“Sorry, Mom.” He looked a little like a sad puppy as he glanced up at her.
“Just don’t do it again.”
He nodded. I’d never seen Aiden look anything other than cocky and arrogant. Seeing him taken down a peg was just about the best start to a day I could have asked for.
“The card drop sounds like a good idea,” Jade continued. “It might be nice for you both to get some fresh air together rather than staying cooped up inside all day.”
And with those words, she brought my happy little high back down to earth with a bang. I really struggled to keep the disappointment from my face. Jade had totally thrown me under the bus. I knew she hadn’t done it on purpose, but it was still frustrating.
Aiden’s puppy-dog eyes were quick to disappear, and he struggled not to smile when he saw my reaction. His eyes seemed to sparkle with anticipation, and I had to wonder exactly what he hoped to achieve out of our little expedition. I was very suddenly wishing the lockdown rules surrounding the number of people you could be out in public with were even stricter.
“Just make sure you’re both careful and keep an adequate distance from other people,” Jade continued. “No touching your faces while you’re out, wear a mask, and don’t forget to take that bottle of hand sanitizer I got for you, Aiden.”
“Yes, Mom,” he said, giving her an overly exaggerated eye roll.
Jade stood up from her stool and gathered her phone from the table as she went to leave the kitchen. “I’ll probably be home late again, so don’t get up to too much mischief while I’m gone. And no breaking lockdown rules.”
Her eyes were narrowed on Aiden, who was smiling wickedly like that was exactly what he planned to do. She let out a long sigh, as though she was realizing there was no way to completely control her son. From my experience, I felt the same.
“I’ll see you later, Clary,” she said.
“Have a good shift,” I replied as she left the room.
That left me alone with Aiden, who was still smiling at me smugly.
“You’re probably going to need a shirt if you want to go out in public,” I said, hoping to wipe the pleased look from his face. My comment only seemed to feed it though.
He walked over to me and leaned against the counter, standing far too close for comfort. “Don’t pretend you don’t like what you see,” he said.
I kept my eyes on his face. It was tempting to dip them lower, because as much as I hated to admit it, Aiden was hot. But I refused to give him the satisfaction of letting him know that. “You know, your inventory of sleazy pickup lines is growing old real fast.”
“You think I’m trying to pick you up?”
“I really hope not,” I muttered.
He struggled to withhold a smile. “You say that now, but I’m fairly certain I can win you over.”
“And I’m fairly certain you’re wrong.”
“I guess we’ll see.” He continued smiling at me like he knew I had no chance of resisting him. He was in for a rude shock when he realized he was wrong.
“Anyway, I’ll go print out some cards,” he continued.
“What?”
“For our card drop…” he said slowly.
“Oh, right, the card drop.” He’d annoyed me to the point where I’d completely forgotten about it. I kind of wished I could forget about it again, because the idea no longer held as much appeal.
“I think I saw some templates online that will make it easier,” he continued.
“You saw some templates?” I repeated back to him in surprise.
“Well, yeah. You didn’t think I was pretending I wanted to do this thing just to annoy you, did you?”
That was exactly what I thought.
He chuckled when he saw the confused expression on my face and then turned to leave the room. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, and we can get started,” he called back over his shoulder.
I stared after Aiden, slightly speechless and feeling like a bit of a fool. It was only when he’d left the kitchen that I found my voice again. “Don’t forget a shirt. You don’t want to scare the neighbors!”
I could hear his laugh from deeper in the house. It was probably funny because the only person his naked chest really scared was me.
7
Aiden
“Isn’t this fun?” I beamed at Clary as we walked down the street together.
She’d been muttering under her breath ever since we’d left home, and I got the feeling my exuberance was bothering her. As much as I loved seeing the cute line that knitted her brow together, I would have preferred a smile. And while her dark grumblings were about as adorable as you could get, it would have been much better if she actually enjoyed my company.
She was probably still mad about me working out in her room this morning. I started every morning doing weights, and since she said it was fine to keep them in her room, I’d thought she’d be cool with it. How was I supposed to know she’d freak out?
I wanted to fix things, and Seth’s idea of doing something nice for her had been at the forefront of my mind. I’d been trying my hardest to think of something appropriate all morning, but nothing seemed good enough. My frozen pizza last night had been an epic fail, and I was stumped for another idea. Seth had made it sound so easy, but it was much harder than I’d imagined.
Even my offer to help her mail the cards today wasn’t really helping things. I’d been planning on doing it anyway, but when she mentioned it this morning, it had seemed like fate and the perfect opportunity to spend some time together. Clary couldn’t have felt more differently though. It was a prime example of how she wasn’t interested in anything to do with me—even if it was a nice gesture. I was beginning to wonder if Seth’s advice wasn’t all that great.
Clary glanced at me. The cool morning air made her cheeks slightly flushed, and she was wearing barely any makeup. You could hardly tell because her skin was flawless. The other girls at school must have hated her.
“Sure, this is fun.” Her answer was so unconvincing I almost wished she’d just continued her muttering. She turned, allowing her long dark hair to form a curtain between us. My hands itched to reach out and tuck the closest strands behind her ear so I could see her blue eyes again.
“Do you think anyone will actually use these?” I asked her, waving my cards in the air. We’d started by putting cards in the mailboxes on my street. I knew most of my neighbors pretty well, and there were quite a few elderly people who lived nearby. I hoped that at least some of them would take us up on our offer to help. I really didn’t want them to have to risk getting sick.
Clary looked at the cards in my hand and shrugged. “I hope so,” she said before focusing on the sidewalk ahead of us.
It was hard to strike up a conversation with someone who didn’t want to talk to you. I normally had no trouble talking to girls, but Clary was different. She was impossible to impress, and half the time I was around her, I felt like an idiot.
It didn’t help that she was unnervingly beautiful. My tongue had a tendency to twist whenever I looked at her, and today was no exception. I was hardly a nervous person, but I had to wonder how any guy could manage to keep their thoughts straight when talking with her. It seemed impossible, but she’d had a boyfriend a while back, which proved it could be done.
Daniel. He’d been a dweeby teen when I last saw him, but even then, I’d been jealous of the guy. He was a serious brain and was probably going to go on to build spaceships or develop the cure for cancer when he left school. But his brains weren’t what really impressed me. No, it was the fact he’d always seemed totally chill around Clary. How had he convinced her to date him? The kid must have superpowers or something. Either that or Clary only dated smart guys, in which case I was screwed.
I might have done better in school if I’d ever really applied myself. I should have had some smart genes with two doctors for parents, but I was guessing intelligence was one of those things that skipped a generation. At least, in my cas
e, it was. I tended to coast through school—not particularly nailing it or failing it. No, I had to believe that book smarts weren’t the only way into Clary’s heart.
Clary slowed as we heard shouting from across the road. I turned to the noise and chuckled. Rosalind and Herb were at it again. My two neighbors were in their eighties, and they were a cute couple until they started bickering. Herb seemed to be trying to leave their property, but Rosalind kept calling after him.
“I told you not to leave the house,” she yelled.
“And I told you I need fresh air.”
“There’s fresh air in the backyard.”
“I like the fresh air on the street better.”
Rosalind folded her arms across her chest as she scowled at him. “Well, you forgot your mask, you idiot.”
“I don’t need a mask,” he shouted. As the two of them continued their argument, Clary turned to me. The tightness in my chest eased slightly now she was facing me and I could see her eyes again. I hated when she kept them from me.
“What’s up with your neighbors?” she asked.
“Nothing unusual. Rosalind and Herb argue a lot.” It happened so frequently I barely thought anything of it anymore.
“They’re very loud.”
I laughed. “Yeah, but I think that’s just how they show their love. The louder they shout, the more they care. They’re both really sweet, actually.”
Clary lifted an eyebrow in doubt, but this was the closest we’d come to a conversation in a while, so it felt like a win.
We put cards in the rest of the mailboxes on my street before heading back to my truck so we could go to Clary’s house. There was a flyer on the front windshield when we got to the truck, and I grabbed it off. People were always papering our cars with useless promotions. I would have thought they’d take a break during a pandemic though. I went to scrunch the flyer into a ball, but when I saw what the flyer was about, I shook my head.
“Did you know that the pandemic doesn’t actually exist?” I asked Clary, showing her the flyer as I climbed into the driver’s seat.
She was already in the passenger seat, and she lifted one eyebrow as she took the flyer from me and looked over the page. “The globalist elite don’t want us to have our freedom?” She rolled her eyes and placed the flyer down. “I guess it’s one of the less absurd pandemic theories I’ve heard going around.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard a few crazy ones too,” I agreed.
“Okay, give me your best one…”
I was silent for a moment as I tried to decide what to hit her with, and I grinned when I remembered a good one. “Did you know that the Russian government released lions into the street during lockdown to stop people from leaving their houses?”
“Did you know that it’s all just a marketing scheme made by hand sanitizer companies?” Clary fired straight back.
“That can’t be true because the virus was sent here by aliens who are about to take over the world.”
She laughed. “Aliens taking over the world; not sure it gets any more epic than that.”
“It doesn’t.”
It was kind of nice to laugh about something so serious and scary. If you didn’t find a way to make the best of the situation, the whole thing just became too miserable to bear.
“Actually, I did hear one theory about the virus that seems plausible,” I said.
Her expression sobered at my words, and she looked genuinely curious. “What is it?”
“Well,” I started. “Apparently, there’s a way you can stop yourself from catching it…”
“There is?” There was a sense of expectation in her voice, and I almost felt bad that it wasn’t actually true.
I slowly nodded and gave her a serious look. “They say that a kiss a day keeps the virus away.”
She stared at me for several seconds before a small smile cracked her lips. “And let me guess. You want to test the theory?”
I grinned. “If you’d be my test buddy, I’d say it would be rude not to at least try it.”
She shook her head, but she was still smiling. “I’m not going to kiss you.”
“Not even for your own health?”
“Nope.”
“What about the good of humanity? We could save thousands of lives if we prove it’s true.”
“Not even that.”
I rested my arm against the steering wheel as I stared at her. “So, I don’t want to be that guy, but you know that the fate of the world lies on you kissing me every day.”
She laughed and turned her head. “The world has no chance then.”
I let out a sigh and started the engine. I had no idea what was going to make this girl crack and fall in love with me but, damn it, I was going to find out.
Clary seemed relaxed as we drove down my street, but she started tapping her fingers against her leg as we drew closer to her house.
“How are you dealing with it all?” she asked. “Lockdown, I mean.” It seemed as though she was just talking to distract herself rather than because she actually wanted to know.
“It’s only been a few days. It’s better than school but a bit boring being stuck inside.”
“Yeah, it is a bit,” she agreed. “Have you thought about starting any lockdown activities to pass the time?”
“Activities? I can think of a few we could do together…”
She scoffed. “I’m talking about something productive or creative. I don’t know—knitting or origami or something.”
I struggled not to smile as I imagined myself actually sitting down and trying to fold pieces of paper into animals. I’d probably get a load of paper cuts. “Do I look like a knitting or origami kind of guy to you?”
“No,” she admitted. “But it doesn’t have to be knitting or origami. I was just giving examples. Like Zoey says she is doing puzzles with her parents.”
“I don’t do puzzles either.”
Clary stared at me for a moment before she responded. “Sometimes, I wonder if you’re difficult just because you can be.”
“Sometimes, I wonder if you like it.”
Clary smiled and shook her head, but she fell silent as I pulled onto her street. The lighthearted look on her face slowly lowered as we stopped outside the front of her house. There was concern flickering in her eyes, and I knew she was thinking of her parents. I hated she had to worry about them, but I felt powerless to help. Not even making her laugh again could hide the hard truth. Her parents still had no way home.
She took her phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen. She seemed to check it every few minutes, and there was a brief flicker of hope in her eyes whenever she brought it out. As soon as the screen lit up, the optimism in her gaze dissolved, her shoulders sank, and she quickly put the phone away. I assumed there was still no good news from her parents.
“So, do you know what mailboxes you want to put your cards in?” I asked, hoping to pull her from the sadness that appeared to have taken hold of her.
Her eyes were distant for a moment until they gradually seemed to focus on me. “Yeah, I have an idea.” Her expression turned more determined as she hopped out of the truck and set off down the street. There was no more joking around after that.
We spent about an hour on our little expedition, and I was sad I couldn’t somehow make it drag on longer. I didn’t particularly like the idea of returning home so soon. I hated being trapped inside the house, but I knew it was against the rules to remain loitering on the street.
We had just about reached my house again when I noticed someone standing on my front lawn. Her white-blonde hair was fluttering slightly in the breeze, and my gaze was pulled to the letterman jacket draped across the back of her shoulders—my letterman jacket.
“Is that Shelly?” Clary asked, leaning forward to get a better look.
A tight knot formed in my throat, and I tried to swallow it down. “Um, yeah, I think so.”
“What’s she doing on your front lawn?”
I shrugged. I was as confused as Clary, but the fact Shelly had my jacket on made me feel distinctively uncomfortable. She hadn’t noticed us approaching, but the moment I pulled my truck to a stop, she turned and her face lit up.
I hesitantly opened the door and left the safety of my truck, not sure I was ready for what was about to come.
“Hi, baby!” Shelly squealed as she ran toward me.
I jumped back and lifted my hands up in front of her. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Shelly, what are you doing?”
She was a few feet from launching herself into my arms, but she came to an abrupt halt. Confusion flickered across her eyes.
“Sorry, we should be social distancing, right?” I added, lowering my hands, which were still raised in defense.
“Oh, I really don’t…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed Clary climbing out of the truck, and her eyes flashed with betrayal. “What are you doing with her?”
I wasn’t sure why she sounded so upset. “Clary and I were just running some errands,” I explained.
“So, what, are you two dating now?”
A snort escaped Clary’s lips as she came to stand near us. “Um, no. I’m just staying with Aiden’s family because my parents are stuck overseas.”
Shelly’s gaze softened slightly at this. “Oh, that sucks.”
“Tell me about it,” Clary muttered. From the way she glanced in my direction, I got the feeling I was a big part of the reason why.
“What are you doing here, Shelly?” I asked, focusing on her again. “You know we’re all supposed to be staying at home and keeping away from each other.”
Shelly was breaking lockdown rules to be here, but even if it weren’t for the restrictions, I still wouldn’t have been thrilled to see her.
She turned and started smiling as she curled a stray piece of hair around her finger. “Well, those rules don’t apply to us. I’m here to see my boyfriend.”
Her gaze was slowly tracing over my clothes like she was undressing me, and I could feel my cheeks warming despite the fact the blood was rushing from my skin.
Stuck with You Page 7
