Just as Stubborn

by Jeanne Arnold

  I wiped my tears when the bus slowed. I heard the brakes squeal and the bed bumped into the wall.

  The bus picked up speed again. I rolled over and stared at the planked ceiling. It looked expensive. Everything looked expensive, but I wasn’t in a mood to be impressed. The bus slowed again. More brakes squeaked. I heard Mr. Halden’s harsh voice over the road noise. I heard Josh yell something.

  My pocket buzzed underneath me. I was carrying my dead phone in my jeans just in case a miracle happened. It couldn’t have rung. It hadn’t worked in days. I searched it out and rolled onto my side. I tried to pull myself together and stop sniffling.

  “Texas Hottie,” I read the screen out loud. “What?”

  The words flashed again as it vibrated in my palm.

  “This is not possible,” I whispered through my sobs. “Hello?”

  “Hey. Where are you?” Gabe asked.

  “Where are you? How did you call me? What phone are you on? My phone was dead and now it works. Gabe?”

  “Uh yeah, Av’ry. It’s me. I thought you’d figure that one out.”

  The bus sped up, and moments later, the brakes slammed and the horn honked. We must have been stuck in traffic. I glanced out the window from the bed, and all I could see was big blue sky.

  “My phone works!” I exclaimed. “Oh my goodness, Gabe. Help me.”

  Mr. Halden spoke loudly outside the bedroom door. I sat up fast and locked it.

  “Yup, it does work, don’t it now? What do you need help with?” Gabe drawled.

  “Where are you calling from?” I asked with urgency. How did he get my phone to recognize his number?

  “I got to the cabin and you weren’t there. What the hell, Av’ry?”

  “You have to find me at the Tulsa airport. I have no idea what flight, but you have to come right away. Just find me. It’s an emergency. They’re making Josh fly to New York as my escort. I want you to come in his place or take me away. Just hurry.”

  “They’re taking you to Oklahoma? Nah. They can’t do that. They won’t,” he said.

  “Oh, yes they will. We’re heading there now!”

  “Calm down already. You won’t make it. Trust me,” he said with ease.

  I huffed into the phone. “Gabe, you don’t know anything. You didn’t hear them. I’ll be gone and you won’t see me again if you take off.”

  “I do too know something,” he laughed. “Now pull yourself together.”

  “What? Where are you? Whose phone are you using? Did you know your father is taking back your truck? Caleb told me to warn you. He left, Gabe.”

  “Uh huh. Yep.”

  “And you don’t care about him or the truck?” I could hardly breathe. I couldn’t calm down. Why was he so calm?

  The bus driver laid on the horn. It lasted a minute long and then the baby cried. The bus slowed again. I was becoming carsick.

  Josh pounded on the bedroom door. “Hey, Avery, you got a visitor.”

  “Go away.” I returned my attention to Gabe. “Not you.”

  “See what he wants,” Gabe said into the phone.

  I rolled over on the bed. “No. Tell me where you are and whose phone you have.”

  Josh banged his fist obnoxiously. I knew Gabe could hear him calling for me.

  “As soon as you see what Josh wants,” Gabe said into my ear. “Then I’ll tell you.”

  I didn’t have time for his games. He wasn’t taking me seriously.

  “Fine. But what do you care what Josh wants? It’s probably a trick. I’m so mad, Gabe. How fast can you get here? I can’t get on that plane. This is not going to turn out like the summer.”

  “Pretty fast, trust me. See what he wants,” he said.

  I wiped my eyes with my sleeve, fixed my ponytail tight to my head, and unbolted the lock. As I stepped out, the bus driver slammed the brakes, and I stumbled headfirst into a booth and knocked my forehead on the window beside Josh. I couldn’t see any traffic. The bus honked and began to drive forward. There was a black car on the road ahead. It tapped the brakes and fell back alongside the tour bus.

  “You still there?” Gabe asked over Emmie’s crying.

  Mr. Halden made his way to the driver and addressed him in a fiery tone. I looked out the window to study the black car and the tinted windows.

  “Avery,” Meggie said quietly, just as the baby stopped shrieking. “Use your head, kiddo.”

  “Boy, he’s got some killer braids. I always wanted my hair long like that, but the lieutenant never allowed it,” Gabe said at my ear. “Is he getting pissed yet?”

  “Who? What?” I pulled the phone away from my face and squinted at the screen. Did I hear him right? Did I hear Meggie right? Was I losing it? “What are you talking about?” I repeated to Gabe but looked at Meggie.

  Meggie walked across the bus with the baby and braced herself against the window before taking a seat. The black car shot ahead of the bus, slowed down, and dropped back along the other side. I knew this because Josh was bouncing from side to side to watch it.

  “He’s a maniac driving against oncoming traffic like that,” Josh exclaimed.

  “That still Josh I hear?” Gabe asked into the phone. “Sorry about the noise. I’m on speaker. Hands-free driving.”

  “Yeah, it’s Josh. He’s all freaked about some dumb car circling us. Are you going to meet me? You would not believe what we’re riding in. You can’t miss it, Gabe,” I whispered.

  “It’s a Mustang, not a dumb car,” Gabe said. “You think I’d look good with long hair like that?”

  “Like what?” I asked annoyed. “What are you talking about? Why won’t you answer me?” I pulled on my hair. I could have pulled out each strand, one by one.

  “I answered you, Av’ry,” Gabe said into the phone. “Start payin’ attention.”

  The bus slowed. The driver honked. We were going to crash or roll into a ditch if our bus driver didn’t pull it together. Meggie was holding onto the baby and the window ledge for dear life.

  “Tell him to cut it out, Avery,” she snapped. “This isn’t funny.”

  I looked at her in question.

  “Hey, Avery, you gotta see this,” Josh said over his shoulder. “You really gotta see this.”

  “No, thanks,” I said.

  “Listen to him,” Gabe said into the phone. “I can’t keep this up forever.”

  “Huh? Where are you?” I asked again.

  “I’m staring up at Willie’s twenty-inch nostril.”

  I slapped the phone to my chest and glared at Meggie. She raised her eyebrows high.

  The bus driver hollered out his window. I heard his voice come through my phone, so I shot out of the booth and ran to Josh’s side to catch the black car gun ahead of the bus and fall in line behind a tractor trailer. I stood in the center and stared out the windshield. A black Mustang with an arm waving a phone out the window led the bus down the highway. I heard the familiar burbling rumble.

  My heart attacked me like never before.

  “Stop the bus. I have to get off. Pull over!” I shouted at the driver. Baby Emmie wailed in her mother’s arms, and the bus slid into the patch of uncut grass along the side of the highway.

  Mr. Halden stepped aside and glared out the window. I grabbed my bag and took a long, deep breath before I made my way down the steps to freedom.

  He came. He came for me.

  “Your father is not happy,” I murmured as Gabe stood up and greeted me. My eyes scanned the shiny car and then took him in as if the sight of the tall boy was all I needed to survive.

  He was wearing his glasses, jeans, and a T-shirt from Red’s. He had half a Twizzler hanging from his lip. Texas Hottie, no question about that.

  “What can he do to me? Ground me? Fire me? Cut me off?”

  “Good point,” I said, skeptical that I was dreaming up the incredible moment. “Is Deliah okay?”

  “She’s fine. She wanted to stay a little longer,” Gabe whispered into my hair. “You smell awf
ully good in the morning.” All I smelled was diesel.

  “How did you get this car? Where’s your truck?”

  “You hate my truck,” he announced in his best drawl. “You complaining?”

  “Did you buy this?” I asked.

  “You always gotta know every detail. Yep, I bought it. I’d sure love to pretend we ran outta gas and we’re stranded alone in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “But Caleb told me. I can’t be wasting any more time.”

  My moment of glee turned sour. Caleb couldn’t go away without hurting me.

  “Gabe, you and I hardly had any time alone. What happened with Caleb was an accident. This trip is not what I wanted when I flew out to Williston.” I took a cleansing breath and scowled to myself. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that. I know you couldn’t help any of it…what happened to your mother and the Leon business and Deliah and your home. Oh god, I should shut my mouth.”

  I covered my face with my hands.

  “Gabriel!” Mr. Halden shouted from the doorway of the bus. “This is uncalled for. Be on your way!”

  Gabe stared raptly when I looked up. He ignored his father. “Sometimes you got a ten-gallon mouth. What happened with Caleb?”

  “You said…you said he told you,” I blubbered.

  “He told me about what you said at some pint-size chapel. He said you told some strange woman you couldn’t live without me. How you’d die if anything happened to me.”

  “Oh…that?” Caleb wasn’t trying to hurt us. He was gone. I shouldn’t have been so hard on him. “Did you steal that flag from him?” I pointed to the backseat, trying to change the subject.

  “Nah. He told me I could keep it. I’m gonna have it upholstered to the roof of the car. It’s a Texas thing.”

  “He’s probably scared about basic training. Are you worried about him?”

  “Hell no. He ain’t going to any training,” he said, looking over his shoulder at the front of the bus.

  “But I saw him. He shaved all of his hair off.”

  Gabe snickered. “He got plastered, Av’ry. Thought it would look good buzzed. You bought that cockamamie story?”

  My chest filled with the sting of Caleb’s lie and my own foolishness. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Gabe’s brother would never stop messing with me.

  Gabe took my bag off of my shoulder and popped open the trunk. I glanced inside and spotted Eli’s guitar, the familiar case. I drew my eyes up to Gabe’s face and found him grinning wide with satisfaction. I returned the smile.

  “Miss Ross is going to miss her flight, son. You have no right to hold us up,” called Mr. Halden.

  “Are you taking me with you? Can we please get going before he drags me back onto the bus?”

  Gabe set his hands on my shoulders. “He wouldn’t dare. Back pocket first. Reach in one and then reach into the other.”

  “Why?” I asked above the drone of the bus. “We should go right now.”

  He rolled his eyes that sparkled in the morning sun. “Because I know you like my butt. Goddangit, just do it. Then we’ll go.”

  I inclined his side and lifted his T-shirt far enough so that I could slip my hand down into his pocket. I hooked the stretchy fabric with my pinky and pulled out a pair of woman’s underwear.

  “Ew, Gabe. Whose are these?”

  “Gabriel Halden,” his father spoke crossly behind me as he stood at the front bumper.

  “Oh Joel, for god’s sake,” Meggie cried out the window in support. “Let them be in love!”

  “Next one,” Gabe said in a slow drawl, ignoring the bickering behind him. He twisted his hip so I could have better access. “I didn’t forget your birthday.”

  I tugged on a string and out popped a bikini top that matched the bottoms. I dangled it in the space between us and furrowed my forehead in question.

  “You ain’t too sharp before the crack of dawn,” he told me and snatched the bathing suit out of my hand. “It’s a bikini, Av’ry. Do they not have these where you’re from?”

  “I know what it is,” I told him. “I thought you were getting me a pair of cowboy boots.”

  He lifted the front of his shirt to reveal two boarding passes sticking out of his jeans.

  “I told you I had a plan for us. I’m not letting you go home. I heard what you told Meggie on the phone back at the farmhouse when you first arrived.”

  I said we were eloping. I was teasing.

  “What about a job?”

  “I’m gonna get the E.P.A. to hire me,” he said loud enough for his father’s ears.

  “Seriously, Gabe, what about school? What about money?” I wondered how much change he was going to need to be okay after everything he had been through.

  “I’m homeless, Av’ry. School’s overrated. So is family. I saved up. My mom had a life insurance policy, too, but I’m not touching any of it if I don’t have to. Disappear with me. Change your name when we get back.”

  My stomach tightened so hard a sledgehammer would have broken against it. Change my name? Was that a marriage proposal? I was only eighteen.

  “I don’t think I heard you right.”

  He reached for my face and tapped my lips with his gorgeous, simpering mouth.

  “You heard me just fine,” he drawled and then pressed a hard kiss into my lips and pulled away.

  He had to be kidding about eloping. I stepped back when he held the bikini top up to his shoulders and stretched it out like a rubber band. Maybe he wasn’t kidding around. He was holding the evidence.

  “I don’t want to get married. Wait, I mean I do eventually, like when we’re older. After college. Right now, I think you should drive me to New York so I can see my little sister. I really need to see her. Then we’ll talk about sun bathing.”

  Nervous flutters worked their way out of my stomach and into my throat.

  “That won’t work. Your parents won’t let me breathe on you, let alone stay with you. Don’t you want your present?” He snapped the bikini at my middle.

  Of course I did. Did he really have to ask?

  I had a burst of inspiration. I wanted to pat myself on the back, but time was ticking and Mr. Halden was fuming. Meggie was trying to get him to climb back on the bus.

  I whispered loudly, “We’ll tell them we got married. It’ll soften the blow when I tell them that I fulfilled my requirements and I’m done with high school. They’ll have no choice but to let you stay in my room.”

  Gabe’s eyes wrinkled. I thought I saw a twinkle of mischief. Maybe it was admiration or awe that flashed in his gaze. I studied him as he took a good minute to let my counterproposal set in.

  “Maybe tell them you’re on the pill too. I can think of worse things we could say.” He reached down and poked at my middle. “You quit school? For what? To be with me? You only had half of a year to go. Why didn’t you tell me? Now I owe you a birthday gift and a graduation gift?”

  I wanted to stomp my foot. He sounded like my mother.

  “I am on the pill, now that you mention it.”

  He bit his lips to hide his startled expression, but his eyes revealed the truth. I guessed he was more than pleased.

  “I didn’t quit school. I took an accelerated program. I’m on a fast track, that’s all. I can enroll at a community college next semester until I officially get my high school diploma. I want us to go to college together. I practically nailed my SATs. My parents would never let me finish early if I asked.”

  He tipped his chin dramatically. “So no big wedding for the child bride? Fine with me. I doubt I’m marriage material anyway.”

  My laugh hitched in my throat. “See, everybody gets what they want.”

  Gabe moved closer.

  “You bet I’m getting what I want. Now git in the dang car before the lieutenant has a stroke under Willie’s whiskers or I decide to throw you in the backseat.” He brushed his nose against mine and strung the bikini around my neck. “We’re going to happen—and mighty soon, that’s a promise.” He wa
gged his finger between our chests. “Brace yourself, Av’ry. I’m giving you all of me. But first things first. I gotta collect me some speeding tickets.”

  Acknowledgments

  To my family for giving me space, understanding and time to pursue my writing and everything that goes along with it. To my mother for sharing my books with everyone she knows. To the readers of Stubborn, for your enthusiasm, and for encouraging me to continue writing the series. To my editor, Jennifer, for her efforts in making Just as Stubborn shine. To my author friends for your friendship and support. Lastly, I would like to thank my husband for not hitting the send button and launching my book into the publishing universe before I deemed it absolutely, perfectly, officially ready—no matter how many countless times I insisted on revising it. Thank you.

  About the Author

  Jeanne Arnold is an author of young adult and new adult novels. She has a background in art and design and recently began channeling her creativity into writing. Jeanne shares her time with her fictional teenage counterparts and her human family in Central New York. Visit the author at www.jeannearnoldbooks.com

  Check out Stubborn, where Avery's journey began…