Chapter 23 Jack
Dipshit
Morning, Princess.
…
This princess can be a bitch.
If Sasha so much as breathes near you, you better let me know.
Dipshit
Calm down, sheesh.
I’m serious.
Dipshit
Lol. Fine.
Meet me at Johnston Pier at 4.
Who says I want to meet you anywhere?
Dipshit
Thought you’d stopped playing hard to get.
Me play hard to get? That’s rich coming from mister “nothing to talk about.”
Dipshit
Fine. Meet me at the pier because I’ve got nothing-to-talk-about with you.
Gray clouds crowded the sky, leaving not a single strip of blue. Mist fell, then rain, then mist again as if it couldn’t make up its mind.
“I don’t like this,” Ty grumbled.
“Don’t really care.”
“Cal’s a good guy, but you deserve better than this.”
I snorted.
“I’m serious, Jack. This is some shady mistress shit. Meeting at an abandoned pier? What even is that?”
“No, it’s not. We just need some privacy, all right?
If this is where he wants to open up, then I’m here for him.
” The wiper blades squeaked over the damp glass as I stared out the window.
“Just … Just support me? I dunno what Cal wants yet, okay? We didn’t get to finish talking.
Maybe he’s fine in the closet. I don’t even know if I want to be out in Hickory Bend. ”
Ty mumbled under his breath as he drove through the dreary afternoon.
“What?” I asked. “Just get it all out before we get there.”
“So what’s the end game here? I mean, we’re leaving for college in months.” He glared at me for a second. “Months, Jack. Does he know that?”
“Cal might be headed for the same part of the country.”
He swore, then made a sudden left turn, pulling onto a hidden drive that opened to a small parking area a second later. Cal’s truck was the only one in the lot, and Ty stopped behind it.
“Should I be ready to come pick your ass up later?” Ty asked.
“I’ll get him to take me home.”
Ty threw his hands up and chuckled without humor. “Have you forgotten the last time you got dropped off—”
“No,” I snapped. “Fuck, Ty, you think I’m the same kid I’d been then? Cal isn’t like that asshole.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, and you believe it too, or you’d never be doing this, so don’t even pretend.”
Ty sighed, then smirked. “Fine. Yeah, I like Cal too, but I can’t let him know that on principle.”
“You’re not that great of an actor, Ty.”
He shoved my shoulder. “Get out of the car and go get laid.”
I opened the door and let the cool mist calm my raging libido. “Talk, Ty. Cal and I are going to talk. It’s what grown-ups do.”
“They also fuck. Shut the door and get lost.”
He put the BMW in reverse as I slammed the door, then peeled off seconds later. I raced to the passenger side of Cal’s truck, thankful the door was unlocked, and jumped in before the mist could soak me all the way through.
“Cold?” Cal asked, even as he started his truck and turned the heater on.
I shivered when the warm air hit me and chuckled. “Yeah, a bit.” We sat in silence as the truck cabin filled with coziness, and then I added, “Next time you want to meet somewhere, make sure it can be found on Google Maps.”
“My bad.” He scanned the lake in front of us. The dark surface was near glass-like. With fall came earlier sunsets, but the cloud cover retired the light even earlier today. “Guess I forgot it’s not well-known by everyone.”
Silence settled in, but when the truck was well past toasty, he shut it off, and we turned to each other, speaking at the same time.
“What are we—”
“Did you wanna—”
We stopped and snickered.
“Is it too weird if we aren’t fighting?” he asked.
“Too weird? No, but it’s weird.”
More silence. I wouldn’t call it uncomfortable.
“Are you just messin’ with me?” Cal finally asked.
If he could find his balls, I needed to as well.
“No.” Though I might have wanted it to be that, it never had been. I sighed and laid my head on the seat back. “No, that’s not at all what I’m doing.”
“You like me?”
I grinned but didn’t face him. “Why? You like me?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do. I don’t want to fight anymore, not for real anyway.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to tell him I liked him too. That I didn’t want to fight him as enemies anymore either. Even though he’d just said those very words and made it sound so simple, so easy, I couldn’t make myself cooperate and say it to him.
“I come here a lot,” he said when I didn’t reciprocate his confession. “That pier looks half-rotten, and, well, it might be, but it works. No one comes out here much, and for sure not this time of year, so it’s a spot I like.”
“It’s peaceful.” On a bright day, the colorful fall leaves against the mirrored water probably made this place picture-perfect.
“Yeah.” Cal slid his fingers along mine where they dangled over a cup holder.
The gesture wasn’t grand, but my dick perked right up.
“But it is with you too. I don’t know what you do to me, but you do it.
” He fidgeted, then turned a weighted stare on the side of my face.
I kept my own glued to the lake, hoping he’d keep talking.
“I’ve had some rough stuff going on, and around you, all of it quiets.
Even when we were at each other’s throats, I could finally think. ”
I faced him then, and the grin that split my face was only contained by my teeth sinking into my bottom lip. “You’re a romantic.”
He snickered, and his cheeks flushed pink. “Shut up,” he mumbled.
“I’m serious.” I leaned into his space, hoping he’d meet me part of the way. “Everyone said you were a nice guy, and I didn’t want to see it. Now, you’re blinding me with the light inside you. I didn’t want it to happen. But what’d you do? You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”
“What did I do?” Cal smiled and straightened, putting himself closer without seeming to realize.
A breathless laugh snuck out before I licked my lips, eager to taste him again. “That you don’t even know makes you even sexier.”
Fuck the ninety/ten rule. I closed the distance and brushed his lips with mine. I’d been wanting this since we fled that tiny bed Saturday night. His skin was cool, or maybe mine was burning. His hesitation, a sort of shyness, was contrary to what we normally shared and threw me off.
I pulled away half an inch, far enough to talk, but close enough I could pretend he was my entire world. “I like you too, Cal, and it pissed me off. I tried so hard not to, but you made me like you, that’s what you did, and I punished you for it.”
“Jack,” he whispered, then gripped my upper arms. For one heartbeat, I thought he might push me away. I didn’t know where his head was, and old fears still haunted mine.
Cal pulled me into him, almost completely onto his lap. I gripped his quads for balance, which turned into me squeezing his muscles before moving higher on his leg. We attacked each other, biting and kissing as we both tried to gain control.
This. This was us.
“God, you get me so hard,” Cal mumbled, mint fanning my face, then scraped my bottom lip with his teeth. “You don’t even have to do anything. Shit you not, I’ve jerked off to thoughts of you twenty times since Saturday.”
“Thinking what? Tell me what’s in your dirty little mind, Princess.”
“Fuck you, Princess. You’re not bossing me around here.”
He palmed the back of my head with a firm hand, and we delved into each other’s mouths again. He tasted sweet, like candy. The contrast of his cool lips and warm tongue tightened my abs.
“Fuck. Your truck’s not big enough for this. I want to get off with you so badly.” I bit his chin, hoping it would get him as fired up as I was. This aggressive need between us was not abating.
“Not big enough?” he asked between kissing my jaw and nipping it. “More comfortable in the bathroom, the locker room?”
“Fuck you,” I breathed.
“Trent would be so proud we’re getting along.”
“God, don’t talk about that shithead right now.”
He chuckled but backed away, the complete opposite of what I wanted in this moment. “I don’t want to keep my distance from you at school. We can be friendly or something, right?”
I squinted my eyes. “Not sure I’ve got a halfway setting when it comes to you. I’ve got to get my hands on you, and that’s either to stroke you or punch you.”
He grinned but dipped his chin as his blush deepened. “Y-you wanna date me?”
I pursed my lips and hummed. “Thought that was a given.”
“Yeah, but I guess I want to hear it.” He straightened. “Can you blame me? You’ve been so hot and cold, I’m a fuckin’ tornado over here.”
I snickered. “Maybe I like you being twisted up over me.”
“Sadist.”
“Fine. I want to date you, Princess …”
“But …”
“I’m not into PDA.” His blank stare was a push to explain. “I’m not closeted. I mean, I’m not shouting about it. It’s no one’s business, but I’m not feeding the gossip either. I can’t—I won’t put myself out there and be entertainment for others.”
He cocked his head as questions swirled in his eyes, but he saw too much. Cal stiffened, took a deep breath, and let it out. “Why? Something happened?”
I stared at our hands as I opened up, trusted him as much as he’d trusted me with his shit. “Two years ago, I got jumped.”
He tightened his hand around mine. “What?”
“The West Coast is pretty open-minded, but that doesn’t mean everyone is.
There was this guy at school, football player, and I misjudged him epically.
Instead of turning me down when I asked him out, telling me he wasn’t into guys, he accepted, then had his buddies meet us so they could beat the shit out of me. ”
“Jesus.” Cal dropped my hand but only to cup my jaw in both of his. “Was it bad?” He scanned my face as if he hadn’t seen me almost every day for months now to know I was fine.
I took one of his hands and pressed his fingertips along the scar on the back of my head.
“Jack,” he whispered.
“It could’ve been worse. Physically, anyway. Sometimes I get these anxiety attacks.”