I shifted again trying to get a better view, and suddenly realized that they were both looking up towards my window.
Chapter Seven
My first thought was to duck, but instead I stood there frozen like a deer in the headlights. Before I could react they both stood up, and I could see that it was Walker and Molly. I thought that I was going to spontaneously combust from shame. Getting caught by either would have been bad enough, but both of them at once was too embarrassing to ever live down.
Both of them were gesturing towards me, though, and I thought I heard them softly calling my name. I wasn’t sure what to do. Since I’d already been caught there wasn’t much use in pretending that I didn’t see them, so I opened my window.
Molly’s voice drifted up to me. “Delaney! Come over.”
Over to Walker’s? No way. It was after midnight. It was Walker’s.
Then his voice followed, turning my insides to goo and my brain to mush. “Come on, Delaney. It’ll be okay.”
All of a sudden I wanted it so badly that it felt like I was being pulled towards him like a magnet. I wanted to go over there and sit in his backyard just inches from him, to breathe the same air that he was breathing. It was crazy. The boy was making me seriously crazy.
Unable to stop myself, I nodded. “Be there in a minute.”
I closed the window and drew the curtains while my stomach knotted. What was I doing? This was insane. I’d never snuck out of the house before. Maybe I was just going next door, but it was still sneaking out. My whole body was tingling with excitement, but I couldn’t stop the guilt and fear that bubbled up behind it.
What if I got caught? What if Mom and Dad woke up and I wasn’t home and they panicked and called 911? What if Walker and Molly were really a pair of psycho serial killers who lured pathetic girls like me into their clutches using Walker’s hotness as bait?
I shook my head at my own ridiculousness. Paranoia from living in a stupid haunted house was affecting my brain. I banished those fears just in time for a new wave of panic to set in.
What was I wearing? How did I look? It was dark, so he wasn’t going to be able to see much. And of course he probably wouldn’t care any more about me than he seemed to about Molly. He’d treat me as a friend the same way he did her, and what I wore and how I looked wouldn’t matter at all.
My hands were shaking as I traded my pajamas for a pair of shorts and tank top, put my hair in a ponytail, and snagged a pair of flip-flops. It was the best I could do on short notice, and at that moment I would have sacrificed my firstborn to look as put together as London.
Then with aching slowness I turned the knob and pulled my door open. The only sound in the house was the rattling whisper of the air conditioning, so I pulled the door closed behind me and started downstairs. Each step I took on the stairs caused a squeak and groan that seemed loud enough to be heard in China, and my heart stayed in my throat until I got to the front door.
By the time my fingers were turning the doorknob my pulse was a rising drumbeat through my body. Between the fear of being caught and the excitement of doing the forbidden, I was on a major adrenaline rush. I refused to turn back now, though, and in seconds I was standing on our porch in the balmy night air. That calmed me a little, so I stepped into my flip-flops and crept around the side of the house to where the gate went through the fence into Walker’s yard.
The grass brushed cool against my toes, and I stopped with my hand gripping the handle of the gate. There would be no going back after this. Taking a final deep breath for courage, I pushed it open.
Molly stood there waiting for me, her grin gleaming in the moonlight.
“I didn’t think you’d come.”
Walker’s voice rose from the darkness behind her. “I did. And Molly owes me a Mountain Dew.”
He had bet her that I’d come over? A burst of annoyance flashed through me at his assumption that I’d come running. He probably thought that I was tripping all over myself to get close to him. Well, even if I was he had no business making assumptions about it. Arrogant jerk.
“I came to see Molly,” I said.
She laughed and stuck her tongue out at Walker. “Ha!”
“All that matters is that she’s here. Pay up.”
“Fine. I’ll be right back.”
Brushing past me she disappeared through the gate, leaving me alone with Walker.
I stared after Molly, unable to believe that she had left me there with Walker after her earlier warnings about him. Was she trying to see how much trouble I would get myself into while she was gone? It was after midnight and it was just the two of us. Slowly I turned back to face him, while my heart did strange little flips from my imagination running wild.
“Boo!”
I started and let out a little squeak of surprise.
His chuckle was warm and surprisingly gentle. “Relax, Delaney. There’s nothing to be so nervous about.”
That was easy for him to say. He wasn’t all by himself with the biggest player in the county. I wanted to play it cool, though, so I willed my muscles to unclench and managed to loosen up a little.
“Come on. Let’s go sit by the pool. You can have Molly’s chair.” His teeth flashed in the darkness as he grinned. “Unless you’d rather sit with me.”
Wetting my lips, I finally found my voice. “Molly’s chair is fine.”
With another low chuckle he turned and held out his hand. “Don’t want you tripping over anything in the dark. I’ve got weights and stuff out here.”
I sucked down a deep breath. Holding his hand was a bad idea, so very, very bad. My skin was all hot and my heart got fluttery and I wanted to melt into a puddle just thinking about it. So I decided not to think about it, and just did it.
I reached out and his fingers wove through mine. Warm tingles radiated from my palm all the way up into my arm, and I stumbled as my feet tried to tangle together.
“Careful.”
His voice was a warm whisper against my skin, and his grip kept me upright until I got my feet back under control. I tried to ignore the excitement bubbling through me as I followed him and concentrated on not falling on my face. As we stepped onto the concrete Walker released my hand and gestured towards a deck chair.
“Make yourself at home. Want a soda or something?”
“No, thanks.”
I settled myself and tried to ignore the way my hand missed his. It was ridiculous—I was about to be a junior in high school, and here I was acting like some silly sixth grader who’d never held hands with a boy before. Dannika and Allison would never let me hear the end of it if they found out.
I glanced around, keeping my eyes carefully away from Walker. I was afraid that somehow he’d see what I was thinking, what I was feeling, despite the darkness. The pool lights bathed the deck in flickering shadows that danced to the murmur of the rippling water. It was soothing, and I gradually relaxed as I realized that I could keep my roiling emotions hidden in that uncertain light.
“Do you two hang out like this a lot?” I asked him.
“Once every week or two is all. Molly won’t sneak out more than that.”
“I don’t blame her.”
He laughed and shifted on his chair. “It isn’t that she’s afraid to. She’s just too busy playing her games.”
“Seriously?” What girl in her right mind would pass up a chance to spend time with Walker for a game?
“Yeah. You know she’s famous at school? No one knows who she really is because she plays under a fake name, but all the guys who play those games are nuts about her. It’s kind of funny.”
I thought about that for a minute. “I don’t know. If they knew who she was, wouldn’t it be better? Then she’d have more people at school who understood her and liked her.”
“Nah. Molly can handle it when she’s anonymous, but her life would turn into one long panic attack if everyone knew and started making a big deal out of it.”
“I guess you’re right.�
�� I was still determined to fold her into my little circle with Dannika and Allison, though.
“It’s nice of you to hang out with her. Especially considering what they say about her at school.”
I sat up in my chair and faced him even though I knew I shouldn’t. “But none of it’s true! She’s funny and smart, and nothing at all like what people say.”
“I know. And I’m glad you’ve decided to be her friend. Even with all the online games she plays, I know she’s been lonely. And I was worried about what she was going to do for company after I graduated.”
My heart was trying to melt again. Why did he have to be so nice?
Light and shadow dappled his face, but I could feel his eyes on me. “And how are you getting along?”
“Me?” I asked, flustered.
“Yeah. How are you settling into your new house? I notice your lights have been on really late. Are you a night owl, too?”
My lights were on really late every night because I didn’t like being alone in the dark in my room. That wasn’t something I wanted to admit to Walker, though.
“I’m still trying to get situated. My room is a lot smaller than the one I had before, so it’s going to take some getting used to. And since it’s a strange place I’m not sleeping much. I spend most of the night after my friends go to bed reading.”
“You’re welcome to come down and hang out with me whenever you want.”
“I wouldn’t want to bother you.” Not more than every night, anyway.
“I’m an insomniac, so I like to come out and look at the stars and enjoy the peace and quiet to bring myself down at the end of the day.”
“Does it help?”
“Yeah. Lay back and look up at the stars and just listen for a minute.”
I did as he said and let myself drift on the night. At the edge of town where we lived it got really dark, so a whole sea of stars glittered brightly overhead. It was late enough that there was almost no traffic noise to disturb the stillness. I listened to the gentle murmur of the water cycling in the pool, then gradually became aware of the sonorous buzz of the cicadas and the rustling whisper of the wind as it played hide-and-seek among the oak trees in the yard. My eyelids drooped shut and my body relaxed as a sensation of peace settled through me for the first time since before the move.
“I’m going to hate giving this up,” Walker said softly.
I opened my eyes and gave him a quizzical look. “Are you going away?”
“When I graduate next year. I’ll probably end up at one of the big schools where I can get an athletic scholarship. What about you?”
That was opening a big can of worms. I had no earthly idea what I was going to do. Dannika already had her heart set on A&M, but nothing was jumping out at me as a career choice and I was nervous about the idea of being so far away from home and everything I knew. Allison and I had talked about being roommates at the campus in Corpus, but I wasn’t even really sure about that. While the roommates part sounded like fun, it was hard to drum up a lot of enthusiasm over another four years of English, history, science, and math.
It wasn’t like I was stupid or anything. I did okay in school and was on the A-B honor roll a lot of the time, but I couldn’t honestly say that I enjoyed it. I might feel differently about it when I figured out more of where my life was going, but I couldn’t say for sure. This wasn’t something I’d talked about with Dannika or Allison, but something pushed me to be honest with Walker. Maybe it was because the whole situation was so surreal. Never in a million years would I have imagined that I’d be sitting by Walker Dean’s pool in the middle of the night while we talked about life.
“I have no idea what I want to do when I grow up,” I admitted. “I know I’ll have to do something, but I don’t know what. I just know I don’t want to sit in a cubicle in front of a computer for the rest of my life.”
“I hear that,” Walker agreed.
“What do you want to do?”
“Go to college and see if they can train me up to play in the pros.” He shrugged and turned his face back up to the stars. “It’s a long shot. I’m good, but I don’t think I’m that good. At least it will pay for school, though. If I can’t go pro, then I want to go into ranch management. There are a lot of ranches, and they need good people to run them. There’s a lot to it, and I wouldn’t be stuck inside a stuffy office all the time.”
I hadn’t ever thought about ranches being businesses before. To me they were mostly just a breeding ground for hot, rugged cowboys. But now that Walker had said it, I could understand what he meant.
“That actually sounds pretty cool.”
He looked back at me and his voice sounded surprised. “You think so?”
“Sure. I can see where it would be an interesting thing to do.”
“I’d really like to save up enough to have my own ranch some day.”
“Wouldn’t that cost a lot?”
“Yeah, it wouldn’t be easy. But my own ranch…”
The longing in his voice made me wish that I wanted something that much. I thought about it for a minute, and I could see him running a ranch. I could also see him playing professional football or baseball, though. Which dream would he decide to follow?
Molly’s voice cut through my reverie. “Did I miss anything fun?”
Walker replied in a lazy drawl. “Nah. We were just talking about what we wanted to do after high school.”
She tossed a can towards him and he snatched it out of the air. “Well, that sounds boring. I was hoping to come back and find you two smooching in the moonlight.”
I gasped in surprise, but Walker only laughed. “I think Delaney is as immune to my charm as you are.”
“That has to be a serious blow to your ego.”
His eyes cut towards me. “You have no idea.”
“Here,” Molly said, handing me a can. “I brought you one, too.”
I popped the top and took a long swig to hide my confusion. Walker really thought I wasn’t affected by him?
Molly planted herself in an empty chair and opened her own can. “Maybe you’re just not trying hard enough.”
“I didn’t know I had to try. I never did before.”
“Yeah, but Delaney’s not like the skanks you normally hook up with, either.”
Walker lifted his can to me in a mock toast. “I certainly hope not.”
Having them talk around me that way was annoying. I felt my face getting hot, and waved my hand. “Excuse me, am I still here?”
“Sorry, I was just teasing. Walker’s ego is the size of Texas, and it’s fun to pare it down a little when the opportunity comes up.”
“I’m not that bad.”
I took another cautious sip of Mountain Dew and tried not to gag on all the sugar. No wonder neither of them ever slept. “I doubt London lets his ego deflate too much.”
“You had to bring her up,” Walker groaned, and then he did a double take. “Wait. How do you know about London? You don’t go to those parties.”
“I have my ways.”
Molly gave an evil laugh. “You’re not going to be able to get away with your usual tricks with Delaney. She lives right next door.” Her voice turned sing-song. “She sees you when you’re sleeping, she knows when you’re awake…”
“That’s not fair.”
“Frankly it’s about time someone came along who can keep you honest.”
Walker’s gaze turned back onto me, and I got trembly at the heat in his eyes. “Yeah. She just might be able to do that.”
“Fortunately for her, she’s smart enough to see through you and not want the job.”
That was totally a lie. I did so want the job. I just didn’t want my heart frappéd in the process. But the more I was around him—every second I was around him—my defenses crumbled a little more.
His eyes were still on me. “Too bad,” he sighed. “I might have enjoyed her keeping me honest.”
He did not just say that. No, Walker was just mess
ing with me again. It seemed to be his thing, and I couldn’t take it seriously. But I wanted to.
“You’re hopeless,” Molly grumbled. “You already have ninety-five percent of the girls in school fawning over you, but you won’t be happy until you get every last one.”
“Maybe I just don’t care about the ones who fawn all over me. The ones who don’t are so much more interesting.”
I was getting annoyed by them talking around me again. “Then why do you spend so much time with London?” I asked him sweetly.
“Because I can’t get rid of her,” Walker growled back. “She won’t take a hint. I’ve been trying to let her down easy, but she’s just not getting it.”
Molly shook her head. “She isn’t going to stop. I think you’ve finally met your match in stubbornness. Either way, Delaney deserves better than someone who runs through girls like a shark through chum.”
“That’s true enough,” he agreed.
I thought that he deserved better than a witch like London, even if he was a player. Or maybe he didn’t, and my judgment was all out of whack because of my conflicted feelings where he was concerned. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I found myself speaking out.
“It isn’t your fault you give them exactly what they ask for.”
Inwardly I groaned. Why was I defending him? He was an unrepentant heartbreaker. He was going to break my heart and I knew it, because my palm was still all tingly from holding hands with him earlier. Tingly was bad! But I couldn’t seem to help myself, even though I knew I was being an idiot.
It was hard enough when he was just the oh-so-gorgeous boy next door. Why did I have to go and start liking him, too?
Chapter Eight
I left pretty soon after that, my emotions in such a hopeless jumble that I couldn’t take any more. Molly walked me out, and I was glad because I probably would have tripped over my own feet again from distraction. My mind kept replaying Walker’s comments, trying to make some sense of them, so that I barely heard Molly say goodnight. I mumbled something in reply and hoped that she just wrote it off to me being tired.
A Little Bit Haunted Page 5
