Wyatt just had less fear than other boys, and it made him captivating. That was what had everyone, even Tabitha, staring at him when he thought they weren’t looking. He was always competing in some hazardous sport that left him more than a little bruised, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, Tabitha was fairly certain he loved it. She watched him practice with Clay after classes. The meaner Clay got, the happier Wyatt was, and Clay was capable of being terribly mean. That was what made Wyatt seem bigger than life, that wild fearlessness that had him facing down anything dangerous with a grin on his face.
He was taller than other boys—well over six feet since the start of eighth grade. More than that, it seemed out of the blue his arms had gotten big and muscley. His chest was thick and cut. His shoulders broad. He was as tall as Clay now, who had always had a few inches on him.
“God,” she mumbled under her breath when she saw where her thoughts were heading. She actually turned her palm up, staring at the scars for a more solid reminder as she said solemnly, “I
do not
like Wyatt Conner.”
“Why the heck not?” Terry countered, and Tabitha turned to see him arching an eyebrow at her. When she didn’t have a response to the odd question, he leaned down and looked at her open palm. “What happened to your hands?”
“I hurt myself when I was eleven.”
“How?”
Tabitha looked down to her hand, thinking of the million different answers to the question, and finally settled on, “I was burning my dreams. It left a mark. A reminder.”
“Okay,” Terry said slowly. “You’re definitely weird, Tabitha.”
Tabitha nodded and whispered quietly, “I know.”
“We should be friends,” Terry surprised her by saying. “I think it’s in the unspoken book of rules.”
Tabitha turned to him and came to a startling realization she hadn’t noticed behind Terry’s wealth and good looks that had made him popular by default. “You’re weird too.”
“I’m weirder than you, darlin’.” Terry stood because the bus had come to a stop in front of the high school. “If Garnet were a movie, we’d be the two most intriguing supporting characters.”
Tabitha grabbed her bag and followed after him like a freshman puppy, feeling a strange bolt of excitement at finally finding someone who understood her.
“Who’d be the
main
characters?” she asked curiously, enjoying Terry’s riddles.
Terry sent her a grin as he stepped off the bus. “Two guesses.”
Tabitha jumped down after him, following his gaze to see Jules Conner crawling from the front seat of the sheriff’s jeep.
“Bye, Daddy.”
Jules’s voice carried all the way across the parking lot, but that wasn’t what held her attention. Tabitha just gaped as Wyatt and Clay slid out from the back. With the two boys standing shoulder to shoulder, she took a moment to really notice how big they’d both gotten. How powerful and intimidating. They were freshmen too, but there was no sign of the nervousness Tabitha had been dealing with for weeks now.
Who the heck would give either of them a bad time? They were taller than most seniors and black belts to boot.
“Oh my God,” Tabitha mumbled, having this very strange moment when she realized Wyatt might not be a real hero, but he certainly had the résumé of one.
“Tab!” Wyatt called out when he spotted her standing there dumbstruck next to Terry Dower.
Tabitha waved back, unable to help smiling in relief. She felt decidedly lighter knowing she was going to walk into the halls of Garnet high school for the first time next to Wyatt and Clay. More than being her only real friends, they were also a shield—the perfect protectors from anything terrible life could throw at her.
She sighed and found herself admitting out loud to her new friend, “I’m in so much trouble, Terry.”
“That ain’t a lie.” Terry patted her shoulder and left her standing there waiting for Wyatt. “You let me know when you need help with that problem.”
Tabitha knew heroes weren’t real. She’d learned that when she was eleven. She was almost certain it was nothing but a childish illusion.
Almost.
Chapter Twelve
“This year is my year. I’m gonna get Tabitha to go out with me.”
“You say that every year.” Clay grunted from his spot on the mat next to Wyatt. The two of them were still breathing hard from wrestling as they lay there looking at the ceiling lights in the rec center. “You think I got a chance for a spot on the varsity wrestling team?”
“You kicked my ass,” Wyatt told him helpfully. “Badly.”
“Yeah, but you ain’t all that good at wrestling.”
“Hey, buddy, I’m better than most,” Wyatt said with absolute confidence. “Just ’cause I don’t spent four hours a day rolling around working on it don’t mean I suck.”
“It does, actually.”
“I hate wrestling. Can’t stand having someone suffocating me and crawling all over me like that. It’s a horrible sport. Jujitsu ain’t far behind. The only reason I take it is ’cause you do,” Wyatt complained. “You’re getting into your ground game a little too much to be normal. I think you need a girlfriend too.”
“Probably,” Clay said grudgingly. “But I can’t even get a family to keep me for more than two months. You think I’m gonna find a girl to put up with me? Wrestling works off frustration.”
“That ain’t a lie,” Wyatt had to reluctantly agree. “No wonder I’m always stuck at the rec center with you. I’m way better at this sport than I wanna be.”
“Try out for the wrestling team.”
“Won’t have time for wrestling. The season’s gonna bleed into football for sure.”
“You don’t know that. They sucked last year. That season ended pretty fucking fast.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t on the team last year. I’m gonna make damn sure we go to the championships if I have to take down every quarterback in this state.”
Clay snorted. “That’s probably true.”
Wyatt turned his head and gave Clay a cocky grin. “You wait and see. I’m gonna annihilate the other teams. It’s gonna be bloody.”
“What makes you think I’m gonna spend my Friday nights watching you strut round that football field?”
“What the heck else have you got to do?”
“Sit in my room jerking off.”
Wyatt let out a loud bark of laughter. “That’s the reason you can’t get a family to keep ya more than five minutes. You just say whatever rude shit comes to mind.”
“Yeah, like you’re better.”
“At least I know how to say please and thank you at the dinner table.”
Clay’s amusement turned to obvious annoyance as he scowled. “Get off my back, Wyatt.”
“I’m trying to help you. Maybe if you were more polite—”
“Fuck off.”
“Look, buddy, you’re six-three and growing. You tip the scales at two-ten. You can’t be built like that and scowling at anyone who looks in your direction. Trust me, I know what I’m talking ’bout here. Guys built like us got to know how to smile a little. It puts people at ease.”
“You be a clown. I ain’t playing.”
Wyatt covered his eyes and groaned. This shouldn’t be that hard for Clay to understand, but it was. “Why can’t you listen to me and play along? We’re running out of families in Garnet willing to take ya.”
“So fuck Garnet.”
Wyatt’s chest constricted with fear. Clay wasn’t just his friend. He’d become something close to a brother. After living with Jules for the first fourteen years of his life, Wyatt didn’t think he could recover from losing Clay to another town just because he didn’t know how to smile.
“We gotta teach you how to be polite,” Wyatt told him desperately. “You’re my best friend and—”
Clay rolled away from him and made a move to stand. “I ain’t listening to this shit again.”
“And Jules would lose her fucking mind if they yanked you out of Garnet,” Wyatt went on pleadingly. Playing the Jules card was easier than admitting his own feelings. “You know how irrational she gets every time moving you comes up. Can you imagine the drama I’d have to put up with? She loves you like a brother. Heck, between the two of us, she’d probably pick to keep you over me, and I’m her twin.”
“I’m leaving now.”
Wyatt just lay there sullenly as Clay walked out of the gym without another word. He blinked at the ceiling, wondering what the hell he was going to do about Clay’s bad attitude. He and Jules tried hanging out at whatever foster home he was living, nudging him to interact a little with the family, but it never worked out. Even having the sheriff’s kids as best friends didn’t change the fact that a grouchy monster of a teenager who’d grown up on the bad side of town wasn’t a top pick in the foster system. Everyone was waiting for him to turn to drugs and crime like his mother.
If only they knew what Wyatt did, that Clay wouldn’t touch that stuff with a ten-foot pole. He’d broken his foot last year in jujitsu, and they couldn’t get him to take a pain pill to save their lives. He barely took ibuprofen. He was totally misjudged, and the injustice of it burned Wyatt to his core.
Clay wasn’t a bad guy—he just acted like one.
Bastard.
Wyatt drummed his fingers against his bare chest, knowing he was long due to get home. He had homework despite it being the first week of school, which seemed like bullshit. Didn’t they know fellas had football practice and karate and a best friend who insisted on extra training time for wrestling before tryouts?
Wyatt got very little sleep the past few days, but it didn’t feel too bad because Jules and Clay were getting up with him at five to finish the last of the work they couldn’t get done the night before. He liked those quiet mornings at the kitchen table with his sister and best friend. It was going to suck when they yanked Clay out of the house again.
It would suck even worse if they planted him halfway across the state.
“What’s wrong with Clay? I ran into him in the hallway, and he was growly over something.”
Wyatt craned his neck, looking to the door, spying Tabitha standing there with her book bag over her shoulder. He smiled. Seeing her had him forgetting his melancholy.
“Hey, pretty girl, come keep me company.”
Even from a distance, Wyatt could see Tabitha roll her eyes. “Almost everyone’s gone home but you two. It’s almost nine. Is your daddy picking you up?”
“Nah, he works late tonight. We rode our bikes. How you getting home?”
“Same.”
“Ain’t really safe to be riding that far this late, Tab.”
“Safer than being at home.”
“What’s that?” Wyatt scowled, hoping he heard her wrong.
Tabitha shrugged. “Nothing.”
“Okay.” Wyatt sighed in defeat because he was already fighting with Clay. He didn’t want to start something with Tabitha too. “So where have you been tonight? I haven’t seen you since the pizza Coach Jasper ordered at five.”
Tabitha stood at the edge of the mat, looking down at him with that hot look in her eyes that always made the back of Wyatt’s neck feel warm and his stomach jolt.
Her voice was soft as she said, “I was just in the teen lounge finishing things up. Might as well make good use of it since they let me hang out here for free.”
“You can come closer. I don’t bite.” Wyatt crossed his hands behind his head, still looking at Tabitha expectantly. He waggled his eyebrows. “Unless you want me to.”
“You’re so silly sometimes.” Tabitha walked over to him despite the teasing. She tossed her bag onto the mat and sat cross-legged next to him. “So what’re you hiding from tonight?”
“Nothing. Just practicing. Clay’s gonna make a go for the wrestling team. I set a bad example with football. He thinks any freshman can just walk on to varsity.”
“Is that it?” Tabitha asked dubiously.
“Yeah, he’s jealous.”
“Sure, he is.” Tabitha let out a little laugh. “So what’d you say to piss him off this time?”
“Something along the lines of needing him to learn to smile so I don’t lose my best friend. What am I gonna do if they send him away? No best friend and no girl.” Wyatt looked up at her pointedly. “That’s no way to start high school.”
“You could get a girl, Wy.” Tabitha’s gaze drifted to his bare chest, the dreamy sound to her voice taking on a sad note as she said, “You could probably get a whole collection of ’em.”
“Not the one I want.”
Wyatt studied Tabitha, who’d braided her hair into one thick red rope away from her face. Her freckles were more pronounced from summer, her brown eyes soft and soulful as she continued to look down at him thoughtfully after his confession that wasn’t anything usual. He’d stopped being casual about his feelings for her a long time ago.
“You look sad. Tell Wyatt what’s wrong.”
She shook her head.
He rolled onto his side and grabbed her hand. Feeling bold, he kissed her open palm, letting his lips linger on the scars there because he noticed she was always rubbing them. “Do your hands hurt you?”
“No.” Tabitha tried to pull her hand out of his grasp, but he held on. Finally she just huffed and left it where it was. “Why do you like me so much, Wyatt?”
“’Cause you’re awesome.”
“I think you’ve hit your head one too many times. How many concussions have you had again? You and Clay trade ’em like baseball cards.”
He laughed. “I liked you before the concussions.”
“Terry says you’re gonna have girls crawling all over you this year. What’d you think about that?”
“I think I don’t like that you’ve been hanging on Terry this whole week. What’s he got that I don’t?”
“Common sense?” Tabitha supplied helpfully. “Why the heck would you wanna go out with me when you can date real girls? Pretty girls.”
“I think you’re pretty, Tabitha,” he told her softly and then kissed her scarred palm once more to prove his point. “If you knew how pretty I thought you were, you wouldn’t be sitting next to me right now. You make me think naughty things.”
Tabitha finally jerked her hand out of his. “Really, Wy, I wanna know why you like me. ’Cause it don’t make a lick of sense.”
“I dunno.” He gave her an incredulous look because he thought it was a given that they were supposed to be together. “It’s an instinct. I’m happier when I’m around you. Haven’t you ever looked at someone and just known they were made for you?”