Chapter 2
Then
A car honked as Tammy and I pushed through the school doors.
My brother was picking me up today, and I was hoping he would forget.
So much for that.
I held my hand, gesturing that I saw him, but to give me a minute.
He only honked again. Asshole.
“I would take you home if I didn’t have to be at work right after school,”
Tammy said, flipping my brother off.
Another long honk.
“What’s his problem?”
“I don’t know, but I better get going before he embarrasses us even more.
See you tonight at the game,”
I said as I walked down the sidewalk and to the curb where his car awaited.
Bending down, I glared at him through the open window.
“I just walked out, asshole.
You didn’t have to lay on the horn for everyone to hear.”
“Just get in.
I have to see a friend,”
he said, putting the car in gear before allowing me to get in.
Quickly, I threw my bag into the back seat and climbed in just before he took off.
“Who’s the friend?” I asked.
“A buddy from college recently just took a job here and is renting an apartment.
I haven’t seen him since graduation.”
“Well, can’t you drop me off at home first?”
“Can’t.
I told my buddy I would be there at 3:30.
There is no time to drop you off.
Just stay in the car and listen to music or something.”
“Well, how long are you going to be? I need to shower and stuff before the game tonight.”
“Why the hell would you need a shower before a football game?”
he said and hit the gas, knocking me back into the seat.
“Scott, watch it,”
I said, struggling with my seatbelt.
He seemed to ignore my dilemma and sped down the highway.
I reached for the stereo button and turned the dial, searching for something good to listen to.
“Keep your hands off.”
“You told me to listen to some music, and I sure the hell don’t like your shit,”
I said.
The only thing Scott listened to was that head-banging crap.
He smacked my hand, and I punched his arm in retaliation.
“Stop it.
You want to cause me to wreck?”
“Fine then.
I’ll wait until you leave the car.
And you can’t expect me to listen to your devil music.”
He looked sternly at me, then his eyes returned to the road.
“You better not leave it on that country shit,”
he said.
I stuck out my tongue and then pushed back into the passenger seat, crossing my arms.
“Oh, real mature, Jill.
Are you seventeen or seven?”
I ignored his response and turned to watch out the window for the rest of the drive.
Twenty minutes later, we were pulling into an apartment complex, and Scott parked next to a silver Corvette.
“Swee...eet,”
Scott said as he exited the car.
“Looks like someone is doing alright.”
I started to get out when he told me to stay in the car.
“Then give me the keys.”
“Why?”
“You said I could listen to the radio.
I need your keys for that.”
He tossed them through the window, landing on the driver’s seat.
“Hey, how long are you going to be? I could come back and get you.”
“I don’t know.”
“But, I’m going to the game tonight.
Twenty, thirty minutes—what?”
“Just stay there and wait.
I won’t be that long.”
I grabbed the keys and started the ignition.
When he was out of sight, I changed the radio station to country music.
He’d better not be very long.
Glancing around, I noticed the place looked new.
I was surprised that a just-out-of-college guy could afford such a situation.
And was that his Corvette? I didn’t remember my brother having any rich friends from school, but I didn’t know any in college.
I rested back and listened to Garth Brooks, Friends in Low Places, and hoped he’d be back by the end of the song.
No such luck and another thirty minutes passed, and I was now royally pissed at him for bringing me along.
The game started in an hour, and I still needed to prepare.
I wanted to blow the horn but didn’t want the embarrassment of others looking at me.
Thinking about entering the building Scott went into, I still wouldn’t know which door to knock on. Shit. I was forced to wait, pressed my eyes shut in anger, and continued listening to the radio.
I must have dozed off and opened my eyes just as Amazed by Lonestar was playing.
I looked into the eyes staring down at me.
“Hey Jill, this is my buddy, Michael.”
“Hi, Jill.”
I slowly sat up and hoped I didn’t have drool running down my chin or my mouth hanging open from my small catnap. “Ah, hi,”
I said, my voice croaking.
Crap.
My mouth was hanging open.
The song was still playing, and I sat up.
I wanted to pull down the visor and check my reflection in the mirror because Michael was gorgeous with glassy, deep blue eyes and a perfect square jaw that screamed all things, man. Beautiful hair tossed around his perfectly shaped head. He was wearing those kinds of jeans. The type that looked like you just threw them on but probably paid a million dollars for. He wore a Ball State, faded T-shirt that his body wore like art. There wasn’t a flaw about him.
“What the hell is that shit on my radio?”
Scott protested.
“Why didn’t you bring your little sister up?”
Michael asked as Scott hit the radio button, silencing Lonestar.
“She was fine in the car,”
Scott said as if I was a pet waiting on my master.
I was slightly disappointed when Michael called me a little sister.
But there was no denying it.
If Michael was a friend of Scott’s, then he was older than me.
“Would you like to come up? Get something to drink before you leave?”
Michael asked while looking at me, not Scott.
“No, thanks,”
Scott answered for me.
“She wants to get to the football game.”
Now, I looked even younger in this gorgeous man’s eyes.
He squatted down, met my face through the opened window, and smiled politely.
“It was nice meeting you, Jill.
Next time, don’t let him make you stay in the car.”
He winked and tapped his hands on the car door before standing back up.
Next time?
I tried not to show how my eyes racked up his long, muscular body—glaring too long on those jeans before falling deep into his blue eyes.
I needed to speak, but my mouth couldn’t form a word.
Eventually, my reverie was broken by Scott’s loud voice.
“Good to see you, man.
And next time, I won’t have my little sis in the car. Today, she had no choice. See you tonight?”
Michael was still looking at me when his gaze broke to answer my brother.
“Yeah, you can show me around this area.
What’s a good bar?”
“Tossi’s is pretty swank.
Or would you rather have a dive?”
“No dive.
Had my share in college.”
“Tossi’s it is then,”
Scott said, returning to the car.
He started the engine, and Michael gave me a wink as the car pulled away.
All I could do was smile shyly with my head bowed.
Idiot, show him how you’re nothing but a shy schoolgirl, Jill.
“So, you went to college with Michael?”
“Just two years.
Michael was completing his master’s when I began as a freshman,”
Scott said as he drove out of the apartment complex.
“Where’s he from, and why is he here?”
“Why the sudden interest in my friends?”
he asked sarcastically.
“Not a huge interest.”
I was interested, though.
“It’s just that you never mentioned him before.
He doesn’t look the type to travel in your circle.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, he seems nice…well-mannered.”
Attractive was on my tongue because most of Scott’s friends were not.
But I didn’t want to hear the backlash and the teasing, and most of all, him telling Michael that I thought he was hot, which sounds so cliché.
And then they’d both get a kick out of how Scott’s little sister has a schoolgirl crush on Michael.
“Go ahead and say it.
You think he’s hot.”
“You know how dumb that sounds coming from your mouth? I don’t even use that word.”
Though, I did in my mind.
“Yes, he’s a nice-looking gentleman.”
Scott laughed.
“Now that sounds even dumber.
Nice looking gentleman,”
he mocked, raising his voice to sound girly.
“Okay, attractive,” I said.
“Well, whatever.
You’re definitely not Michael’s type.”
“I never even considered…”
I stopped mid-sentence and said, “And what is his type… and what’s wrong with me?”
“Michael’s type is anything he wants; you are ten years younger than him.
So, there is nothing you have that he would want.
He has been banging professors’ wives behind their backs and several other cougars.
And a few moms who pretended to be visiting their sons in college.
Oh, yeah, he’s well-mannered and well fucked.”
“Just…shut up,”
I said, turning the radio station back to country music.
“And…Michael hates country music.”
I grabbed the knob, and before I turned up the volume, I said, “Sounds like you have a man crush on him the way you idolize and know so much about him.”
I cranked the volume, sat back, and folded my arms, giving him a quizzical look.
He pressed the button, shutting the radio off.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Why would you know all that stuff? Is that all you guys do—kiss and tell?”
“No, Jill.
It’s called bragging.
And Michael has plenty to brag about.”
I didn’t particularly appreciate where the conversation was heading and didn’t want to think of Michael that way.
But I guess Scott was right.
The man had looks that would get him anything.
And why did I think it could be me—Being a seventeen-year-old senior in high school was even more ludicrous.
It would be years before I could find a man who looked like Michael. After all, I was just at the beginning of my senior year, and college was more than a year away. Michael was already out of graduate school and on his way to success. Though, I didn’t know what he did for a living.
“What does he do? Where does he work?”
“Still obsessed, are you?”
“Just making conversation.”
“He’s a contracted engineer for Whirlpool.”
Whirlpool just happened to be located here in St.
Jo, Michigan, and it was a place where everyone wanted to work after graduation.
“But his T-shirt said Ball State.
Isn’t that located in Indiana? How’d you meet him at Michigan State?”
“I told you.
He completed his graduate study at Michigan State.”
“So, he’s from Indiana?”
“Still not obsessed? Yes, he’s from Indiana.”
During the remainder of the drive home, I didn’t ask any more questions about Michael, but what seemed like a chance meeting would turn into a life in which Michael would come and go for the rest of my life.