Chapter Twenty-Eight
“What do you mean, you had a little fun?” I questioned Maria over a cup of coffee on our first day back at school. We were gathered in the teachers’ lounge before classes began.
“Just what I said, a little fun.” She shrugged as if I knew what exactly a little fun consisted of.
“You kissed, fondled…what?”
“We had sex in his truck.” She paused and looked down into the cup in her hands. “In your parents’ driveway.”
“What?” I gasped in surprise. “Wait, why the hell would that surprise me? You had sex with Matthew Middleton in my parents’ bed, when they were out of town.”
“Whatever, you told me to pick a room.” She put her hand on her hip like it was all my fault.
“Yeah, but most people would pick a spare bedroom, not their best friend’s parents’ room.” She gasped, and I held up my hand. “Wait, stop, how did we get here? This conversation just went south. We were talking about you and Gavin.”
She laughed, and I followed. “It’s really no big deal. He told me I had too much to drink, so he took me home. When I realized I lost my house key, he brought me home with him. We didn’t make it inside before I attacked him. I was drunk and horny, it happened. I can’t even remember much of it. Just that the next morning I woke up in his bed alone, and I was aching in spots that told me exactly what I had done.”
I slapped my hand against my forehead in frustration. “Okay, so have you talked to him since?”
She only shook her head and made her best attempt to pretend she was okay with that. I knew different; she was not a great liar.
The first bell rang and cut our conversation short. I blew out a breath and rinsed out my coffee cup. “This conversation is not over.”
She didn’t even try to hide her eye roll. “Okay, Mom,” she whined as she walked past me and slapped my ass hard, causing me to yelp.
***
I left school and went straight to Reed’s. Momma had taken Rhett with her to her friend’s house and wouldn’t be dropping him off until around six-thirty. I took the lasagna I’d prepared last night out of the refrigerator and placed it in the oven. Lighting my new Yankee candle on the counter, I relaxed back onto the couch. After I found a movie on the TV, I settled in with a fluffy blanket.
Not meaning to, I dozed off, only to be woken abruptly by Reed shouting. “What the hell, Kori?” I jumped up from the couch and scrambled to the kitchen. I found Reed holding my candle under the running water in the faucet.
“Hey, I just bought that damn thing. Why the hell are you doing that?” What the hell was his problem? And why was he so angry?
“You don’t fall asleep with a fucking candle burning. That’s how fires get started, and that’s how people die.” Then it hit me, his mom.
I stepped toward him and placed my hand on his shoulder, but he jerked away and walked off toward the bedroom. “I’m sorry.”
He said nothing. A few minutes later the bathroom door slammed.
I knew he hadn’t talked much about his mom or her death. How could I not remember his hatred for candles to begin with? Apparently his mom had an obsession for them, and that was the cause of her house fire. She was always falling asleep while they were burning.
I felt a tear drip on my cheek, and I wiped it away quickly. He could have handled it a little differently, but I had to remember the rawness of losing someone. Sometimes the memories of that made you react in the moment and think about it later.
I busied myself in the kitchen with dinner and fought back the uneasy feeling of knowing Reed was angry with me. We very seldom fought. I hated how it left me feeling empty.
An hour passed, and the doorbell rang. My momma was here to drop off Rhett. I wasn’t sure if I should grab our things and go home. Nothing ever came of the stranger wandering around my house that night. I was sure it would be okay to return home. Every time I brought it up, Reed would shoot it down, though now I wasn’t sure he still wanted me here. Maybe we needed a break.
I unloaded my momma’s arms and took Rhett. She kissed us both and said a quick goodbye. I left his bags by the front door and walked down the hall to the bedroom. I needed his favorite pillow and Blue Tractor.
I turned off the oven and put my coat on. Lifting Rhett back into my arms, I grabbed my keys and purse. Just as I placed my hand on the door handle, his voice startled me.
He sounded panicked. “Where are you going? I’m sorry, don’t leave.” I turned to face him, and he ran his hand through his hair. “I handled that all wrong. I shouldn’t have gotten so mad. I don’t want you to leave, Kori.”
I let Rhett down because he was trying to wiggle out of my arms. He ran to Reed and jumped into his arms. “I wasn’t sure if I should stay or not. I know I made you mad, so I thought maybe we needed a break.”
In three steps he was standing in front of me, gripping my hip in his hand. “Of course I want you here. I don’t ever want either of you to leave. I overreacted, and I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t like candles burning. I’ll buy you a million wax burners if you like all the girly shit, but please no open flames. That’s all I ask.”
I nodded. I understood his concern, and right now I just wanted this tension between us to be gone.
***
Over the next few weeks, things went smoothly. We set everything up for our weekend trip to Boston. Reed enlisted his best friend Ben to keep an eye on the bar. He needed a backup in case something went wrong. Ben was about the only person he fully trusted to handle his business right.
Maria and Gavin still had not talked. She was pretending to be okay with that. The problem was, I wasn’t okay with it. I knew deep down she was beating herself up about it. A little insight about Maria, she never thought she deserved happiness. Her daddy left when she was young. She substituted the love loss by no longer believing in love. It just didn’t happen for some people. That was her outlook.
I tried so hard to stay out of it, but when I pulled into my parents’ driveway and there he was, a surge of anger hit me. I stormed in his direction and poked the center of his chest with my finger.
“Who the hell do you think you are? Using my best friend to get laid and then brushing her off. What? She ain’t good enough for the long haul, but good enough to get off? That’s a real asshole move. I took you for a nice guy, but I guess I was wrong.”
Gavin stared at me with his eyes as big as saucers. I was pretty sure I shocked him. “What, you got nothing to say?”
“I’m not looking for a long term. Hell, girl, I’m not even divorced yet. It’s still in the works.” His comments only angered me more.
“Then what in the hell are you doing sleeping with my best friend? She is not your plaything.” I was fuming, and I wanted to slug him in the jaw. He was an asshole if he thought Maria was just a quick piece of ass.
“I like your friend. She’s fun and sweet. She’s a good girl to spend time with. She knew it wasn’t going further, we agreed. It was just a night of fun. It was just sex.”
This time I shoved against his chest. “Reality check, dickwad. Girls don’t do unattached sex. There are always feelings involved, and you just crossed a line. Keep screwing with her heart, and I guarantee you’ll be choking on your own balls. That girl is my sister, my best friend, and she deserves a guy who has her best interests at heart. The only priority you have is your dick. Keep it in your pants, cowboy.”
Before he could speak, I turned and walked away. He didn’t deserve another minute of my time.
***
“What did you do?” That was the only thing Maria said the next morning when I walked into the teachers’ lounge.
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, don’t you dare play dumb with me. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I had finally gotten Gavin to talk to me when I ran into him a few days ago at the market. He said he felt weird calling me. So we had dinner and decided to move past the awkwardness of our night together.” I shrugged, and she only got more pissed off. “Last night he showed up at my door. He said that you went off on him about hurting me. What the hell were you thinking? I told you it was fine, and I was fine.”
She stormed off, and I followed close behind her. “Wait, I was mad because he hadn’t called. You never told me you two had talked. I thought he was still avoiding you.”
“Well, guess what, now we aren’t talking again. Thanks for that, by the way. Not every person finds their knight in shining armor, Kori. There isn’t a Reed for all of us. Just let it go. I was fine with the attention I was getting, now he won’t even talk to me.”
“Mar, that’s what’s wrong about it. You deserve more than he was giving. You don’t know how special you are. If he can’t see that, then screw him.”
“Just let it go…please. Stop trying to fix everything.”
She left me standing there in the school hallway, feeling completely lost.