Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
DARYL HALL I found him amusing.
“What do you want to play?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I murmured, staring at my hands. My parents weren’t wrong; my fingers didn’t have adequate callouses to play the guitar.
“Liar,” Isaac said, setting his plate aside and standing.
I continued to strum my single chord while tracking him. My fingers slipped when he sat behind me, his legs sliding around me as his chest pressed to my back. He ghosted his arm along mine to my hand, cupping it; his fingers pressing mine to the strings. My shaky fingers cascaded down them.
It was intimate, and it made my tummy do weird flips that I told myself was just nerves.
“What should we play?” he asked so seductively that I stopped breathing.
“ Jesus Loves Me, ” I whispered.
When he laughed, it vibrated my body too. “What else?”
“Bette Davis Eyes,” I murmured with my heart in my throat.
Isaac moved my fingers, and we repeated the first part several times. The fourth time, I let my hands fall from the guitar onto his legs while he played it alone. Then, I sang the lyrics, softly at first, then stronger.
I closed my eyes and felt the words and every chord that accompanied them. But mostly, I felt Isaac’s warm body pressed to mine and his face so close to me he must have memorized the scent of my shampoo.
When it ended, he didn’t move, and neither did I for several seconds.
Then he cleared his throat. “We should get back to the party.”
“Play it again,” I said.
“I need a smoke.” He lifted the guitar.
I scooted forward and turned to face him. Isaac’s gaze dropped to where my dress rode up my leg, showing the skin along my inner thigh. I contemplated covering it, but I liked the way he looked at my leg. So I told myself that it was just a little skin.
“I want you to play it again so I can watch your hands,” I said.
His gaze lingered on my leg until he wet his lips and brought his attention back to my face. “Do you think your desire to watch me play is more important than my desire to smoke?”
The problem with hanging out with Satan was it felt too easy to be a little naughty. I unbuttoned the top button of my dress, only because it was hot, and I leaned back on my hands, which made the opening of my dress slide down an inch. Isaac’s eyes flitted between the tiny tease of my cleavage and my face.
I found too much pleasure in watching him try to figure me out. Was my fascination accidental and innocent or intentional and inappropriate?
I wasn’t sure.
All I knew was it was the music that made me do it. The love and desire I had for it helped me endure every obstacle, even if said obstacle was a twenty-four-year-old with a dangerous bout of sex appeal.
I sang the first line and waited.
Keeping his gaze locked on mine, he played the guitar. That moment was the most alive I had felt in years. My music-loving heart soared as I concentrated on every move his fingers made while the lyrics flowed effortlessly.
Isaac never focused on his hands; he only looked at me. It made me blush, and in a few areas, my voice trembled. That’s when he nodded his head, encouraging me to keep going. Isaac Cory exuded enough confidence for both of us.
“Satisfied?” he asked after the last note.
My grin won. “Satisfied for now.”
“Sunday Morning?”
“Huh?”
He jerked his head toward the front of the barn. “Get out of here.”
I faked a frown and stood, pulling on my boots. Then I draped the hoodie over my arm. The words “thank you” were on my lips, but I swallowed them. “Girls don’t like boys who smoke.” I brushed past him to the ladder.
“And yet, here you are,” he murmured.
“I don’t like you.” I climbed down the ladder.
“You’re just using me?”
“Yep,” I chirped with a huge grin on my face that he couldn’t see as I strolled out of the barn.
“Sarah, what are you doing?” Matt asked as he, Heather, and a few other guys stepped around the corner from the back side of the barn.
“I heard something from inside the barn, so I checked it out.” I took his proffered hand. “Isaac was playing his guitar, so I asked him to show me a few chords.”
“And he did?” Matt shot me a lifted eyebrow.
“Sort of.” I downplayed it. “He humored me for two seconds before saying he needed a smoke.” I was proud of myself for telling Matt the truth, or most of it.
“Is he still in the barn?” Heather breezily asked as if it didn’t matter, as if Tyler wasn’t standing right behind her. They weren’t officially together, but I knew he liked her more than she liked him.
The second I nodded, she winked and made a U-turn, heading toward the barn and glancing back to stick her tongue out. It was a test. She wanted to see if I liked Isaac enough to stop her.
I was with Matt, at least for the rest of the summer, so I just rolled my eyes. I didn’t care if Heather flirted with Isaac. He wasn’t mine. As long as Tyler didn’t care, who was I to object?
Besides, I didn’t like guys who smoked. I loved Jesus, and I wanted to do the right thing (most of the time). So, it made no sense that I felt jealous when Heather headed back to the barn. It’s not like she was going to be interested in his guitar.
“She’s a big girl. Let her figure it out,” Matt said to me, pulling me toward the chairs his dad had set around the bonfire.
“Dibs on the red chair!” Tyler jumped into the chair I was just about to take, leaving me nowhere to sit.
“You don’t care that Heather’s in the barn with Isaac?” I asked Tyler.
He popped the top to a Dr. Pepper. “We’re not really together. She can do what she wants.”
“Come here,” Matt said, pulling me onto his lap. “I can’t wait for everyone to leave,” he whispered in my ear as I stared at the flames. “I think we should take a drive. Are you in?”
My gaze shifted to the left, searching for Heather or Isaac.
“Sarah?”
“Hmm?” I turned my head toward Matt.
“Did you hear me?”
“Sorry. What?”
“Do you want to go for a drive when everyone leaves?” He cupped his hand over his mouth at my ear. “I have more condoms.”
Sex. He was suggesting sex. A second attempt.
Yes. I wanted to have sex. And with him, of course. Who else would I have wanted to have sex with?
“Okay.” I smiled, leaning the back of my head against his shoulder while returning my attention to the direction of the barn.
Ten minutes passed.
Twenty minutes passed.
My anxiety hit a boiling point. “I’m going to check on Heather,” I said, resting my hands on Matt’s thighs to stand.
He nodded without taking his attention off Tyler as they chatted about their next baseball game.
Isaac had already impregnated one girl; surely, he would not make the same mistake again. But there was a lot they could do that didn’t involve actual sex. Or maybe he carried a condom on him at all times, having learned his lesson.
To my relief, they weren’t in the barn. It was getting dark, but as I approached, I could see Isaac leaning against the side of it, puffing on a cigarette. He offered it to Heather, and she took it.
“Heather Renee Goeff!” I yelled like her mother.
She quickly handed it back to Isaac and took a step away from him. “Sarah, you scared me.” Heather pressed her hand to her chest. “What are you doing?”
“What are you doing? Please tell me you weren’t going to put that cancer stick in your mouth.”
“Jeez, Sarah. I was going to take one puff. So what? I’m an adult.”
It irritated me that she was using the adult card. That was my play.
“I’m going with Isaac to a late movie. If my parents ask, will you say I was with you?”
I coughed and waved my hand in front of my face when Isaac exhaled the smoke. “No. I’m not lying.”
“Sarah, come on. I’d do it for you.”
“Yeah, Sarahhh .” Isaac smirked. “If you cover for Heather, I won’t tell your parents that I bought Matty his own box of condoms.”
Heather’s eyes bugged out as she covered her mouth.
I didn’t know who I was most upset with—Heather for her willingness to run off with a virtual stranger who was six years older than her, Matt for asking his brother to buy him condoms as if he wasn’t old enough to do it himself, or Isaac for messing with everyone around me.
Never mind. With one glance in his direction, I knew the answer.
“Heather, why don’t you meet me in my truck? It’s the red one.” He handed her the last third of his cigarette. “Don’t get caught.” He winked.
Heather took the cigarette like it was a million-dollar coin with endless possibilities. But I knew that she just wanted to wrap her lips around something that Isaac had wrapped his around.
“My parents won’t ask, but if they do, you have my back. Right?” Heather eyed me.
I sighed and returned a slight nod. Of course, I had her back.
She smiled and mouthed, “Thank you.”
After she was up the hill and out of sight, I shifted my attention to Isaac. “I’d appreciate you not trying to get my friend hooked on something that could kill her.”
“Does she like butter on her popcorn?”
“Leave her alone.” I planted my fists on my hips, stepped into his space, and tipped my chin up.
Isaac’s lips twitched. “Careful. I might decide to touch something that’s not mine.”
I held my ground, narrowing my eyes—calling his bluff.
“I told him to make you come first,” he said.
I couldn’t have hid my reaction had my life depended on it. But instead of a blush, the blood drained from my face. Sex was still “doing it.” The penis was a “thingy.” And orgasms weren’t part of any discussion I’d had with friends. Maybe nobody was having them.
“As for you, I’d say you should fake it. Make Matty feel like a god his first time. Not your god, of course. Unless that’s what does it for you.”
Why was Isaac the third wheel in my relationship with Matt? Why would Matt confide in the one person who belittled him for no good reason?
“Did you give Coach Harvey’s daughter an …” I couldn’t say it.
Dang it!
“An orgasm?” He lifted an eyebrow .
I didn’t answer or even blink.
“What do you think, Sunday Morning?”
“I don’t think about you doing it or anything for that matter,” I said.
He bent forward, mouth at my ear, eliciting an unwelcome chill along my skin. “Liar,” he whispered just before trekking up the hill toward his truck and my friend, who had a crush on him and no issues about having sex out of wedlock.