Shaking my head, I reminded myself I was going to have to have a little talk with Chrissy Peterson. She needed to mind her own business.
“I wasn’t going to kiss him, and he was hugging me. Remember?”
“Okay, why was he hugging you? What does that have to do with him watching out for Jimmy?”
Swallowing hard, I hesitated, this next part was going to be difficult. Jeanna was going to jump to the wrong conclusions. I just knew it.
“He said it would be more believable, more effective if people thought we were dating. So we have to pretend to you know, be infatuated. But don’t tell anyone, especially Jimmy.”
Jeanna’s mouth dropped open as she stared at me with disbelief. “You get a boyfriend and you’re just now telling me?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I hissed, looking around to make sure no one had heard her.
She laughed, “I don’t know. He gives you a ride home. Sticks up for your little brother. Gives you hugs in the hall. Sounds a lot like a boyfriend to me.”
“Well, he’s not,” I insisted. “And, don’t you go telling people he is,” I added as I stared at her with my most serious scowl.
She smiled and slowly shook her head. “Sure, Elle, you keep telling yourself that and eventually, you might begin to believe it. Besides, I thought you wanted people to think that you two were together. You know for Jimmy.”
The smirk she shot me set the hairs on the back of my neck to full attention. How dare she think I was doing this because I found Nate Clark interesting, or exciting, or butterfly inducing in any way.
Taking a deep breath, I was preparing to set her straight when the corner of my eye caught Jimmy and Nate walking toward us.
“Shss,” I hissed, “here they come.”
Jeanna glanced over her shoulder and I swear her eyes lingered on Nate a little longer than I cared for. You know, that appraising, appreciative look a girl gives a boy when she likes what she sees.
“Hey, Jimmy,” she said as she scooted over to make room. My heart dropped. My best friend had just maneuvered things so that Jimmy would sit next to her, leaving Nate to sit next to me.
I shot her a frown that let her know I knew what she had done. She shot me back a smile that dripped with false innocence.
“Hi Jeanna,” Jimmy said, “This is Nate,” he added pointing to the big guy sitting down next to me.
“Hey,” he said with a quick head nod.
That was so Nate Clark, I thought, a man of a few words. Unless he was teasing me, then it seemed he couldn’t shut up.
It felt like a cloud of awkwardness settled over the four of us. Swallowing hard, I glanced at Jeanna. She was secretly looking at Nate, he was looking at me. And Jimmy was oblivious.
“So, Nate, where are you from?” Jeanna asked. “And what brings you to our fine city?”
My heart skipped a beat as I turned to hear his answer. A burning curiosity rose inside of me as I suddenly had a desperate need to know everything about him.
“Seattle?” he said, “and I drove.”
I tried to hide a smile, but Jeanna caught it. She raised an eyebrow and obviously could see that Nate wasn’t going to provide her with anything. Instead, she turned to Jimmy.
“So, what is this I hear about you getting into a fight this morning?” she asked Jimmy as she reached over to ruffle his hair. An act that I knew he despised to the ninth degree. Which made Jeanna want to do it even more. Those two had been bugging each other since he was old enough to talk.
“It wasn’t a fight,” Jimmy replied as he smoothed out his hair and quickly took a bite of his sandwich.
“Oookaaaay,” she drew out. “What was it then.”
Jimmy shrugged his shoulders and kept eating.
“More a disagreement,” Nate said. “Jimmy demonstrated that Joe McCain was an idiot and as dumb as a bag of rocks. Joe disagreed.”
Jeanna looked at Nate then back at Jimmy as she slowly shook her head. “For someone so smart, you can be such an idiot at times.”
“Why?” Jimmy asked. “What is wrong with correcting someone when they obviously need help getting to the right answer? Why is that such a bad thing? Isn’t that why we are here?”
Both Jeanna and I laughed.
“No,” I said. “Never forget, the purpose of high school is to grind the individuality out of us. To press and mold us into compliant workers ready to follow authority. To manufacture productive adults.”
“That, and dating of course,” Jeanna interjected, shooting me a sly smile.
Jimmy looked at her like she’d grown a third head.
Nate laughed and raised both of his eyebrows. “They’re not far off,” he said to Jimmy as he took another bite of his sandwich.
Me? I could only sigh internally as I realized just how unimportant it all was.
Chapter Five
Nate
A couple of days later, as we were walking down the hall, Jimmy froze as he watched beautiful Susan Milner float by in a cloud of perfectness.
The blond-haired goddess looked like a future Miss America. Tall, with all the right curves. I had to smile to myself, at least the kid had good taste.
“Teach me how to fight,” he said as he spun to get in front of me and stop me from going forward until I agreed.
“Where’s this coming from?” I asked. “Besides, Elle would kill me.”
Jimmy frowned. “I don’t care about what Elle wants. She’s not my boss. Despite what she thinks.”
“Why the sudden urge to learn how to fight?” I asked. I knew why. But I wanted to see if he did.
Jimmy’s frown grew even deeper as he looked back up the hall at the departing girl. “Because a girl like that will never be interested in a guy like me unless I can stick up for myself.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that a girl like Susan Milner would never be interested in him until he grew a foot taller, and five years older.
“So, since when did you worry about what girls like her thought?” I asked. “Elle told me all you thought about was numbers and patterns and computers.
Jimmy turned a brief shade of red as he continued to stare. “Yeah, well …”
Yep, he got it. The kid had new favorite numbers, thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six.
“Okay,” I said. Besides. It’d be one more thing to upset Elle and push her boundaries out of whack.
.o0o.
Elle
Things were going pretty good. Jimmy had kept his opinions to himself in English Lit for over a week. Nate still set my back teeth on edge but he’d stopped teasing me about my lack of a boyfriend.
The plan was working. Jimmy wasn’t getting bullied, at least not physically. But deep in my gut, I knew it wouldn’t last forever. Nate had gotten the word out somehow, mess with Jimmy and you had to deal with him. But knowing Joe McCain, it wouldn’t last. I mean eventually someone was going to test Nate and he was only one guy against an entire flock of Joe McCain worshippers.
What was even worse. I’d heard of other kids commenting about Jimmy. It wasn’t right for someone to get to skip straight to being a senior. He was too little, too geeky. It was only a matter of time until they figure out that the best way to gain Joe’s approval was to ruin Jimmy’s life.
Thankfully, the weekend gave my worries a break.
It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. Mom and Nana had gone to the park for some kind of rally. Probably something to save the local mosquito or something just as important. Jimmy was off somewhere working on one of his secret projects. Probably building an electron collider out of spare parts. And I was spending the day moping around upstairs in my room doing homework and trying to figure out what would happen next and how I could fix it.
A faint sound from down on the patio drew my attention. It was Jimmy and Nate talking.
My heart jumped. I hadn’t expected Nate to come over. Had Jimmy invited him? Was he here to see me? A quick anger grew inside of me. How dare he come over without lettin
g me know. I wasn’t dressed right, just old ratty jeans and a T-shirt.
Grabbing a brush I quickly ran it through my hair while I cracked the window to see if I could hear them.
Nate was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt as well, but he looked like he belonged in them. Jimmy was the one who surprised me, he was dressed in basketball shorts and a tank top. I hadn’t even known he owned clothes like that.
Jimmy said something, then took a long rope from Nate’s hand. A jump rope.
Okay, I was officially curious. What was Nate doing with a jump rope?
Nate stepped back and folded his arms across his chest as he watched Jimmy try to jump the rope. I had to give Nate credit, he didn’t break out laughing.
Jimmy, being Jimmy, was as athletic as a block of wood. He couldn’t seem to grasp the principle of jumping enough to let the rope go under his feet.
Like I said, Nate didn’t laugh, he just nodded encouragement and waited until Jimmy finally got the idea.
I smiled to myself when my brother successfully jumped four or five times. A look of concentration on his face he normally reserved for serious math equations that stumped Nobel Laureates.
When he’d worked up a good sweat, perhaps the first one of his life, he stopped and handed the rope to Nate and indicated he should do it.
My insides squealed as I held my breath. Finally, I was going to have something to tease Nate about. As every girl knew, no boy could jump rope. Not seriously.
Nate nodded, took the rope and slowly began to jump. I was impressed. He didn’t miss a step. Okay, it seemed our boy had a secret talent. He quickened the pace then shifted to jumping one foot, switching back and forth. Then double skips. Never missing. Perfect timing, the boy was like water in motion. Smooth, and relentless.
Still, he kept it up, cross-overs, back to doubles, then slowly he returned to a normal rate.
At last, he stopped and raised an eyebrow at Jimmy. My brother looked back like he’d just been invited to sit down with Einstein.
My mouth hung open. I know it did, because when Nate reached over his head and pulled his sweaty shirt off, my jaw didn’t have any further to drop.
The boy was chiseled out of pure granite. Every muscle sharply defined. Those wide shoulders narrowing down to slim hips. I tried to swallow but my mouth refused to work as my insides turned to mush.
What … Why … for a brief second my mind forgot how to operate and all I could do was stare.
The intense moment was only broken when Nate held up his hands and instructed Jimmy to start punching. Slowly they circled each other, Jimmy throwing punches into Nate’s open palms. Nate giving instructions. My brow narrowed as I tried to understand.
“Noooo!” I yelled as I raced downstairs with the horrifying realization of what was going on.
“What are you doing?” I demanded as I rushed out onto the patio.
Nate’s brow creased for a second. “What does it look like we are doing, playing Minecraft?”
“You’re teaching him how to box. You can’t do that. Are you crazy?” I said as I tried to bring myself under control. Nate’s wide chest had a way at tugging at my brain and making it hard to focus on my anger.
Stepping between them, I put my hands on my hips and gave him my best scowl, making sure to keep my eyes focused above his neck.
“Elle?” Jimmy said as he pulled at my shoulder.
Nate smirked. Always that damn smirk. Like I had absolutely no clue what I was talking about.
“Why not?” he asked. “Oh, and nice to see you too Elle,” he added with just a little condescension.
“Why not?” I bellowed. “This boy has a once in a generation brain and you want to bounce it around like it’s a basketball. What are you thinking?”
Nate mimicked me by putting his hand on his hips and giving me a pretty good scowl of his own. “I’m teaching him how to make sure his head doesn’t get bounced around like a basketball.”
“Go inside Jimmy,” I said without taking my eyes off my worst enemy. A boy who thought he knew better than me.
“No,” Jimmy said as he stepped around me. “Nate and I are working. This is none of your business.”
I stared at my little brother. Jimmy never told me no. It wasn’t in him. The kid was an angel, but he was clueless and I just knew that this sudden rebellion was somehow all Nate’s fault.
Nate. Being the troglodyte that he was, simply smiled and raised an eyebrow. Daring me to try and stop them.
My mind frantically tried to come up with something to halt this fiasco before it got out of hand. Unfortunately, I came up blank. A total wash out. Which meant I had to resort to the one thing I had always sworn I would never do.
“If you don’t stop, I will tell mom.”
There, it was out. I had uttered the fail-safe words. The one thing that was guaranteed to stop all.
“Fine,” Jimmy said as he started swinging at Nate’s hands. Totally not caring about the ramifications if I did what I had threatened. Who was this boy? And what had happened to my little brother?
“She’ll want to know why,” I added. Reminding him of what she might do if she thought he was being bullied.
Jimmy froze in mid-punch, then finished it. “I’m doing this because it’s good exercise. Remember last year? She wanted me to go to Yoga classes with her. Well, this is my compromise.”
I stood there, unable to believe my brother and the person he was becoming. I also knew that Mom might believe him.
Nate gave me a quick smile, then pointed out that Jimmy should keep his elbows in and his fists up.
The two of them continued to circle each other. Jimmy punching, Nate encouraging. Completely ignoring me, as if I had absolutely no right to say a word. Every so often, Nate would reach forward and tap Jimmy on the side of the head.
“Stick and move,” he would say, then step back and let Jimmy wail away at him.
The two of them spent the next thirty minutes like that. Bobbing and weaving, Jimmy punching. I tried not to laugh at Jimmy’s ineffectiveness. His punches were like a gnat bombarding a brick wall. Completely useless.
The entire time, I stood there and watched, my arms folded across my chest. Ready to jump in when things went wrong. In fact, I was almost looking forward to telling them ‘I told you so,’ when things went wrong.
But, of course, nothing went wrong. Jimmy got better, slowly his muscles learned how to move. Not great, but a marked improvement. By the end, his stick-like arms actually created enough impact to make a sound. Nate of course, continued to look like a sculpted statue. As strong and powerful as an African lion. A vision that I couldn’t get out of my head.
“Good,” Nate said as he finally lowered his hands.
Jimmy stepped back, shaking his hands to get rid of the numbness.
Nate smiled, “That’s enough for today. But every day, thirty minutes of jump rope and thirty minutes of bobbing and weaving, and in a couple of weeks we can put on the gloves.”
I bit back a quick laugh. Jimmy exercising. No way. He wouldn’t last three days. His computer and books would pull at him until he gave it up. My insides were able to relax finally. This wouldn’t last. I didn’t have to worry. Not really. Maybe I’d overreacted a little.
“Thanks, Nate,” Jimmy said as he grabbed the jump rope and headed for the garage.
Nate smiled after him, then turned to look at me. Of course, he was still not wearing a shirt. A fact I couldn’t put out of my mind. His body had a sheen of sweat that glistened in the afternoon sun and his silvery blue eyes pinned me with an intense stare. Swallowing hard, I tried to hold his stare but had to look away.
“You know,” he began, “If you’re not careful, Jimmy’s going to figure things out pretty soon. The kid’s smart.”
“Figure what out” I stammered as I tried to concentrate. He really should put on a shirt.
“That you hate me and therefore there is absolutely no reason for us to be dating. Believe me, to him, there is a
huge difference between me doing this to impress you. And me doing it because you begged me.”
“I didn’t beg you.”
“Whatever,” he continued. “Knowing that his big sister stuck her nose into his business to arrange for his protection is going to piss him off. In fact, if he was like most boys. He’d go off and get into a fight just to prove he didn’t need his big sister.”
“Jimmy isn’t like other boys.”
He laughed and slowly shook his head. “How would you know? Do you have a lot of experience with males? From what Jimmy told me, the both of you were raised by your mother and grandmother. How would you have any idea what a thirteen-year-old boy thinks? Have you asked him? Really sat down and listened to him? Just like the rest of us at that age, he is screwed up and trying to figure it out. And to top it off. He’s got to cut three pairs of apron strings.”
My insides began to form into molten lava. How dare this boy try to tell me about my little brother. He’d known him for a week. What right did he have marching in here and throwing those big arms and massive shoulders around like a bull in a china shop as if we were all supposed to bow down to the mighty wisdom of Nate Clark?
“So,” Nate continued before I could come up with a half-way decent response. “I think we need to move this to the next level. Just to keep Jimmy in the dark. So, I’ll pick you up at six and we can go to the movies. That should convince him. Unless you ruin things by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Really, you do need to work on your look of adoration by the way.”
His small laugh made me want to punch him. Literally, my fists formed and I seriously thought about it. I know violence is never the answer, but I swear, this boy made me rethink everything.
Of course, he’d probably slip the punch and laugh at me for the next three days.
Then his words sank in. He wanted me to go to the movies with him. Like on a date?
“What did you say?” I squeaked as my mind raced.
“Movies, six, you, me, keep Jimmy thinking we like each other.”
My Brother's Bodyguard (Hometown Heros #1) Page 4
