Beautiful Oblivion (5 page)

“Morning,” I say it loud and clear, but Neva doesn’t look up from her phone. Her hair is freshly died jet black with a tint of purple running through it like lightning pressed against a stormy night sky. I’d tell her it looks good, but she’ll probably think I’m mocking her, so I don’t bother. We were best friends up until after my mom died, then, out of the blue, Neva told me off, the end. All I know is she’s at the community college with her brother. Ace took two years off after high school and saved up just to attend.

“Just an iced mocha for me.” I give a shy smile, and Neva proceeds to ignore me. I glance over at Ace and catch him eyeing Warren’s arm still latched around my waist. Funny, I didn’t even notice he was holding me. “I think I’m going to say hi to Brylee.” I ditch the boys and head toward the back. I give a quick wave to Bry. It’s only then I notice she’s sitting with Gavin Jackson, Ace’s buddy that he chops wood with. It’s Gavin’s side business that helps put Ace through school.

“Look who’s here?” He springs up and pulls me in. Gavin smells good, clean like soap. He’s a blond god that has most of the girls in Loveless dropping to their knees, but Ace is the only one I’d ever engage in idol worship for.

“Girl!” Brylee springs to her feet and tackle hugs me until I stumble backward into a rock hard body. “I have missed you so damn much!”

“Whoa.” Ace raises our drinks out of the way before setting them on the table.

“Nice save.” I pat the seat next to me, and Ace complies without hesitating. “I almost knocked us both right over.”

“You couldn’t knock me over if you tried. Besides, I’ll always catch you, girl.” His dimples depress, and, for a moment, it’s just Ace and me with my heart palpitating in honor of his glory.

“So how was school?” I glance around.

Gavin shakes his head. “The school of hard knocks suits me just fine.” He opted out of the scholastic route and opened his own business instead. Outside of firewood, he carves oversized bears and eagles that the residents buy to adorn their yards. Gavin is pretty amazing in his own right.

“I have lots to tell you.” Brylee pierces me with a hard stare. Her stony-green eyes drill into mine. Brylee is cute and bubbly with her long, blonde hair, her body that most girls pay for, and she happens to get away with murder due to the aforementioned attributes.

“You choose a major this year?” I ask, taking a quick sip of my mocha freeze.

“Business.” She rolls her eyes as if she regrets it already. “Guess where I’m headed in the fall?”

“No way!” It comes from me a little louder than necessary. I turn back for a moment and catch Warren talking to Neva. His hand brushes over hers, and I ignore it. “Do you know what dorm you’ll be staying in?”

“Beuller Hall.”

“That’s where I am! I’ll see if I can get our roommates to switch. I’d die to have you with me.”

Ace and Gavin hold their own conversation about woodcutting, something about cords being stacked later this afternoon. I never did understand the woodcutting lingo, so I wait for a lull in their conversation before interjecting.

“How’s school for you?” I say it quieter to Ace, hoping he knows my question is still layered with heat from last night’s kisses.

“Good.” His dimples flex, setting off a set of mini tremors between my thighs. “Still rowing. I declared business as my major. The year flew by. And you?”

Warren comes back before I can answer and drops a kiss on the top of my head. He smacks Ace to scoot over, and he does without hesitating.

Warren can be a good guy when he’s not busy being an asshole. He’s tall, a little lanky but clean cut and for the most part attentive—to his own needs.

“I’m headed to Collingsworth in an hour.” He pushes into me with his shoulder until I nearly fall off the bench. “You in?” Warren has a scar that jags up his left cheek from an accident he had when he was a kid. He fell from a horse onto a barbed fence and slit his face open. His caramel-colored hair is a little longer than it’s been, but he keeps his face clean-shaven as a baby’s bottom.

“What are you going there for?” Brylee asks while sipping her creamy Frappuccino and suddenly I wish I would have ordered that instead. I have a tendency to want things that aren’t mine, like Ace.

“My dad needs me to run some briefs to his buddy down the hill.” He slinks his arm around my waist again and gives my ribs a squeeze. I forgot Warren is doing an internship with his father this summer. “You up for a quick run? We’ll make a day out of it. I’ll let you beat me on the golf course later.”

My mouth opens as I look to Ace, and he quickly deflects my gaze.

“I was thinking about laying out. You know, catching up on a book, maybe.” Laying out? He just offered to treat me to an entire day, and I cancel because I have to work on my tan? Nice. Maybe Warren pegged me right. Maybe I’m a bitch with or without caffeine coursing through my veins. On the other hand, I’m not in a hurry to send him anymore mixed signals. I’d rather endure a third degree sun burn than listen to Warren drone on about all things legal, let alone ride shotgun in a golf cart for three hours straight.

“I’ll go.” Brylee volunteers. “But only if we can stop at Costco. The refrigerator’s on empty, and my parents are out of town for the next few weeks.”

“Deal.” Warren glances at me as his lips twist with disappointment. “Catch you in the p.m.? Dinner at the Blue Crab?”

“Sounds great.” I shrug. There I go again, getting sucked into Warren’s special brand of ambush dating. But I had already turned him down once. I’d hate to cut him off at the balls in front of everyone at the table. Maybe I’ll tell him at dinner that I want to see other people. Obviously he thinks we’re exclusive even though I’d sit on an entire stack of Bibles to testify the fact we’re not.

Ace nods over to Gavin. “Ready to go?” His face is peppered with stubble, and it gives him that sexier-than-hell look I ingrained into my memory last summer before leaving.

“Where you off to?” I ask, trying not to sound so desperately interested. But, dear God, am I ever desperately interested. I’ve taken a mental inventory of our every exchange for as long as I can remember. I’m so thirsty for Ace in the worst way, and last night he offered a sip, but I’m greedy. I want to fall into his ocean and drink him down to the last drop if he’ll let me.

“Emerald Forest.” Gavin answers for him. “We’ve got a quarter acre of nobles just begging for us to hack ‘em to pieces.”

“There’s also a grove of walnuts back there.” Ace holds my gaze with his deep-sea eyes a moment too long, and I can’t look away. “We need to dry them out—season them.”

“Dude.” Gavin shakes his head. “Like anyone cares.” He hops up and slaps Warren on the back as he heads for the door.

“I care.” I bite down over my lip as everyone starts to disband. Warren and Brylee discuss their departure as I slide into Ace. “You think I can see you tonight?” My voice warbles like a frightened child, and I don’t know why.

“Sounds like you’re busy.” He shoots a quick glance to Warren. A smile plays on his lips, but he won’t give it. He’s teasing me, and, secretly, I’m loving it. “Reese”—he leans in hard, his heated breath licks against my neck—“forget about what happened last night.” His lips brush against my temple, and a wild jolt moves from his body to mine. “I did.”

Ace presses out a sad smile before heading for the exit. I watch as he piles into Gavin’s truck, and they speed off in a plume of dust.

There’s no way in hell Ace forgot about our heated exchange. And I’ll be damned if we don’t share even more than that tonight.

Ace

The sun magnifies through the windshield and blinds me until we make our way west, past Pleasure Point and up into the woods. If I didn’t break my back this morning trying to add an extra hour to my routine, I’ll be sure to finish it off in the woods.

“So where were you last night?” Gavin’s cheek twitches. That usually signals bullshit like maybe he’s lying, but in this case I’m betting he knows exactly where I was. “Did you do that whole eighties thing at Kennedy’s?”

“She invited me.” My chest bounces with a silent laugh. The last thing on the agenda was hanging out with a bunch of stoned preppies, unless, of course, Reese was there, then I would have gone. “I wasn’t up to it, so I stayed home, chilled out. And you?”

“I was at the party.” He shakes his head. “I thought maybe you had some chick in the back. Rumor has it, those sorority girls are hot and wet in all the right places.” He blinks a smile.

“You can always get your ass back in school if you want. Lots of girls roaming those halls down in Collingsworth.” It’s been a sore spot with him recently especially since I announced I’m transferring to Yeats in the fall. Gavin has pretty much taken care of himself after his parents died in a car accident his junior year of high school.

“Nice try, but let’s stay on topic. I saw your shiny white ass crawl out of the lake on my way home. And whose beautiful ass did I spy crawling out with you? And is she free tonight? Because if you’re done, send her my way, bro. She looked like she had a serious rack to contend with.”

Shit. I let out a breath.

Gavin’s not a player. He’s just enjoying the hell out of himself while he breaks my balls.

“It was Reese.”

I watch as his eyes widen then retract before he straightens out the wheel.

“And, no,” I continue, “I’m not sending her your way.” I let him in on the arrangement she tried to haul me into.

“Are you shitting me?” He swerves for a moment.

“Nope, I’m not shitting anyone.”

“So, are you in?” He slows the truck down as he parks in the clearing.

“Hell, no. She’s got Warren. She was probably pissed at him for not getting her latte right, or, who knows, maybe it’s some game to get him worked up.” That kiss we shared pulses through my mind, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I didn’t think it was possible to feel that way with just a simple kiss, but nothing about that kiss was simple.

“Maybe she doesn’t want Warren.” He swings open his door and pauses. “Maybe she’s into you. You ever tell her how you feel?”

“Not going there.” I shake my head at the thought. I’ve made the mistake of mentioning my emotional hard-on for Reese one too many times before.

Gavin tugs on his ball cap. “If I were you, I’d tell her how I felt. But, if you’re too big of a pussy to own up, I’d take her up on the offer anyway. Might be the last chance you get to hook up with the girl of your dreams. And for the entire summer?” He shakes his head while staring at the trees. “Something is definitely up. I’m betting she’s feeling it for you, too.”

“No way.” Even if she were, I’d never be enough for her.

“I think you’re wrong.” He tosses out a knuckle bump. “Let’s go hack down a forest.”

“Let’s do it.”

I step out and secure my baseball cap over my head.

That final exchange with Reese at the coffee shop runs through my mind. I tried to put out the signal that I wasn’t interested—that she shouldn’t venture in my direction, but if she does make an effort to find me tonight maybe I will take her up on her offer.

Hell—I know I will.

In the evening, after hours spent decimating an entire forest with Gavin, I sit my ass on the front porch of the cabin and nurse a cold one. I pretend not to notice the fact Warren’s Beamer is still missing from his driveway, even though it’s a quarter to ten. I know for a fact they left around six because I passed them on my way down to the dock to help tie my dad into his slip.

The heat of the day still radiates from the boulders like a furnace. Loveless is socked in with hillsides in all directions, so the heat tends to settle and pretty much turns the lake into an inferno from May to September.

A beat up Chevy Impala pulls in front of the cabin like it belongs here, and A.J. Goodman, my sister’s boyfriend, hops out clad in black with his combat boots laced to his shins. He’s got at least a dozen piercings I can see and probably a dozen more I don’t care to know about.

“If you’re going to wear those things, maybe you should enlist?” I say as he jets past me. He’s sporting his Saturday night Mohawk, his thick guy liner—a requisite to scaring the crap out of old ladies at the mall. I wish he’d scare Neva. She’s been dating him on and off since Christmas and neither my dad nor me are too happy about it.

“
You
should enlist.” He twitches his bottom lip. He’s got a double loop woven through it and a tongue piercing that still hasn’t healed right. Any day now I’m expecting to hear a report that its fallen off, sort of the way I wish his dick would fall off. Just because my sister and I aren’t that close, doesn’t mean I want anybody fucking her.

“You enroll in college for fall?” I don’t mind breaking his balls a little. It’s no secret he’s been leaching off Neva the past few months. I know for a fact she shells out her hard-earned cash each time they go out.

“Fuck you.” He heads inside and slams the screen.

“Nice seeing you, too.”

Dad comes out onto the porch and lights up a cigarette. His hair is still plastered down from the hat he wears all day, and he’s got his Loveless patrol jacket on even though it’s a balmy eighty degrees out tonight.