Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy)

by Anna Applegate

  “All right. Let me wash up.”

  We headed to the kitchen and I washed my hands while James set out the groceries. He was making some kind of chicken. I turned towards him and asked what we needed. He rattled off some pots and pans and I got everything out.

  “Okay, now what?”

  He grinned, which made me smile in return. He started mixing things together, telling me to stir here or there. I’d try to chime in and ask smart questions, or at least questions I thought were smart.

  “Is the oven preheated?” he asked.

  “Oh, yeah. The light is on. We’re good.”

  “Then I’ll throw this in, and in 45 minutes, prepare to be stunned.”

  I started grabbing things and cleaning up while James picked two wine glasses out of our cupboard and poured some for us both. I had already set out plates, so he grabbed them and took them to the living room. He was so domestic. Maybe he was trying to show off.

  I was having fun and noticed the more time we spent together, the more relaxed I felt. Don’t get me wrong, the man made my knees weak, but I felt almost comfortable when we talked. It was like we were old friends all of a sudden, and it was a good feeling. Something had just changed in me, and I was able to act like a normal woman and not a teenager on her first date. Finally, something I was doing felt normal amid all of the emotions senior year had brought on.

  The food was delicious and I complemented the chef. “What are you planning on doing after college? I know you asked me, but I never asked you,” I said.

  “Oh, well, I’m not quite sure yet. General Business is just to get a degree. I’m not sure what I will do after. I like watching out for people, so maybe something in law enforcement.” He seemed to have his guard up again, even though he was answering freely. His eyes betrayed that he was hiding something.

  “That’s cool. What does your dad do?” I figured if he didn’t want to talk about himself, he’d change the subject.

  “Marik, that’s his name. He’s in law enforcement himself, actually.” He was stiff at the mention of his father.

  “Marik?” I asked, not having heard that name before.

  “It’s Polish. We’re from Poland originally,” he answered.

  “Well, I’m sure he’s proud, then, that you want to follow in his footsteps.” I smiled, trying to figure out what had made him tense in this conversation.

  James’ features clouded for a moment. “He’s a difficult man. He’s near perfect at his job and he thinks I’ll take a long time to get to where he is.”

  “Well, I’m sure you’ll prove him wrong.” I tried smiling at him again. “So you guys aren’t close then?”

  He looked over at me. “No, we aren’t. He’s tough and keeps himself secluded. He tends to only point out the flaws in people instead of encouraging them. The job is never done.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “But, I’m sure you will prove him wrong,” I said again.

  “Thanks, Ariya.” He smiled briefly. “He’s actually the opposite of you. You seem to always see the good in things.” He put his hand on mine for a minute, but quickly pulled away. “At least, that’s how people describe you.”

  “What was your mom like? Maybe your dad just misses her.” I wasn’t sure if bringing up his mom was crossing a line. He had mentioned that she had died when he was young. I don’t know what made me think it was okay to ask that. Darn it for feeling comfortable and wanting him to open up! I prayed hard that he wasn’t offended.

  “She was warm and caring. She took care of us. She tried so hard. Since my father and I were both protecting,” he paused, narrowed his eyes for a moment and continued, “protecting and serving the community, you know, with his law enforcement job, she tried extra hard to look out for us when we were home. It always felt like my dad was too preoccupied with the job to notice her. When she died though, he took it hard and I got away from living in their house for a little while.”

  “You ran away?” I asked, shocked. I was also surprised that he’d be out working with his dad at a young age. Maybe he had an internship or something.

  “Yes, to my grandfather’s. It wasn’t really running away. He lived less than a mile from us. I stayed there instead of my own home, and since then my dad and I have been distant.”

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…” He interrupted me.

  “Ariya, don’t apologize for asking questions. It’s in your nature to worry about people. I don’t mind.”

  I smiled a small smile. He stood up and took the plates into the kitchen, then brought back a refilled glass of wine.

  “Ready to go?” he asked after I finished my drink. I nodded, enthusiastically.

  James drove us to the stadium. It would only have been a fifteen-minute walk or so, but it had gotten so cold out, I didn’t mind the drive. He had a nice car, too. Hmmm, he lived on Shab Row, drove a nice car. I wondered again if he came from money. Not that it mattered, but he was so reserved and not at all snobby like I would have imagined someone wealthy to be.

  We hopped out of the car behind the stadium. James barely had to pick the lock to get us in. I felt like we were trespassing. And, we actually were, but at least we weren’t going to break anything. The door opened and we slowly snuck through the darkness of the boy’s locker room. James was pulling my hand, guiding me. I had no idea how he had no trouble seeing. It was pitch black.

  “Wait here.” I jumped as his breath tickled my ear. Thankfully, we were in the dark, so the blush on my face was easy to hide.

  I heard him walk away and I knew I was alone. It was quiet in the large vast blackness. I assumed we were out of the locker rooms, but I wasn’t sure. Lights came on and I saw I was right in front of the gate that led onto the ice. James appeared moments later, smiling and carrying a pair of skates for me.

  “Where did you get these?” I asked, taking the ice skates and plopping down on the bench on the side of the rink to put them on.

  “I have my sources.”

  “So secretive,” I said quietly.

  It was true. He didn’t give much away about himself. Well, tonight he opened up to me about his family, at least. Maybe it just took some time for him to get personal with people.

  James was laced up and watching me finish. It was distracting having his eyes on me, so I was glad that I was done soon after he was. He unlatched the door leading to the ice and went to take my hand. I looked at it, deciding I wanted to try on my own first before letting him lead.

  “Let me at least attempt this before wussing out and needing your help,” I smirked.

  “Oh, of course you’d want to try it on your own. How silly of me,” he said, holding his hand over his chest like he was shocked at his audacity.

  I laughed at him playing with me. Gliding onto the ice, making sure to keep a hand on the wall, wasn’t as difficult as I presumed it would be. This wasn’t so bad. I pushed one foot forward, trying to get a feel for what zero traction felt like underneath me. James came up beside me, causing me to lose focus.

  “Push your feet out to the side slightly each time you set your foot down,” he instructed.

  I tried to do what I was told and found he was right. When I did that, I was propelled forward a bit, but still remained in control. James didn’t touch me at all. He let me continue trying to make it on my own. I was only about a quarter of the way around the rink and he hadn’t once sounded impatient as he skated behind me. He was truly letting me figure it out on my own. Unfortunately, that was another turn-on to add to his growing list of attributes that I couldn’t resist.

  I stole a glance at him and let go of the wall. Feeling confident, I pushed to go quicker and was suddenly trying to back pedal. My body hadn’t kept up with my feet and as a result, I was overcompensating, trying to regain my balance. I fell backwards, but James’ arms were there and prevented me from hitting the ice hard. His laughter shot through me warmly. His arms holding me from the ice caused warmth to spread through me, and once again
, I noticed a feeling of desire coursing through me.

  “Thanks.” I smiled at him when he had me set up on my feet again.

  “If you want to let go of the wall, give me your hand. I can help, but you’re doing great,” he said, encouragingly.

  I took his hand in mine. Even through the gloves he had made me wear, I still felt the shock. This couldn’t be just me feeling something at this point, could it? It was such a strong pull that I felt towards him. It wouldn’t be fair if it was just me.

  James provided stability as I skated. I picked up speed and soon was laughing and shocked at how quickly I had learned to skate. I wasn’t going to be pulling off any double axels anytime soon, but I was having fun and could skate without the wall or James’ hand. I didn't like letting go of it, but it did feel freeing to be able to skate around.

  “I’m going to go fast,” I said, sounding like a little kid.

  I looked at James, who nodded, and I started bolting towards the other side of the ice. I had almost made it there when James’ body glided by me much faster than I was going, and definitely less awkwardly than how I looked. Watching him distracted me again from what I was thinking about, but this time I tripped forward. I squinted my eyes shut, not wanting to keep watching the ice coming closer to my face.

  Instead of busting my face on the hard, cold surface, I had fallen into James. He caught me again, only now he was much too close to me for me to be able to keep my head on straight. I tilted my head up, already out of breath from the surprise the trip had caused. His face was close to mine.

  Oh gosh, what do I do? Should I close my eyes? He smelled wonderful. Like pine needles and Christmas. I flicked my eyes up towards his and he looked, well, in pain. That isn’t right. Maybe he doesn’t want me this close to him. Something else entirely came over his eyes, causing me to second-guess my first thought. I closed my eyes and took a breath, again noticing how wonderful he smelled. I felt his arms let go.

  “You’ll be fine with a bit more practice. Nice work.”

  I shook my head to snap myself out of the daze he had just had me in. I felt an overwhelming sense of embarrassment. Clearly, the friendship thing was all James wanted. Why had I even begun to think that someone like him would be interested in me like that?

  “I think you’re just jealous that I didn’t need your help very much.”

  My voice should have come out playful, but instead it was choked, which revealed how ridiculous I felt at the moment. I was sure he knew what I wanted, but he backed away instead.

  “I think that’s good for one night. Should we head back?” He looked upset, probably at me for misreading our friendship.

  Plastering on my best everything-is-okay smile, I told him I was ready to go. We drove back, taking part in mindless chitchat. The whole time I was distracted. Had I really misread that much? Sometimes it felt like he wanted to be with me, but then when I offered myself to him on a silver platter, he pushed me away.

  When we walked in the door of the apartment, it was close to eleven. Caroline and Nick had just gotten back. James immediately tensed when he saw them. That seemed strange. It was like he was caught doing something he shouldn’t be doing. I felt that way when I’d run into him at the gym, too. It made me feel like he was my babysitter while mom and dad were out. Maybe he liked being reserved and didn’t want people in his business.

  Whatever, I would ignore my tendency to over think everything and just enjoy the fact that the night had been great, minus the embarrassment of James pushing my oh-so-ready kissable self away. I let him know to meet me outside Riley’s house so we could make our appearance together the next night.

  The outfit for the next night was in the closet, so I pulled it out and handed it to him. He took a peek before leaving. He was smiling the whole time, so I knew I had done a good job with it.

  “We’re going to win, hands down.” I smiled right back at him.

  “I have my fingers crossed. Nice find, Ariya. It looks exactly right.” He stood there, just looking at me for a moment.

  He looked awkward, which was a situation I did not think I’d ever see James in. He was always so together. With him standing there, I felt that stupid grin start creeping back onto my face that I normally got when he was around. It felt three times as stupid now, knowing what had happened tonight. I needed to stop thinking of him as a crush. He’s my friend, that’s all, I repeated in my head.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I nodded at him and I shut the door.

  “Did you have fun?” Caroline asked.

  I knew I was not imaging her hesitation now. She was tense. Like something bad had happened. She and Nick weren’t arguing and she hadn’t been tense when they walked in, so it had to be something I’d done. Or maybe something James had done?

  “Is something wrong, Care?” I asked. Why was she acting like hanging out with James was a bad thing now?

  “No, not at all. Why would something be wrong?”

  “No reason. You just … did I do something? Don’t you like that James and I are hanging out?”

  She loosened up. “Of course I do, Ariya! I’m sorry! I’m distracted.”

  She looked normal now, and whatever tension I felt a moment ago had vanished. She was probably just being protective, or she was worried that I had picked another jerk to bring home.

  “Good. We had fun. He taught me to cook and ice skate.”

  “Liar, you don’t cook.” Caroline was making fun of me.

  “Well, you would have been shocked. Maybe I just needed a good teacher!”

  We laughed and gabbed a bit more before saying goodnight. Nick was there, so I didn’t want to reveal the more awkward part of the evening to her yet. I’d fill her in when we were alone.

  I said goodnight to Nick, and then headed to my room for the night. All seemed fine after Caroline’s original hesitation. Sometimes I had to stop conspiracy theories from running around in my head. I had an overactive imagination, and thinking Caroline was upset about something like me spending time with James was just silly. She had been the one to push me to go for it. Everything was fine.

  Saturday dragged by. I was waiting impatiently for it to be time to get ready for the party. The doorbell rang around lunchtime and I ran to get it, needing something to do. I opened it to find Riley standing there, smiling.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised, since he usually had so much work to do to his house before the Halloween party.

  “Caroline has an important part of my costume.” Turning around, I saw Caroline walking over with a bag for Riley.

  “She knows what you’re being! No fair.” A mock pout came over my face, which made Riley beam back at me.

  “She knows nothing. It’s some random articles of clothing. Maybe I’m using all of it, maybe just one item. You won’t know.”

  Smiling at both of us, Riley peeked into the bag and nodded his approval towards Caroline, who laughed and headed back to the living room.

  “Want to come in for a minute?” I asked him.

  “Sure.” Closing the door behind him, I turned to see him standing in the hallway still with a frown on his face.

  “Where did you get those?” he asked me.

  I followed his gaze to the ice skates that were leaning against our closet door. It had slipped my mind that they were even there, so they were sitting right where they landed when I came flying in from my high the previous night.

  “James got them for me.” I smiled sheepishly.

  “Oh, nice. When are you going to get to use them?” he questioned.

  “We did already.” I blushed, thinking about our almost-kiss and the evening the night before.

  “Where in the world did you go? There aren’t any public rinks around here, are there?” he asked in a tone that didn’t seem quite like his normal happy-go-lucky self.

  Again, that tell-tale color on my cheeks gave me away. Why was I nervous to tell Riley about the skating lesson?

  “We used th
e hockey rink here.” Shrugging seemed like a good way to make it sound like no big deal.

  “The hockey rink gets locked up every night … Ariya! You and James broke into the rink? That’s not like you.” He was glaring at me, which was surprising. Riley had done things much worse than breaking into the hockey rink.

  “We didn’t vandalize the place and we weren’t even there that long. It’s not a big deal.”

  “You never do stuff like that!”

  “Why, because I’m such a good girl? What is your problem? It’s not a big deal, I don’t understand.”

  This whole confrontation was turning strange, and I had no idea where Riley’s hostility was coming from.

  “It’s just not like you, that’s all.” Pausing, he turned back towards the front door. He hadn’t even made it into the living room. “I forgot I have to go pick something else up before the party. I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Riley, you just got here. Are you mad at me? What did I do?” I was so confused about what had upset him so much. Did he really think I was turning into some criminal or something because I went ice-skating on school property?

  “No, I’m not mad at you, Ariya. I really do have to get ready. I’ll see you tonight.” A smile returned to his face and he squeezed my arm before heading out the door.

  Walking back into the living room, I looked at Caroline whose brow was crinkled.

  “Did you hear that?” I asked.

  “Yeah, he’s probably just stressed. You know how he likes this party to be the biggest event of the semester.” She smiled at me reassuringly.

  “You’re right.” Smiling, I realized that had to be it. After all, what else could it be?

  Caroline and Nick had to get a few last-minute things for their costumes, so I tagged along. We actually had quite an entertaining time goofing off in the costume shop, and it helped to make the time go by faster. Nick was cracking us up as we were getting ready. First, he put on Caroline’s costume, then mine. He didn’t have to try hard to fit in with us, which was so great. He was funny and sweet. He had Caroline and me giggling uncontrollably, and before I knew it, we only had a little bit of time left to get ready.