those people.
It’s Caleb Carter. I nearly stumble backwards over a log when I see him. He’s wearing a polo shirt and a pair of khaki pants with boat shoes and a cocky smile. He’s okay looking, nothing special. He’s built like a lacrosse player, probably since that was his sport in high school. He has thinning dirty blond hair and brown eyes and his perpetual cocky smile that’s not endearing at all. He looks like he thinks he owns everything around him simply because he thinks he deserves it.
“Hey, Mia,” he says, stepping toward me.
“Caleb. You scared me.”
“Didn’t mean to.” He cocks his head at me. “What are you doing?”
“Cleaning up after a party,” I say. “You know, my job. What are you doing out here?”
“Came to find you.” He crosses his arms and leans up against a tree.
I suddenly feel something like dread in my stomach. It’s nothing like the feeling I get when I see Lucas, it’s almost the exact opposite. Caleb doesn’t look at me like he wants to ravish me and is adoring me, but rather like he thinks he owns me, and that’s terrifying.
“Uhm, okay, sure. What can I help you with, Caleb?”
He cocks his head. “Help me with?”
“Yeah. I mean, you came to find me at work, so I don’t know.”
“No, nothing like that. I just wanted to see you, talk to you.”
“Okay. Yeah. I mean, I’m a little busy.” I gesture at the rest of the campsite. It’s still a little messy.
“That’s okay. You can take a break.”
“I shouldn’t.”
He walks over to a group of cans and kicks them softly. I wince, wanting to tell him to stop since he’s making more work for me, but I keep silent. I realize that I’m afraid and very, very alone with this guy. The party site was right in the middle of the preserve, far away from everything, or as far as possible.
“So I heard you were on a date last night,” he says.
I want to groan but I keep myself under control. “I saw your brother.”
“He saw you, too.” Caleb bends over and picks up a stick. “Who was the guy, Mia?”
“Doesn’t matter.” I regret saying that immediately.
He points the stick at me. “Come on, Mia, don’t be that way. I’m just making conversation.”
“I’m busy, Caleb, really. Can we talk later?”
“I just want to know who the guy is. I can find out other ways, but help me out.”
“His name is Lucas, okay?” I say. I know Caleb can easily figure it out and I want this conversation to be over as fast as possible.
He grins big at me. “I know that already,” he says. “Just wanted you to confirm it.”
I sigh, exasperated. “So you came out here just to mess with me?”
“Not at all,” he says, laughing. “Come on, Mia. I’m just teasing you.” He steps toward me, stick back down at the ground. “How was the date, anyway? Isn’t he like thirty?”
“Maybe,” I say. “It’s none of your business, though.” I step away from him, pretending to work. I bend over and grab some trash but I keep him in sight.
He comes closer to me. “That guy is a real dick, Mia. You shouldn’t be around guys like him.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I stand up and stare at him.
He points his stick at me again. “Seriously. I don’t like that guy, but I like you. I want to get to know you better. Ditch that loser and hang out with me.”
“He’s just a friend,” I say, trying to avoid answering him.
“Sure he is.” Caleb takes the stick and snaps it over his knee. It makes me jump and I’m terrified he’s about to come at me. “I just don’t like him.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I answer him, backing away some more. My eyes are wide and I can feel myself starting to shake a little bit. “Maybe we can talk later, when I’m not working?”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever you want. Just stay away from that fucking loser, Mia.” He grins at me. “You’re cool. We like you.”
“Thanks.” I’m scared shitless and don’t know what to say.
He tosses the broken stick onto the ground and walks away. I nearly fall down onto the ground, my heart hammering in my chest. I wait a second for him to get far enough away before I spring out of the campsite and across the preserve. I take the long way around, skirting the outside, putting as much distance between me and where I think Caleb probably is as I possible can.
That was the scariest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. He didn’t outright threaten me or anything like that, but the fact that he found me out there in the wilderness and talked like that freaked me out. Plus, Caleb has a bad reputation with women. I’ve heard whispers of him assaulting some freshmen girls when he was a senior, and one girl even said she got raped by him, at least for a little while. I don’t know what happened with that, but she had a really nice new car the next year, and the rumors were pretty obvious from there.
I
’m practically shaking when I get back to the office. I don’t know why it freaked me out so much, but when Caleb broke that stick, I saw something in his expression that put serious terror in my heart. It was a darkness I’ve never seen in someone before, like a total lack of emotion, or maybe such a deep hate that it overwhelms everything else. I can’t really explain it very well, not even to myself, and it completely unnerved me. I head into the office, hoping to find Laura, but she’s not around.
The place is totally empty. That’s pretty normal for this time of day, but I don’t want to be alone. I keep thinking about Caleb and that look, and wondering what he’d do to me if I let him.
Without thinking, I take out my phone. I dial the first person I think of, and he answers on the second ring.
“Looking for a second date so soon?” Lucas says.
I smile a little. “Hey. Sorry to bug you at work.”
“No big deal. What’s up?”
“Caleb Carter came by here. He was pretty weird, and now I’m alone, I don’t know where Laura is—“
“Where are you?”
“The office.”
“Stay there. I’m coming.” He hangs up the phone.
I blink, a little surprised. I expected to talk to him for a few minutes until I calmed down, but I never thought he’d drop whatever he’s doing and come here. I shouldn’t be that surprised, though. That’s the kind of guy Lucas obviously is.
I head back into the employee breakroom and get a water. I sip on it and stare at the TV blankly until I hear a vehicle pull up out front maybe fifteen minutes later. I head out front just as Lucas steps down from his truck and walks toward me.
“He still here?” Lucas asks, his face serious. He looks all business, and I feel a thrill run through me. It’s the total opposite feeling of what I had when Caleb looked at me.
“He’s gone,” I say. “At least, I think so.”
“Come on. Let’s go inside.”
We head in and he sits me down on a chair. He looks around the building real fast and comes back, shaking his head.
“What did he say to you?” he asks.
