Stubborn

by Jeanne Arnold

  “I’d rather smack the crap out of you some more,” I blurted and puffed a breath in his face.

  Caleb laughed a loud belly laugh and straightened. “Well, I’d much rather you do something else to me.”

  I pondered his words for a moment. I couldn’t differentiate between his humor and his flirting. I recovered my focus. I had to take him for what he was. Accept that he wasn’t ever serious.

  “Why don’t you go find Molly and do it with her?” I said in a snide tone.

  “I’m that good, aren’t I?” He walked out and left me shaking my head in my hands.

  I listened for the door to slam and then I let out a forceful sigh. Caleb was hands down an incredible kisser and the luckiest boy ever. The last kid who tried forcing himself on me got a glittery fingernail in his eye socket.

  Minutes later, I managed to descend the basement stairs with a piping hot, microwaved cup of coffee.

  “Hiya,” mumbled Gabe as I shuffled to the sofa. “You the new bartender?” His voice had a playful tone.

  “You’re feeling better? Less, um, out of it?” I narrowed my eyes on the pool table. “Joshie’s a little concerned you drank his stash.”

  Gabe chuckled. “Put it on doc’s bill. He freakin’ poured it down my throat, I swear. Isn’t Josh a little young for all that drinking?”

  He was sounding a little more like the Gabe I met.

  “Aren’t you?” I replied. “Drink this. Sorry if it tastes like dirt. I’m not kitchen proof.”

  My stomach grumbled. I hadn’t eaten since the slimy tuna salad I picked at in the ER.

  “How does your eye feel? And your stomach?” I dropped my gaze to his open shirt.

  He took a sniff of the coffee. “Whew there. High octane. Fitting for oil country, I guess.” He coughed.

  I grabbed for the mug as his hand shook and the liquid splattered. His arm fell to his side to hold the stitches. I wanted to see them, but at the same time, I didn’t.

  “I can’t believe you let your brother stick a needle in your side. It’s disgusting,” I said half kidding, half serious.

  I couldn’t believe I let his brother kiss me.

  “Piece of cake,” he said. “Thanks to your cousin, I didn’t feel a thing.”

  He chugged the coffee.

  I glared at his eye. “I’ll get you some ice. Maybe you won’t look so bad in the morning.”

  Gabe’s hand reached out and he grazed my leg, sending an electric shock all the way up my back. “Don’t. I’ll live. Stay.” He slid his feet across the cushion to make room. “You look pathetic hobbling around.”

  I fell into the corner and crossed my legs. “Thanks. You don’t look so sharp lying here all stabbed.” It was a blatant lie. He looked amazingly good. “That’s got to hurt. What were you thinking?”

  His toes pushed into my leg and then pulled back.

  “I wasn’t. It was heatstroke,” he said, straight-faced. “That’s why I let you go. I was thinking with my ass.” He set the empty mug on the carpet and locked his hands behind his neck.

  My eyes shut. I had no other defense against ogling his lazy pose, his half-nakedness. I knew I couldn’t pretend to be blindfolded all night.

  “What’s it feel like to be stabbed?” Thinking about unpleasant things would help my concentration.

  Gabe’s belly rumbled. “Go get a knife,” he said, mocking me.

  I tried not to laugh but my shoulders shook. I elbowed his shin. “Do you come from a funny family or something?”

  I gave him a twisted grin and rested my gaze on his shadowed face. My eyes slipped down his front and landed on the bandage.

  He watched me watching and held his breath.

  “My mom is...was.” His expression dimmed. “Me and Caleb get in the most trouble for mouthing off. My dad, he’s a stickler for being all mannered and refined. Say the f-bomb in front of him and he goes ballistic. I do it for fun. He has no sense of humor. And he doesn’t listen to crap from anybody.”

  I played with the split ends of my ponytail.

  “My mother’s kinda like that,” I shared. “Total opposite of Meggie. She couldn’t even read the words on my head without having a conniption.” I laughed. “My father thought it was funny.”

  “Yeah well, I wouldn’t think a girl like you knew those words.” He snickered. “Where I come from, girls don’t cuss.”

  I elbowed his leg again. This time he raised his foot and dropped it in my lap.

  “I’d like your dad. I gotta stretch,” he said.

  I sucked in a breath. His leg was warm, heavy. He dropped the other one down and crossed his ankles.

  “Make yourself at home,” I told him.

  Gabe’s grin widened.

  My heart rate kicked up a notch. Were we friends?

  “You’re not gonna tell Meggie any of this.” He stretched his arms back and lifted his middle off the sofa to yawn. Then he settled back down while keeping his legs on my lap. “She’ll tell my dad.”

  “Caleb.” A beat of quiet passed when I uttered his name. A mixture of shame and desire and guilt coursed through my veins, along with a heavy dose of confusion. “He already warned me. But don’t you think she’ll ask about your face?”

  He snickered again and dropped his arms to his sides. “I’ll hide. I’ll wear a lot of hats. She home yet?”

  My head jerked back in surprise. My mouth fell open. “You don’t know?”

  “Know what?” He sat up a ways. His legs slid across mine in slow motion, his feet still touching me.

  “She’s in the hospital. She called an ambulance. Didn’t Caleb tell you anything?”

  His puzzled gaze flickered to my face and then stretched up the stairway. I had the pleasant realization that we were alone—together—in the house for the entire night.

  “No.” He expelled a breath and rubbed his good eye. “What happened?”

  “I’m not supposed to say anything, but she’s going to have a baby.”

  Five

  I awoke on the basement sofa, my nose pressed into a scratchy pillow. The shower was running. Dawn lazily broke through the basement window. The last thing I could recall was listening to the sound of my own voice. Gabe fell asleep in the middle of a rant about my high school and the injustices I had suffered as of late. I bored him to sleep and then continued to gaze dreamily at his angelic face. I didn’t exactly know when I fell asleep, but I was in the exact same place he was when I opened my eyes.

  I didn’t make a move. Instead, I questioned the day to come. Was Meggie coming home? Would I have to face Caleb again? Would the guilty feeling go away? What about Gabe’s face? Was Meggie going to flip out?

  The bathroom door opened with a start.

  I curled into a ball and made room on the cushions. Gabe tossed his bloody shirt at the sofa and the downy fabric landed on my leg. He wagged his head like a dog’s tail. I didn’t react as the droplets from his hair hit my cheek. I decided I wasn’t going to be so chatty anymore. I would let him be the first to talk.

  “It’s gonna rain today,” Gabe announced as if it was nothing special to wake up together. “I feel it.”

  “It already started.” I wiped off my face.

  I lifted my head and caught a glimpse of his getup. I think he was waiting for me to notice he was wrapped in a Power Ranger towel, because when my eyes fixed on his cartoon torso, he flashed me. But underneath he was wearing his camouflage shorts and a soggy white bandage. I tried to squash my laughter when he tossed the towel at my head.

  “Get up. Rise’n’shine,” he said. “I’m starving.”

  I threw the towel back at him and studied his black eye. Technically, it wasn’t black yet. “You need a new bandage.”

  I wondered if Caleb was planning a follow-up visit.

  Gabe lunged up the stairs, taking two at a time. I limped after him and then oriented myself behind the table.

  He floated past me to open the fridge. “You can do it up here while I eat. Think she’ll m
iss this?” he inquired as he held up a plate of cold pizza.

  “It’s Josh’s,” I mumbled and shrugged. Then I speculated what I looked like.

  Gabe settled sideways on a chair and winced. “This kills.” He dropped his eyes to his wound.

  “I’m supposed to take these.” I reached for the bottle of ibuprofen on the table. “We’ll share.”

  I poured out two for him and two for me.

  “Cheers to the pharmacist,” he said and downed a glass of milk. When he offered to pour me one, I declined.

  “Don’t you have a headache?” I asked surprised.

  “Naw. Caleb made me drink a gallon of water ’cause I don’t drink ever,” he told me with a hint of a grin. My skin prickled at the sight of his smile. “Just this hurts.” He tipped his chin and ran a finger over the wet bandage. His eyebrow lifted. “Fix me?”

  My heart dipped. How could I say no? How could I say yes? I was half repulsed and half intrigued. I was going to have to touch him. What if Caleb did a horrible job and his guts were hanging out? I guess if they were Gabe’s guts, it would be okay.

  “Hot damn, Av’ry!” he cried when I yanked on the tape.

  His abdominal muscles constricted as I pressed a palm against his ribs to steady myself. His heart beat fiercely under my touch. The thumping reached through my body. I peeled the bandage off and let go of my breath. My gaze tightened on the small line. There were ten or so little black X’s. Nothing like the bloody Frankenstein cut I expected.

  I could do this and not throw up.

  Score one for Dr. Caleb, though he wasn’t getting any bonus points from me.

  “Hand me a piece,” I ordered and pointed to the medical tape. “One more. And stop running around. You’ll pop open if these bust.”

  Angling over him, I ran a gentle finger across the piece of tape to seal it to his skin. He clasped my whole wrist in his hand and stopped me. His grip was strong, yet kind. My heart thudded as his hand moved to massage the top of mine.

  “Thanks,” he said as he uncurled his spine against the chair. “What do I owe ya?”

  I bit my lips together as I watched him. Then in all seriousness I said, “A trip to the Bad Lands. With a full tank. And a gun in case we run into a pack of wolves or a LOC Mafioso.”

  I would gladly spend another day with him traipsing all around North Dakotaland. Nobody had to twist my arm.

  I stood back and stared as he ran his hand up his chest and then rubbed his chin in thought.

  “How about a trip to Benjamin?” His fingers glided through his hair and stopped when he had all of his bangs pulled back.

  I heard him, but I didn’t answer right away. Could he see my heart kangarooing around in my shirt? Did he really have to ask? I was screaming on the inside, fighting hard to stay calm on the outside.

  “Um, Texas? With you?”

  “With me, Caleb, Lane, and probably Molly,” he stated, and rubbed at the back of his neck.

  Was he worried I would say no and turn him down?

  “For a wedding and a couple days.”

  I choked and gracefully tried to clear my airway before my words shot out all flustered. “Whose wedding?”

  “My cousin. She’s Lane’s age. We’re in the wedding,” he said with little enthusiasm.

  My mind conjured the image of Gabe dressed in a tuxedo. Would I meet his parents? Would we drive? Where would I sleep?

  “You like weddings? Don’t all girls like that mushy stuff?” he asked, with a crooked grin.

  “Yeah, I like weddings. But what about the Bad Lands?” I was subtly teasing the teaser. I shifted my weight and quickly shifted back when I forgot about the pain in my ankle.

  Gabe’s greenish eye shone bright in spite of the bluish purple contusion. How could I resist him? He was one of a kind. There was something about him that even Caleb’s mind-altering lips couldn’t trump.

  “Texas. It’s kinda big and hot, isn’t it?”

  Gabe settled back and flapped his hands at his face. “Big and proud. Hotter than hell on the Fourth of July. We got pools and a lake.”

  My eyes rested on his tan shoulders. A tux and swimming in the Lone Star State. I would say yes just to see that. “I’d have to convince Meggie to let me go. You’re going to have to lay low looking like a punching bag or she’ll say no. No talk of stabs or bullets.”

  “I could say I ran into a buffalo.” He laughed a shaky laugh and held his side.

  * * *

  All morning, rain and hail pelted the old farmhouse like marbles falling from the sky. Meggie was released from the hospital as thunder disturbed the entire city of Williston. She waited in the driveway for the downpour to pass and then ran to the porch as I held an umbrella. Josh took off for the grocery store to fill his mother’s prescription for an iron supplement.

  “Thanks, kid,” she said to me. “What a storm.”

  “Can I make you some tea or lunch or do something?” My mouth was dry.

  She closed a hand over mine and began in a soft voice, “Avery, I’m fine. I’m no different than I was the other day before you knew. So let’s not treat this as a sickness, okay? It’s a baby. I was having some cramping and it’s all normal, kiddo.”

  “Aren’t you hungry, though?” I shut the window over the sink. Rain was pooling on the windowsill.

  Meggie opened the fridge. “Starving like you wouldn’t believe. I’ve put on ten pounds. Uff-da. So how’s your ankle? What did you do last night?”

  She placed two slices of tomato on rye bread and slathered them with mayonnaise. I peeled open a slice of American cheese for her.

  “Nothing,” I lied. The truth wouldn’t sound too appetizing. “Gabe kinda asked me if I’d go to a wedding with him and Caleb and Molly Taylor.” I threw it out there without even thinking. The part about it being in Texas, I would work in later.

  “Oh. Are you interested?”

  “Uh huh. Can I go?”

  “I think that’d be okay. You really are getting along with them, eh?”

  I changed the subject quickly. Thunder clapped and rumbled. The power cut out while we were eating and Meggie asked, “Can you go down and switch on the breaker? Sometimes I have to set it again myself. The house is so old.”

  I took the stairs carefully, hobbling one step at a time. She must have forgotten I had a bad leg. Every ten seconds lightning lit the room. At the bottom step the power came back on.

  “Hallelujah, that was fast,” Meggie cried.

  I chewed my thumbnail and scanned the room. Empty bottles lined the operating table. I quickly gathered them and hid them in the bathroom trash. As I headed back up, I fluffed the sofa cushions and found Gabe’s wallet stuck in between the arm and the seat. I lifted it to my nose and inhaled. The leather smelled nice. I folded it and slipped it in my back pocket.

  The warm rain made the hot house even hotter by late afternoon. Ghostly, nearly black skies rolled in, drenched the lands and reminded me of threatening footage I’d seen on an episode of Storm Chasers. The weather out west was more violent and impressive than we experienced back east. Meggie retreated to her room to nap after giving me a laundry list of things to do. Mostly busy work in the office.

  Out back, I turned on a prehistoric fan and stuck my nose an inch away from the blades. Papers stirred and launched off the desk. Before I knew it, envelopes and photocopies carpeted the floor. I scooped them up, straightened them out, and set them on a neat pile.

  A thick white envelope stuck out. I read the return aloud. “The Law Offices of Braaten and Larsdotter–Property Law.” Stamped in red was the word urgent.

  I was tempted to open the envelope. I thought I should be more involved since Meggie would need more downtime. Clipped to the envelope was a newspaper article titled “Swindled by Paltry Mineral Lease.” Under the title was an old black and white panoramic of Meggie’s property. It was the exact house and yard without the coop. I fingered through several more clippings, all having to do with oil and gas leases in t
he Williston Basin. The mention of the names Halden-Remington and Longbranch Oil Company troubled me.

  My shoulders jolted as thunder disrupted my concentration. The office structure rocked on the foundation, and the lights flickered hauntingly. I kept drawing my gaze out the window to make my routine check for Gabe’s pickup. Each time I had to remind myself that it was hiding on Lane’s property. Caleb’s truck hadn’t returned, and Gabe was probably in his room reading. I ran my hand over his wallet and contemplated trudging out into the surge to return it.

  I couldn’t even last a handful of hours without needing to see him.

  The annoying bell chimed as I let the door slam behind me. My flip-flops squeaked in the grass as I staggered across the lawn. The number two still hung upside down. I practically pressed my face to the wall to avoid the sheeting rain. I knocked three times.

  Gabe opened the door and frowned. His eyes traveled around my face. I tossed my wet head back and smiled.

  “Your wallet. You left it,” I said casually, as though I wasn’t standing in a squalling rainstorm.

  My hand slid into my back pocket and retrieved the dry item.

  Gabe’s forehead crinkled and he took a step back into the room. I fixed my gaze on his messed up hair. He looked like he’d been scratching his head for hours.

  “Did the shower not work?” he quipped.

  “Yeah,” I said. I was dripping in his doorway. “That’s it.”

  “Get in. You’re letting all my cold air out. It’s a gully washer out there.” He tugged on my arm.

  The small gesture made me quiver. The room was bigger than I expected. And messier. There were water bottles and soda cans stacked at the door. The garbage was overflowing with candy and gum wrappers. At least they used a wastebasket. It was obvious which side was Gabe’s. He had more paperbacks lined up against the wall than a used bookstore could sell in one year. The floor beside his bed was littered with books.

  The space was as cold as a meat locker. My nostrils absorbed the scent of Irish Spring and beef jerky. It was heavenly.

  “Meggie’s home.”

  Gabe flopped onto his bed and relaxed against the pillows. He had on a black T-shirt and the same shorts. “And?”