Authors: Emily Camp
Chapter 10
Parker
The weight on Parker’s chest grew heavier as he approached the front desk. He’d successfully avoided Carly earlier, or maybe she successfully avoided him, but he had to talk to her if he was going to see his sisters. He hesitated before his feet rounded the corner.
He heard Carly grumbling. “I don’t really care how long it will take James and Steven if they work together.” That was definitely an odd conversation, but if she was on the phone, then he’d have a good excuse to procrastinate.
He stepped around the wall separating the hall from the service desk. She wasn’t on the phone. She was on the counter. This time on her belly, bare feet in the air, her toes lightly knocked against the wall as she swayed her legs back and forth. She rubbed the eraser of a pencil on a paper and growled.
“Do you talk to yourself often?” He said with a smirk, making her jump. Her pencil pinged when it hit the floor.
“Are you crazy?” She slid off the counter and pushed down her shirt, which had ridden up, exposing her mid-drift.
“I’m not the one talking to myself.” He bent down and retrieved her pencil, noting the teeth indentions all over.
“Algebra.” She rolled her eyes, her hand now planted on her side. “It’ll make anyone insane.”
“Why are you doing Algebra? It’s summer.” When he set the pencil down beside her book, he stretched his neck to peek at her paper. Math was his favorite subject. He could tell at first glance she didn’t have a clue what she was doing.
“Not that it’s any of your business.” The paper made a crinkle sound as she snatched it up, holding it to her chest. “I failed.” She shoved her paper into her book and tossed it on the floor. It spun as it slid to the corner.
“Today’s your lucky day, Snarly.” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on the counter. He couldn’t believe he was going to even offer this, but he figured if she would help him reunite with Bree after the way he acted, it was the least he could do.
“You’re leaving again and never coming back?” Her hip jutted out as she crossed her arms across her chest.
He couldn’t help but let out a slow laugh. He shook his head and looked down at his hands. “I changed my mind … I want to see my sister.”
“I changed
my
mind. I don’t think she needs that right now.” Her head bobbed from side to side.
“What if I make you a deal?”
“I don’t do deals.”
He smirked, “What do you do?”
Her big grey eyes rolled into the back of her head and she tilted her face to the ceiling, her arms still tight around her middle. “Wow, you’re original, you know that.”
“You set yourself up for it.”
“Did you need something?” She placed her hands palm down on the counter between them and leaned forward just enough that Parker could see her lavender lace bra peek out of the top of her shirt. His heart sped up. “Peter?”
“Huh?” Closing his jaw, he blinked and flicked his eyes toward her face. The lacy bra still bounced around in his mind.
“Are you kidding me?” She snapped up and slapped her palm on the neckline of her shirt pressing it to her chest.
“What? I just wanted to help …”
Don’t think about lacy bras.
“… with you with …”
bra’s? No…
His blood raced and he tried to form a coherent sentence. It didn’t matter he could no longer see the bra … it was there now, permanently in his mind. “… with your purple.”
And lace.
“What?” She didn’t remove her hand from her chest.
“Math! Alge
bra
.” His voice cracked on the last syllable and he cleared his throat. “Algebra, I know numbers.”
“Why, so you can hit on me … look down my shirt or whatever.”
“What … no,” he ran his hand over his head, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. “That’s … I … purple …”
“Save it, Peter, I don’t need your help, nor do I want it. And if you’re here to see my best friend and then run off and hurt her,
I
don’t want to help
you
.”
“Hey, I’m sorry.” He held his hands palms up in surrender. “When I was here before, you caught me off guard. I was in shock. But I do want to see Bree and I’m not going to run off. I promise.” He eased his hands back down, though the scowl never left her mouth. “And you do need help with that math. I can tell just by looking at it.”
Her chin jerked forward and she rolled her eyes up to look at the ceiling. Parker glanced to see what was so interesting up there. It was just a normal white ceiling with little round lights.
She then looked behind her on the ground, toward the text book she’d abused a few minutes before. “Fine.”
Her admission to needing his help and accepting it made him smile.
“But only if you quit grinning like that.” She pointed at him.
Chapter 11
Carly
Carly tried to not think about how yummy Parker smelled, a woodsy spice, as he leaned over the counter next to where she sat, her legs crossed. She leaned forward with her elbows on the hard surface.
Numbers … letters … formulas … people’s problems she didn’t care about solving for them.
Parkers head was so close to hers, she could feel the warmth coming off him.
He held the pencil in his hand and read the problem out loud. He explained to her how it was to be solved but all she heard was that blah, blah, blah sound like the grownups in Charlie Brown.
He scribbled down numbers and letters and continued to talk. All she could think about was how nice he smelled and how large his hands were. His left hand enclosed around the pencil … he was left handed. That was interesting and probably a good thing as well, if he was right handed his arm would be brushing against her leg as he wrote.
“You understand now?” His voice took her out of her thoughts.
“Huh?” she blinked and shook her head.
“Really?” He laughed. “That’s the easiest way to explain it.”
She scowled and sat up, distancing herself from him might be for the best. “You see numbers and letters and formulas and I see Chinese.” She held her hand out toward the paper scrawled with neat little letters. For a boy, his handwriting was nice.
He chuckled and leaned forward again, pointing to a problem with the pink eraser.
Carly slid back, leaning against the wall.
He was way too close, not that she ever minded guys being close to her, but he was just helping her with math and he … he wasn’t her type … and he was Bree’s long-lost brother which could mean all kinds of unwanted friend drama if she messed around with him.
Parker pushed his floppy hair out of his face as he looked up at her. His brown eyes amused when he smirked. “Seriously, are you even listening?”
She gripped the side of the counter and hopped down, the floor was cold under her bare feet. “Yes, I’m listening.” She pushed her snug top down over the sliver of exposed skin between her shorts and blouse. “I just don’t understand when I’m ever going to need to know this in my life.”
His deep chuckle went straight to her gut, waking the butterflies that had been dormant since Colten.
“Try right now, you need to know it to pass summer school.”
“I need a break. My head hurts.” She held her forehead for dramatics.
“We,
you
haven’t even done anything yet.” He pointed to her paper with his writing all over it.
“Maybe I’m allergic to numbers.”
And there he was with the laughing again. Maybe she just needed to stop making him laugh.
“I’m gonna go get something outta the vending machine. I think this is going to take a little while.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder.
“Are you saying I’m stupid?”
He smirked again. “You like pizza?”
“You buying?” She lifted an eyebrow. It was on nights like this that she was glad the hotel wasn’t busy.
Another smirk twisted on his lips. “Yeah, if you finish one of those problems.”
Carly groaned and her stomach growled now that he mentioned food, pizza of all things. Who would ever say no to pizza?
Chapter 12
Parker
The rapid knock on the door sent Parker across the room in long strides.
He didn’t know what he was expecting on the other side, but it wasn’t Carly all bouncy with a giant smile on her face. She held a paper in one hand. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and he liked being able to see her bright eyes.
“Thank you,” she gushed. Then before he knew what was happening, she stepped up on her tiptoes and threw her arms around his neck.
It was a nice surprise. He had to say he liked this Carly much better than the snarly one.
“Uh … welcome?” He placed his palms on her hips. A little bit of skin touched, igniting his insides.
She pulled away as quickly as she initiated the hug. “I got a C! I know it isn’t, you know, what most people want …” She waltzed into his room without an invite, not that he minded any, “… but it’s passing! And I’ll get to go to eleventh grade with my class.”
Parker’s heart swelled, he played a part in bringing the smile to her face.
Her hair bounced as she flopped down onto his bed, crossing her legs like it was just a normal everyday thing for her to be in his room with him. Her foot swung in a circle, her sparkling flip-flop hung on the ends of her toes. She leaned back, the palms of her hands flat on the mattress behind her.
“That’s great.” He hesitated before shutting the door.
Carly’s eyes scanned the room. He was suddenly aware of the mess as she looked toward his open duffle bag he left in the middle of the floor, clothes spilling out on all sides.
“So, I have tonight off and I was thinking if you want to we could go see Bree.” She turned toward him once she was done taking in her surroundings.
“I don’t know about tonight,” he said, a little too fast then crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, because he wanted to sit next to her on that bed, but knew it was a bad idea.
“Superman afraid of a sixteen-year-old girl?” She laughed.
He wasn’t going to answer yes to that, though it was true. “Why … wait did you just call me Superman?” He chuckled
“Peter Parker, you know.”
His head hit the wall with a thud as he tilted it back and let out a loud laugh. “Peter Parker is Spiderman, Snarly.”
Carly sat up, placed her foot on the ground and leaned forward. She reached her hand out and swiped the little white notepad and pen with the hotel logo on them. He looked down at the worn carpet when her shirt rode up and exposed the tan skin on her lower back.
She sat upright and began to scribble. "Whoever he is. I don't know. I'm not a comic nerd or anything."
"I can tell," Parker smirked and tried not to glance down at her bare leg as she began to scribble on the notepad with the pen.
"Yeah, well, we all can't be super-geeks."
"I'm not into comics," he replied. "Just because I like math doesn't mean I'm a ‘super-geek.’" He air quoted when he repeated her words.
Her face stayed on the paper as she giggled. Parker had to wonder what she was doing. He didn't dare get any closer to her. He stretched his neck, trying to peek at the doodle she was making.
"Either way, you came back to see your sister and I'm not going to let you chicken out this time." She blinked her big grey eyes when she looked up at him.
“I ... I didn't chicken out. I was in shock maybe …”
Her shoulders shook as she let out another chuckle, her hand still moving across the paper.
“Sure.” The pen stopped and she looked up at him with a smirk. She ripped the paper off of the pad and stood.
Parker still couldn’t see her drawing, her hand covered it. She had a thin, silver ring on her pointer finger and her nails were neon pink.
She pushed herself off the bed with a bounce and made her way toward him.
“I’m going home now to get a shower, ‘cause summer school’s gross. But I’ll be back in an hour or two to take you to see your sissy.” She smacked his chest, placing the paper there. “See ya later, Peter.” Her eyebrows danced and she slipped out of his room.
He grabbed the slip before it fell to the ground and on it she had doodled a chicken wearing a cape with a spider on his chest. In big bubble letters it read,
Super-Chicken-Geek
.
Then he realized he was smiling at the door.
Chapter 13
Carly
“I was hoping you didn’t wear your hair down,” Parker smirked at Carly the instant she was out of her car. He was leaning, arms across his chest, against his Jeep with the top off. Reflective shades sat on his face, his hair was combed to one side out of his eyes and she was surprised that his clothes didn’t look like he’d just rolled out of bed. With the way they were wadded on the floor of his room, she didn’t think he’d take the time to iron his black v-neck tee shirt, which she couldn’t deny, looked exceptionally nice on him.
“Too hot.” She stepped toward the vehicle, tossing her head to the side to make her ponytail swing.
He just chuckled from behind her as she proceeded to climb into the Jeep.
The first thing to catch her eye was her doodle of the chicken taped to his dash, just under the air vent. This surprised her, because both her dad and brother babied their vehicles and they weren’t even half as nice as this one. They’d have an absolute panic attack if anyone stuck something to theirs.
Parker climbed in the driver’s side. His radio blasted as he cranked the engine. “Sorry ‘bout that.” He reached for the knob, the volume faded. “So, you’re going to have to navigate …”
“Yep. I assumed you weren’t psychic.” She tilted her head with a smirk, trying to seem calm, but she was tense like she was on a date. She had to remind herself that it wasn’t a date. It was for Bree and a thank you for his help.
They weren’t attracted to each other. They couldn’t be. After he visited with his sister and exchanged emails, cell phone numbers, and followed one another on Twitter he’d be gone. Carly would never see him again. Why was she even thinking this? It wasn’t like she was looking for a relationship. Not after Colten.
“Okay … where do I go?” Parker sat at the intersection waiting for Carly as she daydreamed about … what was it again?
“Um, left.” She nibbled on her bottom lip.
Parker’s thumbs drummed on the steering wheel even though he’d turned the music so low they couldn’t hear it over the air rushing through the Jeep. She loved the feel of the wind whipping against her like she was flying.
Parker stopped at the only stoplight in town.
She stared at him, his shoulders were rigid, his jaw clenched, and knuckles pale.
“Bree’s really cool,” Carly offered. It was like she’d woken him from sleep, he jerked and looked at her. The edges of his mouth slid up just enough to call it a smile.
“Thanks.” His voice was a scratchy whisper. And he didn’t look away from her, nor did he say anything else. A small flutter was in her chest and warmth spread through her.
The horn blasting from the impatient car behind them made them both jump.
“I’m going!” Parker shouted over his shoulder, before belting out laughter with Carly and traveling under the green light.
*****
Parker’s breathing increased when he shut off the Jeep, sitting in the gravel driveway of the little yellow ranch home, his eyes on the front porch and he didn’t say a word.
“C’mon, chicken.” She pushed on his shoulder. “Or I mean Super-Chicken-Geek.”
He hesitated before climbing out, staring at the house like it was haunted. Carly was already on her way around the Jeep before his feet hit the ground. The rocks crunched under his shoes.
She continued to walk across the yard and toward the front door. “Hurry up,” she waved an arm to the house, “before Bree wonders who the creeper is with me.”
He caught up to her before she stepped on the porch. They stood at the door and Carly knocked.
Parker’s bouncing leg made the porch rattle a little. He was breathing heavy and his hand brushed against hers. She slipped her palm under his. His hand was damp and warm and she curled her fingers around it.
He squeezed, and his shoulders relaxed at their contact. She smiled, though didn’t look his way.
The door swung open, and it wasn’t Bree like she’d expected. It was Nate. Carly felt a little weird thinking of him as a foster parent when he was only in his mid-twenties.
“Carly,” he said a little too chipper for her. Why was he always happy? His blond hair was combed into a funky point and he wore a tee shirt for what she knew had to be a Christian rock band.
His eyes darted from Carly to Parker, then at their connected hands.
Great, just what she needed, Nate thinking she was bringing random flings around.
She hated to do it, but she slipped her hand out of Parker’s.
“Bree said she’d be home.” Carly wrung her hands together.
“Yep, she’s here,” Nate looked at Parker again. Carly realized she should introduce him.
“This is Parker,” she said. “Parker, Nate.”
Parker’s forehead wrinkled and he said hello. He held out the hand that had just been wrapped around Carly’s for Nate. Nate’s face brightened. Carly was sure he was excited to have another victim to try to win to Jesus.
Nate and Lexi were nice, but it seemed like all they ever wanted to talk about was God. And Carly found it not only uncomfortable, but also annoying.
“Come on in,” Nate stepped aside making room for them to enter.
Carly walked into the house, Parker behind her. She turned back to Nate as he shut the door.
“Is she in her room? I’ll go get her.”
“No, she’s in the bathroom. She and Lex are giving Bailey a bath.”
“Oh.”
“You can go on back. They should be about done.” He waved toward the hallway then turned to Parker. “You want something to drink?”
“No,” Parker’s voice came out hoarse and she hated leaving him, but she needed to see Bree. Should she warn her?
Down the hall, she knocked on the closed door, “Bree?”
“Carly, come in,” Bree called.
Carly eased the door open. Lexi and Bree were both on the floor. Bailey was in the middle of them wearing only a diaper and some white baby powder dusted on her skin.
Lexi gushed over the zebra print sleeper before slipping it over Bailey’s head.
Bree smiled and patted the small space beside her. “I wanted to get her nice and clean for her Aunt Carly.”
Carly smiled and eased down onto the floor.
“She’s going to have to get her away from her Aunt Lexi first.” Lexi hugged Bailey to her chest and pressed a kiss on her fuzzy dark hair that stood straight up in the air like she’d stuck her fingers in an electric socket. “I love the smell of baby after a bath.” Lexi’s long dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail and a stretchy gold headband ran across the top of her head.
Carly laughed, “You get her all the time.”
“I guess I can share her for a little bit,” Lexi sighed.
“That’s okay,” Carly smiled and turned back to Bree. “I brought a surprise for you.”
Bree’s eyes rolled and she held her hands together at her chest, “Oooh, I love surprises.”
“No, you don’t.” Carly pushed herself off the ground, using the side of the tub for leverage.
“But yet you still spring ‘em on me.” Bree stood beside her.
Lexi talked baby to Bailey making squeaking noises as she slipped out of the room. “Uncle Nate,” she called out.
Bree shook her head and shut off the light before they entered the hallway. “Nate and Lexi have been trying to have a baby. I think Bailey made her baby fever worse.”
“She’s adorable, it almost gives me baby fever.”
“You did not just say that.”
“Yeah, your right.” Carly bumped Bree’s hip with hers. “No time for that.”
“So what’s the surprise?” Bree pushed the fallen brown locks from her messy bun out of her face as they were entering the kitchen.
She tilted her head when she saw Parker sitting at the table talking to Nate. “A boy? You brought me a boy?”
Parker’s eyes widened and he stood. “Bree?”
“Am I supposed to know you?” Bree’s voice was soft.
“Bree … meet Parker.” Carly pulled her lip into her mouth, waiting on Bree’s reaction.