A Little More Touch Me (The Fallout Series Book 2)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  “Nope.”

  I narrowed my eyes on him. None of this made sense. His name couldn’t be that bad. “Are you saying that you’ll get married one day, have babies with your wife, but never tell her your real name? She’ll never see your driver’s license? File taxes together? You have to put your legal name on those things or you could go to prison.” I had no idea if that was true or not but whatever it took to get him to fess up.

  A loud laugh filled the room as if what I’d just said was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

  “Bold of you to assume I’d ever get married or procreate.”

  Oops. He wasn’t wrong. I’d made assumptions that certainly didn’t fit into his lifestyle. But he’d kissed me. No, that didn’t mean I wanted to marry him. However, it did mean that I wanted to know his name.

  “Fine,” I said with a sigh. Though being this close to him made me forget all the questions I had about what Laney had been like before I’d known her.

  We turned the TV on and found a rom-com to watch while we finished eating. It was an easy—safe—way to spend time together, even once we’d finished eating.

  “You kissed me,” I said after too long of a silence.

  “I did.” He nodded.

  I wet my lips quickly. “Do you think you’ll do it again?”

  A cocky smile spread across his lips. Damn, I hated and loved his confidence all at the same time.

  He pushed up until he we were eye to eye. His fingertips brushed across my cheeks until his palm settled against my skin. That was when his mouth descended. His full lips moved against mine like they had a personal mission to drive me insane. His tongue touching mine was like nothing I’d experienced with anyone else. I had to brace myself on his shoulders to keep from melting.

  Porter began to slide me down the bed, which was right when I heard the sound of a car door very close to our motel room. Zac and Laney must’ve been back already and the last thing I needed was a lecture from Laney after she caught me kissing Porter. I pushed him away. Reluctantly, but I still did it. He slid onto his side and sat up right as the door opened.

  “How was dinner?” I asked as soon as I saw Laney come through.

  “Delicious,” she answered, but she lifted an eyebrow that had me wondering if I’d need to get my car cleaned. “How about yours?”

  I glanced to Porter then back to her. He didn’t even look at me for a second. “Interesting,” I told her.

  All that did was bring on unasked questions. They were written all over her face, but I wasn’t giving up anything more.

  Chapter Eight

  None of us were in any kind of rush in the morning beyond making sure we left before checkout. There was a revolving door on the bathroom for each of us to shower and change for the day. Zac and Porter emerged in jeans but shirtless. Like they didn’t have a care in the world, which they probably didn’t. I assumed they’d put on another T-shirt before we left.

  The guys were lucky that Laney and I were completely low maintenance. We each probably only took ten minutes and we both pulled our hair into messy buns. Dressing in shorts and T-Shirts for both of us didn’t take much primping. Then we were done.

  I went in to check us out while the other three put our bags in the trunk, then we went to find breakfast. The same place we went to the day before seemed like the easiest option. Though this time I ordered a small stack of pancakes. They’d looked too delicious yesterday not to.

  I moaned on the first bite. “These are as yummy as they looked,” I said. When I opened my eyes, all three were starting at me, though Porter was the only one with a smirk. “What? They’re good.”

  Laney stifled a giggle. “Sounds like it.”

  Whatever. I didn’t care how I sounded. “Listen, I have a bit of a crazy idea. More of a tiny favor to ask.”

  “The last time you asked me a tiny favor,” Laney began through a mouthful of pancake, “I ended up in the campus police station hoping to not be arrested before graduating.”

  I snorted into my soda, causing it to spray up onto my face. “Oh, god.” Because I couldn’t open my eyes, I had to feel my way to a napkin so I could clean myself up. The rest of the table laughed at my expense, but who could blame them? I had to look ridiculous.

  “I need to hear this story,” Zac said once they’d quieted down and I’d cleaned myself up.

  “No,” Laney said seriously.

  “Come on,” I told her. “It’s funny. They’ll love it.”

  She sighed and said, “It’s stupid. But fine. Go ahead.”

  “OK,” I said with a huge grin. “I will preface this by saying it was completely my fault. Laney is pure of heart and would never do anything wrong.” That might not have been true totally, but the moment she was talking about was one hundred percent my fault.

  “In our last semester,” I began, “I got this idea that I thought would be hilarious and talked Laney into helping. We bought several bottles of biodegradable dish soap and talked a guy I knew had wanted to… ” I had to think of the best way to word this part, “…date me into helping us into Dr. Houseman’s office where he had one of those slate floor fountains. Supposedly for relaxation.”

  “I’m not sure where this is going,” Porter said, watching me intently.

  “We dumped an entire bottle of soap into the water.” I chuckled at the memory. “Once it started to cycle through the thing, bubbles began appearing in the pool at the bottom. That was what I’d wanted. A harmless prank.”

  Zac snorted. “I’m guessing that’s not what you got.”

  I shook my head. “Apparently the entire bottle was too much and the amount of bubbles took over like a leaking dishwasher that had too much soap.” The guys roared with laughter and Laney joined in. I guessed she’d either forgotten how pissed off she’d been when it happened. Or she’d gotten over it. “We freaked and ran out but when we turned the corner, we slammed directly into the chest of a campus police officer who, after turning the fountain off, took us both to the security office. He’d called Dr. Houseman who came down with his stern face and pinched nose.”

  “What’d he do?” Porter asked.

  “In the end he decided not to press charges as long as Laney and I cleaned up our mess. Which we did. He was the worst professor I’d had my entire four years. Unhelpful to a fault. I wanted to irritate him not destroy his office.”

  “I seriously can’t believe you went along with that,” Zac said to Laney but she just shrugged. There were a lot of things he probably didn’t know from the four years they didn’t speak.

  I set my fork down and took a big drink of my water. “This time the favor is worse. We’re only about an hour from Hell. I was thinking we could make a quick stop so I can grab some of my things that I didn’t go back for before.”

  She scrunched up her face. “Really?”

  “What’s ‘Hell’?” Porter asked.

  “My parents’ house,” I told him with about as little excitement as I’d ever felt. “I was thinking that with you guys there, they might behave. They love you, Laney.”

  “I’m quite loveable.” She glanced to Zac then Porter before nodding. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

  “We could stop at your mom’s if you want to,” I offered.

  She shook her head. “They went to visit Mitch’s parents this weekend.”

  We finished breakfast while talking about the fair. It was easy being with the three of them.

  On our way out of the restaurant, I asked, “Who wants to drive? I’d rather obsess over seeing my parents.”

  Porter held his hand out for my keys. I happily handed them over and climbed in on the passenger side. After tapping their address into the GPS, I sat back to enjoy the ride while texting my brother to let him know what I was doing. He’d only replied, mistake. Well… duh. But I’d wanted him to know in case I did see them, though I was hoping I wouldn’t, and then they responded by putting some kind of pressure on him. That was how they worked. He didn’t go into
teaching so twice the pressure and expectation fell to me. I snuck out of the house once and the pressure was on him to not break any rules.

  “What’s the deal with your parents?” Porter asked as he got us onto the highway.

  I shrugged. That was a long conversation.

  “They’re super nice to me,” Laney offered.

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course they are. What’s your chosen field, Laney?”

  “I’m just saying. They love me.”

  I shifted in my seat so I could see her. “They’d love you more if you married Tegan. Bring him over to their side and then they’d get the daughter they’ve always wanted.”

  Laney made a disgusted sound in her throat.

  “I don’t love this,” Zac said, but all he achieved was to make her and me laugh.

  “Don’t worry.” Laney patted him on the shoulder in the most condescending way possible. “Tegan is hot, but—”

  I spun in my seat to see her. “Gross.”

  “Sorry, Rhian. The man is hot. But he has never been my type.”

  “Better not be.”

  I shook my head. “Way to make things uncomfortable when he comes to visit.” She only giggled in return.

  “Why would they need her to bring him to their side or whatever the fuck you just said?” Zac asked.

  May as well give them the condensed version.

  “They wanted both of us to go into teaching. Turns out, neither of us really want to.”

  “The horror,” Laney deadpanned. I rolled my eyes, but she couldn’t see it.

  “You’re not being forced into it.”

  Porter kept his eyes on the road but ran his left index finger over his top lip. “Why would you go to school to be a teacher if you don’t want to be a teacher?”

  “Uh… to avoid almost a hundred thousand dollars in student loans.”

  Porter’s eyes popped open wide. “Holy shit.”

  “Yeah. They were paying for it and sometimes it’s easier to just go with it instead of fight. I did the student teaching. I have a teaching license. I just don’t think I want to use it.” That was the most honest answer I had. It wasn’t that I hated the idea of being a teacher, but I hated that I’d gone with what they wanted just because it’d been easier. “I still have the degree though and sometimes having any degree is what matters.”

  “I don’t even think it’s a big deal,” Laney said, cutting into the silence. “I think Rhian’s going to decide she wants to teach right along with me.”

  She wasn’t wrong. That very well could be where I’d end up. I just couldn’t decide if that was what I wanted or it was just what my parents did. I had the license for it so it wasn’t out of the question.

  Laney was going to be teaching English at the high school in the fall. I’d also majored in secondary education, but my focus was chemistry with a secondary in math. I’d been a bit of a science nerd in high school, so it fit.

  The next hour drive, we made small talk. About the rest of the summer. Laney talked a little about her excitement at starting her job. The idea of making a difference in the kids’ lives the way no one had for them when they’d been there. It was a nice way to spend the time.

  Pulling up in front of the house I’d grown up in didn’t bring on any of the warm fuzzy feelings a lot of people got when they went home. If I was lucky, my parents wouldn’t even be there. I just wanted some of my clothes and a few other things that were all safely up in my bedroom.

  I punched in the code on the front door and it popped open. They hadn’t changed that in about ten years.

  “Hello?” I called out once we all got in the front door. Better to know now if they were home or not. There was no answer, so I waved at the others to follow me up to my room.

  “This is where you grew up?” Porter asked, looking around the room as if I’d just taken him to a foreign land.

  I gave my room a good look through his eyes and yeah… I could see his confusion. My room had been decorated by my mother and reflected nothing of my taste. Everything was a little too girly and a little too soft.

  “Yes. But I didn’t decorate it.”

  “That makes sense,” Zac said, his arms folded over his chest as he too glanced around.

  “Give her a break,” Laney said with a sigh.

  “What’d you mean that it makes sense?” I asked, completely ignoring Laney.

  He gestured around my room. “This doesn’t look like you.” I raised my brows and cocked my head to the side. “This room doesn’t look like… ” He waved his hand in front of me. “This. The girl who wears messy buns and T-shirts and whom I find rolling around in the grass with Laney a disturbing amount of time.”

  I laughed at his characterization. “‘Disturbing amount of time’?”

  He nodded with emphasis. Now that I thought about it, Laney and I did probably spend too much time on the ground. Lying down to look up at the sky. Laughing. Sitting. So I shrugged and went to my closet.

  I still had one of those roller luggage bags in there and it’d be big enough to take everything I wanted. I dragged it out and opened it on the floor.

  “What do you want to take?” Porter asked.

  “My clothes in the closet from here,” I pushed a section over, “to the end. And everything in the dresser. To be quick, we can take everything and I’ll deal with it back home.” There was a whole section in the closet that I’d leave behind. There was no scenario I could think of where I’d need anything formal in East Branch.

  I turned into the closet and Porter went across the room to my dresser. Laney had an armful from the bottom drawer. He and I met back at the suitcase. There were only a few other things I’d left there that I wanted. A photo album from college. A couple of books I still insisted I was going to read. But that was all.

  “All set,” I told them. The rest could be donated or whatever my mother decided to do with it.

  The four of us headed back down the stairs. Maybe we’d be lucky enough to avoid a run-in with the parents altogether. I had hope. I should’ve never had hope when it came to this. Karma was getting me back for all the things I’d done when I’d been a kid. The talking back. The sneaking out of the house.

  “Rhian!” My mother’s surprised voice hit my back like a physical touch. Almost painful, but fully cold.

  I turned slowly to face her. She was wearing a wraparound dress. Nothing fancy but it at least looked expensive. High heels and hair pulled back into a tight bun. “Mother.”

  Apparently, this was what I’d look like when I was older. Same light hair, same blue eyes. Mom looked young when she didn’t try to look severe so there was that, at least.

  “We didn’t know you were coming home.”

  It took everything in my power not to visibly cringe at her calling this house my home. Technically, she was right, but it sure as hell hadn’t felt homey to me since Tegan had gone away to school. I’d been in high school and it made living here even less fun if that was possible. He’d been the fun. He’d been the warmth. My parents were cold and tried to use things like my apartment and car as a bribe they thought would work. It didn’t.

  “We were close by and decided to come get the rest of my clothes.” I pointed to the suitcase that Porter had carried down the stairs for me.

  “We?” She glanced around for the first time and realized we weren’t alone. That could potentially change her tone. “Oh, Laney, it’s wonderful to see you.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Schwartz.” Laney swallowed hard as she pulled Zac forward to stand beside her.

  That was when my father joined us, his eyes widened when he saw me. He was wearing a shirt and tie, probably took his jacket off mid-day. He didn’t move to hug me. Actually, I didn’t think he’d hugged me ever. My parents were just cold people who probably would’ve done better to not have kids in the first place.

  “What brings you by, Rhian?” he asked. It looked like they’d just come home and I didn’t know from where, nor did I want to get in
to that conversation.

  “Pick up the rest of my clothes.”

  “You’re still planning to live with Laney in Michigan?”

  I nodded. I’d sprung it on them last minute, so it wasn’t surprising that they hadn’t taken me seriously. “This is her boyfriend, Zac.” I pointed to him. “And our friend, Porter. Porter, Zac, these are my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Schwartz.”

  Whereas Laney’s parents and stepdad had insisted I call them by their first names, mine had insisted on formalities.

  Dad shook their hands but eyed Porter suspiciously. As my mother had been. I didn’t like the thoughts going through their heads because there wasn’t a doubt that I knew exactly what they were.

  “Laney,” Mother said with one of the fakest smiles I’d seen in a long time. “Rhian told us that you have a position at the high school in East Point.”

  “Yes. I start in the fall.” Laney gave me an apologetic glance. It wasn’t her fault that her calling was the one my parents wanted for me, though.

  “It’s such a nice thing to serve in an underprivileged area,” Mom told her as she wrinkled her nose. Other’s might not have noticed the sarcasm behind her words but I did. “Such a wonderful thing for your resume once you teach there a year or two and move on.”

  Laney raised an eyebrow. She had to have known that was coming.

  “Right,” Laney said back. I smirked over at her because the number of times she’d scolded me for not standing up to my parents and here she was playing the game as well. Sometimes it was just easier.

  “And… Porter, is it?” My mother gave him the onceover I knew she’d been dying to. What she saw was totally different than what I saw. And probably what every other ovulating woman in East Branch saw.

  Porter nodded but didn’t reply. The hard set of his jaw told me he knew what was coming just as much as I did.

  “How did you and Rhian meet?”

  I groaned internally. The only thing that even hinted at the danger of Porter being my boyfriend was that he was here and we were a foursome and maybe because he had my suitcase beside him. That was the thanks he was getting for being nice.