Zac and Porter showed up a couple of hours after we saw them at the parts store. They’d opened, which apparently meant starting work at six in the morning. Laney assured me that wasn’t the normal schedule, which meant Zac’s alarm wouldn’t be waking me up every morning at the crack of dawn. It was her house, so they could do what they wanted, but I didn’t hate the idea of being able to sleep in later than that.
“I’m told this goes in here.” Porter’s deep voice suddenly filled the room.
I spun around to face him. Laney had called out to me that they’d arrived, but I hadn’t expected to find him in the doorway of my bedroom holding a box.
“Uh… yeah. It does.” I watched his muscles work as he set the box on the floor at the end of the bed, such a simple movement, yet so pleasing to watch. A nice aroma of soap filled my room. He’d clearly went home to shower before coming over. “Laney put you two to work right away, didn’t she?”
“Yup. But better to get it done and she said we’d be rewarded.”
I raised an eyebrow at the way he’d said rewarded, which made him snort.
“With dinner,” he added while smirking. “What did you think I meant?”
“Dinner,” I answered quickly.
Porter chuckled then left my room, only to return a minute later with two more boxes, one stacked on top of the other. He repeated those steps until I assumed Laney’s car was completely empty.
“You ready to start meal prepping?” Laney asked as she poked her head into the room.
I groaned and threw myself onto the bed. “I thought we bought everything pre-pepped so that we wouldn’t have to do any work.”
“We still have to open packages, preheat the grill, and toss the bagged salad into a bowl.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Real hard stuff here.”
“Fine,” I said, but it came out more like a sigh. Mostly I was just harassing her. I never minded helping Laney with anything and this cookout had been my idea in the first place. What I did love was messing with her and she gave it right back. It was how our relationship worked. “What are the guys doing?” I asked once we got to the kitchen. She went for the refrigerator and began pulling things out.
“Zac is pulling the grill out and getting it cleaned up. It hasn’t been used since last summer. He said they’d go get the gas canister filled because who the hell knows how much is in there.” Then she stood up and closed the fridge door. “You know. Man stuff.”
As we worked, chopping the few veggies for a tray and in general just getting things ready to go outside, I asked, “Who’s coming? I met some of them last year, right?”
She nodded and popped a sliver of cucumber into her mouth. “Yeah. Maddie will be here, but Dylan won’t be. He’s with her parents for the weekend. Brady, Andy, and Jay are coming. I think Andy and Brad have girlfriends, so I’d assume they’ll be here. Then Zac mentioned some guys from the shop that I don’t think I’ve met.” She paused, thinking about what she’d just said. “Or if I have, I have no memory of it.”
It was weird for me being here and making this move to a place where Laney was my only friend. I had all the confidence in the world that I’d make more, but it was a lot of pressure on her to be around for me. Which meant tonight was the first step in making friends in East Branch. That way, Laney wouldn’t feel like she had to hang out with me as much. Not that we wouldn’t anyway, I just didn’t want her to feel guilt over it.
I’d gotten to know Maddie a little over the last year but becoming close to her felt like it could be a betrayal to Laney. They were working on their friendship and had begun making amends, but they weren’t fully there yet.
“Knock, knock,” a female voice called out from the open front door.
“Come in, Maddie,” Laney responded, but she made no motion to even look toward the door.
“Hello, ladies,” Maddie said, coming into the kitchen. Her brown hair had grown out a bunch since I’d first met her last summer. She came in with a smile and a ponytail hanging down her back. Even her eyes smiled. Shiny brown with hints of green. “I brought some things that you absolutely do not need to put out. They just looked so yummy.”
I glanced over my shoulder to watch her pull brownies out of a shopping bag, followed by lemon bars, which happened to be one of my favorite things in the world. I’d definitely be partaking of one of those.
“Thanks,” Laney told her. “Of course we’ll put them out. Porter wanted to put up a table for the food outside, but I’d rather set up in here.”
“Bugs,” I said to agree with her. “Eating outside is one thing but having the critters land on the food is nasty.”
“Exactly. We have plenty of chairs for sitting.”
Not too much later, everyone else began to arrive, and Zac fired up the grill and started the hot dogs. This cookout was underway and I needed to go out there to re-meet everyone. Or see if I remembered any of their names.
Laney, Maddie, and I came out to an already rowdy group of guys. Surprisingly, I remembered who was who of the people I’d already met. Zac introduced both Laney and me to the guys from the shop.
After a quick round of greetings, the hot dogs were done and we all went inside to fill our plates then settled around the back yard. I dropped onto the top step of the porch, which was part of the circle of chairs while not being so close to the rest of them. In the circle without being truly in the circle. After all, I was the new girl.
“There’s a chair left over here,” Porter said. At first, I didn’t know he was talking to me until I glanced up and found everyone looking directly at me.
“Oh, sorry.” I swallowed the bite of hot dog in my mouth. “I’m good here.” My focus went back to my plate. Having everyone looking at me wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but the conversation quickly picked up again.
Then someone dropped in beside me.
“Why didn’t you want to come sit over by me?” Porter asked.
“Uh… it wasn’t that. I’m just comfortable here and I don’t really know everyone yet. Kind of felt out of place.”
He slid an arm around my shoulders the way guys did with their friends. “You’ll always have a place with me.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
He chuckled. “Actually, no.”
“Sure, sure.” We fell quiet and took a few more bites of food before either of us spoke again.
“Now I’m wondering what Laney’s told you about me,” he said loud enough so I could hear him, but nobody else seemed to hear or if they did, they didn’t care.
In a singsong voice, I said, “I’ll never tell.”
Porter burst out in a laugh. It wasn’t too often I got to hear a full one from him and it was a thing of beauty. Deep and honest. Full of musical undertones. I couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m going to grab a beer,” he told me. “Want one?”
“Yes, please.”
Porter got up, but Maddie slid in to stand in front of me.
“He really doesn’t say that to any girls. Me, maybe, but that’s just because we’ve been friends since forever.”
“Just friends?” I asked, but I had no idea why I had.
She winced and her lips pulled back in disgust. “Gross. Yes. Friends only.”
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“Only gross because he’s like a brother,” she added.
“And Zac isn’t?”
Her jaw clenched a little and I would’ve sworn that her cheeks pinked up.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. “I honestly didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”
Maddie smiled, though it looked pained, and said, “No problem.” Then she took a bite of hot dog and looked anywhere but at me. “But what I said remains true. Porter doesn’t offer friendship to many girls.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
She nodded as Porter sat back down beside me and handed over a cold bottle.
“It’s how he got his nickname,” she added,
to which he groaned.
Now I needed to know. “What do you mean?”
“Porting chicks in and out of his room,” one of the other guys, Andy I thought, called over, which was the first indication that anyone else could hear our conversation.
“Are we talking about this?” Porter asked. He didn’t sound the least bit irritated.
Laney held up a hand. “I know I’d rather not.” But the guys just laughed loudly.
“Remember that girl with the hair?” someone called out. “The one who waited for him on the porch… naked.”
“She was incredibly hard to get rid of,” Porter told him, as if talking about his sexual history in front of his friends was no big deal. The group around us was small enough that it probably wasn’t unusual.
“‘Get rid of’?” I asked him quietly.
He shrugged it off and took a long drink of his beer.
Porter was hot by anyone’s standards. Dark blond, messy hair. Blue eyes. I could see where a girl might get sucked in. I wouldn’t, but I could see how others might’ve.
“Uh, remember Meredith Martinez?” Laney asked. Looked like the question was directed to Maddie.
“Oh, god.” Maddie slapped a hand over her face. “I haven’t thought about her in forever.”
“Remember how she showed up at school and acted like she had always been friends with us?”
“Kept calling us ‘The Three Musketeers.’”
They both snickered. Then at the same time, they said, “‘Because any girlfriend of Porter needs to be friends with his friends.’” Maddie and Laney burst out into a fit of giggles.
“You can keep going,” Porter offered with no sign of caring one way or another.
But after the laughter died down, the conversations went back to how they’d been before. I got the feeling that they had many, many more stories they could’ve told, but I didn’t particularly want to hear them.
“What’s your name?” I asked him once the focus of the group was elsewhere.
“Porter.”
I scowled. “No, it isn’t. Laney told me Porter is a nickname and now I know why.” I waved my hand at the group that had spilled the beans.
One corner of his mouth went up, mostly into a smirk. Made me wonder if anything bothered him. Certainly not his friend messing with him and not me prodding him for information. “It’s the only name I go by.”
Now I narrowed my eyes on him. “Just tell me your name.”
“Never,” he answered quickly.
“How bad is it?” I asked him, biting my lips together to keep from showing any signs of humor.
He sighed. “It’s beautiful. I don’t want you to fall in love with me even more because of how amazing my name is.”
I clasped a hand over my mouth to control the sound I was about to make. Something between a laugh and a horror scream. “‘Fall in love with you more?”
“Everyone falls in love with me, Rhian.” He said it so honestly that I almost believed him. It wasn’t cocky, but more matter of fact.
“I’m really glad you don’t have a massive ego or anything.”
Porter snorted and took a huge bite of his third hot dog while I’d only had half of my first.
“But you know that my life’s mission is now to find out what your real name is.”
“Never will happen,” he said with such confidence that I wanted to kick him in the shin.
“Laney,” I called out as I got to my feet. She turned her head my way, her eyebrows raised. “What’s Porter’s real name?”
“Porter,” Zac answered for her.
“Wasn’t talking to you, pretty boy.”
Zac cocked his head to the side, his dark, almost black, hair a disheveled mess that probably got him a lot of attention from ladies. We tended to love that sort of thing. Attention he’d no doubt reject now that he had Laney. “Pretty boy?”
Porter chuckled from behind me.
“Laney?” I asked again.
“Well… ” Laney went over and dropped her plate into the trash.
“Laney,” Porter warned, which got him an eyebrow raise from Zac.
“Calm down,” Zac said to his friend.
“Listen.” Laney was suddenly right in front of me. “I could tell you his real name.”
“But you won’t,” Porter finished for her.
“This is girl talk,” she countered, then her gaze returned to me. “I could tell you, but I feel like I should wait until we’re alone. And maybe by waiting, Porter will tell you himself.”
I pushed my bottom lip out in a pout at her.
“I hate everything about this,” Porter muttered before walking away toward the laughter of the rest of the group in the backyard.
Maddie came over to us and threw an arm around Laney and one around me. “Let’s go put the food away and leave the guys to their manly feelings.”
And that was how the three of use ended up in the kitchen putting the food away as the guys did whatever it was that guys did. Drink beer for sure.
As the night progressed, I had time to hang out with and talk to Robin and Lexi, the girls Brad and Andy had brought with them. They were nice. Maybe not BFF material, as they came off as being more interested in their boyfriends than in getting to know us.
Fine by me.
Around ten, Zac announced that it was time for everyone to go. He and Laney were going to bed, which I didn’t think anyone in the backyard misunderstood. His woman was back in town and this was their first night together that didn’t have a stop clock on it. Before, they’d get to spend a couple of nights together at most then Laney would have to return to school. That was no longer the case.
“You guys go ahead,” I whispered to Laney. “I’ll clean all this up.”
She gently clasped a hand around my upper arm. “Are you sure?”
“Totally. You have the chance to get laid. You should take it, but don’t call out his name so I can hear it if you can help it.”
“Ha ha. I’ll do my best.” She skipped off to where Zac was shutting down the grill, leaned in close, and whispered to him. As she spoke, Zac glanced up at me. I smiled and waved, hoping he’d know that I knew exactly what was going on here.
My guess was they didn’t go next door to his house because she didn’t want to feel like she’d abandoned me on my first night. I wouldn’t have cared but Laney was very careful to not make her friends feel left out.
The others cleared out pretty quickly after that, leaving me alone in the backyard. Time to get to work.
“Want some help?” Porter asked, though he swayed on his feet.
“How much did you have to drink?” I asked him, taking note of his movements, his hooded eyes.
“A little.”
He’d definitely had more than a little. I sighed and told him to sit down. It’d be easier to get the clean-up done without his so-called help.
I shook my head. “I think it was more than a little.”
He grunted.
I ignored him as I went about picking up any trash or empty dishes left behind. Couldn’t really blame anybody for not cleaning up after themselves with the way Zac had ended the night so quickly. Still, there wasn’t much left to do. Then I forced Porter to come into the house with me while I did the same thing in the kitchen. He sat at the table with his head in his hands. He probably would’ve fallen asleep right there if I’d let him.
“Let’s go, Big Guy.”
“Where?” he asked, but he stood just the same.
“Couch. You can sleep there. Don’t want you driving home like this.”
“I could crash at Zac’s,” he countered, but his eyes were already closed.
“I’m not taking you over there. Here. Sit.” I dropped him into the recliner next to the couch. He’d been putting more and more of his weight on me and I couldn’t hold him up.
Then I ran to the linen closet, where I knew extra sheets and blankets were, grabbed everything I needed, and came back out. I would’ve swo
rn I heard him snore. But I went ahead and put a sheet down on the couch, made it into a bed, and dropped a pillow on the one end. Then I went back to the kitchen for a bottle of water and some aspirin.
Finally, I got back to him and he was for sure snoring.
“Porter.” I gave his foot a gentle kick, making his eyes pop open. “Take these.” I handed him the pills. “And drink this.” I gave him the open water. He popped the pills into his mouth and completely drained the bottle in one sitting. “Come on.” I pulled on his hands to get him to stand then steered him toward the couch, where he could drop right in.
Next, I quickly pulled his shoes off and lifted his feet onto the cushions. Jesus. His legs were made of stone. Dead weight wasn’t the easiest thing to lift.
Finally, he was settled once I pulled the blanket up to his shoulders.
But this was my chance. I leaned in close to his face and quietly asked, “What’s your real name, Porter?”
He replied without opening his eyes. “Nice try.”
I couldn’t help the giggle that erupted from his response but turned off the closet light then went to my own room to change.
Chapter Four
After changing into a shorts and tank top pajama set, I wasn’t quite ready for bed, so I slipped out onto the back porch. Laney had a bench back there that we’d spent many a night last summer on just talking. She’d talked about what she wanted to do with her future, but I’d always said I was still undecided.
I really shouldn’t have still been undecided. I wasn’t even sure I was undecided. Did I want to teach? Or did I only think that because that’s what I’d been told I was going to do my entire life? I didn’t know.
I tapped my phone awake and found five texts and two missed calls from my mother, all asking me if I’d made it to East Branch. Then there was another text from Tegan saying that our mother was driving him insane, so could I please answer her?
I hadn’t meant to cause him problems. Right away I tapped out a quick text to my mom letting her know I’d made it and was all moved in. I even apologized for not messaging her earlier but told her we’d been insanely busy. But then I decided to call my brother. It wasn’t all that late for him.
A Little More Touch Me (The Fallout Series Book 2) Page 3
