Hale Maree (12 page)

“
I believe you,” Oscar says.
He sounds disturbed, and miserable, and relieved, all at
once.

“
Did you get with that girl
because you thought I was cheating on you?”

“
No,” Oscar says, and then
he tells her the lie he said he would. “I met her because our
fathers are doing business together.”

“
Oh,” Sophia squeaks the
tiny word, and I hear her trying to choke back new sobs. “So where
does this leave you and me?”

Oscar doesn’t answer her question. Instead,
he says, “If you don’t know who that guy was, Sophia, than there’s
something even bigger going on. Somebody’s trying to mess with
me.”

“
Who?”

“
I don’t know, but I have an
idea. Someone who was after more.”

“
Tell me.”

“
Not until I know for sure,”
he says. I wonder if he’s looking up at the window. If he’s talking
about my dad. Or me.

I want to go home.

And then I hear Sophia say, “Oscar? I don’t
care what you did with that girl up there. I don’t. I don’t even
care that you doubted me. I still love you, and I’m sorry this all
happened.”

“
I’m sorry it happened too,
Soph,” he says softly.

I start to feel like I’ve got the flu. I
wipe my palms on the edge of my shirt. I picture him down there,
scooping her up in his arms and kissing her. That same kiss he gave
me, pulling her lip through his teeth, sending Kryptonite into her
legs.

I don’t want to hear anymore. I crank the
window shut as quietly as it will allow, get to my feet, and scoop
up my bags. Oscar took his phone with him, or I’d call Sher. Or
maybe just a taxi. Anyone that could get me out of here so that
Oscar and Sophia can get back to being Oscar and Sophia without any
Hale to get in the way.

I head for the stairs, but before I even get
to the top, I hear his footsteps jogging up. Maybe he’s going to
take me home. Maybe he’s coming to throw me out. I back away from
the stairs, and when he hits the top step, Oscar catches the bags
hanging off my shoulders, and his brow hikes upward in surprise. He
closes the bedroom door behind him and clicks the lock.

“
You going some place?” he
asks.

“
Yeah,” I hang my head,
worried to say the wrong thing. “I figured I’d just get out of
here. Looks like you and Sophia have some stuff to work
out.”

Oscar’s gaze flicks to the window that I had
open a moment ago, then back to me. He takes a step toward me,
hands up as if he’s going to wrap them around my arms, but I
shuffle backward. He drops his hands and his voice.

“
What’s going on,
Hale?”

“
Nothing. But your
girlfriend’s here now, and I don’t want things to get any weirder
than they already are.”

“
She’s not my girlfriend
anymore,” he says. This time, he moves toward me and I move away,
but he keeps coming, backing me up across the room.

“
It’s okay,” I tell him.
“You don’t have to lie. I’m relieved. We don’t have to go through
with all of this now.”

“
You’re relieved?” The
sadness that arcs across his face and doesn’t jar my sympathy at
all. He’s downstairs telling Sophia he’s still in love with her,
and now he’s backing me into corners, acting like he’s so sad that
I want to leave. Sher was right. He wants a harem. It makes me want
to punch him in the mouth.

“
I’m leaving,” I say. He’s
backed me into the middle of the room. I shift to one side, to walk
around him, but Oscar shifts too, blocking my way. I move to the
other side and he moves too. I drop my bag, pull back, and swing
for his face.

Oscar catches my hand and, like lightening,
he spins me around and pins my arm behind me, right between his
chest and my back. I lift my foot and try to bring it down on his
instep, but he jumps free, jerking me back with him. Wiggling in
his grip, I try to slam my head backward into his nose and hit
something that makes him curse, but he doesn’t let go. He tightens
his hold on me.

“
Don’t do that again,” he
growls in my ear through gritted teeth.

But I do. I try to swing back my head again,
but he twirls me around. I stumble and hit the floor. It knocks the
wind out of me, and he’s on top of me before I can recover enough
to kick him in the balls. He gets my hands in his and holds them,
while I thrash uselessly beneath him.

After a few seconds, I realize I’m not going
anywhere. My hair is stuck to my face, and I puff to get it out of
my mouth. Still pinned, Oscar smiles down at me, as if we’re just
playing a game, except that a bruise is spreading across his
cheekbone. I got him after all.

“
You all done?” he asks.
He’s breathing harder than he wants me to know.

“
Get off me,” I
say.

“
Not until you calm
down.”

“
I said get off
me.”

“
What are you going to do
about it?” he laughs.

“
I was trying to do
something about it,” I tell him. “Get off and I’ll go. You can play
house with Sophia. She wants to.”

“
I don’t care what she
wants,” he says.

“
There’s no reason for us to
go through with any of this now,” I say. “Sophia didn’t cheat on
you. This doesn’t have anything to do with her.”

“
No, it doesn’t,” Oscar
says. “But it doesn’t change anything between us either. What’s
happened, happened, Hale. You need to quit fighting me on
it.”

“
You’re in love with someone
else and you should be with her!” I grunt from under
him.

“
I’m not going to be with
her. I’m marrying you,” he growls. He exhales a warm and aggravated
sigh against my neck, and then his lips are back at my ear. “I gave
my word to that and, just so you know, I’m finding it incredibly
easy to embrace the idea. Except when I have to pin you to the
floor.”

I take advantage of having his neck so close
to my mouth and bite him. I sink my teeth just hard enough that he
yelps and loses his grip, so I can wiggle away. He rolls onto his
heels as I scuttle away from him. My back hits the edge of the bed.
He lifts his hand to his neck, draws it back and checks for blood.
I can see the red marks of my teeth on him, but no broken skin.

“
Someday soon,” he says with
a patient laugh, “you’re going to do that because you want me as
close as you can get me, instead of further away.”

The front door opens, and Amy’s voice
interrupts my response.

“
What the hell is going on?
Why are you sitting here all alone?”

#

“
I’ll just go,” Sophia says.
Oscar dragged me downstairs by my hand to find Sophia sobbing at
one end of the couch, and Amy bunched up beside her, shooting
daggers at us as we enter the room.

“
What’s the matter with
you?” Amy hisses, but she’s looking at me instead of
Oscar.

“
I’m sorry, Sophia, but I
think it’s a good idea if you go too,” Oscar says. “We’ll talk
another time, okay?”

“
Sure,” she says, rising off
the couch. Landon, arms crossed on his chest and leaning on the
front door frame, moves out of her way. Amy throws up her arms in
frustration, and walks out after her friend. The door bangs
shut.

“
This isn’t the birthday I
was expecting,” Landon jokes. Oscar runs a hand through his
hair.

“
Sorry buddy. I didn’t
expect it to go like this either.”

“
You want us to just take
off?”

“
No, no,” Oscar says. “Stay.
Your birthday’s tomorrow. You’re not driving home all night. Hell
no.”

“
It’s no big deal. Amy might
be pissy all weekend anyway.”

“
We’ll get her over it,”
Oscar says, but I can’t imagine how it’s going to happen unless I’m
the one that goes home.

Sophia’s tail lights finally glow like angry
eyes through the front windows, as Amy lets herself back in. Landon
gives her a win-some-lose-some grin, and she returns a scowl.

“
How about we eat?” Landon
suggests, trying to change the mood.

“
You want to grill?” Oscar
asks. They go off into the kitchen together and I trail them, so
Amy doesn’t jump me in the living room and eat my face. I think
both guys know it’s a real possibility too, since they don’t try to
assign us to salad chopping or side dish prep, while they escape
out to the grill.

While Landon shapes the burgers into disks,
Oscar opens a can of baked beans and dumps them in a saucepan on
the stove. Amy stays right between the guys, leaning on the sink,
and I hover opposite them, near the fridge. Landon makes small talk
that only Oscar responds to.

Finally, Amy asks, “Did Sophia do that to
your face, O?”

“
Nope,” he tells her,
stirring the beans and smiling at her. “This is what happens when
you miss a step going up the stairs.”

“
You should put ice on that.
It looks awful, poor baby,” she says. The guilt sinks into me like
pushpins. Amy crosses the room to my side, opens a cupboard, and
pulls out a plastic baggie. She hands it to me, along with the
steak Oscar threw in there from our shopping trip.

“
Better take care of your
man, Hale,” she says, but when she hands it all to me, she actually
gives me a wispy smile. I’m totally shocked that she’s not trying
to use the steak to bludgeon me.

“
That’s right, Hale,” Oscar
jumps in, tipping his cheek in my direction, although he continues
to stir the beans. “Take care of me.”

If I didn’t think that Amy would gut me for
defying her, I would’ve lobbed the meat at Oscar’s head and sent a
bruise all the way to his hairline. Instead, I drop the steak into
the plastic bag as I near Oscar, and lift the hard icepack to his
face.

The bruise looks deep and
sickly at the center, spreading out in purples and blues. Oscar
hums,
mmmhhh,
when
the cold touches his skin. His eyes close, the dark lashes resting
momentarily on his cheek, and a nuclear blast of unintentional lust
fires through me.

Oscar opens his eyes, and I realize how
close I’m standing when he smiles. His eyes crinkle up first, and
then, I notice his lips. He stops stirring and the beans bubble and
blow steam.

“
Kiss me,” he murmurs, but
suddenly I feel like the whole room is full of spotlights. I just
smile and move back.

“
The beans,” I say. He
frowns and pulls the saucepan off the burner.

“
Burgers are ready to roll,”
Landon says and Amy says, “Thank God. I’m starving. Aren’t you,
Hale?”

I nod, but I’m completely confused. She
wanted to pull my arms off a few hours ago, but she’s smiling and
talking to me now. I stick close to Oscar and he shoots me a
conspiratorial grin, like he knows I’m using him as a human shield
against Amy. And he takes full advantage of it. He slips his arm
around my waist, as we follow Landon and Amy out the sunroom door
to the grill on the side of the house.

“
I hear your dad and Oscar’s
work together, Hale. What does your dad do?” Landon asks as he
lights the grill.

“
They don’t exactly,” I
begin, but Oscar cuts me off.

“
Hale’s dad likes working
with his hands. He’s starting up a premier environmental service
and my dad thought his ideas were brilliant. You know how my dad is
when he sees a good idea. He jumped in at the ground floor and
plans to ride the elevator up. The company is already projected to
go state-wide with the potential of multiple chains in less than
two years.”

I feel like my own mouth is hanging open. I
thought Mr. Maree just bought my dad a truck and a tractor, not an
environmental service dynasty.

“
Wow, that’s excellent,”
Landon, says.

“
Yeah, it’s really great,” I
say.

“
So tell us about you,
Haley.” Amy says.

“
It’s just Hale,” I tell
her. She smiles dryly.

“
Cool. Hale. Tell us about
you.”

“
She reads more than anyone
I know,” Oscar says. “Her favorite color is purple, dark not light,
she is picky about her Italian food, and she’s an amazing cook. You
should see what she can do with eggs.”

“
How long have you been
together? I thought you just met each other?”

“
We met about two weeks ago,
but we just started dating this week,” Oscar lies. “But it seems
like I’ve known her for years.”

“
Cool,” Amy says again with
a tempered laugh.

“
How about you two? How did
you and Landon meet?” I ask.

“
We met through Oscar and
Sophia. Our best friends fixed up their best friends.” Amy runs a
hand down Landon’s back. “But it looks like now it’s going to be
the four of us instead, so I guess I’m just gonna have to girl-up
and make a new bestie.”

“
That’d be great,” I say. Oh
my God. Oscar presses his fingers into my side, and when I glance
at him, he gives me a wink that says
Please don’t let her be a bestie.
Or
maybe I’m imagining it all.

As we eat dinner, Amy quizzes me on my
life.

“
Where did you go to
school?”