Beautiful Oblivion (6 page)

“Where you off to, all spit shined?” I tease and kick the rocker next to me for him to take a seat, but he doesn’t.

“Down the mountain for a while.” He blows a white tornado from his lips while staring back into the house from the screen. “Remember Darnell Potter?”

“Redhead with neck gear. Warren McCarthy used to sock him in the arm on the way to school just for the heck of it.” Junior high. I remember those years. It was before dollars really meant anything, and all the Loveless kids used to hang out.

“Ran into his mom, Charlene.” He taps his cigarette over the railing, and the ash lights up the night with its orange tail. “She invited me over to catch a flick.”

Right. More like catch
his
dick
but I’m not going there with my dad, not now or ever.

“I’ll be back in the morning. Watch the kid for me, would you?” He pats me on the shoulder and heads down to his truck.

“Will do.” She’s twenty and doesn’t listen to a damn thing I say, so it’s mostly lip service, but I know he needs to hear it.

In the distance, a car takes the turn a little too quick and zips into the McCarthy’s estate. It’s Warren. I’d know that erratic driving anywhere. They’re home.

I don’t even notice as Dad pulls out and Gavin pulls in, hopping up to the porch and planting his ass next to mine until his cologne clots up the air like its about to strangle me.

“Dude, did you bathe in that shit?” I fan the air a moment.

“You know it turns you on, princess.” He slaps my back. “You want to hit Kooks?”

Kooks is a bar on the other side of the ridge where their motto is,
it’s
easy to find love in Loveless
.

“No thanks.”

A car door slams in the distance, and I try to gauge which direction Reese might be headed next. I can see her from here, small as my thumb. Reese has on a miniskirt or shorts, either way I can appreciate her long, bronzed legs, and I’m not objecting one bit.

“I see how it goes.” He nods across the lake. “Why don’t you call her in an hour? See if she’s up for another dip? Wet your wick for real this time and put the both of you out of your misery.”

“It’s not like that.” In fact, I want to smack him for thinking it is. “She’s never been with anyone. I’m not doing her in the lake.” I bite down on the inside of my cheek. “At least not the first time.”

Gavin shakes his head and takes a quick sip of my beer. “I’m out of here. Kennedy’s having a private party tonight—just a few chicks and dicks. She call you?”

“Nope.” I go to shake my head and pause. “Looks like Reese’s social calendar is double booked for the night. Speaking of dicks, I doubt mine is getting the company it was hoping for. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to turn her down.”

“What the hell did you turn her down for?”

“Look at me.” I hold out my hands. “I’m living at my dad’s.” I tap my hand over the armrest. “Neva is a fucking mess. Where would I take someone like Reese? The back seat of the Cougar?” Dad gifted me a ‘67 Mercury for my sixteenth birthday. It was my first and last birthday gift, but it was well worth the wait.

“So that’s the dilemma. And I take it nature’s a little too raw. I get it.”

“I’m not hitting the bushes with her, dude.” I blow the frustration through my lips. “McCarthy’s got a million bucks to take her to any place he wants. His parents are gone half the time. He’s got the house to himself, plus he’s got an apartment at Yeats.”

“Slow down, Ace. You stalking him?” He pushes out a laugh. “You should tell Reese you got in. You’ll have a dorm on campus, right?”

“Maybe. The scholarship details are still in the air. The coach is trying to get me a room, if not, I’m on my own.” Which translates into an hour and a half commute both ways. The gas alone will kill me. I’ll have to take out a loan just to fill the tank three times a week.

“All right.” He digs his palm into his eye. “Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ve got the shop in order—”

“I’m not sleeping with her in the shop.” I can see it now, an air mattress among the wood chips—Carl, his three-fingered assistant, showing up at sunrise and kicking us out.

“Relax, genius.” Gavin narrows into me. “Geez, you really have it bad, don’t you?” He folds his hands a moment. “I was going to say I gutted the boathouse. I had it renovated a few weeks back when my sister threatened to pop into town.”

Gavin and his sister, Zoey, don’t always get along so I get why he’d fix up the boathouse.

“Is Zoey coming back?” A noise rustles in the bushes, and my heart thumps as I spot a pale shadow moving in this direction. I try not to get my hopes up in the event it’s not Reese.

“Nope. She said maybe in the winter.” He digs into his pocket and snaps a key off his chain. “It’s yours, dude.” He hops off the porch before I can say anything and heads toward his truck. “What’s up, girl?” He nods into someone just outside my line of vision, and I hear them making small talk for a moment.

A beautiful face illuminates the shadows like a pearl in the night, as the most gorgeous girl in the world bounces her way up the stairs. Her dark hair is wound in long, perfect waves. Her silver eyes reflect the light like a cat’s.

“You up for some company?” Reese flashes that million-dollar smile.

“With you? Anytime.”

Reese yanks me up by the hand and pulls me into a nice, long hug. The scent from her perfume hypnotizes me for a moment, grapefruit and vanilla—a perfect combo of sexy and sweet just like Reese.

The truth is, I’ve been under Reese Westfield’s spell for as long as I can remember. I take in a nice, slow breath, soaking in her sweet scent. It’s the same perfume she’s worn since she was a teenager.

“How was your date?” I nod for her to take a seat, and she does. Reese looks amazing tonight with her hair spiraling out in long, dark plumes like the feathers of some exotic bird. It takes all my self-control not to run my fingers through it.

“It wasn’t a date, believe me.” She wrinkles her nose as she rocks back and forth in the glider. “He had the bisque, and I had the lobster. End of story.” She skims her bottom lip with her pearly whites, and my dick perks to life as if she were throwing out an invitation.

“Lobster.” I nod. God knows I can’t afford to keep her in crustaceans. “So what’s McCarthy up to?” Really I want to know if she said anything of value to him—if he did to her.

“He’s keeping busy, helping out his dad this summer.” She reaches over and picks up my hand, her eyes drilling into mine. “I really don’t care what he does.”

“Does he care what you do?” If I make a move on Reese, I might find myself inhaling large amounts of lake water before the summer is through. Although, if the exchange rate for sleeping with Reese is something as meager as my life, I might consider the tradeoff. Reese is worth pushing up a daisy or two, but knowing Neva, I wouldn’t be lucky enough to go the casket route. She’d toss me into the fire and warm herself while I melted to ashes. When we were younger, Dad gave us strict orders not to die because funerals were expensive as shit.

“Warren always seems to care what I do.” A cheeky smile plays on her lips. “But he’s hitting the sheets early tonight. He’s his daddy’s lackey, bright and early.”

“I know how that goes.” I’ve pinch hit for my father on the lake more times than I care to remember, mostly just giving people warnings for fishing without a license. Not that I care.

“So”—she digs in her pocket and pulls out a quarter that winks like a silver eye as she tosses it in her hand—“heads, we go skinny dipping.” Reese runs her pink tongue over her lips. “Tails, we find somewhere new to hang out.” She throws it high, and I catch it before it ever has a chance to fall. I flip it onto her bare thigh, and my fingers linger over her velvet soft skin.

“Tails.” I blink a smile up at her, and my heart takes off like a greyhound down the track. “I know just the place to take you.” I hop up. “Wait right here.” I run into my bedroom and eye the box of condoms sitting on my desk. For a moment I envision Reese on top of me with her hair raining down over my face as she rides me. My dick perks up as if it were casting its vote, but I swipe the Monopoly game off the dresser and get the hell out of Dodge.

Reese and I drive down the road about a quarter of a mile, taking that last stretch nice and slow no thanks to the rocks strewn about, threatening to take out a tire. It’s dark as hell, but that’s the best time to look at the stars. I park square in front of Gavin’s boathouse and eye the tiny structure.

“The G-man’s love shack?” Her dark hair falls like a curtain as she leans in hard to get a better look. “I’m impressed.”

“You shouldn’t be.”

We get out, and I let us in. It’s clean, mostly. The light scent of pine lies thick in the air, but it smells more antiseptic than it does anything derived from nature.

Reese circles my waist from behind, and I spin into her.

“Whoa, girl.” I give a satisfied groan as she melts her fingers across my chest. “Let’s get some lights on.” I flip the switch and am pleasantly surprised to find a double bed tucked in the corner, a red, white, and blue quilt of the American flag lying neat over the center. There’s a small braided rug, a table, and a couple of chairs—a mini-fridge in the corner.

“Wow.” She steps in past me. “This place is so cute. I’ve always wondered what it was like inside. For some reason I pictured it loaded from floor to ceiling with little aluminum boats.” She eyes the box in my hand. “What’s that, Waterman?” She takes a bold step into me and bats her lashes as if trying to seduce me. And lucky for me because I’m pretty damn sure she is.

I hold up the game for a second, and she gives a long blink. “What’d you think we we’re going to do?” A shit-eating grin waits to break out on my face, but I hold back.

“I thought”—she flattens her hands over my chest and drips them down slow and even—“maybe we could do more of what we did last night.”

A dry laugh pumps through me.

“Let’s get to work.” I’m quick to set up the board. Reese calls “bank” and sorts the cash in front of her like a seasoned teller.

“Just try to steal, and I’ll make sure you’re punished to the fullest extent of the law,” I say it dry like I mean it, and I do.

“Will you do the punishing?” Her lips part as if she were wagering just how much she should take.

“That depends. Would you want me to?” I shuffle the tiny cards in my hands for no good reason.

“Yes, Ace. You have my full permission to severely punish me.” Her eyes press into mine like she’s serious just before she jolts back to game. “So, did you think about what we said last night?” She rolls the dice. Her eyes cut up to mine, and I’m about to flip the board over and take her right here on the floor—punish her with my tongue in all the right places.

“Yup. I thought long and hard about how I should invest in hairspray because I’m confident you’re about to single handedly bring back big hair.”

“Very funny.” She glides her fingers over the board, and I move my hand before she can catch it. “So you don’t want me,” she says it low just this side of a whisper and breaks my heart in the process.

“Yes, I want you. In fact I
need
you because it’s downright impossible to play this game by myself.” My chest rumbles with a silent laugh, but she’s not coming along for the ride. Her features soften, any residue of a smile she might have been sporting dissipates faster than snow in June.

She gives a hard sniff and locks her gaze over mine.

“Warren wants you, too,” I say it plain and simple before rolling the dice. “You go first.” I scoot them over to her, but she doesn’t budge.

“You sound like my dad.” She shakes her head. “I guess it really doesn’t matter what I want. Does it?” She leans back on her hands and stares off at the wall behind me.

“Of course, it matters what you want. In the event you haven’t noticed, you’re the only person who should care who you’re with. If you’re not into Warren, I’m sure you’ll find some other nice kid at Yeats.” Not that I want her to. I reach over and pick up her hand, massaging her palm with my thumb. “Fall in love, Reese. Get so head over heels you can’t see straight. It’ll be magic. I promise, you’ll want to write me a thank you note because when you finally have that moment, it’s going to be incredible.”

“Have you ever been in love?” It comes out raspy, sexy as hell. “So head over heels you can’t think straight?”

Right fucking now, but I don’t say it.

Reese gets up, never letting go of my hand, and slips her legs on either side of me until she’s sitting right in my lap, straddling me with her warm, soft body. Right about now I’m regretting the metric distance between my dick and that box of condoms sitting in my bedroom.

“Last night you said you’d be my someone special this summer.” She pulls off my shirt and runs her hands across my chest. Her eyes latch onto mine, and I’m dying to pluck off her T-shirt and return the favor.

“Last night was an illusion.” I replace her hands into her lap. “You’re just hopped up on hormones. It’s the heat.” I could list a thousand different things it could be, but I’m hoping not one of them is true.