But not with me. I wasn’t bringing some innocent kid into a world where your last name defined your future.
Facing him again, I sighed. “Yeah. Their eyes seem to follow you.”
“And you say I’m creepy.”
“Ha!” The sound burst out of my mouth before I slapped my hand over it.
When he smiled at me, the corners of his lips turned up. “So are you coming?”
Was I? There was a Hot Pocket with my name on it. “Fuck it,” I said. “Yes. What time?”
“Now,” he answered.
I was a hot mess right now. “Two minutes,” I said, holding up my finger. I left him there, because what would he steal? The Titanic inspired porcelain baby? On second thought. “Feel free to take anything you like. There’s a collection of clowns over the kitchen sink.”
I went into the bathroom, shrugging my jacket off at the same time. Once there, I checked myself over. The hat would have to go. I ripped it off and threw it onto the counter. My long, straight, black hair was windswept, so I finger combed it quickly. I’d layered on the black eyeliner today—because fuck you, that’s why—and it seemed to bring out the green in my brown eyes.
Turning on the faucet, I braced my arms on the sink to stare at my face. I didn’t make great first impressions, even when I tried. Today, I was wearing my I hate everyone t-shirt and a pair of black jeans that were ripped, not because it was cool, but because they were one of two pairs I had.
I pulled the shirt off and grabbed another one I’d hung behind the door. This one was plain—V-neck and gray, but it wasn’t blatantly disrespectful.
Once the water was warm enough, I ran a face cloth beneath the stream. Should I leave it? Wash it off? Aaron would learn pretty quickly that I wasn’t someone worth knowing. His family would take one look at me, and they’d know. The door wouldn’t close behind me before I was politely thrown out on my ass.
I shut it off. This was me. Take it or leave it. Unfortunately, I knew exactly what to expect.
Aaron was staring at the clowns when I came out of the bathroom.
“Not tempted?” I asked.
“Not even a little,” he replied, and faced me. “You changed? You didn’t need to.”
What was it with this guy?
I shrugged. “Parents. I don’t do well with them. You’ll probably kick me out before dinner.”
He snorted. “Oh, Lacey. You have no idea. Come on.”
I followed him out the door. The sun had started to set over the horizon. In the distance, I could make out mountain ranges, the names of which I should have known, considering that I’d lived here my whole life. But I didn’t. This was a place people passed through to get somewhere else. They turned toward Texas and whatever dreams they had there, or they went in the opposite direction toward the mountains. The pink dust of the desert changed somewhere in between those two directions, greener the farther into New Mexico the driver went, darker into Texas. And right where I was? It seemed like there was nothing at all.
We all shared the sunset. Orange. Pink. Even blue in a weird way.
“Coming?” Aaron asked. I almost asked him about the sunset but swallowed the question before it could escape.
I followed Aaron into his house. If my grandmother’s home belonged on one of those shows where someone professional had to come in and clean it, then Aaron’s version of the same house was the after-shot. I didn’t even have to see the whole thing to know. I could smell the cleaning product as I came through the door. It was lavender scented with pine. It didn’t remind me of the over-the-counter stuff I picked up sometimes from the grocery store. The aroma didn’t make me sneeze or want to turn and leave. If anything, it was fresh and inviting.
“Oh, here’s your friend.” A male voice caught my attention, and I turned to see a slightly older version of Aaron enter the room. I’d never seen his brother before. His hair was slightly longer than Aaron’s, and a long scar marred his skin from his eye to his chin.
Aaron looked between us. “Working on the friend thing. But, yes. She’s here. And you’re, of course, rude. Lacey, this is my brother, Oliver. He’s obnoxious.”
Oliver snorted before he grinned. He turned his attention to me. He and Aaron shared the same dark brown eyes. But where Aaron’s gaze was shy, Oliver’s was intense. I didn’t know this dude’s story, and wasn’t sure I should even want to, but I’d bet my boot he’d seen some stuff in his life.
I couldn’t hold his stare, and if that made me pathetic, then so be it. I wasn’t in the mood to be judged. He could think whatever he wanted with those appraising eyes and choke on his opinions.
“Oh,” a young female voice called for my attention. Not only did Aaron have a brother, he had a younger sister as well. Whereas the boys’ faces were long with high cheekbones, the younger sister had a rounder face and dimples. With her braces and gangly limbs, I guessed her age to be around eleven or twelve.
“I love it when people come.” Without pausing, the young girl hugged me right around my midsection. I froze. “I’m Kelly.”
I swallowed. What was I supposed to do with this girl holding onto me? “How many of you are in here?”
“Just the five of us.” A blonde woman stepped into the hallway. She was stunningly gorgeous and so were her kids, but none of them looked like her, not even a little bit.
I winced. See? I’d told Aaron I didn’t do well with parents. Of all things to say. Meanwhile, Kelly was still holding onto me. I looked over my shoulder at Aaron. “See what I mean?”
He didn’t look at all sympathetic. But neither was he judging me. Kelly laughed and dropped her hands. “I’ve been wanting to meet you since I saw you outside swearing at some weeds. What’s your name?”
My face flushed. Manners. “I’m Lacey,” I said. I had the urge to apologize again. “I didn’t realize anyone was watching,” I finally settled on. It wasn’t an apology, but it was about as close as I came.
“You’re interesting.” Kelly shrugged, backing away from me.
“It’s nice to meet you,” the woman said, holding out her hand. “I’m Jacinda.”
This was where I was supposed to use my manners again. Slowly, I reached for her hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“My husband is coming home with dinner,” she said. “You’re going to join us.”
Allegedly. There was still plenty of time until Mr. Chee’s arrival for me to mess this up. “Ollie, are you working tonight?” Jacinda seemed to be unconcerned with the delinquent her son had invited for dinner.
He had walked into the kitchen and had his head in the refrigerator. At hearing his name, he poked his head up like a groundhog. “Yeah,” he replied. “I’m at the clinic from six to midnight.”
I studied Aaron’s brother a little closer. He didn’t seem that much older than me, but he’d have to be. What sort of job would a teenager have at a free medical clinic? He saw me watching him and snorted. “An animal clinic,” he said. “The emergency vet. I’m a vet tech.”
That sort of job sounded right up my alley. I’d prefer working with animals over people any day.
“Oliver’s taking some classes at the community college because he’s going to vet school eventually. It’s just super expensive,” Kelly added with all the wisdom of a preteen.
“Oh,” was my brilliant reply. God. Being bad with people sucked. The few times I was actually interested in what someone said, I had a brain fart and was unable to form a coherent sentence.
“Do you like animals?” Oliver straightened and strode toward me. He stopped at the island separating the kitchen from the living room and rested his elbows on the counter. “You don’t have pets.”
“Once, I had a feral cat. Or, rather, I fed a feral cat. He sat near me. I considered him my pet.” I sounded like an idiot.
“It takes a lot of patience and calm for a feral animal to feel comfortable around humans. You must have a knack,” Aaron said.
Come again? I was not used to compliments
. Nor was I used to someone having pity on my social awkwardness and trying to make a situation less stressful for me. “Uh. Thanks.” I mentally patted myself on the back at having an appropriate response.
Aaron bumped me gently. “Besides, where would you put a pet with all of those dolls?”
I snorted as Jacinda sucked in an audible breath. “Aaron, you know better than that. We don’t say things like that about people’s homes or choices.”
I shook my head fast. “No, ma’am, it’s weird. They’re strange, off-putting dolls.”
Jacinda opened and closed her mouth several times. “Well, I’m not really sure what to say about that. Oh, look, kids. Dad’s home.”
Aaron winked at me.
This was going better than I’d thought it would.
Three
Ray Chee arrived, took off his tie, discarded it onto the table, and passed out pizza without uttering a word. Jacinda winked at me as she indicated where I should sit down. “It takes him a few minutes to decompress when he gets home. One piece of pizza, and his charming personality emerges.”
I blinked. “No one talks to me at home except to yell, so silence works for me.”
Jacinda’s smile faded. “You live with your grandmother, right?”
Mr. Chee took a bite of his pizza, and Oliver started laughing. “Four more bites.”
Ray rolled his eyes but smirked.
Aaron held up three fingers, and his father threw down his slice. “It was a particularly bad day.” He groaned. “But I’m being rude. This is our neighbor, correct? You’re the girl who lives with her grandmother. That is all we know about you, so you’ll have to excuse my wife for her obvious digging attempts. We knew all the neighbors in Albuquerque. She’s having a hard time being the new people again. We move about every three years, so you’d think she’d be used to it.”
Jacinda tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Well, maybe if someone didn’t always get the itch to move again, I’d know all the neighbors.”
He laughed. “Don’t blame me. Blame the wind. It calls to me.”
Oliver groaned. “And now we’re weird. Just like that. We went from sort of interesting to totally weird.”
Jacinda shook her head. “Oh, we just need to explain. In many cultures, wind is considered the very essence of life. It represents all sorts of things—like a god, or holy person, but also as a way for people to speak to one another. The very ability to breathe, every soul, is related to the wind. Wind plays a huge role in so many cultures, I can’t count them on two hands.”
Oliver pointed at her. “She has a PhD in anthropological studies, a major she self-designed, from Stanford. That’s how she met Dad. He was doing research on his cultural background, since he is a mix of just about everything under the sun. They hit it off after discovering a mutual love of studying dead things that never earn anyone any money.” He shrugged. “And she will find five ways at dinner to tell you all about it before it’s over. They’re huge geeks. Dad’s not-so-useful degree means he’s a project manager in a factory.”
Mr. Chee glared at his son.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” Aaron added. “We’re very grateful for Dad’s job, because we get all the pizza we want.”
It was hard to follow all the back and forth going on at this table. I cleared my throat. “So when he says the wind, he means his soul is calling him to move. Or you mean that. Sorry, sir. I shouldn’t speak about you in the third person.”
Ray pointed at me. “See? She gets it. And we’re proud to be card carrying geeks.” He pointed his fork at Oliver. “Don’t knock it. You’re a secret geek yourself.”
I didn’t know if I got “it.” My understanding of different world cultures was minimal. But Ray’s description of the need to leave actually resonated strongly with me. I always had that feeling. How many times had I packed my bags before I reasoned with myself that I’d just had to get that high school diploma under my belt?
“Why would you move here?” I asked before I could stop myself. God. That sounded so judgmental. But, look at this place! Even this neighborhood. If Jacinda had gone to Stanford, why wasn’t she teaching in some ivy-bedecked institution? Who in their right mind would choose a suburban development—with a neighbor like me—as a place to live? “I hope you’re just renting this place, and you didn’t actually buy.”
Oh. Fuck me twice.
The entire family stared at me for what felt like an interminable moment. The cheese slid off of Kelly’s pizza, landing with a wet slap on her plate. I pushed back my chair, anticipating the inevitable request to leave, but got the shock of my life when the family burst into laughter.
Ray dropped his pizza on his plate and gripped both sides of the table. “I hope you’re just renting.” He repeated what I said, sucking in breaths. “Oh! My side!”
Oliver and Aaron laughed, and Kelly started to cough. Jacinda reached over to pound on her back. And all the while, I stared at them like the great idiot I was.
“Where are you going?” Aaron asked when he could speak again. “Sit down! Oh my god, I can’t breathe.”
The family got themselves together, eventually grabbing more pizza and talking between bites like I’d never inserted my ridiculous statements into their conversation.
Nearby, a landline rang, and Oliver stood. He strode to the phone, answered, and spoke in low tones I couldn’t quite make out. “I have to go,” he said when he hung up. “Vet needs me to meet him at Doc Holiday’s.”
Doc Holiday’s was a small ranch way outside of town that gave people from the city a chance to live like a cowboy. They went on cattle drives and learned to rope steer. Or for the less driven (and more self-aware) clients, got massages and rode slow, mellow horses around the canyons.
“What happened?” Ray asked.
“He thinks the horses got into some hay they shouldn’t have and are showing signs of colic.” He winced and hurried toward the door, but at the last minute, he stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “Do you want to come?”
He was looking in the general direction of the table, and I assumed he meant Aaron, or even Kelly, but his deep brown eyes met mine. “Do you?”
“Me?” I didn’t know anything about animals. “Won’t I get in the way?”
“It’s all hands on deck out there,” Oliver said. “Can you shovel?”
That didn’t sound encouraging. “Yeah.”
I’d never shoveled horseshit before, and I’d certainly never done it with barn lights blazing down on me. I wiped sweat off my brow and tried not to think about what I was getting on myself. Ugh. And the smell. The smell was not pleasant.
“Lacey?”
I winced at the sound of my name. I should have known that Thorn would show up here. His father owned most of the stables in town and the outskirts. People came to his ranches to have authentic cowboy experiences and didn’t know they’d walked right into another version of corporate America. There wasn’t a cowboy operation in the state of New Mexico that he didn’t have his hand in.
Thorn Evans.
He had a cowboy’s name, and if his hair was just a little longer, he’d look like one. I put my head down, like horseshit was the most interesting shit I’d ever seen, and hoped he’d leave.
See—here was the thing with Thorn—I didn’t want to have any sort of reaction to him. Yes, I’d kissed him. And yes, everyone knew about it, hated me for it, and treated me like I threw puppies into traffic.
So the last thing I wanted was to be stuck in a barn, looking like shit while I shoveled literal crap, with Thorn Evans and his kissable lips and sad eyes.
Of course he’d show up to watch me shovel crap. I surveyed the barn. Where was Oliver? He’d wandered off somewhere, and I hadn’t seen him in a while.
A horrible thought occurred to me. What if Oliver left me here on purpose? What if he was in on it with Thorn? What if he and Colton were somewhere, watching me shovel, laughing their asses off? I forced the thought from my h
ead. That wouldn’t help anything right now.
“Lacey?” I had the strangest impression that Thorn was nervous but discounted it right away.
“Thorn.” He’d said my name, so I said his back.
“What are you doing here?” He put his hand on my shovel handle to stop me from using it.
I lifted my head. “My friend asked me to help him. I came. End of story.”
Thorn looked over his shoulder. “Are you friends with that new guy? The one everyone likes? What’s his name? Chee?”
“Oliver Chee.” I took the shovel back. “Yes, he’s my friend.” Or at least, I’d had a glimmer of hope he could become that. I’d technically met him just hours earlier, but there it was. “I guess I should ask what you’re doing here. Do you often get your hands dirty?”
I knew the answer to that was no. Thorn didn’t do the manual labor.
He smiled at me. “I came to help. If I’d known you were here, I’d have come earlier. I want to talk to you.”
The last thing I wanted was to have a one-on-one with Thorn. “Whatever happened, I’d rather leave it alone. It was a year ago, and people are still talking about it. We kissed. Your mom was suuuuuuper upset about it and told everyone I ruined your life. So you took off with Colton. Which meant I was also responsible for his downfall. Both of you destroyed by me. The temptress of boys.” I motioned to my disgusting outer appearance at the moment. “Sorry to have ruined your life.”
“Lacey?” It was Oliver. With the inky darkness behind him, his silhouette seemed to glow in the barn light. “What are you doing?”
At first, I thought he meant Thorn, but he was looking at me. I was at a loss. Hadn’t he said to haul out the stall? “I’m—”
He came inside, dusky cheeks flushed pink. “Lacey. I’m so sorry. I meant take out the hay. Not the manure.”
Nearby, there was a snort, and I whipped a glare in Thorn’s direction. He held up his hands as if to placate me. “You made a stable hand really happy, though.”
Eyes in the Darkness (The Coveted) Page 2
