13. Mari
The morning following my car being pulverized, Leo pulled up to my apartment building promptly at 6:15 a.m. like I’d asked. I’d waited at the bottom of the stairs, ready to go. There was no way I wanted him to see the pathetic apartment I called my home.
After the volunteer fire crew made sure the tall pine stopped burning, they’d helped clean up, and Beau Winston towed away the remnants of my car. Pin Dick arrived home just in time to argue that it wasn’t his fault. He insisted his insurance didn’t even need to get involved. Leo glared at him until he gave up his information.
I had to hope it wouldn’t be totaled, but regardless, I needed a car quickly. This rideshare thing was not a long-term solution. After just a few minutes alone with Leo, I’d been distracted by his shy smile, gentle voice, and strong fingers. I couldn’t be trusted.
Leo was borderline comatose this morning, mumbling, “Hey,” as I got in the car.
Our close calls yesterday had been on my mind all night. I thought for too long about those capable fingers, the strength of his arms as they banded me in place, and his surprising ferocity as he saved me. And after, the fear I saw in his eyes as he checked me over for injury and the gentle way he’d removed my shoes and dried me off when I’d been too shell-shocked to do anything other than stare. The anger he showed when he didn’t let Pin Dick weasel out of his responsibility.
Ultimately, a literal tree crushing my car as he’d been about to maybe kiss me was a sign from the universe.
Stay focused. So that was what I would do. This attraction was fun, but it would pass. I was stronger than my desire.
“Daisy’s is on the way. Want to get a coffee?” I asked, clearing all the repeating thoughts with a plan. I needed some breakfast too. I had no food at the house, but that wasn’t new. Usually, I had time to stop and get something.
Leo grunted.
“I think that was a yes. I’ll run in, just pull up.”
There was a small queue as Rebecca poured my coffee and handed me two of the daily specials. She raised a brow and nudged her chin in the direction of the waiting car outside.
“Long story,” I said, following her gaze.
She’d hear enough from Daisy after the next bunco night.
I thanked her and made my way quickly to the car.
We each ate our donut in silence. By the time we got to the school, Leo had drunk half of his to-go cup. His blinks weren’t as slow, and his frequency of yawns was cut in half. “Go ahead and pull into the teacher parking lot,” I instructed. “The front office doesn’t even come in for another hour. Yeah, here’s good.”
He parked and turned in his seat expectantly. “What time should I come get you?”
“I can get a ride home from Clara.” Though even as I said it, I remembered that Clara already had her hands full playing chauffeur for Gracie and her sprained ankle. “You don’t need to worry about it. I know this is a pain. There are probably a dozen better options.”
He yawned behind his hand. “It really isn’t a big deal. Also, there’s no arguing with Janice once she’s decided.”
I knew that firsthand.
“I always admired that about her.” I sighed and relented.
“I’ll drive you until it no longer works.” He shrugged as if the extra time together didn’t matter to him at all. Well, how nice for him. If he wasn’t worried about it, then neither was I. We were adults, after all, with fully developed frontal cortexes designed for smart decision-making.
Maybe mine had been damaged at some point, and that was why my temper often got the best of me? Food for thought...for another time.
“Five should be good. You can pick me up at the field,” I said.
He ran a hand down his face. “That’s almost a twelve-hour day. When do you take a break?”
“There’s tons of free time between classes. I make it work,” I said. It was sort of true. “Do you want to come in and check out the teachers’ lounge? I could show you the mysterious cup that everyone refuses to clean?” I wasn’t sure why I’d offered, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him yet. So much for pointless cerebral cortexes.
He shot a look at the building, and his lip curled. “Nah. I think I’m going to go back to bed.”
“You really don’t like being here, do you?” I asked.
“It’s not my favorite place.” He tugged at his curls and took a breath. “I never really fit in here. I was bullied. Pissed off teachers with my complete lack of attention span. I couldn’t wait to leave...Now I’m back.” He mumbled the last bit to himself.
“Nothing wrong with coming home.”
He shrugged but didn’t speak. Another person who wanted nothing to do with Green Valley. He hated it here, so he probably couldn’t wait to leave. Of course, I was attracted to him. Something was deeply wrong with me.
I grabbed my stuff and opened the door. “Thanks again. I’ll see you later.”
He looked like he was about to say something. I waited until he nodded with a tight smile before I left with a wave. I glanced back one last time and caught him watching me walk away. He looked away and focused on putting the car in reverse.
I bit back a smile. Maybe not totally unaffected.
As usual, the day flew by. I hardly thought about the almost kiss with Leo as plenty of other distractions occupied my mind.
It was after-school marching band rehearsal before I knew it.
I was dizzy and starving by the time we ran through the Fall Festival routine. Mouth watering, I eyed up a granola bar poking out of a backpack.
I chugged from a water bottle as we took a break.
“Who’s the creepy dude staring at Miss Mitchell?” a sophomore called, tucking their trumpet under their arm and pointing at the parking lot.
Several heads turned to see what he was talking about.
Arms crossed and leaning against the side of the car was Leo. His head was down as he played on his phone.
“Was that the guy who dropped you off this morning?” Ruby asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I said.
Cath narrowed her eyes at Leo. I had explained to her about the car situation earlier but not about why I had been at his house to begin with. The drums were his surprise.
“Oooh.” Several people yelled and catcalled.
I held up my hand and closed my fist to bring them back to attention. “I was going to wrap five minutes early, but you know, I think we have time for one more run-through.” The whole group groaned, and I smiled. “Okay, let’s start from the top.”
We ended up going five minutes over, and by the time I’d helped everyone off to the instrument room to pack up, it was almost twenty minutes later than I’d promised Leo.
As I walked out to meet him where he still waited, my heart picked up at an excited pace. My lady bits decided that now would be a good time to remember how it felt to straddle him, after suppressing those thoughts all day.
“You better stop that right now,” I mumbled to myself.
“What?” he asked as I got closer.
“Nothing. Ready?”
“Whenever you are. Do you need help with anything?” he asked as he opened my door.
We both looked at his hand holding the door in confusion. He let go and went around to the driver’s side. “Nah. My students have it.”
“They sound good,” he said after he got in.
I preened. “Thanks. They’re really tight this year. I’m excited for the Fall Festival tomorrow.”
“They’ll be ready.”
“Are you going to come?”
“Maybe.” He started the car. “I left a message for Devlin about the rehearsal space. I haven’t heard back from him,” he said, clearly changing the subject. I was happy to hear that he’d taken the initiative to do that. I had worried that he was going to put it off until I had to call Devlin myself and ask for another favor.
“Thanks for doing that,” I said. Before Leo backed up, he reached into the back seat to grab something. When he twisted back around, he handed me a Tupperware container along with napkins and plastic cutlery. “What’s all this?”
“Just some leftovers,” he explained. The tips of his ears were red.
I gasped in excitement. My stomach gurgled, and my mouth watered before the lid was even off. “You’re an angel.” I inhaled the aroma of what looked to be chicken, rice, and grilled veggies. It was incredible. “Would you judge me if I shoved my face in here and ate like a pig at a trough? Manners be damned.”
He grinned as he checked over his shoulder for oncoming cars. “I would expect nothing less.”
I awkwardly wrangled the container to balance it on my knees and dug in. He’d even cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. I moaned and shimmied my shoulders as the food went down. After I swallowed, I said, “This is amazing. Thank you.”
“No big deal. I noticed you didn’t bring food this morning, and based on how you ate at the Front Porch, I got the impression you don’t cook for yourself much. I had extras from cooking for Janice anyway.”
I winced as I swallowed a too big bite down. “You made this? You cook?” I asked, not hiding my surprise.
“I got into the habit while touring.” He shrugged his large shoulders. “The options for eating on the road are terrible. I needed to fuel myself and the guys, with how much energy we burned during the shows.” I remembered the videos of him. Sweat dripping down his neck and glistened his chest.
“It’s a high calorie burning activity,” I said robotically and shoved another bite in my mouth.
“It turned out I actually enjoyed the cooking. One of my favorite things was trying to figure out what local ingredients I could find and cook in the small kitchen of the tour bus. I got creative.” He shot a glance to read my reaction.
For my part, I had a piece of red pepper currently sticking out of my mouth and rice stuck to my lips.
He smiled as he turned back to watch the road. I chewed and swallowed like a normal human.
“Man of mystery, you are. You’d think one of your favorite things would have been all the Burnnies or the adoring fans or the fame and, I dunno, the money.”
He cleared his throat and tugged his hair with his free hand. “Burnnies are a myth.”
I pulled up my phone and read from Urban Dictionary. “‘Named for the band and an assumed play on Playboy Bunnies, The Burnouts’ groupies were notorious for dressing up scantily at their shows and creating an online sensation via their fan videos.’ Y’all had groupies.”
“Vander was always the draw. But we never cared about all that.”
“Listen, I’ve seen the thirst trap videos. You definitely had Burnnies. You had your own hashtags.”
“Is that right?” He flicked a look at me.
“I’ve said too much.” I shoved more food into my mouth to keep myself from divulging any more.
“Taking you back to the apartment?” he asked, still blushing and willing to change the subject.
I wiped my mouth and cleaned my mess. “Actually. Can you swing by Main Street? I hate to ask for anything else, but I don’t need to go home and eat first now.” Not that I had any food at the house. “I need to talk to a couple of people. You don’t have to stay. I’ll just walk home after.”
“It’ll be dark,” he said sternly.
I opened my mouth to argue that it was Green Valley, but he shot me a look reminiscent of his mother. “You can wait in the car, then,” I suggested.
“I planned on it.” He scoffed as though any other idea was laughable.