Too Good
Chapter twenty-three
Aurora Driscoll
I tug the sleeves of my pink sweater over my palms and look at my family’s home through Hayes’s windshield.
“We could say you got sick.”
After a thirty-five-minute car ride, that’s the best excuse I’ve got. I’m not even sure it would work. Knowing my mom, she’d ask if she could bring him soup. Or have him stay in the guest bedroom until he gets better.
Hayes lets out a soft laugh. “Didn’t you say if we don’t see them now they’ll just show up on campus?”
I groan and lay my head back on the smooth leather headrest. Hayes’s car likely costs more than the house we’re parked in front of.
I guess I don’t know for sure since I don’t know anything about cars, but the buttery seats, advanced technology, and soft purr of the engine suggest a mortgage-level price tag.
“Come on, Princess. It won’t be that bad.”
He presses a button. The driver-side door goes up instead of out, like something out of a sci-fi movie. According to Hayes, they’re called butterfly doors. I think they’re attention magnets and a guarantee that my family is going to have way too many questions about him.
“You don’t know that,” I grumble, and press the button on my door. With a little push, it goes up and I duck out of the low sports car.
I bend down and grab the basket Hayes made for my mom off of the floorboard.
The one that might have turned me into a puddle when he called earlier today.
He’s just being nice, but something about the gesture made me feel a little too soft.
Which I can’t afford, because this is fake. I need to remember that.
Hayes takes the basket from me, then we head up the short driveway, walking in between my mom’s van and my dad’s old pickup. Hayes’s car looks out of place, like he got lost or someone stole it and forgot to hide it from the cops.
A fall wreath greets us, with a sign in the center that reads Home Sweet Home. The sign rattles when my mom flings open the door. She grins and claps her hands together.
“You’re here!” She looks over her shoulder, her dark brown bob swishing with the movement. “They’re here!”
“Hey, Mom.” I shift from one foot to the other.
“It’s nice to meet you in person, Mrs. Driscoll,” Hayes says in his smooth voice. He extends the basket. “I brought this to thank you for having me.”
Just as I thought, tears fill my mom’s eyes.
“Oh, that is so sweet!” She takes the basket in one hand and dabs beneath her eyes with the other. “You can call me Andrea, by the way.”
I glance at him, then at my mom who’s giving him googly eyes. Oh, he’s good. Too good. They’re all going to love him and hate me when we break up in a few weeks. I bite the inside of my cheek and wring my hands.
“Are you cold, sweetheart?” Mom puts the spotlight on me. “She always gets cold so easily. Come inside, I’m sorry for keeping y’all on the porch!”
She beckons us in. Hayes catches my gaze and mouths, “You okay?”
I nod, but I don’t know that I’m convincing. This is not what I wanted out of this arrangement. I should have said no, should have never gotten so close to Hayes in the first place.
He wraps an arm around my shoulders and tucks me against his side. My nerves settle, just barely. Right in time for us to enter the living room where there’s—of course—a fight on the TV.
My dad is standing in the kitchen, stirring something on the stove.
Mom probably asked him to keep going while she came to get us.
And my younger brother, Eric, is lounging on the couch, half watching the fight, half playing some phone game.
He looks up when we walk in, and his expression lights up.
“Hayes?” My brother jumps over the back of the couch, much to our mother’s dismay, which she expresses with a huff Eric ignores. “What are you doing here?”
Hayes grins and lets go of me to give my brother a back-slapping hug.
“You two know each other?” I ask, my voice coming out a touch higher than I intended it to.
“He trains at Haymakers,” Eric explains, and my stomach drops.
Of all the boxing gyms in Atlanta, Hayes just had to choose the one my brother goes to. I don’t say anything in response, offering a weak smile to my family.
“I wish I would have known you were related to Aurora. I might have been able to convince her to date me sooner.”
Eric’s eyes widen. “You two are dating?”
I frown at his tone and cross my arms. “Yes.”
Hayes swipes a hand over his mouth to hide a smile, likely amused at my sharp reply.
“So we have another boxer in our midst,” my dad says as his entrance into the conversation.
I glance over and find that Mom replaced him at the stove. When she sees me looking, she smiles and gives an encouraging wink.
“You should see him fight, Dad,” Eric gushes. “It’s incredible. He’s the best boxer in the entire gym.”
Hayes lets out a laugh and scratches the back of his neck. “I don’t know about that.”
Based on his performance in the Shadow Ring, I—unfortunately—am on my brother’s side. Not that I’d tell Hayes that. He may appear humble right now, but I know if I said even a word in his favor, his ego would grow exponentially.
“Maybe I’ll have to stop by the gym sometime and see you in action,” Dad says with a warm smile.
“I’d like that, sir, though I don’t think I can live up to Eric’s praise,” Hayes replies.
“Wait,” Eric interrupts with a wide smile. “Did you drive here?”
My brows furrow. Hayes lets out a knowing chuckle.
“I did.”
“Your McLaren?” Eric asks.
Hayes dips his chin in reply.
“Can I see it? I want to take a few pictures to show my friends.”
Hayes pulls the keys out of the pocket of his dark jeans and tosses them to Eric, who catches them with an awestruck expression.
“Have a look inside. Take it for a spin if your parents are okay with it.”
“Really?” Eric breathes, then looks to our dad, who shrugs.
My brother rushes to the front door, practically sliding in his long Nike socks.
“Wait, Hayes, I don’t think this is a good idea.” I step closer to him, a coil of worry winding through my stomach.
“It’s no big deal,” Hayes says with a good-natured grin.
“He’s cracked the screen of every device he’s ever owned,” I say as I think of all the ways Hayes’s expensive car could be ruined by my little brother. “One time he ran into a pole while walking because he was playing Clash of Clans.”
Hayes laughs and pulls me into his side again, placing an affectionate kiss to the crown of my head. My face heats at the knowledge that my parents are watching.
“It’s just a car, Princess. As long as he comes back safe, I don’t care what happens to it.”
I look down at my shoes. The sparkling white pair appeared at the door to my apartment yesterday morning with my name on the box.
“Is it as easy for you to replace a car as it is to replace shoes?” I mumble under my breath, making him laugh again. The sound fills the room with warmth, and I bite my cheek to keep my smile at bay.
“Not quite, but I stand by what I said that night. It’s not for you to worry about.”
His words are a new concept to me; hearing them feels similar to how I felt my first day of freshman year.
Uncertain and out of place. My parents did their best to make sure Eric and I didn’t want for much of anything.
They sacrificed a lot, but they weren’t the greatest at hiding the struggle to do so.
I found myself spending a lot of time worrying over how they would make ends meet while paying for our activities.
Now that I’m in college, I alternate between concern for them and for myself.
Hayes’s suggestion that something isn’t for me to think on or fret over … I don’t even know what that looks like, much less how to embrace it.
“I like you already, Hayes,” my mom says from the kitchen.
Me too, I find myself thinking. And the thought sends my heart skipping like a rock across a lake.