Chapter 12
OPERATION BISQUICK
Sera: Five Years Ago
“Serafina! Please come down here for a minute,” my mom yelled from the kitchen. I leaned over the loft railing and made eye contact with her. She motioned for me to come downstairs, and as I bounded down the creaky wood staircase, she tore off a piece of paper from her notepad.
“I need you and the boys to run into town for me. We’re doing breakfast for dinner tonight, and I need some Bisquick.”
“What about the Bisquick we brought? That was a huge bag,” I argued, because at nineteen, the last thing I wanted to do was run errands all day long in the heat with my brother and his hot friend. “The Deckers from down the beach are doing a bonfire tonight, and I don’t want to miss it.”
“Well, then you’d best hurry. And I did bring a big bag, but it got dropped when we were carrying things in from the car. Most of it ended up on the driveway, and I’d rather have too much than not enough. You know how this group feels about pancakes.”
I sighed heavily in protest and took the list from her hands. I folded it in half, shoved it into the pocket of my cutoff shorts, and slipped on my flip flops.
“Take Sebastian and Nathaniel with you. I don’t want you going alone.”
My mother was always overly cautious—even in a town as safe and small as Amethyst Lake—and rarely let me go anywhere without Thane and Bash. Though there were days when I’d love to run far away from their teasing and immaturity, I knew when to pick my battles. Today was not that day.
I took the keys from the entryway table and slunk out the front door, hoping to leave unnoticed.
The door clicked shut and I turned on tiptoe, ready to sprint to the car in the driveway, when I ran smack into Thane’s chest. He wrapped his arms around me to keep me from falling backward, and as soon as I regained my balance, I pushed away from him—not because I wanted to, but because if I stayed in his arms for too long, I might want to do it again.
And again. I escaped mostly unscathed, except for the ambush on my olfactory nerves by his intoxicating scent.
That was all it took to shake up the jar of butterflies living in my stomach.
I avoided his eyes and spin-moved toward the car.
“Fina, wait for me. My mom said I’m supposed to go to the store with you,” Thane hollered to me as he trotted across the lawn.
“It’s okay,” I said, waving my hand in dismissal. “I’ve got it.”
“You know as well as I do that if our moms find out you went alone to town, we’ll both be put on dish duty.” When I kept walking, he finished with, “Which means we’ll miss the bonfire.”
I paused mid-step in the driveway.
“Fine, let’s go,” I mumbled. “But I’m only letting you come because I’ve been looking forward to it all week long, and a huge sink full of dishes would ruin that plan. Where is Bash?”
Thane shrugged. “Last time I saw him, he was walking off with that girl from the blue house by the docks.”
I rolled my eyes. “We don’t have time to look for him. Dinner is in an hour and a half, and we need to be back as soon as possible.”
I jogged to the driver’s door and hit the unlock button.
Thane stepped beside me, blocking me from opening it.
He folded his arms like a bouncer at a club and stood firm in his shoes.
The stupid grin on his face was an indication that he was in one of his teasing moods, and that he was about to push every button I had.
“Come on, Thane. We don’t have time for your games,” I insisted, attempting to shove his solid body aside.
“Oh, I’m not playing games. There’s no way I’m riding shotgun with you behind the wheel.”
“I am perfectly capable of driving.”
“You are a certified bad driver, Fina, and we both know it.”
“That’s so not true,” I argued. “I hit one curb…”
“You needed a new tire and rim afterward. And to add insult to injury, you also ruined Mrs. Travers’ fence.”
I folded my arms, mimicking him. “I barely bumped it.”
“You smashed a whole section! And you let her fancy show poodle escape. Bash and I had to chase that dumb dog all over the neighborhood. As far as I’m concerned, if we’re on any kind of a time crunch—there’s no way you’re driving.”
I glared up at him. His sculpted jawline and soft brown eyes were enough to make me give in, but his smart mouth made me want to fight with him until the day I died. His eyes narrowed to challenge me, and the corner of his perfect lips twitched upward.
I imagined a world where he loved me like I loved him, and I could kiss those lips anytime I wanted.
A world where I could steal his T-shirt and sleep in it and no one would think I was a creep for doing it.
I dreamed about being wrapped in his arms when we were together and finding random parts of my clothing that smelled like him when we weren’t.
I had wanted Thane Donnelly for years now, and it had nearly killed me to pretend I didn’t.
But Thane was not just my next-door neighbor and lifetime family friend; he was also my brother’s best friend.
Those things didn’t mix well, and if anyone ever found out that I had a giant crush on Thane, I’d have to fake my own death and flee the country.
“Tick-tock, Princess.”
“I hate it when you call me that.”
“That’s exactly why I do it.”
I let out an exasperated growl and shoved the keys into his hand. “I hate you, Thane Donnelly.”
I lied like a dog.
He leaned in way too close. “You love me, and we both know it.” His words danced across my skin like ballerinas in Swan Lake, leaving goosebumps in their wake.
I startled at his accusation and stepped backward.
He had never said anything like that to me before, and I was so caught off guard, I forgot my own name.
He disarmed me with those seven words, and my jaw slacked open.
When his eyes dropped to my lips for half a second, I wondered if he knew he’d called my bluff.
I blinked several times before I fixed my face into a scowl.
“You wish.”
His smile widened across his face as he opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat. “Maybe I do. What are you gonna do about it?” Then he slammed the door, punctuating his comment with finality.
He left me frozen next to the front fender, gaping at him through the windshield as he nonchalantly buckled his seatbelt and started the engine. He put the car in reverse, then mouthed at me through the window, “You coming?” and shrugged his shoulders.
I nodded my head and re-centered my focus. You hate him because you can’t have him, remember, Sera? That’s not the same as loving him. I reminded myself under my breath as I rounded the front of the car.
I was an awkward mess trying to make quick sense of what had just happened when Thane laid on the horn and sent me flying out of my own skin.
I screamed, jumped six feet into the air, and gritted my teeth as I yelled his name.
His laugh taunted me from inside the car, and my butterflies faded into a desire to put peroxide in his shampoo bottle.
I opened the passenger door and slumped into the seat. “You’re the absolute worst, and if my mom didn’t make me bring a babysitter to town with me, I would never want to be seen in public with you!”
“Stop, Fina, you’re making me blush,” he teased, and backed out of the driveway.
My arms enveloped my body to keep my insides where they belonged while my mind reeled—confused and angry and curious.
It was hard keeping my wits around Thane, while simultaneously wanting to murder him.
He was all I knew of love, and to some, it may not seem like love at all.
But I knew for certain that I would give my heart to him in a New York minute if he requested it.
I also knew that he would take a right hook to the mouth for me, because he had the scar to prove it.
That knowledge, combined with his flirty comment, twisted my brain into knots the more I tried to understand it.
The South Carolina forests passed outside my window, and I stared in silence as houses tucked far back from the road dotted the landscape every so often.
I focused on the scenery, breathing in and out intentionally, trying to calm my galloping heart.
I was silent in the passenger seat, mulling over how to handle this shopping trip with him.
The drive there only took fifteen minutes, but it passed in slow motion.
If we could just get to the store, grab the pancake mix and the rest of the stuff on the list, and get back home, I could run off into the woods and bawl my eyes out like I needed to.
I wondered if Thane was even fazed by our conversation, but looking over at him took courage I didn’t have. He was probably trying to decide which girl to make out with at the bonfire that night, while I was over there pining over a boy I would always love in secret.
“You lean any harder on that door over there and I’m gonna have to lock it so you don’t fall out,” he said, breaking the silence.
I forced a smile and scooted toward him, but I didn’t make eye contact.
“Did I say or do something wrong?” he asked with hesitation in his voice.
I shook my head and fought the lump forming in my throat.
Come on, Sera, pull it together!
“Then why are you acting weird?”
“I’m not acting weird. Just… deep in thought, I guess.”
“Whatever you say, Fina,” he replied. “But I’m not buying it. You suck at lying and we both know it.”
My face burned, and I quelled the urge to yell everything I felt.
We were still several miles from the market when he pulled off into a turnaround of dirt on the side of the road.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m not driving another inch until this…” he motioned his hand between us, “…is cleared. We’ve got a whole week to spend under the same roof, and I can’t stand this tension that came out of nowhere.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, avoiding his gaze. He was right, I sucked at lying, but that didn’t keep me from trying. It was amazing what a girl would do in the name of self-preservation.