Asher
“Where’s Sierra?”
“Who’s that?”
“The girl whose house you’re in, idiot.”
“I don’t know, man. I just came for the free booze,” the college-aged boy says to me.
“She’s out back,” a girl in a short skirt who’s practically falling out of her top says. “But if you’re really a fireman like that shirt says then maybe you wanna stay in here. I can promise I’m more fun.”
I push past the sea of bodies disgusted at what I’m seeing.
My best friend Scott and his wife Serinda decide to finally take their honeymoon a full twenty-one years after their shotgun wedding, and what do they get in return?
Their only child decides to throw a raging party on the first day they’re away.
Scott asked me to swing by the house and make sure everything was okay, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.
But everything is definitely not okay. I’m going to put an end to this right now.
I exit the back porch and see Sierra across the lawn. Her eyes immediately lock on mine and my steps freeze for a second.
Damn! Is that her?
I suddenly realize I haven’t seen her in about five years. It must have been her sweet sixteenth birthday party, but that was only in passing. I just dropped by to drop off a present while she was with her friends.
Most of the time when Scott and I hang out we’re out and about. Biking in the canyon. Surfing. We’ve have both stayed active well beyond our thirty-nine years and when we do things we meet at a rally point since our lives are so busy. I’m usually coming from a twenty-four hour shift or going to one so separate rides are a must.
But with these damn wildfires ravaging our beautiful state of California these twenty-four hour shifts have become more like forty-eight, seventy-two, and even ninety-six with a few power naps of twenty minutes wedged in.
And right now I’m running on fumes and I have no time for any b.s. whatsoever and from the looks of things here my b.s. meter is off the charts.
But what’s making me even angrier is how damn hot Sierra looks. Her top is almost as low cut as that girl’s inside and those shorts are way too close to being Daisy Dukes. And as angry as I am I’m even more pissed off at myself. Why wasn’t I dropping by the Smith’s house more often?
I shake my head trying to catch my thoughts. Thoughts I should not be having.
This is my buddy’s daughter for Pete’s sake. His suddenly very adult daughter.
It must be about ten o’clock, but even through the darkness I can see her piercing blue eyes. It’s the light reflecting from the swimming pool I tell myself, but it’s more than that. It’s my intense focus on her and only her.
Damn, I’m still frozen in place. I pick up my foot, which feels like it’s stuck in molasses, and march right over to her.
“Hey, Asher,” she says.
“What in the hell is this Asher shit? It’s Mr. Adams and you know your parent’s told you not to have any parties while they were gone.”
“It’s just a get-together. Just a few people came by.”
“A few people? You’ve got well over one hundred people on this property and I can see five fire code violations alone from just right here where I’m standing.”
“We’re being safe.”
“Safe? The state is burning and what do you call that?” I ask raising my chin up in the direction of some boy who’s smoking a cigarette next to the pool. He looks at Sierra and winks before he flips the butt of his cigarette back behind him without looking into the dried out grass and that’s when I totally lose it.
I beeline it for him and watch as his eyes get big. I recognize this kid. He’s some big shot on campus and he may be six foot four and two twenty five but he’s got nothing on me. I can see from his tank top that he’s got that Abercrombie kids body. I’m six foot five and two hundred and fifty pounds and I’ve got a man’s body. The kind of body you get in the gym and from real life. From pulling people out of burning buildings. From rolling logs over in the forest when they fall and cause massive damage. That kind of real man strength.
And when I grab him by the collar his protest sounds like nothing more than a whine to me.
“Let go of me you…you…old man,” he says so I put my other hand on him, sliding both up and under his armpits and lifting him in the air.
“Oh shit!” I hear some kid yell, and he’s right. I’m pretty sure the jock I’ve got suspended a solid six inches off the ground is about to make those pink pool shorts turn brown.
“Half this state’s on fire and you’re gonna toss your cigarette around like you’re John Fucking Wayne.”
“Who’s John Wayne?”
I turn to my side and see the grass is starting to smoke.
“You wanna go to jail for arson you little shit,” I say.
“No.”
“Well then you’re gonna go somewhere else,” I say as I toss him into the pool.
I dart over to the cigarette butt and stomp it out before grabbing the beer out of some kid’s hand and dumping it all over the area.
“My iPhone!” the kid yells from the pool. “You broke it.”
“And Bubba would have broken your pretty little Abercrombie ass in prison if I hadn't stomped that cigarette out. And speaking of out…EVERYBODY OUT!” I yell. “NOW!”
At least these kids aren’t as dumb as I thought as the crowd starts dispersing quickly.
“What are you doing?” I hear Sierra pleading over my shoulder.
“I’m doing what you’re parent’s asked me to do, and I’m probably keeping their house from burning down.”
“Nobody’s going to burn our house down. You’re just paranoid.”
I turn and look at her, stare right at her, “And you’re just…” I want to say the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, but I’m still fuming. But something about looking at her makes everything else go away. All those other thoughts. The threat has been contained and the party will be over in just a couple more minutes when the last kid files out of this place.
Which means this house will be empty. Just me and her.
Thoughts go through my head. Thoughts I shouldn’t be having right now…or ever.
I focus on those eyes, using all my strength to keep my eyes up. Damn they want to wander down that swan like neck of hers and across her feminine collarbone and then take in the sight of that blond hair which is resting right on her breasts. Her breasts which are way too exposed.
“…cold!” I say finishing my thought. “You need to put a shirt on.”
“Cold? It’s like eighty degrees right now. You know how hot this summer has been. It’s so hot you can barely sleep.”
Did she say sleep? I’d give anything to sleep with her right now. The way she looks. The woman she’s become…or should I say grown into.
Maybe it’s just my mind running wild. I’ve been battling those blazes for four days straight. I must be hallucinating. It’s a real thing.
There’s just now way I’m really thinking about all the things I’m thinking about doing to my best friend’s daughter right now. No way.
No way do I want to pick her up and throw her over my shoulder…carrying her right up to that room of hers and laying her down on her bed and making her mine.
She talks a big game and she’s showing way too much skin, but I know her parent’s and the way she was raised. She was always the quiet one…and you have to watch out for the quiet ones.
I grit my teeth and a growl escapes me even though my mouth doesn’t open. Just the thought of one of these little jerks being with her, having her first, makes me angry as hell.
But something tells me that’s not the case. I bet she’s saving herself.
Saving herself for a real man. Why be with a boy when she can be with a man?
And not just any man. Me.
These thoughts have to stop right now.
I turn and walk back in the direction I came.
“Hey! Where are you going?” she yells, but I don’t turn back around.
“You ruin my party and then…you leave too?”
What in the hell is that supposed to mean?
I want to pivot on the ball of my foot and march right back up to her and kiss her hard right on the lips, but I can’t. It’s my buddy’s daughter.
This is totally fucked up.
I’m supposed to be looking out for her, not looking at her. Or ogling her more accurately.
What’s gotten into me?
I have no idea, but I’ve gotta get outta here.
I jump in my Jeep and pull away from the curb as the last of the kid’s cars parked in the area leaves as well.
Good. I did what I was supposed to do. What Scott and Serinda asked me to do.
But I didn’t do what I wanted to do. And call me crazy but the way she was looking at me I think I know what Sierra wanted me to do.
And it’s the same thing I wanted to do.
Make her mine all night long.