Before Hadley

Before Hadley

J. Nathan

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not considered to be real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by J. Nathan.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Edited by Stephanie Elliot

Cover Design by RBA Designs

Cover Photo © Artofphoto | 
Dreamstime.com
 

First Edition March 2016

CHAPTER ONE

Hadley

He didn’t see me watching from the corner of the leather sectional in Katie McGraw’s living room. But I’d been watching since he walked through the front door almost an hour before. No, I wasn’t some creepy stalker. I’d just lived in the same Georgia town since birth, so I knew everyone. Everyone but him.

He was new, which made me curious. I could sense he wasn’t like the guys around town by his relaxed swagger. By the confidence he exuded when he walked into a room full of strangers. By the ease in which he lifted his red cup to his full lips, guzzling his beer like it was a sport. By his tolerance of all the eyes on him and the people approaching, feeling the need to introduce themselves, especially the girls. 

He didn’t notice me tucked into the corner with my cup filled with warm beer. But why would he? I tended to blend into the scenery. I’d been graced with wavy blond hair and a skinny body I didn’t have to work to maintain.
But besides that, I was painfully average. I’d had my fair share of boyfriends over the years. But after going to school with most of the guys since kindergarten, a relationship with any of them lacked that spark I’d read about in books and seen in movies. Hence, my curiosity with the new guy.

The fact that he could’ve been the world’s biggest douchebag didn’t stop my body from shamelessly reacting the moment he’d walked through the front door, my heart tripping over itself with interest.

That was definitely new for me.

But I wasn’t like Katie, party-thrower extraordinaire. She slept with anyone who looked her way. And, as I sat in the corner milking my beer, her skanky hands roamed all over the new guy’s chest. And while he may not have been shirtless, he might as well have been. His navy shirt displayed the width of his chest and the sculpted indentations underneath, while his short-sleeves made it impossible to miss the defined lines and hollows in his biceps. He wasn’t too tanned or a faux-surfer like the locals. Just the opposite. His dark hair was short on the sides and shaggy on the top, like he just rolled out of bed unconcerned with how it looked.

Then, like clockwork, Katie grabbed his hand and whispered something in his ear that garnered one of the biggest grins I’d ever seen. Had she not been giving him the eyes, the ones that said, “You’re so getting laid,” I would’ve melted into a pile of goo right there because it was breathtaking. Truly breathtaking.

But I should’ve known. Guys were physically incapable of saying no to a willing female. And Katie was always willing. She tugged on his hand and led him all too readily upstairs. I’d been to enough parties at her house to know the only rooms upstairs were bathrooms and bedrooms.

What a freaking disappointment
.

My hormones clearly weren’t in tune with reality. Because in reality, he was the type of guy my father warned me about. The type who drew too much attention. The type who caused girls to become irrational. The type who became bored easily. And while I might’ve been eighteen, I still listened to my father. Who’d argue with a police detective who’d been profiling people since the start of his career? He assured me more than once, when the truth stared you right in the face, believe it.

I pushed myself up from the sofa and maneuvered around the bodies milling about the kitchen. I dumped my beer in the sink and headed onto the deck to refill my cup with cold beer from the keg. I pulled in a deep breath, the cool March breeze a welcome change from the stagnant air inside.

“Hey, Hadley.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Zack Banes, captain of every team at school and one of my biggest mistakes. Sadly, I let him get to second base at a party last year. Not one of my finest moments. But since then, he made it a point to get my attention whenever we ended up in the same place. Which, unfortunately, happened often given the small size of Jacobsville.

“Wanna do a keg stand?” he asked from the corner of the deck.

I shook my head with a smile, as if I actually appreciated his offer, then turned with my filled cup and headed for the back door.

“Did he really think you’d agree to that?” a familiar voice asked.

My head jerked to my right. Michelle, my next-door neighbor, stood by the deck railing wearing a grin. I laughed. “Agree to what? Lifting me so my crotch aligned to his face?”

“So original.”

“Guys.” I rolled my eyes. “Have you seen Cass?”

She shook her head.

“I’ll see you inside.” I moved to the living room, dropping down on the sofa to wait for Cass who’d disappeared with her boyfriend Eric. If they didn’t turn up soon, I wasn’t sticking around.

Unlike the other partygoers, I was over the whole high school scene. I was ready for college. Like yesterday. I’d already been accepted to Georgia State, and with my grades, I thoroughly intended to breeze through my final two months of school.

I finished my beer then headed for the long line at the bathroom. With the groups of girls ahead of me planning to go in two at a time, and knowing there were three other bathrooms on the second floor, I took off for the stairs.

The second floor was dark and eerily still. No sounds trailed into the hallway from any of the rooms as I hurried down it. I avoided the bathroom in the master suite and the one attached to Katie’s room—not wanting to interrupt the mistake happening in there. That left the one at the far end of the hallway. The door was wide open, beckoning me toward it. Before I could get there, someone rounded the corner, slamming chest first into me. “
Oomph
.” My body jostled back.

I would’ve fallen on my butt had two vise-like grips not grabbed hold of my upper arms and steadied me on my feet.

I shook my head, clearing away the surprise as the hands disappeared from my arms. It was then I discovered the new guy staring down at me with the darkest—blackest—eyes I’d ever seen, not to mention the long thick lashes surrounding them.

“Whoa. Are you okay?” he asked with a full-blown British accent.

Forget the midnight eyes and accent, the guy stood there freaking shirtless with his shirt clutched tightly in his left hand.

Mothereffer
.

“Um...”

“Um’s better than ‘Watch it asshole.’” He laughed as he reached down and buttoned his cargo shorts.

My eyes followed his fingers. “You just startled me, that’s all.”
Shit
. My eyes jumped up, scrambling to avoid his crotch. Face. And,
holy hell,
his bare chest.

“Sorry. I can’t seem to stay out of my own way most days, let alone someone else’s.” I looked up in time to catch his grin and a freaking dimple digging into his right cheek.

Seriously?

Wait a flipping minute. I was Hadley Ryan. I would not be distracted by a hot guy when I knew
exactly
what he was doing up there. Shirtless. With his shorts unbuttoned. “I’m Caynan, by the way. I just moved here.”

“I sort of figured that with the accent.”

“Yeah. Dead giveaway.”

I crossed my arms, unfazed by his easy charm. “I’m sure the girls around here will love it.”

He lifted a shoulder. “It hasn’t hurt me so far.”

Gahhh
. The confidence. “Yeah, but you should know…” I glanced around the hallway, making a show of ensuring Katie wasn’t lurking nearby. “…It doesn’t take much to get Katie to open her legs.”

He choked on a laugh, clearly caught off guard by my candor. What could I say? It was a gift. “Good to know.”

I shrugged, like helping educate the new guy was my obligation.

He buried his hands in his pockets, apparently in no rush to get back to Katie.

Did
his muscles really need to have muscles?

Look away, Hadley. Look away.

“So what should I call you?” he asked.

“Honest.”

He cocked his head. “Yeah. Sort of figured that.”

“Did you now?”

He nodded. “And bloody adorable.”

My head recoiled, horrified by his blatant flirting when he’d taken another girl upstairs. “Is this how they get their flirt on across the pond?”

He laughed, a deep raspy laugh.

“No, I’m serious. Does it actually work?” I asked.

His laughter subsided and his lips slipped into a cocky lopsided grin. “I don’t know. Is it working?”

I leveled him with unimpressed eyes, a look I’d perfected a long time ago to ward off guys with bad lines and trouble written all over their good-looking faces. I guess I needed to add guys who had girls in bedrooms and still decided to flirt with me to the list.

“Seriously.” The twinkle in his eyes told me he liked my sass. “What can I call you?”

“Don’t.”

His head whipped back. “Don’t?”

“Don’t call me.”

He fought back a smile. “Thanks for the warning.”

“You hang around here long enough, you’ll figure out I’m not like the rest of them.”

He lifted his brows. “I’d be disappointed if you were.”

I laughed to myself. And just in case I wasn’t clear on my thoughts of him, I turned on my flip flops and walked the rest of the way into the bathroom. I didn’t bother to glance back to see if he was looking. I knew he was. Guys like him couldn’t help themselves. They always looked.

Caynan

Well, she was refreshing.

I turned around and headed for the bedroom where I’d left what’s-her-name. I slipped inside and there she lay, still passed out on the bed. Thankfully. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to screw her six ways to Sunday. She was hot. Curvy. Brunette. And empty upstairs.

Totally my type.

At least with the life I lived.

But tonight, I had other things I needed to take care of. Things these other kids couldn’t understand. Couldn’t know about. That’s if I wanted my teeth intact and my dad to back the fuck off me. He was constantly on my ass. Constantly in my ear. Constantly relying on me to do his dirty work. And it was dirty. But I’d gotten used to it—and good at it, as messed up as that sounded. I just wasn’t sure how much more I could take without losing my fucking mind. It had been thirteen years of the same routine. And the shit had gotten old. At eighteen, I shouldn’t have been stressed and perpetually anxious. Something had to give.

I closed the door behind me and walked over to the bed. I checked the lower pockets on my cargo shorts to be sure they were still buttoned, then dropped my shorts to the floor. I lay down beside the chick in my boxers and rolled onto my side, shoving up her dress and admiring her nice ass as I tucked the hem of her dress into the elastic on her thong. Then I crossed my arms behind my head and lay back to wait for her to wake up.

The feisty little blonde in the hallway had thrown me off my game. I hadn’t expected anyone to venture upstairs, especially after making a show of taking the brunette upstairs. It was understood we didn’t want visitors, or so I thought. But the little blonde had balls. I could see it in her determination to get to that bathroom.
And
get the hell away from me.

Maybe she had intuition. One that told her to run far away. Because she did. The first one in as long as I could remember.

Most girls were drawn to me. I was a lot taller and broader than other guys my age. I had looks that made girls fall over themselves to get with me. If we stayed in one place long enough, I kicked some serious ass on a baseball field. And since girls loved athletes, I had my pick. Not that I had to worry about ever getting serious. I was always half-way across the country by the time they realized I was gone.

My dad begged me to lay low and stay off the radar, nearly putting me through the wall when I blatantly disobeyed him. Repeatedly. But that just wasn’t me. I needed friends. I needed girls. I needed sports to keep me sane in my insane world. But I’d agreed to no social media. Nothing to keep me connected after I left.
And
the reason I stayed home on picture day. No record of me remained longer than the time I stayed in one place. It was easier that way. Lonelier, but definitely easier.

My dad’s expression was fucking priceless when I mentioned to my newest principal that I played baseball. He immediately introduced me to the baseball coach, who agreed to let me ride the bench. But once I showed up at my first practice and crushed the ball, the coach’s tune changed. I tried holding back at first, not wanting to draw too much attention. But sometimes I just needed to feel like a high school kid again. Feel like everyone else who got to be themselves every day. Not someone who played a different role in every Godforsaken place they ended up.

I had no clue how long we’d be in Jacobsville. I liked it so far. The days had been mid-seventies and the coastline was minutes away. The neighborhoods most of the kids lived in weren’t anything like the bungalows by the coast or the trailer we rented. They were mansions. Each bigger than the last. Every town we ended up in had their own social elite. And this town was no different. Being spring break, there’d been some parties, so I’d been to a few houses, but I’d only met the guys on the baseball team and some chicks they partied with.