Chapter Six – Kyle

I throw the football at the wall, catching it each time it bounces back. With each thud I think a different word, any word, in an attempt to get a certain raven-haired beauty off my mind.

It doesn’t work. Every word is about her; stubborn, ignorant, lost, guilty, Roxy, Roxy, Roxy.

We’ve argued every time I’ve seen her since I got back. She riles me in every way with the way she talks and acts, and I’m not even sure it’s because of my promise to Cam. The thought it’s because I want to protect her for me and I’m a little jealous of the guys she gives so much of her attention to keeps growing. It’s as if I can’t help but fight with her already, and I’ve never felt so unsettled about anything before.

She’s Cam’s fucking sister. I should be looking at her and thinking about how to take her mind off it, not pissing her off and wondering how her lips would feel against mine. I shouldn’t be wondering if they’re as soft as they look or if they’ll taste as sweet as I know she really is deep down.

Like I was yesterday.

I don’t get why she turned up at my front door demanding I cancel with Mia. There’s only a few times I’ve seen her that pissed off – granted most have been since I got back – but that was different. There was a fire in her that set everything inside me alight.

Being so close to her – without her being mad at me – only fueled the insanity inside. My hands on her body. Her laughter in my ear. Our lips close to the others. If she was any other girl, if she deserved anything less than my complete and utter respect, I would have closed every inch of fucking torturous space between our bodies.

“You’re going?” Ben’s voice drifts across my yard.

“Of course I am. Selena knows that,” Si replies.

“Going where?” I grab the ball and look at them.

“Portland.” Ben holds his hands up.

“Why the hell are you going to Portland?” I throw the ball at Ben. Like I need to ask.

“Because there’s some stupid damn party there tonight, and Roxy and Selena are going. Why the fuck else?” He grits his teeth and grabs the ball from Ben. He throws it hard at the ground.

My muscles tighten. “Have fun with that, man.”

“I will. You’re coming with me.”

“Am I fuck!”

“I can’t keep Roxy’s crazy ass under control, Kyle, you know that,” Si grumbles. “Only you can do that.”

“I’m not going to Portland. Shit, every time I go near her we end up fighting. I’m not gonna give her another reason to kick my ass tonight. Besides…” I lean against the wall. “…She’s determined she isn’t doing anything wrong so she isn’t gonna listen anyway.”

Ben laughs. “You just don’t want to see her go off with some other guy.”

“Course I fucking don’t. I don’t feel like knocking a guy out because he crossed the line with her.” Because he’d be crossing a line I can’t. “Are they staying there?”

“Not a damn chance. I’m driving them there and I’m driving them the hell back.” Si smirks. “They’re on a curfew.”

Both Ben and I burst out laughing.

“Are you serious?” Ben sputters.

“What do you take me for? Of course I’m fucking serious!” Si chucks the ball at his chest, and he grabs it. “I’m not hanging around in the city for too long – I don’t fancy getting my butt busted by the cops for being at a party underage. They wanna be there for nine, but they don’t know they’ll be leaving at eleven.”

“Let me get this straight,” I say through my half-smile. “You’re driving an hour each way for a two hour party?”

“Yep.” He catches the ball back from Ben. “Roxy doesn’t need any more bad influences or dickhead boys from the city giving her ideas. If I have to pull your boyfriend trick tonight then I will.”

I grunt. “Just keep those asshole city boys away from her.”

“Just go and do it yourself,” Ben puts in. “Save Si the job.”

“If I’m there tonight I won’t be able to get up at six a.m. tomorrow to drag her ass out.”

Now it’s Si’s turn to laugh. “You’re gonna get Roxy up at six in the morning? You’re having a laugh, man.”

“Glad you find it funny, jackass, but I will. Trust me.”

~

“I have no idea why you’re standing on my doorstep at six-thirty in the fucking morning.”

I lean against the doorframe, a smirk quirking my lips to one side. “Well aren’t you just the little ray of sunshine on a cloudy day?”

Roxy looks at me flatly. “I’d prefer to be the bolt of lightning that strikes your ass for waking me up so early.”

“Oh you’re going to be so much fun today.” I laugh.

“Who said I’m doing anything with you today?” She sniffs. “One, the time. Hello, it’s the middle of the freakin’ night! And two, I could be working.”

“But you’re not.”

“You don’t know that.”

I grin. “I do. I stopped by the café yesterday and asked your mom.”

“I could be busy.”

“But you’re not,” I say again. “C’mon, Rox. Stop being goddamn awkward and go and get dressed.”

“Awkward?” She flings the door open wide and stalks into the house. I follow her in. “You turn up here at a time that’s practically illegal and you’re calling me awkward?” She huffs loudly, much to my amusement, and stomps upstairs.

“Well, damn. And here I was thinking you were eighteen years old not eighteen months!”

“Get lost, Kyle!”

I stare after her for a moment and try to decide whether I want to shake my head and sigh or laugh. I go with laughing and make my way into the kitchen. Ray’s sitting at the large oak table in the center of the room, sipping a cup of coffee. A smile graces his lips, and I shrug when his eyes meet mine and slip in next to him.

“It’s too easy,” I mutter.

He nods in agreement. “It is when you’re brave enough to take her shit.”

I half-snort. “I’ve never taken her shit, despite her best efforts, and I’m not gonna start now just ‘cause she’s having a tough time. The rest of us are too. I’m not treating her like a princess unless she starts acting like one instead of the entitled brat crap she’s been pulling.”

“Boy, am I glad you’re back.” Ray chuckles sadly. “No one’s done that since Cam died. I guess we got a bit soft on her.”

“Hey.” I lean over the table and bat his paper. “No one blames you for the way she’s acting, alright? She makes her own choices and controls her actions, not you or Myra. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

He smiles, but the sadness in his pale blue eyes only deepens. The pain and guilt coming from him is almost palpable, as is the acceptance. Like he’s given up on changing Roxy. Like he’s given everything he has to give, meaning there’s nothing left. Like he’s ready to break under the weight of the past six months.

“Oh I know that, son, but it doesn’t stop me wondering if I should have done more. I should have protected her from the very path she’s heading down. Cam would have hated this.”

Silence hangs between us for a moment with the truth of his words, the only sound the ticking of the clock and Roxy’s footsteps shuffling about upstairs. A door slams, taking the weight from the air.

“That’s what you’ve got me for,” I say softly. “Selena – although she’s tried – has no backbone when it comes to Roxy; she’s too soft for Roxy’s strong and determined ways, and everyone else is just too happy to go along with what she wants. That’s the problem with her senior class, they’re all like little sheep waiting for someone to follow and right now that person is Roxy.”

“Are you done talking about me like I’m not here?” The girl in question appears in the doorway, her hair pulled back from her face in a ponytail. She tucks her hands inside the sleeves of her oversized sweater and folds her arms across her chest.

“Are you done with the stick up your ass or you wanna keep it there a bit longer?” I shoot back.

She narrows her eyes. “I’ll keep it there, thanks. Never know when I might need it as a weapon.” She turns on her heel and yanks open the front door.

I wink at Ray, scrambling up to follow her out. She’s standing next to my car and leaning forward with her arms on the top. Her head is resting on her arms, looking out at the street, but I’m not really looking at that. I’m looking at the way her jeans hug her body, curving around her bum just right.

“I’m just wondering; are you too busy thinking about what my brother would want if he was still alive that you’re overlooking the fact you’re staring at my ass?” Roxy straightens and turns, pinning me with her sparkling eyes. “Isn’t that a fine damn contradiction?”

I walk toward her, smirking. My hand finds the door handle behind her, and I pull the door open, pushing her toward me. She catches herself before she falls right into me. and a spark flares deep in her eyes. She’s close enough to me that I can smell the flowery perfume she wears and see the dot of mascara on her eyelid she didn’t wipe off. She’s close enough that I can almost feel her against me.

Almost.

I bend my head forward an inch, bringing my face close to hers. Her lips part slightly and her eyes stay on mine.

“Perhaps you should wear looser clothing if you don’t want people to stare at your ass,” I whisper before backing off.

“I never said I didn’t want people to stare at my ass.” Her gaze follows me as I walk round the car and open my door. “Maybe I like it when people do.”

I raise an eyebrow at her over the top of the car. “Then what the hell are you complaining about?”

I sit down, leaving her mouth opening and closing as she tries to find a comeback. She doesn’t. She gets into the car silently, refusing to make eye contact with me, and my lips twitch upward. I wait for the click of her seatbelt before pulling away from the house.

She was right. I do contradict myself at every turn. I’m all for protecting her for Cam’s sake when I’m at home or with the guys, but the second I see her, I’m protecting her for me.

I want to believe it’s because she’s like a sister to me, but I’m not that stupid. Maybe she was before, but she isn’t now. It’s been too long and she’s changed too much for me to think of her that way.

“Everyone looks at her and sees a quiet kid that’s always top of the class. They don’t see what we do, and the bottom line is no one in this shitty little town is good enough for her. Hell, no one in this damn country is good enough for my sister, you know that. The only person that even comes close to being good enough is you.”

“That’s ‘cause I’m your best friend.”

“No it isn’t. Well, maybe. Yeah. But even if you weren’t, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out you’re nothing like all these pricks. If she ever has to be with anyone, I hope to shit it’s you, man.”

Cam’s words from last year ring out clearly in my mind. He really did believe it – he held Roxy on a pedestal so high you needed a fucking airplane to reach her. But that’s just how it was; he loved and protected her more than anyone else could ever be capable of. I really am the only person he ever did and ever would trust anywhere near her. And there’s a big part of me that wants to take advantage of that trust.

“Where are you dragging me?” Roxy finally asks.

“Where do you think?” I glance at her.

She shrugs. “If I knew I wouldn’t have asked, would I?”

“You know,” I start. “You might as well drop that shit, Rox.”

“What shit?”

“The attitude. You aren’t fooling me.”

“I’m not trying to fool anyone.” She shifts in her seat, looking at her hands in her lap.

My fingers tap against the steering wheel in time with the song on the radio. “Right.” I draw the word out, letting her know I don’t believe her at all.

“I’m not!” she protests.

I turn down the dirt track I know she’ll recognize and ignore her. Even her protests aren’t fooling me. The fir tree with a section of bark missing comes into view, and I pull up beside it.

“The gorge,” Roxy says softly. “I haven’t been here in ages.”

I undo my belt and shift in my seat so I’m facing her, and she slowly turns her face to mine.

“You aren’t fooling me, Roxy. The snarky comments, the bitching…”

“I’m not--”

“You don’t need to pretend around me and you damn well know it. I know you too well to believe you don’t give a shit about anything other than getting yourself fucked up every weekend. Speak to everyone else like they’re shit on your shoe, pretend to them you don’t care and you’re okay, but don’t fucking well do it to me.”

Her eyes meet mine, and in them I see the Roxy I know. The soft-spoken, gentle girl hiding behind the don’t-give-a-crap girl. It lasts a moment before they return to their new normal.

“What’s the matter?” She half-smiles. “Don’t you like the new Roxy?”

Ha! Don’t I like the new her. What a bullshit question. There’s no way I can tell her there’s nothing sexier than a girl who isn’t afraid to twist your balls with her words. In fact, I take it back. That’s the second sexiest.

There’s nothing sexier than a girl who knows she’s sexy.

And Roxy Hughes knows it. She knows the effect she has on guys and how easily she can twist them around her finger… And she can hold your balls in a vice-like grip with her words.

Which pretty much means she could give Mila Kunis a run for her money in the sexy stakes.