Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Okay, that was blunt, but I’m tired of hiding my past. I ran from Lake Tahoe to get away from the rumors. They made me feel weak and helpless. I’m not that helpless sixteen-year-old anymore. And Adam should know what he did.
He chokes on his beer, the room suddenly going quiet.
Mira walks over, her voice gentle. “Hayden, you were that Beth? Beth Tate…” Her voice trails off as though she’s putting two and two together.
Of course Mira heard the rumor about the teacher and me, even if I didn’t know her in high school. Most people had heard it. “Yes.”
“She didn’t do it.” Jaeger’s expression is stern. He’s stepped closer, obviously having picked up the conversation.
Somehow, Jaeger’s public support of me, even in an informal setting, has the waterworks building behind my eyes.
I push them back and move on. “No one believed me. And neither did Jaeger at the time. Though I’ve forgiven him for it.
” Jaeger glances away, as if ashamed, and Adam has a strange look on his face.
“Long story short,” I say to everyone, because they’re all listening now, and I don’t want there to be secrets, “the teacher resigned, I fled Lake Tahoe, and now I’m back.
Eleven years later. All’s well.” I grab a handful of chips and pop one in my mouth, focusing on the bite of the salt on my lips.
Adam’s face is frozen, his eyes burning with…something. “Let me get this straight. You were Jaeger’s girlfriend—that girlfriend? Beth…” His gaze scans my face and body, as though he’s calculating all the changes and adding them up.
“For a short time, yeah. He broke up with me when he heard about the teacher. I understand you were instrumental in making that happen.” I chomp into another chip and watch the tic in his jaw.
“And that made you leave Lake Tahoe.” He swallows, as if even he can’t stomach the truth.
“Well, not the Jaeger part, but yes, the other stuff. I was harassed by students—pretty much the entire town. Chip?” I hand him one, no longer having a taste for it myself.
He doesn’t look at the food in my hand. Adam grabs the back of his neck. “I need another beer,” he mumbles, and pounds the last of his.
Cali walks over and refills the margarita resting against my breasts in the cocktail yoke. Jaeger joins her. “I’m really sorry about that, Hayden,” he says. “I knew it was rough on you. I didn’t realize how bad.”
“You apologized years ago. Water under the bridge.”
Not that those waters didn’t crash rocks against the shore, leaving deep gashes.
But the scars that formed had less to do with Jaeger, and more to do with the entire town turning on me.
Not having a single person I could rely on, besides my parents, left me feeling empty.
Even Adam, who didn’t know me, caused damage.
“Dump her,” Adam said, as I stood around the corner from Jaeger’s school locker, waiting for Jaeger to finish talking to his friend. I’d paused when I caught sight of them together, unsure if I should interrupt.
Jaeger switched out his books, and looked up, absently lifting a hand to a guy passing, whom I recognized as an athlete on the football team. Jaeger knew all the athletes. He was popular. Yet he’d chosen to date me, a mousy bookworm.
He closed the locker and leaned against the metal frame. “You think she did it?”
Adam snorted. “Don’t be stupid. Get out while you can.
You don’t need to stand beside her just because you’ve dated her for a couple of weeks.
No one will blame you for dumping her.” Adam notched his head up and flashed a grin at a beautiful girl walking by.
I’d seen the girl in my economics class.
Not bright, but she’d been nice the few times I’d interacted with her.
She smiled sweetly at Adam, and walked on with her friend.
Jaeger’s expression went pensive. “You’re right.”
Adam hitched his backpack higher, his gaze darting away. “Course I’m right.”
That same day, when I was leaving school, Jaeger caught up to me.
He broke up with me at the foot of the stairs to the parking lot.
Thanks to Adam Cade pounding the last nail in the coffin, my boyfriend turned his back on me during one of the darkest moments of my life, along with the rest of the town.
I couldn’t walk into a grocery store without someone pointing a finger.
Small towns are a bitch.
Mira puts her arm around my shoulders, and Gen joins us. “That was messed up,” Mira says. This coming from the girl who recently lost her mother to drug abuse.
What happened sucked. It was brutal at the time, and I’ll never forgive Adam for being a jerk during everything, but I’ve returned because I’m ready to move on. “As long as you don’t mind my sordid past, I’m over it.”
She smiles. “Your sordid past has nothing on mine.”
“Or mine,” Gen chimes in. “Most of my life I never knew who my father was. This is small potatoes. And the rumor wasn’t even true. Though, if you had hooked up with a hot teacher, that would be a good story to tell.”
“I don’t have a sordid past,” Nessa admits. “But now I think you’re even more badass for coming back and kicking ass in this town.” She does a flashy karate chop in the air, and kicks up her platform heel.
Zach leans over and kisses Nessa on the top of the head. “Cutie.” He smiles down at her.
The next hour goes smoothly. No more discussions about nasty rumors.
And Adam keeps his distance. We eat, and it’s not until we’re outside, sitting around Zach and Nessa’s new built-in fire pit, that Adam approaches me again.
He lowers himself onto the camp chair beside mine and stretches out his long legs.
“I was friends with Jaeg in high school.”
I glare at him. “Yeah, I remember. You were such a good friend.” I let out a breath and stare back at the campfire. I didn’t return to town to hold grudges. “Look, I know you convinced Jaeger to break up with me. Maybe he would have anyway. Regardless, you didn’t know me.”
“Hayden—”
“Even so, that was a long time ago. We were young, and people make mistakes. I can’t say it didn’t affect me, but I’ve moved on.”
He’s silent for a long moment, his handsome face more serious than I’ve ever seen it.
“You’re right, I didn’t know you, but that’s no excuse for what I did.
And you do judge me for the past, if the way you’ve treated me at Blue is any indication.
You have every right. I’m sorry for what I said to Jaeg back then. It was a crap thing to do.”
I can’t take the look in his eyes. It’s one of his rare sincere expressions, and it jumbles up everything. Confuses me. And his confession…I never thought I’d hear an apology like that from Adam.
A stretch of silence follows as I process his words. He turns away and stares at the fire pit. “In any case,” he says, his voice soft and low, “I wish I had known you.”
That grabs my attention, because apology or not, Adam gave every indication back then that I was dirt beneath his feet.
I glance at him out of the corner of my eye, shaking my head. “No one wanted to know me after the scandal. If you recall, I wasn’t anything special before it.”
“Special enough for Jaeg to snatch you up.” An enigmatic look flashes across his face.
“You have some sort of competition going on with Jaeger?”
Adam huffs out a chuckle. “Jaeg’s one of my best friends. We’d never poach from each other.”
A sharp choking sound escapes my throat. “Are we talking about women or stealing chickens?” This is a serious conversation, but that poaching comment cannot go unchallenged.
His gaze slides to me. “Women. Always women.”
Damn.
Suddenly I’m locked; I can’t turn away. He’s doing it again, staring deeply. Why would Adam say any of this? He didn’t even realize I was the same Beth from high school until now.
“We were friends,” I stammer. I don’t know why I feel the need to explain. “I helped him with an English project. We became more than friends for a little while.”
Adam’s wide palm squeezes his leg above his knee. “Do you—do you still have feelings for him?”
“What?” I whisper loudly, and glance over to where Jaeger and Cali are sitting several feet away. “No. Of course not.”
The last thing I want is for people to wonder if I have a flame burning for Jaeger. Whatever romantic feelings I had for him ended soon after he dumped me. He’s a good guy, but that’s all.
This conversation has grown too personal. I reach down and pick up a pine needle from the dirt. “How was your celebration at Farley’s? Did you eat your weight in hot wings?”
Adam’s expression lightens, and he rubs the corner of his mouth. “Not exactly. But this might interest you. I’ll be hiring new employees.”
I bring the pine needle to my nose, taking in the brisk, woody scent. “Which is to be expected, since your promotion has left a void for the assistant position. I’m happy to list a posting on Monday.”
“No,” he says sharply. “That’s not necessary. Blackwell wants me to handle the new hires on my own.”
I turn in my camp chair to face him, which isn’t easy, as there’s a dip in the middle of the canvas, and I wobble more than shift. “What are the positions? And why wouldn’t you use human resources? We’ve had our disagreements, but we get along well enough to do our jobs.”
Adam glances across the campfire. Mira is looking over with a worried expression, my elevated voice likely the cause. “Walk with me for a minute.” He stands and heads toward the deck.
I rise from the camp chair and slowly follow, watching as Adam hoists himself up on the closed lid of the hot tub.
He reaches down. “Give me your hand.”
My need to discover why he’s hiring new employees without the human resources department outweighs my desire to avoid his touch.
I do as he says, his large palm engulfing mine, warming me from the inside out.
He helps me up, and I inch away, dangling my feet over the edge of the hot tub cover and creating space between us.