Chapter Five

Tahoe

Caroline rears back, pulling her hand away from mine like I’ve burned her. “What is with you guys? Is everything an invitation to be lewd and rude? Let’s just go inside and get a drink so I can go home. My slippers and Netflix are calling, and they’re a million times more polite than my current company,” she sasses.

Throwing my head back I examine the loose layer of fabric hanging from the ceiling. It smells like mothballs and I almost didn’t buy this truck because of it. I make a loud gurgling noise. “Are you done killing me yet?” I moan, clutching my neck with one hand. “You have to at least attempt to have a date with me. That means you have to like me.”

“Pretend to like you, you mean,” she spits back, folding her arms under her glorious tits. I check my line of vision back to her face.

Resting my arms on my steering wheel, I put my head against them. “Are we back to this again? You like me, Caroline.”

“I do not,” she quips, tilting her chin up.

Frowning, I add, “And I like you too.” I want to tell her how hot I think she is when she’s arguing with me. How I’d love nothing more than to rip off her clothes and fuck her in the cab of this old ass truck—until her ass cheeks smell like my Grandma’s old sweater closet. “More than like I’d fathom a guess,” I add, when I become aware she’s waiting for me to say more.

That gets her attention, her posture lightens and the lines between her eyes relax. “I’ve heard enough lies for today, I think. How about that beer?” Her words don’t match the expression on her face.

I sigh. “Look. No one is even here yet. Let’s allow the town drunk to get going before we go in there. I’m not lying to you. I do like you. Maybe you don’t like me, but you’re attracted to me, and that’s enough to stroke my ego enough to live another day. What do you say? Truce for the night? Not even the night. Just this one date. Technically, you did promise.”

Caroline sighs, a heavy emotional heave that tells me she’s done with me and this conversation. “That’s a lofty assumption. One that stinks of a serious ego problem. You don’t have to pretend to like me, Tyler. I was perfectly fine before you arrived and I’ll be just as fine when you leave.” What if I don’t want to leave? The thought comes to mind quickly, like a bolt of lightning striking, the thunder following is me realizing exactly what that means. I’ve found something I want. Strike. Boom. Blast. Silence. I need to find a way to make Caroline mine.

“Bronze Bay has its finer points. Don’t count on my leaving anytime soon,” I say. “I’m sorry my friends were…rude.” The apology tastes like chalk, but I know it’s necessary.

She relaxes a little. I knew manners went a long way in this small, southern town, but now I’m thinking I can yes ma’am this woman until she lands on my dick.

Caroline faces me, bending one leg under her body. “You never answered my question about having a girlfriend. You deflected, like you always do when you don’t want to talk about something.” She meets my eye when she asks, and I realize how rare that is. She talks around me, never really engaging me directly. She’s trusting me to give her honesty, trusting me enough to let me know my answer matters.

I smirk. “No harm in the truth if you don’t want to be my girlfriend, I suppose.”
“You don’t want me as a girlfriend,” Caroline says, shaking her head, eyes narrowed in skepticism. She fires off a statement that basically says she won’t believe me if I do tell her I’ve had a girlfriend because even if my friends are crude, they had no reason to lie about my promiscuity.

I shrug. “It’s true, I did have a girlfriend, Stella, for three years. It ended badly. So, technically they didn’t lie, they just didn’t tell you why I am the way I am.”

I implore her not to ask any questions about the relationship. She’s thinking about it. “Why do you want to hang out with me, then?” Caroline asks, gesturing to herself. “You throw the girlfriend word around so casually you have to be joking.”

I swallow, and I taste the battery acid from the breakup with Stella, the panic when I realized the pain wouldn’t go away, ever. Even now that she’s married and pregnant by some investment banker in N.Y.C. “I haven’t spent so much time with a woman since then,” I admit. “Pretty sure you already qualify as my girlfriend regardless of if I want that or not.”

“Why are you so,” she replies, closing her mouth, “so hot and cold? There are so many other girls in Bronze Bay that can give you what you want. I’ve given you the airport you needed. You’ve helped me with my place. I’m not…that kind of girl.”

“I know.” Scooting closer, I take her hand in mine. “That’s your draw.”

I watch her neck as she swallows hard. “It’s not smart to mix business with anything other than numbers.” What about sixty-nine, Caroline?

I shake my head. “Those rules don’t apply to me. No rules apply to me. I’m quite fierce when I’m pursuing something I want.” I lean in closer. There is a small smattering of freckles across her nose you can’t see unless you’re in kissing distance. Her blue eyes, on mine, reflect a mixture of fear and wanton desire. “I want you.” I skim my hand up her arm and across her exposed collar bone. A trace of goosebumps rise behind the trail of my fingers. “Say the word and the g-word is yours for the taking.” I haven’t felt an adrenaline rush this strong, and state altering since the last time I almost lost my life. I have a scar to prove it, a long narrow grazing mark tearing across my ribcage. The internal scars from Stella are worse than anything a bullet could produce and here I am giving Caroline the power to kill me without even knowing why I am doing it. A taste of her is worth a lifetime of torture. That’s the rational I’ll embrace—the only logical reason I’d give someone this power again, and she really is different. There’s no pretenses, and I’m pretty sure she hates me as much as she likes me and that’s a dose of “fuck you” I’ve needed for a while.

I’m lost in the moment, in my asinine proposition, and the wonder in how she’ll reply. I don’t see the cock-blocking intruder coming. Someone raps on the passenger side window, tearing us out of the breathless moment.

Caroline spins, recognizes the face, and cranks the handle to roll down the window. “Malena you scared the rice, beans, and pepper out of me!” she exclaims, one hand on her chest. A pretty brunette, all teeth, and high glossed lips leans around Caroline to peer at me. I don’t react with a smile or otherwise. To be quite honest I’m furious. “How have you been?” Caroline croons, seeming pleased her friend has saved her from answering my question.

“I thought that was you, Caroline. I was gonna’ ask what you were doing out here, but now it’s clearly obvious. I’m Malena,” her friend says, trying to get me to respond. I don’t miss how her eyes rake over my body and face. “You two coming in?”

Why else would we be here? “Tahoe, this is my friend Malena. We went to school together,” Caroline says, turning to me without meeting my questioning gaze. “Malena this is my friend Tahoe. He, ah, he’s working with me now. At the airport. They’ll be using one of the hangars and airspace for their training.” That’s all she says, and I want to shake her, then kiss her, then stake my claim on her. Airports have nothing on my dick.

“Nice to meet you, Ta-hoe,” Malena drawls, looking at me. “I know of his kind, Caroline. No need to say anything further. Any of your friends joining us tonight?” She winks, like a damn poker shark.

I grin, tip my head in greeting and reply, “I’ll send them your way if they do.” More and more cars and trucks and bicycles pour into the small parking lot.

Caroline notices. “Something going on here tonight?”

Malena clicks her tongue. “Don’t you know? It’s Britt and Whit’s engagement party!”

Caroline falters, but catches herself quickly. “Of course. Of course. Why didn’t they have it down at St. Ives? It’s so much nicer than here.”

Malena shrugs. “You know how Whit loves his drink. I’m sure they gave him a deal for the night.” Caroline nods. She then asks about her family, as politeness dictates, and then promises to catch up inside. She rolls up the window, cranking hard at the end because it’s a piece of shit that barely closes, and sighs.

“I take it this isn’t good news? Come on, it’s a party! Think of how much fun this could be.” I tug on her hand, a stupid, goofy smile on my face. “Let’s go wish Britt and Whit the best of luck!” I say it in the most sarcastic voice as I can manage.

Caroline rolls her eyes to the ceiling. “They are the town stereotypes. Well, I guess they used to be. Now it’s just kind of pathetic.”

“Caroline May are you talking bad about people?” I croon. “Tell me more.” My tone is still joking, but a little part of me wants to know merely because something is bothering her. I’ve yet to see her annoyed with anyone except me.

“Shut-up, Tahoe. You seriously want to know?”

I nod, and steel myself for trivial drama I’m sure to forget in five minutes. “Okay, well he was the quarterback at my high school and obviously, she was a cheerleader. They were together all four years of high school. They broke up a couple of times, but everyone always knew they would get back together so girls wouldn’t date Whit because they were afraid of Britt’s wrath and all the popular jocks steered clear of Britt, because, well, Whit probably would have killed them had they touched her. You get it? They were meant to be. Written in the stars. In true fashion, Whit cheated on her with most of the popular girls from the town over and Britt cheated on him. She’d banged the whole band by Senior year. The percussion section twice.”

I laugh at the imagery that creates. “Wow. I have a feeling that’s not the worst part?”

She shakes her head and licks her lips. She’s getting to the juicy part. “Whit wanted to break up for good after prom. It was because he wanted to go to college and be single. I think he had scholarship offers, but Britt went crazy when he mentioned it. She took a whole bottle of headache reliever and wrote a note professing her undying love. She ended up at the hospital getting her stomach pumped.”

I raise my brows. “They’ve been together ever since?” It’s a foregone conclusion. People attach themselves to those they think they deserve—to the comfortable agony of false truths.

She nods. “Insane, right?” Caroline’s eyes are wide as she nods her head. “They deserve each other, but I still can’t believe they’re getting married.” She says the word married like a spoken reverie and I know her stance on the subject without asking.

“I can’t believe they haven’t gotten married yet. Idiots like that usually do stupid stuff sooner. They don’t make people wait to show their true colors.” I proclaim. “Ready to go in?”

“Marriage is not idiotic,” Caroline hisses. “It’s romantic and sweet and it’s one of the only things that’s the same as it was way back when. It hasn’t changed.” I knew it. Unsurprising, but a conversation I’d avoid having with another living human like the plague.

The word spoken aloud makes my heart race. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never considered marriage before, or maybe because it’s something so permanent in my world of impermanence. The divorce rate among the Teams is nothing to shake a stick at either. Last time someone spouted off that as a reason for staying away from it, it was over 75%. Those are about the same as BUD/s drop out odds. Even with Stella, after years of dating, I wasn’t ready to take the plunge and I thought she was my forever. I’ve lived a wild life full of change and variables. A constant never appealed to me. “It’s an old-fashioned way to tie a ball and chain around balls. Just think, back in the day you wouldn’t be flying your airplanes or twisting a wrench. You’d be pregnant in the kitchen resenting the very institution you deem so worthy.”

She crinkles her forehead and purses her lips. “I’d never resent love. The real kind that makes you want to do things like be pregnant in a kitchen. Lucky for me I can also turn a wrench and fly a plane as well. Marriage is love and I have to believe in that. If I don’t what else is there?”

The determination in which she makes this proclamation shakes me to my core—makes me want to believe in something just as fiercely. Something more than life, death, breathing or not, good or bad. I can’t help it. I let my guard slip and I envision what Caroline wants. It’s not Stella who I picture in my life, wearing my ring, either. I swallow hard, noticing how her eyes are dancing over my face. “Okay,” I state simply.

A megawatt grin splits across her face. “Okay? That easy, huh? You don’t want to argue.”

I can’t help but smile back. “Or you’re right. I’m the first to admit when I’m not an expert on a certain subject. Given our current subject matter, I’m definitely not. You could be right.”

She presses her lips together. “I am right.” This is all it takes to lighten the mood. Caroline’s face falls. “Guess we should go in.”

My throat is still tight, and my mind still fuzzy with images I’d like very much to get rid of, but I’m not sure how. “You talked mad shit about them. Pretty sure meeting these two is going to be the highlight of my evening. Let’s go.” I open my door, when she hops out.

She waits for me at the tailgate. “Can you behave in the mildest manner you’re capable of?” she asks, clasping her hands together in front of her stomach. “I wasn’t talking bad about them, either. I just told you the truth.”

I wrap my big arm around her shoulder and pull her against my side. “I can try, but nothing about me is mild.” I ignore her correction, but I mentally note she doesn’t even like the suggestion of meanness. She’s that good.

My dick twitches.