Between Hope & the Highway (23 page)

Me, that’s who. I ruined everything.

Chapter 36

Rawson

Monopoly ranked high on my list of most hated games. Yet, I sat on the rug in an uncomfortable position playing the time-waster of my own free will and choice. When Benny asked if I’d play with him and Liz, I shocked him by agreeing. The game still took too long, but with Lizzie on the other side of the board, that suddenly didn’t seem so bad. She was fun to hang around.

As Benny finished his turn, I rolled the dice and moved my boot to Boardwalk. “I’ll buy it.”

“I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear, Lord Vader.” Benny was the smart-aleck banker.

“They are clear, my master.” As I handed over four hundred Monopoly dollars, he snickered and gave me my property.

Liz rolled the dice. She moved the thimble to Baltic and purchased it.

“If you’re trying to buy up all the cheap sh—” I caught myself, “—crap and bankrupt us at the end with hotels, you might want to rethink your strategy. With doofus here buying everything he lands on, we’re both in trouble.” I rubbed Benny’s head hard to make his hair stand up straight.

“Stop it!” He pushed my hand away.

“How was your first day of sixth grade?” Liz asked.

My brother’s brows scrunched together before he forced a smile. “Good. Couldn’t be better.”

I bit my tongue to keep from interrogating him. There’d be time to pull the truth from him later.

Benny rolled a seven. As I counted ahead from his token, I clenched my teeth. When he threw money into the bank and snatched up Park Place, I threw Boardwalk across the board.

“Are you kidding me? Now what good will this do me?”

Liz reached over to touch his hand. “I suggest a new strategy, R2: let the Wookie win.”

I whistled. “That was good. So I’m a Wookie now?”

“If the fur fits, wear it.” She concentrated on the board, fighting a smile.

I waited until she glanced up at me. She always did. “If I recall correctly, you told me the other day you’d like to kiss a Wookie.”

She rolled the dice. “No, I said I’d
rather
kiss a Wookie, meaning the creature ranks higher than you if I had to kiss something nasty. But Mackay ranks higher than you both.”

Benny gave her a weird look. “I thought you told me you broke up—”

“I’ll buy it!” she shouted over Benny’s enlightening announcement.

“You broke up with Mack-y?”

Crimson splotches flared up her cheeks and neck, revealing the truth her tongue restrained.

“I knew you’d come to your senses eventually and dump that bin of vanilla.”

She glared at me. “For your information, he dumped me.”

“Then he’s stupider than I thought.”

She huffed and grabbed her new property. As we circled the board several more times, I kept catching her watching me and knew she liked me. She just didn’t
want
to like me. It was a unique position to be in. Girls usually threw themselves at me.

“Your turn, bro.” Benny jabbed me in the side.

I rolled the dice and half-heartedly moved. Benny had one of every property, so I had no chance of winning. “New rule. Sixth graders aren’t allowed to play this game.”

His bottom lip jutted out. “You’re just sore about Park Place.”

“Damn straight.”

Lizzie threw me one of her stern librarian scowls. With her hair locked up in a ponytail prison, she pulled it off well.

“Ooops. I mean,
Dang
straight.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbled.

“Since you’re not stuck with vanilla, are you ready to try a new flavor?”

She raised her eyebrows. “We haven’t completely broken up.”

“You’re either together, or you’re not. Which is it?”

The dice were forgotten. Benny held them in his hand as he stared at us.

“We’re just taking a break from each other.”

“Did you hear the key word in there, kid?”

His countenance lit up as I included him. “Break, as in break up.”

Lizzie shook her head. “No. Break, as in rest. We’re getting our lives in order before we get back together. With his father so sick—”

“Stop making excuses. If I were Mackay and you were my girl, the world could be falling apart and I would never…ever!…take a break from you. The worse life got, the tighter I’d hold onto you.”

“Ben, it’s your turn,” she said.

I squirmed to get blood moving into my crossed legs. How did Indians sit like this?

“Do you have any classes with the kids from church?” she kept her focus on my brother.

“Yeah,” I piped in, “because if you don’t, the devil’s going to get you.”

Benny snickered as he collected $50 rent from Liz for landing on one of his railroads. As she gave me the evil eye, I hissed and crossed two fingers in the air to ward off her spell. The corny act elicited an unwilling smile and a hard eye roll from her.

I’d take what I could get.

“I wish. But Alice saw me in line at lunch and invited me to eat with her and her friends.”

Liz smiled. “That was nice of her.”

As Benny blushed, I realized he was growing up. If the accident hadn’t happened, he’d be in seventh grade, instead of sixth. That’s when I started noticing girls.

“Are you sweet on this Alice chick?” I asked.

Benny’s face turned red.

Lizzie elbowed me. “He’s only thirteen.”

“So? I liked girls at his age.”

Benny snorted. “You were born liking girls.”

“True that.”

Liz folded her arms. “Well, normal boys think girls have cooties at this age.”

“I knew girls had cooties back then. They still do. But having a scientific mind, I’ve always enjoyed studying cooties up close and personal.” I winked.

They both made gagging faces that made me hoot. Monopoly had never seemed so fun before.

Lizzie shoved my arm. “You’re terrible.”

“And gross.” Benny handed me the dice.

“Gross and Terrible.” I shook the dice and let them fall. “That was my nickname in junior high. That and Cootie Catcher.”

More groaning as Lizzie shook her head.

Mom peeked in. “Hey, it’s time to head to bed, Benny boy. You have school in the morning.”

As he started counting his money, I stopped him. “Don’t bother. You won. It’s not even a contest.” I started throwing bills into the right containers. “Liz and I will clean up.”

“Ugh,” he said as he trudged upstairs.

I glanced over at Liz organizing her money. “Since you’re a free woman now, should I ask Chance to take you to the movies?”

“I don’t need a matchmaker.”

“All work and no play makes Liz a dull girl.”

“I am a dull girl.”

“You’re the farthest thing from dull. Come on. You need a break from the ranch.”

“The only thing I need a break from is ornery cowboys.” She started to get up, but I caught her wrist.

As she tugged against me, I said, “Movie. Saturday night. I’ll find you a date.”

“Absolutely not.” She tugged harder. “I don’t need your pity dates.”

“I’m not letting you go until you say yes.”

“You’d better or I’ll write you up to your father.”

“What will you say?
Mr. Law
,” I said in a high falsetto, “y
our son has been holding my hand in very inappropriate ways and performing illegal cootie checks
.”

She laughed. “You’re incorrigible.”

“Ooo. I like that word.”

“Let me go. I need to get to bed since I have to be up early.”

“That does suck for you. Tell you what. I’ll take you on a practice date to prepare you for Chance. I’ll even throw in ice cream to celebrate your split from vanilla. It’s the least I can do, Praline.”

“I’m not Praline. I’m boring vanilla…like Mackay.”

“Not even close. Mack-y broke up with you. That’s his bad. I mean to fix his mistake and set you up with a real man since you saved my life.”

“I’m wishing I hadn’t saved you.”

“Come on. I won’t bite…unless you want me to.”

She scowled.

“Come on, Lizzie. Ice cream. Movie. A handsome guy with lots of personality. What more could you ask for?”

“Peace and quiet.”

I pursed my lips. “I can do that. Have you been out to the waterfall?”

She shook her head.

“Then we need to go. It’ll take half an hour to drive there, and then it’s a fifteen-minute hike. We should leave no later than six.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere alone with you.”

“Why not? You know I’m a good guy.”

“I know no such thing. In fact, Mackay told me stories that make me think you’re the exact opposite.”

I released her wrist and stomped to the stairs. “Fine. If you don’t want to see the sun set at a spectacular setting, then your loss.” I threw my hands up and growled. “No reward is worth this.”

Halfway up the stairs, I heard her call after me. “I’m sorry, Rawson.”

I clenched my fists. The girl pushed me to the edge of insanity.

“I shouldn’t have said that. You hate Mackay. He hates you. That negates anything you say about each other.”

Glancing over my shoulder, I admitted, “I did bully him in high school.”

“We all did stupid things back then.”

“What did you do?”

“Pretended to like this one guy so he’d ask me to senior prom and get my mom off my back so she wouldn’t ground me from the horses.”

I had no trouble imagining that. “Don’t come between a girl and her horse.”

She smoothed her hair that was already pulled back tight. “Uh, if the offer still stands”—she grimaced—“I’ll go with you.”

“You make it sound and look like I’m going to make you walk the plank into shark-infested waters.”

She shrugged. “But it’s not a date.”

“As excited as you’re acting, let’s call it what it is—walking the plank.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “Okay. I’ll walk the plank with you Saturday.”

“Deal. It’s a plank.”

The sound of her laughter made me grin as I made my way to my room. I knew it wasn’t really anything, but it would help Liz branch out from dating boring church fools. Add some spice to her life. After I wowed her and showed her how much fun a real guy could be, I’d set her up with Chance or one of the other hands. But for now, I liked the idea of having her all to myself for an evening. Just the two of us.

Chapter 37

Bentley

Hay stuck to my clothes as I lifted a bale and threw it in the middle of the aisle.

“Thanks, Ben.” Liz wiped sweat from her brow. Today had turned into a scorcher.

“Any time.” I counted the bales I’d lined up in a row. “Do you need me to haul in more?”

“No. That should get me through Monday.”

I brushed off my jeans as Rawson entered through the back door.

“Howdy, darling. You ready to walk the plank in a couple hours?”

I sat on a bale and gulped from my water bottle.

“About that,” she murmured in an unpromising tone. “Mackay’s dad passed away this morning so I’m going to have to cancel so I can be with him.”

Rawson’s jaw twitched. “I thought you broke up.”

She squirmed. “Well, we’re back together, I guess. He needs me.”

Rawson punched the sideboard and dropped an F-bomb.

Liz covered her ears. “You don’t have to be such an…” She stopped.

“Say it,” Rawson snapped. He wasn’t taking her news well. I didn’t blame him. He’d looked forward to driving her out to the waterfall all week and had gone to a lot of effort to make the evening special. He’d driven to town and bought Japanese rolls when I mentioned they were her favorite, as well as a fancy-looking chocolate dessert I wanted to try. He’d thrown a folding table into the bed of his truck and all the trimmings for a candlelight dinner, as well as fireworks for after dark. My brother was the king of cool.

“Say it!”

Lizzie marched toward the tack room. Rawson stormed after her and caught her by the arm.

“Say it,” he said through gritted teeth. “Tell me what I am.”

“Let go of me, jerk!”

“Nope. That’s not what you wanted to say.” He shook her slightly. “Say what you meant.”

“Leave me alone.”

“Not until you finish what you were about to say.
I’m such an___
.” He hummed the missing word.

“You’re an idiot.”