Dare to Kiss (The Maxwell Series Book 1) (11 page)

“Do you want to talk about it, Lacey?” Dad asked.

The cushion dipped near my feet.

“Is Kade gone?” I asked.

“He is,” Dad said. “Now what happened?”

I sighed heavily. “The house was dark, Dad—completely dark when we drove up. Just like that night. I freaked. I know I left the outside lights on and a few inside too. Why were all the lights off?” My eyes slid open as I willed the buzzing in my head to go away.

“I don’t know. I checked the house thoroughly earlier. But I’ll check it out in the morning.” He ran his hands through his hair. His skin appeared ashen, and he had a few more wrinkles around his sad green eyes.

My heart hurt. “You didn’t have to rush home.”

“Yes, I did. I’m sorry I wasn’t here, Sweet Pea.”

“Dad, you can’t be with me every minute of the day.”

“No, but someone should be here with you at night. I’ve called Mary. She’ll be flying in tomorrow.”

“What? I’m a big girl. I don’t need a babysitter, Dad.”

Mary Mills had been our housekeeper back in LA and had become family. I adored her. Still, I was going to be eighteen in a week. I didn’t need anyone to hold my hand.

“Lacey, Mary is not coming out here to babysit you. It would be nice to have her around. Don’t you think? We do need more home-cooked meals, and she can keep you company at night while I work. And she knows your issues and knows what to do.”

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of having someone here at night. After Mom passed, Mary and I had become close. She listened to me and gave me advice when I needed it, especially when Brad broke up with me.

“How’s your arm?” he asked.

“Sore. But I think I’ll be fine for tryouts.” The fires of hell could burn me, but I’d pitch through the pain.

Chapter 8

I
spent Sunday studying for my trig exam. Dad and I decided to forgo our ritual at the gun club. He had some work to do in his home office and needed to pick up Mary from the airport. He’d also found out that there’d been a power outage at about the time I came home on Saturday night. I was relieved it was nothing more than that.

Becca and I chatted. I apologized for leaving abruptly. She’d said I looked pale, and she wanted to check on Kelton. Once we had that out of the way, she proceeded to tell me all about her and Kelton. It was good to hear how giddy she was about the guy. I just listened. After Brad’s coming-out-of-the-closet news, and the way he’d broken up with me, I wasn’t in any position to give advice on boys. Kelton, though, seemed like a player to me, more so than Kade. I’d tried to erase Kade from my thoughts. Yet every time I touched my lips, an image of his tongue on mine or his hands on me left me daydreaming instead of studying. I had to mentally kick myself in the butt a few times.

Dad and Mary arrived back at the house late in the afternoon. When she walked in, my jaw dropped. Her petite frame had gone from plump to slim in three months. She’d cut her brown hair in a layered bob, which seemed to shave a few years off her thirty-something age.

We showed Mary the house. She loved to cook, so she was anxious to see if our kitchen was anything like the one in our house in California. It was roomy, but not as expansive as our old house.

After she unpacked, we ordered Chinese food. Dad wanted Mary to relax on her first day here. She’d argued with him that she would cook, but we needed to go grocery shopping first anyway. We hung out in the sunken family room off the kitchen, eating and chatting. She told us she’d been cleaning Rob’s apartment once a week. She seemed to think he was doing well. At least, to her he didn’t look so pale or withdrawn anymore. Throughout the week, he was eating meals she prepared for him. Tears stung my eyes as I listened. I missed him. I made a mental note to call him. With the time difference, it was hard to connect.

On Monday morning, I sauntered into the kitchen, moving my arm around. Stiffness had set in overnight, and today my arm hurt more than it had on Sunday morning. I was trying to keep it loose—tryouts were two days away. The hand I’d punched Kade with fared better than my arm at the moment.

“Good morning, Lacey,” Mary said, flipping her famous blueberry pancakes on the griddle. “Hungry?” Her brown eyes appeared tired.

“What are you doing up so early?” I hopped onto a stool at the kitchen island.

“I couldn’t sleep. So, pancakes?”

“I could always eat your pancakes. You know that.”

She’d never been married. When I’d asked her why, she’d responded, “I haven’t found the right man.” The man she did find was going to be one lucky dude. The woman knew how to cook.

“So, who’s the boy, and why didn’t you tell me about him?” She handed me a glass of orange juice.

“Excuse me?” It was a good thing I didn’t have juice or food in my mouth—otherwise she’d be wearing it right now.

“Some sweet boy, Kade, called here this morning. He wanted to know if you needed a ride.”

My mouth was hanging open. After my panic attack on Saturday night, I didn’t think he would want anything to do with me. Butterflies fluttered inside me. “He’s just a…” I didn’t know what he was. I’d only just met him. “He’s in one of my classes, and he’s supposed to be fixing my car.”

“You mean your father is still trying to push that clunker on you?”

“Yep. He loves that Mustang for some reason.”

“Good Lord,” she said, wiping her hands on a paper towel.

“So what did you tell Kade?” I took a sip of OJ, looking at the pulp in the glass.

“That a boy shouldn’t be calling a girl’s home so early in the morning. And that if you wanted a ride you would call him.”

Why was I surprised? Mary always read Brad the riot-act if he was out of line with his manners when it came to women. The first time she unleashed her wrath had been the night Brad was my date for one of Mom’s charity events. Mary had stayed late that night to help with my hair. When she escorted us to the car, Brad jumped in before me. Her eyes narrowed to slits. Red-faced, she’d directed him to get out and open my door.

“Is he cute?” she asked, looking at me intently.

Cute wasn’t the word to describe Kade. “Well, he’s not gay.” I had to get the elephant out of the room. Mary had been at the house the afternoon Brad came over to breakup. I had a meltdown, throwing anything in my room I could get my hands on. She’d been there to comfort me. “And, yes, he’s hot.”

“I guess I’ll have to meet him,” she said, turning toward the griddle, flipping the pancakes. The warm, delicious scent of sugary bread permeated the kitchen.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“And why is that?” She set down a plate of pancakes on the island in front of me.

“I’m not here to get involved with anyone. I’m on a mission this year. And heaven help me, I need to get my PTSD under control.” After Saturday, I wasn’t so sure I could. But I would die trying.

“I’m here to help, Lacey. And I know you want that scholarship. My advice, though…have fun. You deserve it.” Leaning forward, she reached over from the other side of the island and rested her cold hand on top of mine.

I wanted to have fun. I wanted to have friends. But after what happened on Saturday night, I was even more frightened now. I couldn’t let anyone see me like that again. I would die from humiliation. It was bad enough that Kade had. Or what if I got angry and hurt them for ridiculing me? One of my symptoms of PTSD was anger. Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry.

I did swallow a few mouthfuls of pancakes, even though the nervous butterflies in my stomach were having a field day. I didn’t want to disappoint Mary after she had gone through all the trouble of making breakfast.

The ride to school was uneventful. Dad and I hardly talked, probably because I was thinking about Kade. My stomach was still swirling with nervous energy, especially as we got closer to school. Part of me was dying to see him. The other part, well, not so much. I needed to thank him for helping me, but that would lead to him asking me questions. What would I say to him? Was I ready to spill all the details?

By the time Dad dropped me in front of the school, I was already twenty minutes late. The grounds were deserted. I walked briskly toward the doors.

“Lacey,” a male voice called from behind me.

Turning, I adjusted my backpack and my eyebrows shot up. Greg Sullivan sauntered toward me, his short legs covering a great distance. I assumed he knew my name from Aaron, since he’d pointed me out in the crowd at the Cave.

“You’re Lacey, right?” He swaggered as if he owned the world. His thin lips stretched into a sleazy grin.
Yuk
! His greasy black hair was as bad as I remembered.

“Who wants to know?”

“You’re Kade’s girl?” he said.

“You have the wrong person, buddy.” I pivoted on my heel. If I didn’t get my butt inside, I was going to be late.

“No, I don’t think so. Tall, curvy, attractive girl with long brown wavy hair, deep green eyes—”

I spun around. “Buddy, I don’t know who you are, or what you’re trying to accomplish here, but a lot of girls in this school have brown hair and green eyes.” Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Kade’s truck pulling in.

Removing his phone from his back pocket, he inched closer. “No. I have it right.” He pushed a button on his phone and then shoved it in my face. “This is you, right?”

Stars danced in my vision as I glanced at a picture of Kade and me kissing. A chill crept up my spine. Without another thought, I slapped the phone out of his hand. It fell to the ground with a resounding crack.

I wasn’t having a panic attack or an anxiety attack—not yet anyway. Pure, raw anger coursed through me. The same angry feeling I had when kids at my last school were being jerks, although this guy wasn’t just being a jerk. He was something worse.

“Are you some sort of pervert that you get your rocks off taking pictures of people kissing?”

He rubbed his pimpled jaw, his eyes narrowing, nostrils flaring. Then a sinister smile etched his face. “I like a feisty woman. I see we’re going to have fun.”

I whipped off my backpack and was clenching my fists when Kade jogged up.

“What’s going on here?” Kade said, inserting his muscular body between Greg and me.

“I’ll kick your ass if you come near me again,” I bit out, clenching my teeth.

“Maxwell, you have a spunky one here,” Greg said.

“Sullivan, get the fuck out of here or I’ll let her beat you. Then once she’s done, I’ll take my turn,” Kade said. “And we both know you don’t want my fist in your mouth.”

“The time is coming, Maxwell. Just remember that.”

As Greg stormed off, disappearing into the vast lot of cars, Kade said, “Breathe, Lace. Just breathe.”

I took his advice, inhaling the morning air. My pulse slowed.

“So, what was all that about?” Kade asked, concerned.

“He’s a creep. And he had a picture of you and me kissing against my car on Saturday. I don’t remember any camera flashes.” My veins filled with ice.

He raked a hand through his soft hair. “With digital cameras, it’s possible. My dad has one. He’s taken pictures in very low light.”

I knew nothing about photography, but the thought of Greg hiding somewhere around the Cave watching us gave me more than the chills. A stabbing pain pricked my skin as though someone was sticking a thousand needles into it. My buzzing friend started quietly, humming in the back of my head. I squeezed my eyes shut. I inhaled a long breath.
Hold. Count to five. Release.

“Lace, you okay?” Kade’s voice fluttered to my ears, soft and smooth.

I didn’t want to tell him I was dizzy. I didn’t want him to see me have another panic attack. But if I didn’t tell him, I was afraid my body and the concrete were going to become friends.

“Can you take me home?” I said, slowly opening my eyes. When I did, the world tilted slightly. I swayed. I wasn’t going to pass out. Sweat coated the nape of my neck.

Kade wrapped an arm around me. “Maybe you should see the nurse.”

I lifted my brows. “No. Take me home. If you don’t want to, I’ll call my dad.” I was not walking into that school with a panic attack festering.
No way, no how.

He snagged my backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. “Can you walk? My truck isn’t far.” His worried eyes searched my face.

I nodded. “Just stay close.”

He interlocked his fingers with mine.
Okay
. I liked his big hand and warm touch. I also liked the tone of his voice. Maybe it would help to take my mind off of me.

“So since you’re carrying my bag, does that mean we’re going steady?” Yep, that was my first thought.

He laughed, a great sound to help soothe my nerves. “Do you want to go steady?”

“Hell no.”
Yes.
I also want you and me naked.

“Liar,” he said, squeezing my hand.

The sun dipped behind the dark clouds that were rolling in. The weatherman had predicted rain today. A gust of cold wind blew. I shivered, wrapping the thin sweater I wore around me with my free hand.

As we approached the truck the buzzing slowed, the pricking-skin sensation was gone, but I still felt lightheaded. “I thought you normally parked near the ball field.”

“I do, but I was running late this morning, so I parked in front.” He pressed the key fob, and the locks clicked. He let go of my hand as he opened the door. I wobbled.

“Lace.” He moved so I was between his body and the inside of the door. “Step up slowly.”

“You’re not going to grab my butt?” I lifted one brow, anchoring myself with the inside handle.

“Who, me?” he asked, his eyes looking so innocent. “Lace, why would I touch you? You just told me in so many words that you wanted nothing to do with me.” His dimples emerged.

“So? That didn’t stop you on Saturday at the club.” I smiled.

“Get in, Lace. I’m not going to feel you up…yet.”

Before Kade dropped me off at home, I called Dad to let him know I was on my way. I didn’t want him to flip out when I walked in the door. I didn’t tell him about my almost-panic attack. I didn’t want him to worry, especially after Saturday night, so I used my sore arm as an excuse. He’d wanted to take me to the doctor, but I convinced him to give me one more day. We agreed if my arm wasn’t any better by tomorrow, I would go see a doctor. Mary made me a cup of tea, gave me two Advil, and sent me to my room. I spent the morning sleeping, until my phone woke me up around eleven a.m.

“Hello.” I cleared my throat.

“Lacey, are you okay?” Becca asked.

I stretched my good arm over my head. “Yeah. Just a little cold. I’ll be fine.” Considering I wasn’t quite awake, I didn’t want to get into the specifics of why I was home or my run in with Greg. If I did then that would lead to more questions I wasn’t prepared to answer yet.

“Good. By the way, Kade was asking about you. He seems sad over something.”

“How do you know? What did he ask?” I sat up
. Oh, God. Did he tell Becca about my panic attacks
?

“He wanted your cell number. So I gave it to him. I hope you don’t mind. I know you like him.” She giggled.

“Becca, what else?” I bit my lip.

“Okay, chill. He had a sad look about him when he punched your number into his phone.”

I flopped back onto my pillow. “He didn’t ask or say anything else?”

“No. Listen, I gotta run. Class is starting. I’ll take notes.” Then she hung up.

I didn’t know whether to be relieved Kade hadn’t said anything about my attacks or concerned he might be feeling sorry for me. I was all for a little consoling when needed, but people who took pity on others acted differently around them. Or they didn’t know how to act. I couldn’t handle someone taking pity on me. All it did was bring me down, and according to Dr. Meyers I had to be around those who supported me.