Chapter 12
TWELVE
brITTON
Abump in the road jostled me awake. Cool ocean air was squeezing through the vents.
I pushed the hem of my dress down over my thighs.
The sky was dark and the curving coastal highway we traveled on was even darker.
I stretched my arms forward to relieve the kink in my shoulders and back.
A long yawn erupted from my mouth. “I’m one heck of a traveling buddy, aren’t I? How long was I asleep?”
Slade looked at the clock. “About an hour, I think.”
I sat up straighter and reached for the bag of pretzels at my feet. “Sorry about that. I haven’t been sleeping too well.”
“You mentioned something about being between places.”
“Yeah, I’ve been staying at one of those pay by the week motels near work. I’m pretty sure the bed mattress is stuffed with old rags and rocks. But I guess you managed to stay awake without my riveting company.” I held the bag of pretzels up for him, and he reached in to grab a few.
“That’s mostly because your dress was distracting me. It kept inching up as you were sleeping, making it impossible for me to get drowsy.”
“Is that right?” I raised a brow at him. “And just how high did my hem go?”
“High enough to let me know that you’re wearing lavender panties.” He looked at me. “A nice color by the way.” He pushed a pretzel into his mouth.
I made a show of pushing my dress down farther. “A gentleman would have looked the other way.”
He nodded as he swallowed the pretzel. “Yep, I guess a gentleman would have.”
I laughed and reached forward to turn up the music.
We were traveling along the Oregon coast. Most of the highway ran along the edge of cliffs, giving a wide and never ending view of the Pacific.
At night the water was an invisible black with only the white frothy wave tips to assure you it was still out there.
The massive, jutting rocks so common to the western coastline looked like the humps of a giant gray sea monster.
During the day, the outline of the giant outcroppings looked almost furry from the shroud of sea life lounging on their surfaces.
But at night, the rocks looked lonely and quiet.
I relaxed back. “When I was a kid, I only got to see the ocean twice, on family vacations. I always knew I wanted to live near the coast just so I could see it all the time. Love that salty tang that never leaves and the pungent smell of green, turbid water.”
“Can’t imagine not being near the ocean. I’ve lived just a few steps from the beach my whole life. I’ll have to take you out on our boat sometime.”
“I would love that.” I put the pretzels back down. “How did Hunter and Amy meet? They seem like they’re perfect for each other.”
“Those two have been destined to be together since we were kids. It was a like a weird, prearranged marriage that nobody actually arranged. We just knew that they’d be together.
Amy, or Street, as we call her, grew up next door to us.
She was always around. Like us, she had it pretty rough, so I guess you could say we all survived childhood together.
She’s like a sister to Colt and me, but there was always this unspoken connection between Hunter and her.
It just took my thickheaded brother awhile to see it. ”
“Street?”
Slade laughed. It was the kind of smooth, deep laugh that you wanted to record on your phone so you could listen to it when you were feeling blue.
“When Amy was twelve or something like that, she decided to start a lemonade stand on the street corner. Didn’t go too well.
Then she got the idea to sell kisses—just to the boys we went to school with, you know, neighbor kids.
We were her best customers, my brothers and me.
Somehow, we got into the habit of calling her Street Corner Girl like in the Led Zeppelin song and it stuck. ”
“How cool. Damn. I want a nickname like that.”
“Is Tink not cool enough?”
“I guess it’s all right, but it didn’t come from Led Zeppelin.” I pointed at him. “And you are the only person who gets to call me that.”
“See, that makes it even better.” He handed me his phone. “I put in the address of the motel. What off-ramp are we looking for?”
“We’ve got about ten miles to go.”
“Shit, ten more miles to think about those damn lavender panties.”
I turned in my seatbelt a little to face him. He always looked exceptionally big sitting in the driver’s seat of my car. “So, you’re the middle brother?”
“Yep. I think that’s why I’m less warped than Colt and Hunter. Hunter is the quiet, stoic, show no emotions unless absolutely necessary type. Colt is the deep, heavy on feelings type. He has an amazing girlfriend named Jade.”
“And you?”
“I’m not heavy on emotion, and I tend not to take things too seriously.”
“So I noticed.”
“I think not letting things get serious was part of my survival technique. Growing up, if I’d let things get into my head, I’m not too sure I would have made it to adulthood.” He paused as if he was thinking about what he’d just said. As if it was the first time he’d actually said it out loud.
“See, you can take things seriously,” I said quietly.
“When I feel the need to. For awhile, Colt, Hunter and I worked together doing—well—let’s just say making money. But now we’re all doing our own thing. Colt and Hunter are busy fixing up an old house to sell. For me, I love working on the water. It’s the one trait I inherited from my old man.”
“I’m going to assume that since we’re on this road trip together there is no significant girl in your life.”
“I’m the last Stone unturned or I guess the last Stone wolf. Get it? Like lone wolf.”
“Got it.”
“What about you, Tink?”
“No one special in my life.” Somehow I justified the lie by adding in the word special as a qualifier.
“Now that my sister is gone, I’m the only child.
It’s different when you’re born with a twin.
You’re never the only child, never alone.
Perris and I were physically identical.” I thought about the one thing that made her look different and smiled to myself.
“When she was eight, Perris burned her forehead so badly with a curling iron she had a little triangle shaped scar. I think that scar helped people tell us apart. Of course, our personalities were different, almost mirror images, in fact. She was more introverted. She liked to read and write. I was more of an athlete. I liked to play soccer and ride skateboards. Perris also had some pretty serious mood swings. Looking back now, I realize she was struggling with depression. I’m sure that’s what eventually led her to drugs. ”
“Sounds like she went through the same stuff as my mom. That’s how we lost her. Guess it’s an easy escape.”
I leaned back, and, as happened so often, my thoughts drifted back to Perris.
One of her favorite Nirvana songs came on the radio.
“I’m not sure how I missed it.” I’d meant the words for my own head but I spoke them aloud instead.
“Her depression, her spiraling out of control with addiction. As kids, I swear we could feel each other’s pain and joy even if we weren’t in the same room.
Once, we were at a party, we couldn’t have been more than six, and I remember standing in the kitchen eating an ice cream.
Perris was outside on the swing set. This terrible pain shot through my arm.
My ice cream cone flopped onto the floor.
Then I heard Perris crying uncontrollably outside.
She’d fallen off the slide and dislocated her shoulder. ”
“Wow. That is one for the science books.”
“No one believed me, of course, but I’d felt it. I’d felt Perris’s pain. It was like that all of our lives, but after we moved out this way together, she went off with Damon. I don’t understand why I didn’t know how bad things were getting.”
“Britton, you can’t blame yourself.”
I stared down at the tiny flower pattern on my dress. “Yeah, maybe not.” I thought again about the missed voicemail, the last words I had from Perris. I pushed them from my head.
I picked up Slade’s phone to check our location.
There was a text. “Uh, Sherry would like to know if you want to come over for some strip poker. She said Ginny will be there too.” I looked up at him.
He didn’t look the slightest bit embarrassed.
Of course, he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would ever be embarrassed.
“How shall I reply?” I asked holding back a grin.
Before he could answer, I typed a response and pressed send.
He shot me a questioning glance.
“I told Sherry that you have a date with a pair of lavender panties and that you’d talk to her later.” Slade was uncharacteristically silent, and I felt silly for sending the text. “Unless you want to turn around and head back.”
“Huh? No, I wasn’t thinking about the text. I’m back to thinking about those purple panties.”
I laughed. “You, sir, always know exactly what to say to turn me into a loose, wanton woman.” I swiveled in my seat to face him again. “And I think you deserve a second glance at the infamous purple panties.” I spread my legs and inched my dress up my thighs.
He glanced down at my exposed panties. “Damn, they’re just as hot the second time.
” His fingers gripped the steering wheel a little tighter as he reluctantly pulled his hungry gaze away from me and back to the road.
He turned suddenly, and a shocked squeak shot from my mouth as I grabbed the edge of the seat to keep from being bounced off.
He pulled the car off onto a long strip of gravel and sand.
“Knew that all-wheel drive was handy for something.” We were on a patch of weedy dirt overlooking the ocean, a good vista point for picture taking during the day.
But it was close to midnight, and the place was deserted and just far enough off the highway to be out of the way of passing headlights.