Chapter Twenty-Seven
Present Day
A sparse number of leaves hung onto the branches, but not many. Winter knocked on fall’s back door. The mild weather and colors of the fall were almost gone.
Levi guided the guys through the fields. Hunting never sat well with him. He would give the rookies tours, but anything more would have to be someone else’s department.
“How are you feeling these days?” Shawn asked.
“As opposed to any other day?” Levi responded. They hiked up the hill. Everyone knew he hated this crap. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and considered bailing on them.
“It’s just that you’ve been kind of different lately…”
“You’ve been a dick and we want to know why,” Bud said, while his Labrador retriever, Petal, jogged ahead of them. “We have our theories, but we want to hear it from you first.”
“Hmmm, I guess it depends on how long you think I’ve been a dick.”
“A few months.”
“Closer to a few years,” Shawn butted in. “You know, when you got back from your tour.”
“Let’s cut the shit… I’m being voted out of the Eagle Scouts because I don’t like Dale,” Levi threw out, annoyed by the childish nature of the conversation.
“You’ve been different since you left. We’re worried that you have PTSD.”
Levi laughed. A fine time for them to bring it up, five years later.
“We’re serious.”
“Yeah, me too. Look, this didn’t come up until I kicked your fearless leader off my property—”
“It’s been for a while, but it officially got out of hand when Cayden came back.”
Fog covered the meadow. Once the sun rose high enough, it would burn their cover off.
“Do you still want to buy her out?”
In the past, he may have mentioned to Greg that he planned on restoring Goosebay Lake to the Scott family. However, they never really spoke about it in detail.
“We’ve decided to come up with the difference,” Bud told him. He looked through the scope of his rifle and dropped his backpack to the ground. The dog circled around him.
“That way you’ll be majority holder and we’ll hold a small share,” Greg chimed in.
“We’ll be your partners,” Shawn added. “No more Cayden. I mean, if that’s what you want, of course.”
When Petal bumped his leg, he reached down to pet her head. His finger twisted within the charms of the idiot dog’s collar. The retriever wouldn’t know its ass from a hole in the ground. Levi wiggled his index finger loose from the trinket.
“There’s two of them over here, if you want to get in on this,” Bud whispered.
With his anger simmering so close to the surface, he couldn’t even see what they were focused on. “Just to be clear, you three are discussing buying my resort?”
“We heard you wanted out from Cayden’s shit and thought we would help,” Shawn said.
“And what shit is that?”
At least Greg had the good sense to look away. He never spoke at length about Cayden with them. She was simply off limits, even from high school.
“I’ll get the first shot and you can get the jumpers,” Bud called out before he aimed his rifle.
“You know she uses the place to hide out or dump her fancy friends on you,” Shawn began.
“Orgies, stopovers on her way to orgies.” Bud laughed before he took his shot. “You know how those rich types are.”
The sound of the gun cracked through the woods, ripping apart the tranquility of nature. Bud’s dog barked, the distracting sound of the charms around her neck jangling wildly as she ran ahead.
“Take your shot, take it!” Bud hollered.
Shawn tried to line it up. Light clicks from Shawn’s rifle caught his attention.
Levi had to dig deep to push down his anger before he snatched the rifle away from him.
“Hey, man!”
He cracked open the bolt to unload the bullets that Shawn had jammed into the chamber.
“Holy shit,” Shawn exclaimed. “That was a new gun! I couldn’t even tell it was jammed.”
The next shot would have been a misfire, if they were lucky. “To answer your question, Bud, I don’t know how the rich ones are, but maybe we should ask your wife, considering you still hit up the whore houses in Nevada on your annual firemen convention.”
“What the fuck?” Bud tried to stand while a flash of pure hatred shuddered through Levi.
Seeming to welcome the urge to pounce, Greg moved between them. “That was out of line.”
“No, you idiots coming here and bringing up PTSD when you don’t know shit about it is out of line.”
“We’re just trying to help,” Greg told him. “But since we don’t talk or hang out… I mean, you even ditched me at the award ceremony.”
“As for your bullshit concern about my health, screw you.” Levi threw Shawn’s rifle at his feet. “I don’t need you guys as my partners, and whatever that was you killed, get it the hell off my property.” He left them to find a way back down the meadow on their own.
****
After Prom—2004
After a quick drive from St. Geneva, they hit the outskirts of town and turned off at the Starlight exit. Cayden didn’t seem to know much about the area, so Levi had faith she wouldn’t figure out his surprise. He took the pickup onto the gravel road. His headlights guided their way on the tight lane. Once they got past the trees into the clearing, it opened to a spaced-out area.
The tires rolled over the rocks. He parked the truck in the center of the lot next to a speaker box. “You have no idea where we are, do you?”
Cayden, who hadn’t said much since they left her school, shook her head with a shrug and a smile.
“Wait here.” After grabbing a basket from behind his seat, he got out. He threw the blanket across the hood before he ran around to her side to help her. Suddenly, he was glad he brought an extra blanket since the dainty pink dress she wore didn’t have enough cover for her.
He hopped onto the hood and offered his hand. She laid her soft palm into his and he pulled her up. Thankful for the hard metal, he didn’t have to worry about the hood caving in.
“Ready?” he asked.
“For what?”
“Levi!” the drive-in owner called out.
He turned to the small booth at the back of the lot and gave the thumbs up. The roll of the projector began and the light shone across the enormous screen.
“Have you ever been to one of these before?” In two weeks, the drive-in would open for the season. During the summer, he would take the owner and his family out on the resort’s cabin cruiser. Mr. Theo didn’t seem to mind returning the favor.
“No.” She laughed. “I didn’t know they existed anymore.”
“Well, you’re about to see The Notebook … whatever the heck that is. It’s not even out in the theaters yet.” He screwed off the top of two bottles of IBC Root Beer and passed her one.
“To Chesterfield’s new prom queen, graduation, and a good summer.” They touched their bottles together and sat back against the windshield as the opening credits rolled.
****
Levi found himself watching her more than the movie. She sat forward, entranced with the romance that played out. Rich girl, poor boy fall in love, he couldn’t relate. Unlike Noah, Allie couldn’t dig his family into a financial hole that the leading man couldn’t get out from under. He wanted to get into the show but he couldn’t. However, a clap of thunder gave him a good distraction before the sky opened.
“Oh shit.” No one reported rain that day. He scrambled to get off the truck and held his hands out for her to jump.
“Levi, I can’t.” She gestured toward her dress. Rain poured down in buckets while she tried to negotiate her pretty pink gown.
“Trust me.” He chuckled at her predicament. “The rain will ruin it anyway.” When she scooted to the edge and leaped, her skirt rose up and he got a peek. He covered her head with the blanket. The rain soaked them while he fumbled with the door. Cayden rushed in and tried to crawl over the console in the most lady-like manner but failed miserably. Her skirt went up again.
Lacy underwear hugged her brown ass. While the rush of rain battered his cab, he had to adjust the crotch of his jeans before he got in. Flipping the knob for the windshield wipers to clear off the rain, he still couldn’t make out the movie screen.
“Sorry, I think it’s a wash for the movie.”
“No big, I have a feeling the ending was going to be sad anyway.”
Reaching over, he moved a wet curl from her cheek.
“What color are they?” she asked.
“Huh?” Frozen in his spot, his heart pounded hard in his chest.
“My underwear, what color are they?” She didn’t glance away or grow timid, instead her intensely beautiful brown eyes met his.
For a split second, he wanted to lie, and with anyone else he would have. “Pink, a little lighter than your dress.” His gaze dropped down to her lips. “Lace. They look awesome against your skin.” He pulled her pretty face closer to his.
“Did you see anything else?”
“No, but not for the lack of trying.” Inches away from her lips, he could smell the sweet candy scent of her breath. “Why didn’t you let Dale take you home?”
“Do you really want to talk about Dale right now?”
Slipping his hand in her hair, he brought her close to his mouth.
“I don’t care if we never talk about him again.” Levi claimed her lips. Not the slow-motion, romantic-type of deal he thought it would be. As he sucked on her soft mouth, he hoped she overlooked his clumsiness. He’d wanted to kiss her for so long he didn’t want to mess it up.
She moved her lips to match him. Sweet and warm, he sought out her tongue. With a fast buildup of need he wanted to relieve, he teetered dangerously close to the edge while he pulled her on top of him.
Moving down to her neck, he kissed the bubble of her breasts, which were still incased in her pink dress. His dick throbbed. Something stopped him from freeing her perfect, round tits from their glittery prison. Levi fought the urge to lick her nipples. His fingers searched for the side of her underwear.
The way she moved her crotch tortured him.
“Crap.” He thrusted into her pelvic area just once before he buried his face into her cleavage. “When’s you’re birthday?” Little by little, he pulled the sides of her panties down her thighs.
“August eighteenth.” She moaned into his mouth as he sucked on her lower lip.
“We have to stop.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my boss,” he hissed. “And more importantly, jailbait.”
Cayden pulled away from him with that teasing smile he yearned for. “Are you sure?” She slid the strap of her dress off her shoulder, close to revealing her areolas.
He wiped the corners of his mouth with his fingers.
“Positive,” he told her before pushing her dress back up with a groan. “We’ll revisit this in August.” He placed a sweet peck to the middle of her chest. Pulling her underwear up, she moved off of his lap and back to the passenger side of the truck. Instantly, he felt her absence.
“Now what?”
Levi started the truck and tried to talk his dick down, but it refused to soften.
“First you can tell me why you were running out on your own prom.”
She sat back against her seat and gazed out the window.
“I’m going to bug you about it all the way home,” he told her.
The beautiful pink goddess blew a curl out of her face before she faced him. “This stays between us, okay?”
He nodded his head, afraid whatever she said would surely piss him off.
“I overheard Dale talking to his friends about banging me after prom in that shitty hotel up the road. He wanted to see if I was worth wasting a prom ticket on.”
Levi tightened his hand around the wheel while he thought about killing the privileged idiot.
“So, I snuck out before the crowning ceremony and put a hole in his two front tires.”
“You’re shitting me.” He laughed, which helped loosen the burning heat in his chest.
She shrugged with a lopsided smile. “Couldn’t take me to the hotel with no tires, right? I was going to hitch a ride with another couple but decided to take the trail after the prom king and queen announcement.”
“The trail’s not safe,” he told her, thankful he caught her before she hit the creepy path. “Now let’s get you home for curfew. If you don’t make it on time, who knows what your business partners may do.”
“Me? How about you?”
“Doesn’t matter, they don’t even know I’m gone.” He put the truck in gear and drove away from his non-date with the Holy Grail, Chesterfield’s prom queen.