Chapter Nine
Cash
Katie and I were lying on our backs, staring up at the clouds. I figured Katie would be paranoid when she was high, but instead she was mellow. She was always funny, although I didn’t think she really meant to be. She reminded me a little of my mom with her nervous energy and rambling questions.
“So. You think you’ll become a stoner?” I finished off the joint Brody had brought me this morning, then fitted the end through one of the deck boards.
Katie turned toward me, her head resting against my shoulder. “I do feel incredibly chill at the moment, but it smells bad, and I feel like I’d gain a hundred pounds.” She put the spoon she’d been eating strawberry cream cheese with on the mattress beside us. “This hanging bed thing is spectacular.”
I folded my hands, resting them on my stomach. Otherwise, I knew I’d be tempted to touch her, hold her hand or brush the hair off her shoulder. “I know.”
“What’s next?” Katie flipped over onto her stomach, making the whole bed swing. She was wearing this romper-type outfit. The straps were thin as hell and the light blue color made her skin appear even more tan than it was.
I reached up, no longer able to help myself and moved a strand of dark hair out of her face. She was so damn pretty and she smelled like flowers. Well. And weed. “We need to go check on Marley and Jett, and we need to get the pot smell off of us before we run into any parents.”
“We get to go to the red barn.” She sat up and clapped her hands. “I’ve always wanted to go to the red barn.”
“Always? You mean for the last three hours?” I smiled. “You’re a good time, you know that?”
“Yeah. I mean, no.” She shrugged. “I’ve never really had a good time with other people my age, so honestly I’m pretty shocked.”
“You two are still here? I thought you snuck out an hour ago.” Halen came out the back door and hopped up on her porch railing. She sniffed the air then leaned closer to the day bed and did it again. “Did you guys smoke?”
Katie’s eyes got big and she bit her lips together. All three of us were silent for about ten seconds, and then Katie started to giggle. Which made me grin like a lovesick loser.
“Is she high?” Halen’s jaw dropped open a bit.
“Just a little.” I held my finger and thumb out, showing her Katie’s miniscule level of baked. Katie collapsed in another fit of giggles, landing with her head on my chest. “One little shotgun and the girl ate half a tub of cream cheese.”
I rubbed my hand up and down her back, holding her tightly. I wanted to stay like this with her for the rest of the day. And then when the sun finally set, I wanted to cover us in a blanket and sleep under the stars. That wasn’t the weed talking; I was simply really into Katie.
“We get to go to the red barn now.” Katie abruptly sat up, her eyes excited.
Halen looked at me, confusion on her face. “Why are you guys going to the red barn?”
“Marley and Jett are entrepreneurs and they’re renovating it.” Katie nodded like it was a fact among facts, not something she’d basically made up this morning.
“Marley told your parents that she and Jett are planning on renovating the red barn over the summer.” My smile was tight, humorless. “What does that sound like to you?” I knew the first thing that had come in my mind when I’d heard the news, and I was pretty sure Halen would be right there with me.
“That sounds like we need to have a little talk with our siblings.” Halen let out a tired-sounding sigh.
I nodded. “My thoughts exactly.” Marley and Jett were a hell of a duo. She was brilliant and he was a smooth-talking stud. Together, they could pretty much take over the world if they wanted to. And some days, it seemed like they did.
“We also need showers.” Katie put her hand on my chest, her palm warm from the summer sun. “Do we rinse off the weed smell before or after the red barn?”
Halen and I both answered, “After” at the same time.
***
Katie and I were in my truck, driving across the property to the old barn. The path through the field was well worn, but I was driving slowly. The radio was on, the windows down, the sun was shining and I had a cool as hell girl riding beside me. This was pretty much a summer dream come true.
“Is it only Ryan Bingham you like? Or will any old-school Texas country work?” I leaned forward, turning the radio up, an ancient Hayes Carll song flowing through the speakers.
When she smiled and started singing along, I was pretty sure my heart stopped beating in my chest. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She was dancing in her seat, her hair blowing all over the cab of my truck. She looked like a girl in a music video, with her eyes closed, and her hand out the window. This was the real Katie, the Katie she’d be if she was free. Uninhibited and soulful, with a fucking spectacular taste in music.
Well she laughs for a minute about the shape I’m in
Says, “You be the sinner honey, and I’ll be the sin.”
“How do you know these songs?”
She shook her head, putting her finger to my lips. “Shhh.” She went back to singing along quietly.
I could see the red barn in the distance, so I took my foot off the gas. I didn’t want this moment to end. I didn’t want this day to end. I didn’t want our week to ever be up. How had this girl never been kissed? How did she not have a trail of guys following her, drooling all over themselves?
When the song was over, she turned to me, smiling shyly. “Sorry. I really love that song.”
I chuckled. “How do you know all these old songs?”
She scoffed, questioning me with sass in her voice. “How do you?”
“My buddy Benson, it’s all he listens to. We’ve been friends since kindergarten, so I guess somewhere along the way, I got hooked.” Benson was a good ole boy, country to the core. His family consisted of ranchers, farmers, and rodeo stars. You name it, and they excelled at it. Benson had also, technically, seen Katie first. I owed him a bottle of whiskey for not fighting me for her.
When I started driving again Katie piled her dark hair on top of her head with the rubber band from her wrist. “My Uncle Pax.” She lifted one sun-kissed shoulder and I barely resisted the urge to place a kiss there. “We’ve always been close, and he loves old music like that.” She pulled out her phone and held it up. “Take a picture with me. I need to prove to him that I’m living like he told me to.”
I smiled and she took the selfie. Usually, I hated chicks who took pictures of me like that. But those girls only took them so they could show their friends. So they could climb the social ladder and have proof they’d been with rock royalty. Katie wanted to send her favorite uncle proof of life. Actual life.
“You’re something else, you know that?” She turned to look at me, and I held her gaze. I could look at her pretty brown eyes all damn day if she’d let me. I leaned forward, putting my hand on the back of her neck, guiding her to me. “Want to cross one more thing off that—”
“Holy crap. Is that fire?”
I whipped around, following where she was pointing. I let out a deep sigh and then hung my head. Leave it to my family to fucking cock block the perfect first kiss moment with the literal girl of my dreams. “Yes, that’s fire.” It wasn’t a wildfire and the whole barn wasn’t up in a blaze of glory. But there was a rather large bonfire that had been lit in the past thirty seconds. “Come on, let’s go see what the youth of the nation has done now.”