by Abby Brooks
“That pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject.”
“But he didn’t go inside, did he? He stopped on the step, captivated by your beauty…” She put a hand to her heart. “The ravaged hero, rescuing his damsel in distress from her mother’s exploits with nothing more than his company.”
I was not a damsel in distress and nothing resembling a rescue happened on those steps. I needed space. I provided myself said space. Wyatt just happened to be there.
“Brooke. Please. You have to stop. Wyatt might be gorgeous, but he and I are like oil and water.”
“I’d say more like gasoline and a match.” Brooke grinned. “I saw the way he was looking at you.” She waved her hand like she burned it.
I sighed, chasing away laughter. “Can we please just get on with the torrid debauchery already?”
She glanced my way, then rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets.”
We drove through the streets, music blaring, hair streaming, and all the anxiety of the evening with Wyatt blowing away. We arrived at the beach in a cluster of other cars, people from school streaming out of them.
“Where are we?” I asked.
Brooke gave me a wide smile. “Ummm…our people call this the beach.” She made a broad gesture toward the ocean.
“You think you’re so funny,” I said, laughing. “You know what I mean. I thought we were going to dinner.”
“Going to Bricks & Mortar just sounded so…every day,” she said as she killed the engine and turned to me. “You only turn seventeen once. I mean, it’s the last birthday of your childhood. I figured a much larger celebration than pretentious pizza for two was in order.”
“What did you do?” It touched me that of all the people in my life, Brooke was the one to make my birthday special.
Though, I thought, sitting on the front porch with Wyatt was pretty special, too…
That was enough of that. I made a promise to myself to banish that man from my head for the rest of the evening.
Brooke threw up her hands. “Surprise?” A question gleamed in her eyes as a crowd of kids yanked open the door and pulled me out, then dragged me onto the beach, chanting and screaming. Even the recent hit to my popularity thanks to Todd and his rumors couldn’t outweigh the lure of a beach party.
These kids were here to have fun.
And so was I.
Brooke was right. This was the last birthday of my childhood and I decided to usher in my seventeenth year in a cloud of fun. When someone offered me a beer, I said yes. When someone else offered me another, I said yes again. And when I saw Todd Hudgins’ Solo cup sitting at his side—unattended—I poured a little vodka in there, bit by bit, just like he had done to me.
When he lurched to his feet an hour later, drunk and confused and whiny as hell, I laughed right along with the rest of crowd, catching Brooke’s eyes and giving her a silent high-five.
Wyatt
I stood on Kara’s front porch, staring at the road long after the car disappeared. The girl was going to get herself in trouble again. I knew it. I would go home and get into bed, only to receive a series of frantic text messages in the middle of the night because she was in some kind of situation she didn’t know how to get herself out of. Again.
I considered hopping into my car and following her, rationalizing the urge by suggesting I could save myself a lot of trouble if I was there to catch whatever she was getting into while it was happening. But deep down, I knew I wanted to follow Kara because I couldn’t stop worrying about her. The moment she got into that car, a million different scenarios started drifting through my head and all I knew was that I didn’t want any of them to happen. Not because I didn’t want to have to come to her rescue. But because I didn’t want her to have to suffer through any more hardships.
The more I got to know Kara, the more I wanted to know her. There was something about her I couldn’t deny. She had gotten under my skin with her spunky bravado. The innocence she tried so desperately to hide. The quick intelligence gleaming through those gray eyes.
I ran a hand along the back of my neck, feeling miserable. Special or not, Kara was only seventeen. She was a child, and I was a man, and that meant she was off limits.
I cringed when a voice in my head whispered, but only for another year.
With thoughts like that filling my mind, I needed a distraction. Imagine my surprise when it came in the shape of my father.
“Wyatt?”
I turned at his voice, just as surprised to see him as he was to see me.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “Where’s Kara?”
“She left with her friend while you were…busy.”
Dad ran his hands through his hair and down the back of his neck. “Damn it. I hate the thought of her spending her birthday stuck out on the porch.”
If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Dad was feeling regret, or shame, or maybe some combination of the two and I didn’t know what to do with that fact. I only knew how to deal with the hateful side of him.
“But you were here for her? Right?” Dad looked up, hopeful and obviously hating himself for it.
“I guess you could say that. I didn’t exactly come to tell her happy birthday.” I came to tell you off for celebrating her birthday. I came to tell you to take your secret and stuff it up your ass.
The family will crumble if you do.
Everyone will hate you.
And you’ll be ruining Kara’s life, too. No fancy home. No private school. Not if Dad stops paying for them.
The last thought was a kick to the gut and I tried to untangle it. Dad wouldn’t stop being Dad just because I stopped doing what he told me to do. If he wanted to be with Madeline, he would. If he wanted to send Kara to school, he would. Standing up to him wouldn’t hurt my family. It wouldn’t hurt Kara. It would only hurt him….
“You’d be good for her,” Dad said, taking me off guard.
“What?”
“Kara’s a good kid. A little naïve. A little impulsive.” He laughed to himself. “Okay, a lot impulsive…”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Just what are you saying, here?”
“I’m saying you could look after her. That if you two got to know each other a little better…”
Part of me was immediately a fan of getting to know Kara a little better. The rest was concerned that Dad might be trying to hook me up with his mistress’ daughter. Leave it to him not to see all the different levels of fucked up in that situation. “Seems like I’ve already been doing a lot of taking care of Kara. Rescuing her from jail. Picking her up from parties with douchebags…”
Dad frowned. “You picked her up from a party? Is that what that call was to my phone…?”
I waved off his concern. “I have to hand it to you. I didn’t think you could get more fucked up than you already are. I didn’t think you could pull me any further into your stupid web of crazy than you already had. But this? Trying to get me involved with a kid…?”
“She’s not going to be a kid much longer, Wyatt.”
“It doesn’t matter! She’s a kid now. And you’re, what? Doing some weird paternal protection thing by trying to connect me to her?”
“I think you could be good for her.”
I turned away from my dad. The whole point of coming here tonight was for me to tell him I was done. To put distance between me and him, and therefore also to put distance between myself and Kara.
He cleared his throat. “Seems like she could teach you a thing or two, as well. About standing up for yourself. About seeing the world for what it is and not what you want it to be. Kara’s tough.”
“And I’m not?”
Dad blew a puff of air through his nose and I had to take a long, uncomfortable look at myself. I didn’t like what I saw. Not one bit. And it was time to start acting like the kind of man I wanted to be.
“I’m moving out,” I said, barely aware I had made the
decision before I spoke the words.
“Wyatt…”
“No. I mean it. I just…need some space to breathe. I’ll still be at The Hut every day for work.” And to protect mom and the two siblings left at home from Dad. “And I’ll still keep your secret. But the more we’re together, the more I feel like I’m turning into you.”
“Would that be such a bad thing?”
“Have you seen yourself?” I saw him more and more clearly with each passing minute. The man I once admired was truly gone.
Dad huffed and set his jaw. “I’m a successful business man. I raised a family while carving out our name and building our wealth. I’m in the prime of my life. I’m smart. Driven.”
“You’re deceitful and cruel.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand.”
“I do. I understand more than you give me credit for. You had everything and you’ve just been pissing it away. Day by day. Drink by drink.”
“That’s enough,” Dad barked.
“You’re right. It is.” Without another word, I stalked off the front porch and into my car.
The next day, I started looking for houses.
The next week, I moved into one.
Chapter Eleven
Kara
Mom’s backup guy sat too close to me on our plush leather couch. I shifted, trying to create more space between us, but every time I moved, he somehow managed to get closer. “Mom should be back soon,” I said, shifting yet again. “I’m just gonna head to my room and get some studying done.”
I stood and the creep grabbed my wrist, tugging me back down beside him. “She won’t be back all that soon. You know how your mom is. Come on, baby. Relax.”
His words echoed in my head, reminding me of Todd Hudgins when he spiked my drink, and awakening that awful voice that hid in the back of my head.
He thinks you’re just like your mom.
“Don’t call me that.” I yanked on my wrist, but he tightened his grip. “Let go of me!” I cried as his fingers bruised my flesh.
He leaned in, his breath hot on my lips. “I like a girl with fight.”
This was it.
My first kiss was going to be stolen from me by a man more than twice my age.
I turned my head and his lips grazed my cheek, then caught in my hair. His free hand fondled a breast, squeezing cruelly before he gripped my jaw, forcing my face back to his.
“Stop it,” I managed through clenched teeth.
The harder I struggled, the bigger he seemed, his body covering mine, making it impossible to move. Rage chased tears out of my eyes, which only seemed to fuel his desire.
“That’s right. Cry for me, baby.” His erection pressed into my hip.
Instead of crying, I screamed as loud as I could, struggling harder and harder against him, because it didn’t matter what he thought, I was nothing like my mom. Just before I managed to break free, the asshole slapped me. Pain seared across my cheek and my head spun.
“Shut! Up!” he screamed.
A knock sounded at the door and hope bloomed in my chest.
I shrieked for help, but the guy covered my mouth with his hand. I struggled to yell again, desperate to make whoever was out there hear me.
“Kara?” Wyatt’s voice, muffled through the door. I sagged in relief.
Sinking my teeth into the asshole’s hand, I pulled away and yelled Wyatt’s name. In a flash, he was through the front door, dragging Backup Guy off me.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Wyatt asked, his words a razor.
“We’re just having a little fun.” Backup Guy drew his hand across his lips and I saw blood dripping from the bitemark I left on his palm.
“Where you having fun?” Wyatt asked me.
I shook my head, unable to find my voice.
“She says she wasn’t having any fun,” Wyatt said, and the look on his face was a gun, cocked, loaded, and pointed at the asshole’s temple.
Backup Guy stammered a series of excuses and a cloud of rage distorted Wyatt’s features. He grabbed the guy by his shirt, dragged him through the living room, and threw him outside. The man landed in a lump, grunting as he tumbled down the concrete stairs.
Wyatt closed the door and turned to me. “Are you okay?” He stayed where he was, an entire room separating us, as if I was a wild animal he didn’t want to frighten away.
I started to nod. Of course I was okay. I was Kara Lockhart and I could handle myself. At least that’s what I wanted the world to think. The truth was a little less grandiose. Instead of answering, my face crumbled and I ran into his embrace, pressing my head into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and I sobbed, the terror of the incident finally catching up. He held me as if he could shield me from the world. When I got a hold of myself, I pulled away, wiping my face and apologizing.
Wyatt leaned down, searching out eye contact. “Hey. Look at me. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” He placed a finger under my chin and turned my face, inspecting me for signs of damage.
I could feel the angry red print of Backup Guy’s palm burning on my cheek. I knew his blood still coated my chin from where I bit him. But that wasn’t the kind of hurt Wyatt was asking about.
I shook my head. “He didn’t…” I choked on the words, then tried again. “There wasn’t any…” Images of what the guy might have done to me had adrenaline rocketing through my veins and I stopped trying to finish the sentence. So much more than my first kiss had been at stake.
Wyatt nodded and didn’t press any harder. “Come on, sweet girl. Let’s get you cleaned up.” The nickname touched me and I had to fight another rush of tears. Damn Backup Guy for making me so emotional. Or maybe it was Wyatt with his solid strength and resolve. I felt safe enough to let down my guard with him. I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
“That was another one of Mom’s boyfriends,” I said, offering him an apologetic glance as he dabbed at my face with a damp cloth in the kitchen. I wondered if he knew my mom wasn’t exclusive to his dad, then realized it didn’t matter. I was tired of her messed up decisions having anything to do with my life.
Wyatt nodded, his face severe and unreadable. “Where is your mom?”
“She left just before he got here. Said she had some errands to run and that she would be right back.”
Wyatt nodded, then sighed. “I’m just glad I got here when I did.”
So was I, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud because I wasn’t just glad he arrived to save me from Backup Guy. Simply being near him had my heart feeling lighter. His protective nature, usually so overbearing and frustrating, made me feel safe. Cared for. I had the sense that everything was going to be okay and I never felt that way. Every choice I made had an undercurrent of panic running through it.
I had no idea what I was doing in life and was making a giant mess of it all. Time and again, Wyatt was there when I needed him, helping me put things back together. He resented me for it. And I resented him a little, too. I didn’t like having my flaws on display and he seemed to see them all.
He met my eyes and I almost drowned in what I saw there. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again.
“I’m fine. Nothing hurts but my dignity.” And my faith in humanity. Seemed like everywhere I looked, someone was busy ruining any hope I had for the state of society.
Men wanted women for one thing: sex.
And women wanted men for one thing: money.
In that moment, I swore to myself that I would be different. I would rather be alone than live a life that resembled my mother’s in any way. I would stand on my own two feet and no man would ever use me for anything. Not for sex. Not for power. I would earn everything I had, even if that meant I had very little.
As those thoughts streamed through my head, tears reformed in my eyes. Before I knew what was happening, they started slipping down my cheeks. Wyatt wiped one away, nothing but sympathy in his gaze.
“It just feels like there’s
no hope, you know?” I wiped away the tears, angry at myself for letting them fall. “Like everywhere I turn, I find people who want to take something from me. The world is a cruel place.” I shrugged. “Why let anyone in? They’re only going to hurt me.”
Wyatt nodded, studying me thoughtfully, then let out a long breath through his nose. I could see he was about to say something and I suddenly felt stupid for opening myself up to him.
“Never mind,” I said as I hopped onto the counter. “I’m sure you’re only going to blame me for what just happened. You know, since that’s what you like to do. Blame the victim.”
“I’m not blaming you.” Wyatt leaned against the fridge, folding his arms across his chest.
“Excuse me?” I blinked in mock confusion, donning sarcasm like a suit of armor. “Come again?”
“No blame. None. This one wasn’t on you. You shouldn’t have been left alone with that guy. And he…well. He is a waste of space and the air he breathes.”
Wyatt’s face twisted with anger and for the first time all of his judgmental speeches made sense. He hadn’t been condemning me, he had been worried about me. That realization awakened a feeling of such vulnerability, I yearned to have my defensive walls falling back into place around my heart. I didn’t like being this open. If felt raw and dangerous and I was sure to end up hurt.
And yet…
…and yet…
There was something beautiful about being unguarded with him. About trusting him with my poor trembling heart and knowing he wouldn’t leave it smashed to bits.
“You can say that again.” I tried to sound cool. Calm. Collected. Like a strong, independent woman who could handle such injustices with little more than a laugh and a promise to take the man’s balls the next time she saw him. Instead, my voice wobbled and cracked, betraying my anxiety. I dropped off the counter, hoping he hadn’t heard my emotions on display. “Hey,” I said. “I have something for you.”
Before he could say a word, I zipped past him and headed straight for my room. My heart thundered as I opened my desk drawer and pulled out the bracelet I had talked myself into and out of giving him since I made it. Leather, dark stones, wooden beads, and a pop of blue…warm, masculine, and inviting, just like Wyatt.
