Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP, “PAPER IN FIRE”
Eve
I almost called in sick to work the following day, but since I was filling in for another employee, I couldn’t bring myself to leave the owner without someone to work. I wasn’t all evil.
It was the longest day of my life because I needed to talk to Erin so badly that by the time I reached her house after work, I was ready to explode.
“Eve, how are you?” her mom asked, answering the door after I rang the bell twice and knocked a dozen times.
“Great. Uh, is Erin home?”
“Yeah, she’s in her?—”
“Thanks!” I called, already halfway up the stairs toward Erin’s bedroom.
She had music blaring from her boombox, and I opened her door without warning.
“Hey,” she said, glancing up from the edge of her bed where her foot was propped up while she painted her toenails red. “How was working on a Saturday?”
I turned down the volume on her boombox just enough to talk without yelling.
“I almost had sex last night,” I said so quickly it sounded like one long, indecipherable word, like I was trying to talk while being electrocuted.
“What?” Her face scrunched, keeping her head bowed to paint her toenails.
I kneeled before her, taking the nail polish from her hands and setting it on her nightstand.
“I’m not done,” she whined.
“I. Almost. Had. Sex. Last. Night.”
Her eyes shot open, along with her mouth.
I covered mine to muffle my scream while nodding repeatedly.
She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Tell me everything.”
I hopped onto her bed and gave her every tiny detail.
“So have you talked to him today? Is he getting condoms? Are you having it tonight? What about Josh?”
I shook my head and giggled at her vomiting endless questions without taking a breath. But I couldn’t blame her because I told the whole story in one breath without pauses for punctuation. “I don’t know. I had to work, so I haven’t talked to him. What am I supposed to do? It’s Saturday night. Do I call him? Just go over there uninvited?”
“Eve! He had his hands on your bare butt! He slid the crotch of your underwear out of the way so he could see your private parts, and he nearly made you orgasm. YES! You go over there tonight and finish the job.”
I gnawed the heck out of my lip for a few seconds. “What if he didn’t get condoms? Do you really think he took Josh with him to get them today?”
Erin hopped off the bed and dug through her purse, pulling out a condom. “Take it.” She handed it to me.
I stared at it.
“Take it.” She shook it in front of me.
I slid it into my pocket.
“Why do you look so nervous?” she asked, sitting beside me to resume painting her nails.
“Because last night we were in the moment. You know how after a football game, especially a big win, everyone is excited and celebrating and …”
“Horny.”
I giggled. “Yes. Tonight will feel different. Like, what if I go to his house, and he’s like, ‘Hey. What’s up? Why’d you come over?’” I bled insecurity in the safety of my best friend’s company.
“Stop. He’s not going to say that. He’ll be like, ‘Josh! Time for bed. NOW!’” Erin said in her deepest man's voice.
I snorted.
“Whatever you do, you have to call me as soon as it’s over and tell me everything.”
“Good idea. I’ll ask to use his phone while he discards the condom.” I rolled my eyes.
Erin capped the nail polish and shook it before switching feet. “You know what I mean. I just don’t want you doing it tonight and telling me about it at church tomorrow when I’ll have to control my reaction. Besides, I know Hazel Johnson always has her hearing aids in and turned up to hear the sermon and every word anyone says.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because she’s always scowling at us.”
“Huh. I hadn’t noticed.”
“Go have sex and call me.” She jerked her head toward her bedroom door.
I stood, feeling like the condom in my pocket was a gun that everyone could see. “It might not happen.”
“Or it might. But if you don’t go, we’ll never know.”
“Okay. Wish me luck.”
“Good luck. And call me!”
“Are all your friends busy tonight?” Mom asked, passing me the creamed peas. “It’s rare to have you or Gabby join us for dinner on a Saturday night.”
I shrugged. Gabby was with Ben, and it was weird being home tonight. “I didn’t feel like McDonald’s tonight, but I’m meeting everyone at the bowling alley after I’m done eating.”
“Kyle called,” Dad said.
I dropped the serving spoon, and it clanked against the bowl. Mom frowned at me while I cringed.
“He said he’d help me take down that last tree after dinner tonight if someone can watch Josh.”
“I’ll do it!” I blurted.
“You just said you’re going out with friends,” Mom said.
“Yeah, but I don’t have to.”
“You worked all day. I’ll watch him. I watched him earlier while they took down the other trees.” Mom smiled at my dad.
“Do you need help with the tree?” I asked.
My dad gave me the hairy eyeball.
“What?” I shrugged, taking a bite of my steak. “I’m eighteen now. Only a few of my friends are still in town, and Erin’s in school, so she has to study most nights.”
My parents exchanged a look.
“I like this adult version of you,” Dad said, offering me a rare, sincere smile. “You can help pile up the branches.”
I controlled my excitement and returned a smile and nod.
After dinner, I walked with my parents to Kyle’s house. As soon as he opened the door, his smile vanished.
It hit me: He probably thought I told my parents, and they’d dragged me over to talk with us about our sinful behavior and to tell Kyle he wasn’t allowed to get anywhere near me ever again.
“Hi,” he said cautiously.
“Eve’s going to pile up branches for us,” Dad said in a rare moment of fatherly pride.
It took Kyle an extra second to return a nod, and his smile was barely believable as my mom stepped inside.
“Is Josh in his room?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah.” Kyle continued to trip over his words.
It was weird, as if the previous night didn’t happen. I stared at his hands that had been in my underwear, and his lips that had kissed mine.
Dad jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “I’m going to head that way. I need to run back home first because I forgot my gloves. I’ll meet you two at the creek.”
“I’ll grab my handsaw and be there soon,” Kyle said to my dad while staring at me with an unreadable expression as he stepped outside and squatted to tie his brown work boots. “No plans tonight?” he asked.
“Nope,” I said, watching my dad trek back toward our house.
He stood and headed toward the barn, so I followed him, staying a few steps behind.
“Did you think I told my parents about last night?”
He shook his head, opening the barn door. “I don’t know what I thought.”
I stepped inside as he held it open.
“Why would I tell them?” I laughed, following him toward a wall of tools hanging from rusty nails beside the cabinet where he kept his bow.
“I don’t know. I thought maybe Jesus made you do it,” he said.
“Jesus died so we can sin.”
He laughed, plucking a handsaw from the wall before facing me. “I love your interpretation of the Bible. Your father would be proud of your vast knowledge.”
“Thank you.” I grinned. “Nothing makes me happier than making my dad proud. Now, are you going to kiss me?”
Kyle eyed me for a second before shaking his head. “Your dad will be waiting for us.”
I shrugged. “It’s just a kiss.”
“It’s never just a kiss,” he said without looking directly at me.
I stepped closer until my boots tapped his. “Just one.”
He grunted a laugh and pointed his attention past me as if someone was there. “Evil.”
I pried his fingers from the saw handle, and it fell to the ground. When his attention returned to me, he grabbed my head and kissed me.
It was one long, hard kiss.
It’s how I imagined a man should kiss a woman—passionately, confidently, unforgettably.
And boy, was it ever unforgettable.
He had strong hands that cradled my jaw like he owned me as his fingers splayed along my neck. All I wanted was to experience how he would touch and manipulate the rest of my body if given the chance.
When he released me, his mouth bent into a sexy smile. He knew what he did to me. After he retrieved the saw from the ground and took several steps toward the door, I dropped to my knees. He peered over his shoulder, halting his steps.
“You’re slowly torturing me.” I pressed a fist to my chest, gesturing a dagger to the heart.
Kyle wasn’t five, but his blue eyes sparkled with an innocent wonder when he gave me a once-over. It’s how Josh looked at him.
That wonder morphed into something else, but I couldn’t read the emotion behind it.
“I’m in uncharted territory. You have to be patient with me,” he said.
I climbed to my feet and hurried after him. “I’m not a patient person, but I’m working on it.”
“I wasn’t patient at your age either.” He opened the door, and we headed toward the creek. “Eve, you must be careful, falling to your knees like that.”
“I’ve spent many hours praying. My knees are used to it,” I said.
He chuckled. “That’s not what I meant. I’m not worried about your knees.”
“Then what’s your point?” I glanced over at him.
“When a guy kisses you as I did, and you fall to your knees, he doesn’t think your knees are weak; he thinks you’re suggesting something else. It’s false advertising, Eve. You need to be more careful.”
“Something—” The light bulb went on in my pretty little head . “You thought I was going to …” I bit my lip and looked at him again.
He kept his focus on the grassy path, trying to control his grin while he shrugged.
“I haven’t. I mean, I would. I think. I’ll look into it.” I tapped a finger on my chin.
He lost control and snorted, pressing a fist to his mouth.
“What? Stop laughing at me.” I bumped into him, and he stumbled a few steps to the side.
“Sorry. I wasn’t expecting that reaction,” he said.
“What reaction? You assumed I would be more experienced?”
Kyle playfully nudged me back. “No. I don’t assume you’re experienced. I’d like to think you’ve been selective. ”
“A virgin?”
“Judicious.”
I laughed. “You’re such a nerd.”
“Let’s get this done before it gets dark,” my dad said as we stepped into the clearing just beyond the bend in the path.
“My hut!” I gasped at the pile of sticks.
“Darling, I told you it was going to come down.”
“No, Dad. You said it should come down. And I said it shouldn’t. Period. We weren’t done discussing it.”
When I looked to Kyle for help, he rolled his lips together and shrugged.
“Did you help him tear it apart?” I pressed.
“Eve, we don’t have time to discuss it. What’s done is done,” Dad snapped.
I kept my expectant gaze on Kyle.
He returned the tiniest headshake as if he didn’t want my dad to know that he was absolving himself of wrongdoing.
While they took down the last dead tree, I dragged limbs and branches to the burn pile. My thoughts were all over the place. One minute, I was composing a long spiel I planned on giving my dad about the hut, the next, I was thinking about my lack of experience with blow jobs. It made my head hurt because thoughts of my dad didn’t belong anywhere near blow job contemplation.
“That’s good, Eve. I’ll finish up with the rest tomorrow,” Dad said, gesturing toward the path back home.
On the way up the hill, he and Kyle discussed widening the path between our two properties so Gabby and I didn’t tear up his grass when riding the four-wheeler or Anikan, the horse we inherited from Sarah’s boyfriend.
I hung back a few feet for a bit of privacy while I pouted.
“I’m going to say good night to Josh,” I told my dad so he didn’t question why I was heading toward Kyle’s house instead of ours.
“Thanks again, Kyle. See you at church in the morning.” My dad veered to the right as I followed Kyle toward the orchard.
“See you in the morning,” Kyle replied.
After my dad was out of earshot, Kyle slowed down and waited for me to catch up. “I told him the hut didn’t need to be torn down, but he didn’t want a storm to blow it into the creek,” he said.
“And you told him that was highly unlikely, right? Then you told him that Josh loves the hut. Right?”
“Sure.”
“Liar.”
He laughed. “It’s not the end of the earth.”
“It’s not the end of the earth,” I parroted mockingly.
“I miss the woman from last night.” He shot me a look with one eyebrow raised.
I was being a woman. An irritated, pissed-off woman.
“I miss the man who stands up for me, protecting me and my things at all cost. My knight in shining armor. Oh,” I smacked my forehead, “that’s right. I’ve never met that man.”
“Ouch. You haven’t given me a chance.”
“I did! You had the chance to save my hut but tucked your tail between your legs and bit your tongue.”
Kyle turned one-eighty to face me, and I bumped into him and frowned. “Eve, last night I let the preacher’s daughter grind against my cock in nothing but her bra and panties. Patience. A hunter waits for his shot. A knight doesn’t storm the castle until he knows he can take the rook and the king. One move at a time. Okay?”
I stared up at him and rolled my eyes. “I don’t play chess. So what move did you make today?”
“When you were at work, and I was helping your dad take down the trees?—”
“And my hut.”
He sighed. “When I was helping your dad take down the trees , he thanked me for trusting you with Josh. And I sang your praises.”
“You sing?”
He smirked. “Probably better than you.”
“Jerk.”
“Evil.”
It shouldn’t have thrilled me to be called Evil, but it did when Kyle said it.
“I got a condom,” I informed him with pride.
He narrowed his eyes. “You got a condom ?”
I nodded.
“Why?”
I was crestfallen by his reply. “Last night, you didn’t have?—”
“No. I’m aware of what I didn’t have last night. I’m just really confused as to why you got a condom. And just to be clear, it’s ‘a’ condom?”
“Do you double up? You’re not supposed to.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Where did you get a single condom?”
“Erin.” As soon as I said her name, I cringed.
He widened his eyes. “Erin? As in your friend Erin?”
I wrinkled my nose and nodded.
“So you told your friend about us, even though I told you to tell no one?”
“She’s my best friend.”
“I said no one.”
“She’s not going to say anything.”
“Eve, you weren’t supposed to say anything, but you did. So why do you believe she won’t?”
“Dude, we’re not doing anything wrong. What’s the big deal?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “If it’s no big deal, we should tell your dad, right? And I’m sure he’ll be happy for us.”
“Well, I think we should wait to tell my dad.”
His hand flopped to his side. “Oh, you do, huh? And why is that?”
I twisted my lips for a few seconds. “Since I’m still living at home, he has a tendency to treat me like a child. So I don’t think he’d be okay with us yet.”
Ever.
My dad was never going to be okay with me dating a man ten years older than me.
“So we agree that things are murky, a little gray. And perhaps telling anyone, and I mean anyone, isn’t a good idea right now.”
I frowned. “What do you expect me to do? I can’t exactly un-tell Erin.”
He turned and marched toward the house, seemingly a little miffed at me. “I’m twenty-eight, Eve. I have a son, a house, and a job. I don’t need you getting condoms for me. I’m a big boy. I can walk into a store and buy them myself. No shame. No big deal.”
“You’re mad,” I said, following him.
“Yes. I’m mad. I don’t need my colleagues finding out that I’ve been messing around with one of their recent graduates. I don’t need my brother discovering that I tried to screw his best friend’s daughter less than a month after moving next door.”
“So we’re just going to be secret lovers?”
Kyle’s stride died, and I stopped to keep a safe distance.
He shook his head and chuckled. “Listen, I’m attracted to you. You elevate the mood of every room you walk into because you have a lively personality. I feel ten years younger when I’m with you. But I just bought a house and started a new job. I’m responsible for another life. I don’t want to get shamed out of town right now. So I don’t know if we’re lovers or what we are. I just know it’s way too early to put a label on it, which means it’s also too early to risk telling anyone . So no, let’s not be secret lovers. Let’s be adults with a little discretion.”
I opened my mouth to argue but quickly clamped it shut, fearing my reaction might sound too childish.
He waited with his back to me for a long moment before continuing to the house. “I’m impressed,” he said.
“Why?”
“I expected you to go off about something.”
“Well, I’m impressive, not childish.”
He chuckled.
The cat was out of the bag with Erin, and Grandma Bonnie, but that was neither here nor there. So it had to be okay to talk to them since they knew. If I’d had it to do over … yeah, who was I kidding? I totally would have told Erin and Grandma.
Guys came and went. They inflated hearts and broke them. Best friends and awesome grandmas picked up the pieces and mended them. Guys were givers and takers, but best friends shared everything. They made everything real.
“I’m going to head into your house instead of following you to the barn,” I said, stopping by the front porch stairs.
Kyle turned. “Why?”
“I think you should work a little harder for it.”
His tongue made a lazy swipe along his lower lip, and he nodded. “And by it, you mean you?”
“Yes.”
He beamed with amusement. “Okay.” After several steps, he looked back at me. In the next breath, he continued toward the barn.
My heart felt tortured. Self-torture, of course. But I needed to stop dropping to my knees, even if everything he did made them weak.