Chapter 26 Leith
Leith
Leith: Are you awake, Lanes?
Lainey: Unfortunately.
Leith: Can you help me with something? It is going to require you to leave the house.
Lainey: Ugh. Fine.
Leith: Meet me at the gate in fifteen.
Lainey was sauntering up to the gate of the farm when I rolled my truck to a stop. She was wearing an old pair of my hand-me-down sweatpants tucked into a pair of cowboy boots along with a giant Carhartt coat that I was pretty sure also used to be mine. Or maybe it was currently mine.
“You look like shit,” I told her when she hopped in the cab of my truck.
“At least I’m not wearing the same thing I wore yesterday,” she responded. Well, that was fair. “The lead chaperone told me that you and Clarke cut out at the last dance.” She didn’t sound angry or anything.
“Sorry, “I said. “But you pulled off a great prom last night.”
“We did, didn’t we?” Lainey smiled.
I nodded. “And we saw you dancing with Bea,” I said in a lightly teasing voice. When I looked over at Lainey, she was trying not to smile. I wondered if that happened before or after the bookmark.
“Yeah,” she said, still fighting that smile.
“So are you two like dating or just dancing?”
“Somewhere in the middle, I think,” Lainey said.
“But I like her a lot.” I knew the feeling.
It was obvious to me that Clarke and I had blown past every boundary we initially created, but more than that, there were real feelings on either end of this arrangement.
At least, I hoped there were real feelings on her end because from where I stood, she was the North Star.
“So what are we doing right now?” Lainey asked, switching gears.
“We’re going to get Clarke’s truck from the parking lot and drop it off at her house.”
“And Clarke couldn’t do this because…?” Lainey asked. “I mean, I’m happy to—just curious. Especially considering the state of you. I thought you’d be making googly eyes at her all morning.”
“Collins is home,” I said. Words cannot describe the absolute boner-killing panic of walking out of Clarke’s bedroom to find her scary sister sitting on the chair.
I think it threw me off because Collins didn’t catch us in the lie. She caught us in the truth. I already knew it somewhere in the back of my head, and it had spent the past twenty-four hours army crawling its way front and center: My feelings for my fake fiancée were very real.
I thought this realization would destabilize me, but it didn’t. Instead, I felt like I was standing steady and right side up for the first time in my life. I knew that we were something worthwhile.
What I didn’t know, though, was what the fuck to do about it.
“So, you and Clarke are engaged?” Lainey asked. My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I turned the truck into the high school parking lot. Clarke’s truck was the only thing in it.
“Would you be okay with that if we were?”
“Yeah.” Lainey nodded. “I think you guys are good together. I just…” She trailed off.
“What, Lanes?” I pulled the truck to a stop.
“I want it to work out.”
“I do too,” I said honestly. I wish I had more for Lainey right now, but I didn’t. All I had was a head full of jumbled thoughts, a heart full of jumbled feelings, and a fake fiancée who didn’t know anything about either. “I’m doing my best with that,” I said. “I promise.”
Lainey nodded. “Am I driving your truck or Clarke’s?”
“Mine,” I said. “No speeding. And remember you have to double-pump the clutch when you shift.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Lainey said with a salute.
“See you soon,” I said and then got out of the truck.
* * *
It was a miracle that I didn’t crash Clarke’s truck on the way back to her house. Her truck smelled like her, and I was daydreamy as hell.
It wasn’t until Lainey and I got back to the main house at the farm that I came all the way back to my senses. Well, I was forced back to them by an ugly, rusty Chevy Silverado with a douchey lift kit sitting outside of the house.
“Is that…?” Lainey started.
“Stay in the truck. Do not get out until he’s gone.” I looked over at Lainey, who appeared calm, but her eyes gave her away. They were wide and starting to fill with tears. “Delainey. Do you hear me?”
“Yes,” she said. Her voice was small.
I got out of my truck to come face-to-face with Flynn.
He spit some of the tobacco he was chewing at my feet in greeting.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Now, now,” he said. His voice was low but hollow. “Is that any way to greet your cousin?” He looked over my shoulder to the passenger side of my truck and waved. “Hi, Delainey.”
“Don’t look at her,” I spat. “Tell me why you’re here before I get back in my truck and run you off this farm.”
“That’s my kid, you know,” Flynn said.
I shook my head. “Not in any way that counts. What do you want?”
“I just came to check on my farm,” Flynn said with a yellow smile. “Looks like you’ve done a great job at keeping it warm for me.”
“Over my dead body will this ever be your farm,” I said.
“I wouldn’t put that out there if I were you,” Flynn said.
“You’re sitting on my gold mine, and it’s almost time for me to cash in.
I thought giving you a warning would be the familial thing to do.
” Flynn didn’t know that I knew exactly what he was talking about, and I didn’t want him to know.
So I stayed quiet. “And thank you in advance for the birthday present. Don’t worry.
I’ll give you a few days to pack your shit.
” This stunt was bold—bolder than the hardware store or the way he talked to me in Ron’s office.
It meant that his plan had legs, and those legs were about to run off with my farm.
“Get the fuck off my property, Flynn,” I said.
Flynn smiled at me again, and I wanted to slam his head into the hood of his truck. “Enjoy saying that while you still can.”
I stood firm as I watched him get in his truck and drive off. As soon as he was out of sight, I heard the passenger door open, and Lainey threw her arms around my waist. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and cradled the back of her head with one of my hands. “I’ve got you,” I said.
“I hate him,” Lainey said, and I could tell she was crying.
“I know.”
“Why was he here?”
“I’ll take care of it,” I said. “You don’t think about him anymore, okay? He isn’t worth half a thought from you.”
Unfortunately, I no longer had the luxury of pushing Flynn to the side. Clarke and I needed to get married—as soon as possible.