“It’s okay. See you tomorrow?”
“Bye, Yankee.”
Ignoring my attempt to walk on my own, Bo sweeps me up in his arms again like I weigh nothing. “Why do you insist on carrying me? I have two perfectly good legs!”
“Trust me, I know how perfect your legs are,” he smirks.
I feel my face getting hot. Did he really just flirt with me?
This time Bo doesn’t set me down until I am in the passenger seat of his truck. Even if he had set me down on the ground he would’ve had to lift me up in the truck because it is lifted too high for me to climb. J climbs in the back seat of the candy apple red Dodge Ram 1500 that is covered in mud. I’m surprised I could even make out the color of the truck.
“Do you ever wash your truck?” I ask as I fasten my seatbelt.
He shrugs as he backs out of the parking spot he parked in. “No, I like it muddy.”
“Why?”
He chuckles. “You’re definitely not from the South darlin’.” There’s that damn word again. Rearing my fist back, I let it fly, punching his bicep as hard as I can. That turned out to be a big mistake.
He slams on the brakes when I scream and clutch my hand. “What the hell! Is your arm made of steel?”
I hear J curse from the back seat and then he is between Bo and me, checking out my hand. I didn’t miss the spark that ignites from him grasping my hand. No…I can’t be attracted to anyone. One…I will be gone soon and two…these two are thorns in my side.
“No darlin’, it’s man made muscle thank you very much,” he smirks. If my hand wasn’t throbbing I would punch him again.
Very big thorns.
“Where do you live?” Bo asks when he pulls up to a stop sign.
“Uh, good question.”
“Okay…let’s try this again. What road do you live on?”
“Another very good question.”
Bo pinches the bridge of his nose. “How in the heck do you not know where you live?”
“I haven’t been here, but a week so excuse me if I don’t know my address by heart yet!” I immediately wish I hadn’t of yelled because now my head is starting to throb harder.
“Cass,” J murmurs softly, grabbing my hand again. The gentleness of his touch calms me. “How did you get to school this morning?”
I lick my lips and gave an innocent shrug. “I walked…”
“You walked?” J sputters. “I’ll get to that topic in a minute. Can you tell me which direction you came from?”
“Uh…” I pull my eyes from J and glance around, taking in the surroundings as I try to remember which road I turned off of when I made it to the school. Then a brilliant idea hit me. “Wait…” I start scrambling through all the papers I got today. “Here it is!” I pull out a piece of paper which incidentally has my address on it, handing it to Bo.
Bo stares at the page with a dumbfounded look on his face. “Dang it, darlin’ you walked a good thirty minutes at least to school this morning!”
What is so wrong with walking thirty minutes to school?
“Let me see that.” J snatches the paper from Bo’s hand and scans it with his eyes, I guess to see for himself. “Really Cassie? It’s not safe for you to walk alone anywhere these days.”
“I’m not a five-year-old; you do not need to lecture me on what the real world is like.”
I already know.
Neither of the guys utters another word to me as Bo drives toward my new home for, at least, four months. I shift my weight and lean against the door, my head against the cool glass. For once, I actually like the silence seeing how these two like to get under my skin so much.
When Bo turns into the driveway I notice right away that the one car we have is gone, which means they are gone. Surprise, surprise. They are probably out looking for their next score. I don’t know where in the hell they will find drugs out here, but I guess you’d be surprised. They would drive pretty far to find their next fix. Who knows what all they are on? I’ve never cared enough to find out.
My father used to have an undercover job, but he could never go into detail about it. My mother was the typical stay-at-home mother. I can’t say that I’ve had a bad home life because I haven’t. My parents, up until recently were pretty normal. Now, they’ve just gone off the deep end. I’m not exactly sure why. According to Dad, he claimed he was fired from his job so he turned to drugs for an ‘escape’ and somewhere along the line my mother got hooked on it. I’ve tried to explain to them that drugs don’t help, but I gave up after giving the speech a hundred times.
“Thanks for the ride,” I mumble before I climb out. I close the door and walk up to the porch. To my disappointment, they both are behind me, right on my heels. I turn the knob to walk in, but it is locked.
What the heck?
I run my hand across the top of the door frame hoping they left me a key. No such luck.
“When will your parents be home, Cass?” J asks from beside me.
“Soon.” Heck, I didn’t know. I just assumed they’d be here when I got home or at least left me a key. I knew they wouldn’t leave the door unlocked.
Bo takes a stance, folding his arms across his chest. “Really? It looks to me that you expected them to be here judging by the way you just tried to walk in. I thought you said they were at work?” Dang it, Bo is too observant.
I needed to choose my words carefully around these two, especially Bo. “No…I, uh, I mean we only have one car so of course I knew they were not here. I just assumed they’d leave it unlocked for me. Like I said, they are at work.”
“How long is soon, Cass?”
I turn my gaze to J, his brown eyes penetrate mine. They are soft, like the tones of the earth. “Like four.”
J produces his phone from his pocket. “Great, that’s in like fifteen minutes. We’ll just wait with you.” He sits down on the porch steps.
“Good idea, J.” Bo jogs back to his truck, killing the engine before I can protest, and sits down on the steps with J.
I hold my hands up in the air. “Hold the phone!” Bo holds up his phone and I smack it out of his hands. It skids through the grass a good two or three feet away. “I didn’t mean literally!” I snap at him.
He grunts and gets up to pick up his phone.
“Who said I wanted you two to wait?”
“We did,” they say in unison, and I groan out loud.
Palm meet forehead. I would seriously high five my forehead, but it would just add to the headache I already have from them, so instead I clench my fists and close my eyes, taking deep breaths. I seriously need to calm my nerves before I punch one of them again, probably Bo.
I slowly open my eyes and harden my glare. “Exactly…
I
did not say you could wait with me.”
Bo’s response is to pat the open space between him and J. J holds out his hand for me to take for some unknown reason. My hand flinches in the direction of J’s outstretched hand, but I force it to stay by my side. “If I can get in the house will you two leave?”
Bo snorts. “Oh, this should be interesting.”
I grab the door handle and shake it violently, trying to force it open. I back up a few steps and run full force into the door, you know like they do in movies. In the movies it worked, in real life or at least my life, not so much. I clutch my shoulder, rubbing the sore spot I now had.
“Dang, I haven’t had this much entertainment in a while.”
J punches Bo’s shoulder. “Shut it, Bo. Cass, please stop and sit down before you hurt yourself more than you already have.”
My mind is conjuring up images of me kicking their butts. These two had me resorting to violence as a coping mechanism.
Bo happily pats the space between him and J again. Feeling defeated, I sigh audibly and sit down. “It’s about time you see it our way.”
“If you want to keep your balls intact I would highly suggest that you quit talking.” Bo’s eyes widen and he motions his lips were sealed. J chuckles next to me so I cut my glare over to him and he instantly quits.
There, now that’s more like it. Now, if I can just get them to leave it would be a lot better.
Chapter Four
J
It didn’t feel right leaving Cassie waiting on her front porch alone. She said her parents would be home at four o’clock yet we haven’t seen them yet and it’s going on five o’clock.
“Cassie, why don’t you just come hang with us for a bit and then we’ll bring you back?” It is also another way to get to spend some time with her and a way to get to know her without coming straight out and asking. I will ask her eventually, but she seems hell bent on getting us to leave. I know she doesn’t know us, I mean, she just met us almost three hours ago and judging by the glares she’s shooting our way, I’d say we are at the very bottom of her favorites list. I blame Bo and his smart ass mouth for that.
“They’ll be here soon.”
“No offense, Cassie, but you’ve been saying that for the last thirty minutes,” I remind her.
“Yeah darlin’ and I’m starving.”
“Bo…do I need to remind you of my previous threat?”
“No ma’am.” Cassie narrows her eyes at Bo for like the hundredth time. “What am I not allowed to call you ma’am either?”
“No, because it makes me sound old.”
“Come on, that’s the best excuse you could come up with?”
“It’s the only one you’re going to get so I suggest that you like it.” God, I love her snarky attitude.
“Cass, just please come with us for a couple hours you’ve at least got to be thirsty.” I try again against my better judgment. Her stomach betrays her by growling. “See, you’re hungry.”
“Fine, I will, only because I’m hungry, I’m bored, and my butt is starting to hurt from sitting on this concrete.”
“Fair enough.” I stand up and hold my hand out to help her. She ignores my hand in true Cassie style and stands herself.
“Thank God, darlin’! I’m starvin’ so bad I could eat a horse!”
“Bo…” Cassie says in a sweet voice that I have yet to hear her use, but we all know what she’s fixing to say won’t be sweet at all. “Just because I said I would go doesn’t mean that I’m not conjuring up ways to inflict bodily harm.” She pats his shoulder and walks ahead of us.
“Darn it,” he mumbles. “Don’t you ever leave me alone with her,” Bo grumbles under his breath to me and I laugh out loud. “I’m serious! That girl will probably behead me and use my head as the face of a dang scarecrow!”
Cassie must’ve heard his little dramatic outburst because she turns and says, “Aww…Bo, you didn’t tell me you could read minds!”
I swear I just saw fear flash in his eyes. Note to self: never, ever leave Bo alone with Cassie or she’ll more than likely kill him.
I walk up behind Cassie and placed my hands on her hips so I could lift her into Bo’s truck. I swear I hear her breathing falter for a split second. On the inside, I’m grinning like an idiot because it means she is feeling it, too.
Bo is quiet on the ride home. Heck, I think he is afraid to even breathe around her at this point.
When Bo turns down our long gravel driveway that winds back through the woods, Cassie, showing her roots asks, “Are you bringing me out here to kill me?”in a drop dead serious tone.
Bo being stupid opens his mouth and says the worst thing a guy in his position could possibly say. “Of course darlin’ why else would we be driving through the woods?”
Just so everyone knows, he is joking. He even said it in a playful tone. Most people would have laughed, but Cassie isn’t most people and she didn’t laugh. In fact, she rears her fist back and punches his arm again in the exact same spot as earlier.
Cassie lets out a cry and clutches her hand. I am immediately in between them inspecting her hand again to make sure she didn’t break it this time. It isn’t broken, but it looks sprained.
“Man alive, darlin’ I think I’m gonna have a bruise!”
“
I’m
gonna give you one hell of a bruise if you don’t shut up Bo!” I growl at him.
When Bo pulls up to the house and stops, I hop out and go to Cassie’s door and open it for her. Little did I know, she had a hold of the handle when I jerk it open. Cassie falls out of the truck and into my arms.
“How in the world have you made it without getting yourself killed?” I ask in astonishment. She is easily the clumsiest person I’ve ever met.
“First of all you shouldn’t have opened the door so fast and secondly, I’m not clumsy and I’m not accident prone! You two are the cause of all the accidents!” she yells and points a finger at both of us.
“I don’t see how that is possible. Do you, Bo?” Yeah, I’m asking to get punched by ‘Rocky’ here.
“Don’t answer him!” she snaps at Bo. “You…” She points to Bo. “…ran into me in the gym knocking me unconscious. Then, I hurt my hand punching you not once, but twice because I told you ten times, probably more, not call me darlin’, but you didn’t listen and not to mention you wouldn’t shut up when I told you to!” Then she turns on me. “And you. You need to make sure that no one is holding on to the door before you just yank it open!” Her finger pokes hard into my chest as she gives me an earful.