This Beautiful Thing (Young Love Series) (6 page)

I smile like a kid in a candy store. “I can’t wait to see you either, just give me thirty minutes and I’ll pick you up.”

“Ok bye.” She says and I hear a click.

I try and compose myself before I go out to talk to Jaden. I hope he doesn’t feel my excitement. I’m already going to have to lie to him about my date and I feel awful about it. So I suck it up and do what I have to do.

After I walk back out and sit on the bed again he goes right into it. “Her name is Grace. She is on the squad and roommates with Teagan. I don’t think Teagan would mind but that’s not the problem obviously. I’m trying to ask you to help me talk to her.” He finally slows down to take a breath and I can tell that was hard for him.

“It’s cool Jaden; I’ll help you talk to her. It’s no problem.” I’m actually happy he needs my help with something; it eases my guilt a little bit.

“That is so great man. I’ll hit you up tomorrow. Don’t want you to miss your hot date. Who is it by the way?”

“Umm just some girl I met the other day. You don’t know her. It’s really not that big of a deal.” I laugh nervously. I don’t lie well at all. I guess I feel like I will get caught in them.

“Ahhh cool man, I’ll catch you later.” He waves as he walks out the door and out of the house.

That was close I’m really going to have to work on my evasion skills if I’m going to date his beautiful sister.

Chapter 7

Teagan

I’m so nervous. God I am so nervous. Grace dressed me in a v-neck green shirt with skinny jeans and knee high black heeled boots. She curled my hair and tied a matching green scarf to keep it out of my face. She says I look hot and I would agree. The shirt makes my eyes pop and the jeans hug my every curve I didn’t know I had. She also lined my eyes in black and added smoky grey shadow which make me look all mysterious. I have to say I would have just put on a band tee and pulled my hair up and maybe a little lips gloss. I’ve never done this before, but I broke down and asked her because I wanted to look as beautiful as he makes me feel.

Grace comes up behind me to look in the mirror as I do. “I told you there were curves underneath all those baggy pants and band tees.” She smirks and fluffs up my hair.

“Yeah well I couldn’t have told you there were any and it’s my body.” I say as I give her a grateful look.

“Every girl has curves in the right clothes, hon.” She states as she turns to go back to her bed.

I laugh at this saying “Yeah Grace I totally believe you now.”

She starts to reply but my phone starts ringing. My stomach drops to my knees as I look at the screen. It’s not Declan telling me he is here. Oh no it is my brother Jaden who was just at Declan’s house, talking to him.

I almost let it go to voicemail but answer it at the last second. “What’s up Jaden?”

“Hey do you think that maybe You, Grace, Declan and me can go out on Friday? You know like a group thing?” he questions sounding extremely nervous.

“Umm let me ask Grace, though I don’t think it will be a problem.” I sigh. I was totally freaking out over nothing. I look to Grace, “You want to go out with Jaden, Declan, and me on Friday?”

Her face shows that this shocks her but she quickly smiles and nods. I’m personally happy because I would need her there just to keep me off of Declan.

“Yeah we are both down. I have some stuff to do so I’m going to get off here.” I say quickly as my phone vibrates that I have another call.

Jaden says his thanks and hangs up and I’m immediately connected to the other line. “Hey.” I speak into the phone hoping that it is Declan.

“Hey beautiful, I’m out in the parking lot when you are ready.” His voice comes over the line, sending my nerves into frenzy.

“Okay I’ll be right down.” I hang up before he can reply turning to Grace about to freak out.

She gets up off the bed to move quickly up to my face telling me to breath. “It’s ok Teagan, you’ll be ok. Just breathe. I was worried about this; all this sneaking around behind your brothers isn’t going to help your stress.” She begins to pat my back is a soothing rhythm.

After my mom died I started to have panic attacks whenever life got too much for me. They used to happen all the time back then. As I got older they became less frequent and now I have one every once in a blue moon. I have always wondered if my family is so over protective because of them. I guess finding your little sister passed out in the bathroom can do that to you.

I start to breathe better and before I know it I’m ok. “I’m good Grace, it wasn’t a big one. I’m fine now.”

She looks like she doesn’t believe me buts helps me off the floor. “You take those stairs easy, hon, and text me when you get to his truck.”

*****

When I step out into the cool night air I look around for his Silverado. That is such a turn on, I love big trucks. I guess they make me feel bigger then I actually am. When I see it my breath hitches.

He is standing outside of it with a single red rose. I can’t help myself as I laugh at the cliché. He smirks at me like he gets the joke, and that makes me feel less nervous. I take the flower out of his hand bringing it to my nose to inhale the sweet scent. “Thank you.”

I take in how gorgeous he looks in a button up pale blue dress shirt, which is un-tucked from his denim jeans. The selves are rolled up to his elbows and his jeans have those pre-made holes. I haven’t ever liked those kinds of jeans but he rocks them. Then I get jealous of his red Chuck Taylors. I used to have a lime green pair but they got ruined fast because I wore them everywhere.

He gives me a shy smile and takes my hand leading me to the other side of the truck where he opens the passenger side door for me. After he helps me in and he shuts the door and walks around the truck. I take the time alone to concentrate on my breathing. God I hope I don’t have an attack in front of him that would be so embarrassing!

“Are you ready to go?” He asks me with one golden eyebrow raised.

Shit. I totally spaced out on him. I didn’t even realize that he was in the truck yet. “Umm yeah let’s go.” I smile through my cheeks turning red. “Where are we going?”

“I was thinking that we could go out to the lake and have a picnic in the back of the truck. I’m pretty sure there won’t be a lot of people out there so there’s less of a chance of us being spotted.” He tells me sheepishly.

I nod “Yeah that sounds great.” And it really does. I love being outside and the weather isn’t too cold yet. The sky is clear and all the stars and moon are out.

“Okay good. I was worried you wouldn’t want to be outside or something. I personally love to be outside. When I was a little kid my nanny couldn’t get me to stay inside.” He says conversationally.

I smile picturing him running from a little old lady. “That is cute. Your poor grandmother.”

He frowns and looks confused. “My grandmother? Oh you thought I meant my grandmother. No my nanny, as in someone who is paid to take care of me. My parents weren’t around a lot so she raised my brother and me.”

“Your parents left you alone for long enough that a nanny had to raise you? That sounds awful. I couldn’t imagine my parents leaving any of us for that long. They wouldn’t even let me go to Sarah Lawrence because it was too far away from them.”

“Dang your whole family is over protective aren’t they? I almost wish mine were. I haven’t even talked to my mom in like six years.”

“Why?”

“She ran off with her personal trainer when I was thirteen. Haven’t talked to her since. I didn’t know her all that well so it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“Wow. I haven’t talked to my mom in eight years.” He looks at me instead of the road.

“How is that possible? I have met your mom, she like lives in your house.”

“No that is Sarah. She gave birth to my brothers and sisters. Mine died when I was ten. She had cancer.”

“Are you adopted?”

“Umm no. It’s really complicated and I don’t like to talk about it much.”

“You can tell me anything you want Teagan, I won’t judge you or your family for it.”

“Okay then. You asked for it. My dad had an affair with my mom nineteen years ago and I was the result. When she died I had to go live with my dad and his other family. Jaden and everybody didn’t even know I existed.”

“I honestly was not expecting you to say that. Damn that is crazy.”

“Yeah and I’m only two weeks younger than Jaden and Caden. My dad and Sarah are good people, I mean they didn’t have to do any of that for me but they did and I never wanted for anything. Sarah is a little hard on me but I think that’s just because she doesn’t know what to do with me.”

“Yeah well I guess you got to look at it from her point of view, you know? She had to take in this little girl who was the product of an affair her husband had. She wasn’t planning on you. At least she is good enough person to care about you. My dad didn’t even come to my graduation. I woke up one day to this truck outside with a bow. He had it delivered.”

“That sucks. I’m really sorry they aren’t there for you. At least you have your brother. That’s really sweet that you stayed here to be with him.”

“How did you know that? Oh wait Jaden, what a gossip.” He smiles at me and grabs my hand. I feel tingles all down my fingers as he laces his with mine. “You weren’t supposed to know that, you were supposed to think I’m a cool brooding misunderstood bad boy.”

I let a gut busting laugh to that. “You are not were close to a bad boy. Have you met Caden? He is the definition of the word.”

“Really? And no I haven’t ever met him. I only met your mom because she brought Jaden over to my house when we were younger. He does talk about y’all a lot, you especially.”

“That’s not embarrassing or anything. I cringe to what he could have said about me.” I give him a lop sided smile. “Anyway Caden has several tattoos and piercings. He also goes through girls like no body’s business.”

“Don’t you have a tattoo?”

“Yeah I have four. You only saw one, I also have two on my back and one on my foot.”

“You don’t know how hot that is. What are they?”

“I would rather show you. They are kind of hard to explain. ” I slap my hand over my mouth. I have to learn to control what I say around him. “I didn’t mean it like it sounded. “

“It’s okay Teagan.” He chuckles and brings my hand up to place a kiss on my knuckles. “You can show me and I want take it as a pass. Unless you want it to be.” He grins wide and I see dimples on each side of his mouth. I don’t know how I didn’t see them before. I like the playful look it brings to his face.

I smile shyly because I really have no idea what to say to that.

Declan

Once we make it up to my favorite spot I turn off the truck and get out. I put some blankets in the back seat for us to sit on in the bed of the truck. I love it up here. It’s so peaceful and quiet, unlike the city. You can see every single star out tonight. I don’t know when I got so cheesy. I guess she brings out the romantic side of me. A side I have never met but I’m pretty sure I like it.

I run around to her side of the truck to help her out. “Your picnic awaits my lady.”

She giggles at me taking my hand. “Why thank you kind sir.” I get a wink as she skips along ahead of me. And all right I totally checked out her butt. Just like her it is perfect.

We climb into the bed and sit on the grey fuzzy blanket Marcus dragged out of some closet in our house. “I brought turkey subs, chips, some fruit, and cookies for dessert.”

“What kind of cookies?” she asks peering into the wicker basket Marcus also pulled out of some hole in our house I had no idea about.

“Peanut butter. They are my favorite.” I say pulling out our food and placing it in front of us.

“They are my favorite too!” she gets excited and steals one out of my hand. She sits back down in front of me Indian style. “Sarah bakes these all the time. I don’t know why because I am the only one who likes them.” She shrugs munching on her cookie.

“Marcus made them. He loves to cook. He actually made the whole meal. He wants to go to culinary school and open his own restaurant one day.” I reveal, unwrapping a turkey sub.

“That’s really cool. I hope he gets to do that.” She pauses taking another bite. After she has chewed and swallowed she speaks again. “I really want to be a counselor for younger kids. I want to help out in the community the way that my step-mom does.”

“That’s awesome. What does she do?” I inquire.

“She runs a lot of charities and such. She has raised a lot of money for under privileged children around the state. She even runs a summer camp for them. They get to go there and learn how to swim and ride horses. Things like that.”

“Wow. That is really great of her to do. I have wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember. Marcus says it’s because I like to debate.” She laughs at this and I go on. “I just want to help out people who have been wronged and need someone to get them justice.”

“I don’t know about the debating thing. You seem to agree with whatever I say.” She smiles coyly at me.