Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
S hae
My mind was spinning, running through all the details of those years long, long ago, wondering if maybe I got some of it wrong.
But that couldn’t be. I could list off at least twenty things Boon had done to me or said to me that were just straight up mean, starting with ruining my tea party when I had just barely started elementary school.
“Want to take a slice home with you, sweetie?” Gigi’s kind offer broke me out of a stunned trance. I blinked, noticing everyone starting to get up from the table, empty dessert plates in hand. I looked down at my delicious pie, only half eaten.
“Oh, no, that’s okay.”
“Well, at least take that slice with you so you can eat without my clan bothering you.” Gigi’s gaze drifted over my shoulder.
Boon stood behind me. I could just tell from the way the air shifted when he was near.
He’d been an air bender as long as I could remember.
He’d make me so mad as a young kid I couldn’t talk.
Then I’d lusted after him so much as a teenager that when he spoke to me, I couldn’t breathe.
Even just his presence seemed to change something in the breeze.
“I’ll walk you home,” his deep voice offered.
I shoved my chair back, suddenly eager to escape. The chair hit his legs, but other than the quick puff of air out of his mouth, he didn’t complain. Gigi shoved the plate of leftover pie in my hands, and I took it.
“I’ll bring the plate back tomorrow,” I said absently, just wanting out of there so I could think about what Boon had said.
“Boon can bring it back.”
Speaking of that badger bait, his hand came down on my lower back, the heat of his skin scalding me through a layer of clothing.
I jerked forward and had to scream at myself inside my head to slow down.
I couldn’t run out of the house like an idiot.
I tossed a smile at Gigi that probably looked more like a grimace.
“I’ll text you details for Sunday!” Emmerleigh called after me, busy trying to keep their fussy baby from crying while Warrick hoisted Georgia up into the air, making her shriek with laughter.
I lifted a hand in acknowledgement, but didn’t have the capacity to answer her.
Boon still had his hand on my back and was steering me out the door.
As soon as it clicked shut behind us, the quiet of the evening sounded deafening.
The crunch of dirt and gravel under our feet as we crossed the Wolfe driveway could have been bombs going off with how loud it sounded.
Boon didn’t say a word until we climbed the stairs of my porch. He also didn’t take his hand off my back until I turned at my door. He looked serious. That twinkle in his eyes that said he was about to drop a joke was gone.
“Want to sit with me for a bit?” He gestured to the old rocking chairs Mom and Dad kept on the porch ever since I was little. I’d sanded them once and repainted them, but there was still about a fifty-fifty chance you’d leave the chair with a sliver in your backside.
I nodded, thinking I might ask him more questions about Grady, or any of the other things in our childhood that made me feel like Boon hated me our whole lives.
He settled into the furthest rocker, his muscled body filling it to capacity and making the wood groan. I sat on the edge of the other rocker, plate of pie still in my hands.
“You gonna eat that?” Boon asked.
I handed him the plate. He picked up the slice of pie with his hands and bit into it. He groaned and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. He made eating pie sound like the best sex I’d never had.
“Mhm. Seriously,” he said with his mouth full, leaning over the arm of the rocking chair and into my personal space. “You gotta have more of this. This is the best pie I’ve ever tasted.”
He held the piece of pie in his hand, brushing my lips with it.
My tongue darted out on instinct to swipe away the lemon curd, but then he pushed the piece into my mouth and I found myself taking a bite whether I wanted one or not.
The flavors hit my tongue and my eyes fluttered shut.
Oh, I wanted, alright. He was not wrong. That pie was out of this world.
He plopped the rest of it back on the plate and set it on the ground, licking his fingers. His manners were atrocious and yet my lower belly was melting into a puddle of need watching his tongue swipe at the remnants of pie.
“So, you were married before? Tell me about him.”
I reared my head back, sliding back into the rocker with a thunk. “Uh…” That was one hell of an abrupt change in conversation.
“Meet him at college? Was he into bugs too?”
I narrowed my eyes, used to the way this man teased me incessantly. Teased would have been the nice way to put it. Bullied might have been more appropriate. Then again, that was all before I heard about this supposed deal with Grady.
Boon held up his hands. “I’m not teasing you. You’re a hell of a lot smarter than me. I think it’s…”
I bristled, assuming the worst. “You think it’s what?”
Boon shot me a cocky grin, his teeth glowing in the moonlight. “It’s hot, Shae.”
My entire body went up in flames. Hot? Boon Wolfe thought Shae Fletcher was hot? Because of my brain ? I looked around, craning my neck left, then right.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for the flying pigs,” I muttered.
Boon huffed out a laugh. “Surely this ex-husband of yours thought you were hot. Is it so crazy to hear that I think you’re hot?”
I glared at him. “My ex-husband was an asshole.”
Boon shrugged like my miserable marriage wasn’t that big of a deal. “You can be right about a few things and still be an asshole.”
I shook my head, done with this little chat on my porch. I put my hands on the arms of the rocker, ready to stand up and slam the door in Boon’s face. His hand shot out and held mine.
“Stay. Please.” It was the serious tone in his voice that made me stay right where I was.
It was so rare to hear anything but teasing from this man.
“I don’t really have friends around here.
It’s been…an adjustment being back home.
Billy, my best friend, is still on the team.
It feels like I’ve been left behind in many ways. ”
I could only imagine. I didn’t know what a professional athlete’s life was life, but I had to assume it was far from the life of a high school teacher in a small town like Blueball. My heart, the one that had a tall wall around it, built to protect me from both Boon and my ex-husband, squeezed.
Well, butter my biscuits, that was sympathy I felt. For Boon .
“I was never thin enough, didn’t make enough money, and couldn’t get pregnant. Defective, basically. Him divorcing me was the best thing he ever did for me.”
The confession was out before I could rethink showing my sensitive underbelly to a bully like Boon. He pulled his hand back leaving my skin cold. His gaze snapped to mine, anger in the set of his jaw.
“Fuck, lovebug. Sounds like you dodged a bullet.”
I scoffed, the sound as bitter as I felt. “Coming from a womanizer. What would you know about my situation back then?”
Boon’s spine straightened, and I could see I’d offended him. I didn’t want to care that I’d hurt him in some microscopic way, but I did. He’d hurt me a million times, but that didn’t mean it was okay for me to do the same.
“I love women.”
I snorted. “I know.”
“No, Shae. I mean, I love women. Worship them. Think they’re far superior to men and should be protected at all costs. Men may have gotten the brawn, but women got the brain, the heart, the courage, and the body. Basically everything that matters.”
My brain shuttered to a stop at that. His words rolled through my head on a loop, unable to match the insightful sentiment with the man who’d said the words.
“If that’s true, why aren’t you with Kinsley’s mom?”
He sighed. I didn’t know his story, but I knew they’d never been married. All that late-night googling would have turned up a marriage license, I was sure of it.
“I won’t say it was a mistake because every time I look at Kinsley, there’s not one bit of me that thinks someone so perfect could be a mistake.” Boon’s voice had gone gruff. He stared out into the night, refusing to look at me. The hoot of a nearby owl in the tall trees kept time.
“Cassie was young and so was I. She threw herself at me and I was young and green enough to say yes every time. Condoms aren’t one hundred percent effective, what can I say? We decided to keep the baby and to be friends.”
He looked over at me then. “She’s a good mom.
And I’ve tried to provide for them best I can.
Cassie’s getting married soon. Wants to go back to nursing school now that Kinsley’s almost grown.
Now that I’m home, I couldn’t really deny her request. She put her whole life on hold to raise Kinsley and did a damn good job of it. ”
“So why is Kinsley pushing you away so hard?”
Boon laughed, but it was a bitter sound. One I recognize from my own life. “Because I’m a shit dad in all the ways it matters.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, to comfort him. A knee-jerk response to seeing someone in emotional pain. But I stopped myself. He probably was a shit dad, and me placating him was most likely what everyone else had done all these years.
His head swiveled my direction suddenly and I could feel his intense gaze even in the dark.
“What?”
“You’re good with Kinsley,” he stated simply.
“So?” I was a high school teacher. Of course, I had some skills communicating with teens.
“Help me, Shae.” Boon swiveled in the rocker, the wood slats groaning at the shift in weight. His hand landed on mine again, this time squeezing hard. “Teach me how to be a good dad.”
My mouth dropped open. “I’ve never been a parent!” I thought of my a-hole ex. “Much to the irritation of my ex.”
Boon slid out of the chair and onto his knees, his hands clasping mine.
“What are you?—”
“You’re also a girl. Anything you can teach me would be better than how things are right now.” I stared at him, shocked to see the great Boon Wolfe on his knees, begging for my help. “Please, Shae.”
Thankfully, I had matured over the years.
Gotten better at thinking on my feet. Or my ass, as it were right then.
He wouldn’t have had to beg me, a fact I would not be sharing with him.
I had a bleeding heart for teen girls who felt awkward and out of place, having been one myself.
I’d been blessed with amazing parents and felt that every kid deserved at least one good one, two if I could help it.
“You’re going to owe me a second favor, bat boy.”
His shoulders dropped and he bent his head to kiss the back of my hand. I tried not to let the feel of his lips against my skin melt my heart.
“Done. Anything you want. Just tell me what to do.”
I felt a surge of power. Boon owed me twice now.
And he was looking to me for advice. Tell him what to do?
I could think of quite a few things I wanted to tell him.
The first being, go to hell. The next being, get naked and show me what good sex is all about.
I shook my head, clearing away that thought.
Focus, Shae. He’s asking about his daughter, not your unmet sexual needs.
“Fine. Here’s my advice. Find an activity she’ll love and go do it with her. Meet her where she is.”
Boon blinked at me, his face a mask of confusion. “I did! I asked her to go to the batting cages with me this weekend and she hated the idea.”
Sweet Jesus, this man needed my help.
“Duh. That’s what you wanted to do. Parenting is the ultimate selflessness, Boon. I said find out what she wants to do.”
He frowned. “I don’t really want to throw myself off a bridge though.”
I tossed my head back and laughed. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean that. Maybe.”
Boon climbed to his feet and pulled me up with him, our hands still tangled together. It felt weird. Amazing. Like I might throw up from nerves alone. He let go and stooped again, grabbing my book from earlier and trying to straighten out the pages before handing it over.
“I’ll ask her tomorrow morning to hang with me.”
I nodded, hoping my advice would work. “Keep at it. It’ll be worth it in the end.”
He stared at me, not breaking eye contact for a very long time. Longer than was strictly polite between neighbors. Coworkers? Friends?
“Good night, Shae.”
And then he was off my porch and walking into the darkness between our properties, taking all the available oxygen with him.
Had we just ended the day without fighting?