Hale Maree (20 page)

“
You said Amy mentioned Rick
Tatum?” he asks.

“
She said she sent him after
you.”

“
Damn it,” he says. “I
thought she might have been the one.”

“
You did?”

“
Yeah,” he groans. “But I
never thought she’d go so far. Amy was always telling me things
that Sophia was saying and doing, while we were apart. I thought
Amy just had my back. But then, a couple weeks ago, Amy came onto
me while we were all hanging out together at the bar. A huge group
of all our friends were there, and Amy caught me by the bathrooms.
She told me Sophia was cheating on me and tried to kiss me, but I
just figured she was wasted. I was so mad about what she was
telling me about Soph, I just ignored what she did.”

I take a deep breath. He sounds heartbroken,
as if, maybe, he really had loved Sophia, and it was only the lies
Amy told him that had gotten in the way. Maybe every problem they
ever had was all because of Amy. My mind jumps from one thought to
another to another. What if it’s true? What if he realizes he’s
stuck with me, but really wants her after all?

“
But if she was the one that
sent Tatum, than she’d know he’s dead.”

“
I would think so too,”
Oscar says, and I shiver.

“
Then she’s a
psychopath.”

“
Something’s definitely
wrong with her.”

Headlights shine in through the front
windows.

“
Land couldn’t have gotten
her into town that quick,” Oscar says, rising off the couch. He
shields his eyes from the oncoming glare. “Who is that?”

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

THE CAR SPINS INTO THE OPEN spot on the
opposite side of Oscar’s truck. Oscar walks to the front windows
and peering out, he says, “What is she doing here?”

Sophia skitters up to the front door.

“
Hi,” she says through the
screen. Her voice is high-pitched and funny, like she’s trying to
be cordial while being chased with a chainsaw. Her eyes dart around
the room. “I don’t see Landon’s car. Are he and Amy
here?”

“
They left,” Oscar says.
“What are you doing here?”

Sophia suddenly grabs the handle of the door
and rushes in. “We don’t have time, Oscar,” she begins at a
rapid-fire pace. “I’ve been calling—there’s something wrong. Amy’s
flipped out. She sent a guy after you.”

“
I know,” Oscar says. “We
just found that out.”

“
You did? Somebody came
after you?”

“
Not up here,” Oscar says
carefully. “Probably couldn’t find me.”

“
Thank God,” Sophia says.
“Where’s Amy now? I’ve got a few things to say to her.”

“
Landon took her to the bus
stop in town. She tried to hurt Hale.”

“
Are you kidding? What did
she do?” Sophia turns to look at me, seeing me on the couch for the
first time. I lower the bag of peas and Sophia gasps. “She doesn’t
need to be on a bus. She needs to be in a psych ward.”

I see the concern shoot across Oscar’s face
and disappear. We can’t call the cops. If Amy tells them about Rick
Tatum, then the police might eventually be able to trace it back to
our fathers being at the bar where Tatum died. Oscar rubs his
chin.

“
No, I think she’s just
really mixed up right now,” he says, but it doesn’t even sound like
he believes it. “She got thrown out of here, and Landon’s furious
with her. A ride home on the bus might be what she
needs.”

“
You think she needs time to
clear her head?” Sophia squeaks. She narrows her eyes on Oscar.
“She beat up your girlfriend and sent a guy after you. Why are you
defending her?”

“
I’m not,” he says. “I just
think she’s being overly protective of you, and she took it too
far. I didn’t want to involve the cops since she’s your
friend.”

Sophia’s tongue rolls in her
cheek. She gives Oscar a hard glare, like his face is a puzzle that
she’s putting together. “You
did
her, didn’t you?”

“
What?” Oscar’s eyes bulge.
“What are you talking about?”

“
She said you almost did
it.” Sophia says. “She said that you came onto her, and she held
back because of me. I didn’t believe her. I thought she was really
going crazy, but it’s true, isn’t it?”

“
I’m sorry,” Oscar says. He
glances in my direction with a tiny shake of his head. That’s how I
know he’s lying. “I’m so sorry it had to come out like
this.”

Then he turns his head to me, confirming the
lie with a wink that Sophia doesn’t see. Her arms drop at her
sides.

“
Are you kidding me?” she
says. “You wanted to cheat on me with Amy? With my best
friend?”

“
She didn’t tell you the
whole truth,” Oscar says. “It wasn’t me coming on to her. Amy has
been hitting on me since we met. You’ve seen it yourself, Soph.
You’ve made jokes about it before.

“
Amy kept showing up at my
house all the time, and you know how she kept calling my phone when
we finally got to go out on a date alone. But last week, she showed
up at my house and told me that you were cheating on me. Things
hadn’t been going right with us. You know that. I figured, for
once, Amy was telling the truth. It made sense at the time. I made
the mistake of believing her, and I cheated on you. I think we both
got screwed, and I’m really sorry.”

Sophia stands there blankly, trying to
process what Oscar is telling her.

“
I hate you,” she says, then
she turns to me. “You should get away from him. Do you hear this?
He’s a liar and a cheat. He’ll do the same to you.”

“
No, he won’t,” I say,
dropping the bag of peas on the couch. “I’ve got too much on
him.”

“
Then you deserve whatever
you get,” Sophia says. “Have a happy fucking life,
Oscar.”

And she storms out the door, runs to her
car, and guns it down the drive into the night.

#

“
Paid for Crazy Cakes to get
on the bus, so she’ll be back in the vicinity of home in a couple
hours,” Landon says when he returns. He’s throwing his stuff into
his bag as he talks. “As for me, I think I’m just going to head
back tonight, if you don’t mind. The birthday weekend is kind of a
bust.”

“
Stick around,” Oscar says.
“It’s not your birthday yet. We can still have a good
time.”

“
Nah, I think I’ve had all I
can take. I’m going to head home.”

“
A few minutes earlier and
you could’ve carpooled with Sophia,” Oscar says.

“
What? She was up here
again?”

“
Yeah. To warn us about Amy.
I don’t know why she didn’t just call you.”

“
You’ve got to be kidding,”
Landon groans. “She didn’t call me, because Amy said she was acting
nutty and screaming about you. I didn’t want to hear it, so I
blocked her calls.”

“
What a mess,” Oscar
says.

“
Yeah buddy.” Landon says.
He hauls the strap of his bag onto his shoulder. “Well, okay, I’m
out. You two have a good rest of the weekend, alright?”

Once he’s gone, Oscar locks the doors and
insists I lie on the couch with the peas on my eye. He carefully
checks the back of my head, before I do. It’s sore from the hair
pulling, but he reports there aren’t any bumps or cuts. I lay back,
and he lifts my shirt up, just over my stomach, pressing along my
side gingerly with his fingertips, and asking if anything hurts.
It’s a little sore, but nothing bad.

“
I still can’t believe she
did that,” he says. “I would’ve liked to do the same to
her.”

“
But you didn’t,” I
say.

“
I don’t hit girls,” he
says. “I do throw them in the lake, though.”

I close my eyes a moment, and Oscar says,
“Lift your head. You can rest it in my lap.”

I do as he says, with a pillow between my
head and his legs. I stare up at him.

“
What are you going to do,
if the whole story about cheating with Amy gets back to Landon?” I
ask. Oscar’s eyes travel thoughtfully across the room.

“
I hate lying to him, but I
guess I’ll have to deny it, and rely on Amy’s boatload of crazy for
credibility,” Oscar says. “But I’m hoping it doesn’t come
up.”

“
Me too,” I agree
quietly.

“
Something else on your
mind?” he asks.

“
I was wondering,” I begin,
and bite my lip. He puts a hand on my knee, his head tipped down
and his eyes searching for mine, like an incredibly handsome, but
inquisitive, puppy. He waits for my answer. “Did you say all of
that to Sophia because you wanted to be sure she wouldn’t come
back, or because you meant it?”

“
Both,” he says. “You’re
still wondering if I’m in love with Sophia?”

I drop my eyes away from his. “Yes.”

“
I told you before that
she’s not even on my radar anymore. Nothing’s changed.”

“
Yes it has. Amy drove
wedges between you. It sounds like she told a lot of lies on both
sides to tear you two apart. You obviously loved Sophia once.
Maybe, if there hadn’t been any interference, you still
would.”

“
I never loved Sophia,” he
says. “I liked her. That’s why I dated her. But I never fell in
love with Sophia. I’m sure things would’ve turned out different if
Amy had never been involved, but would it have worked out with
Sophia and me? I don’t know and I don’t care. I found the person I
want to be with. I’m not questioning that.”

“
But you have to marry
me.”

“
I don’t
have to
do anything.”

“
You said you
did.”

“
I said I’m loyal, and that
I would do anything to help my father.”

“
Including marrying me,” I
say, sitting up beside him.

“
Hale,” Oscar says. His gaze
filters out everything else in the room. “I want this.”

His eyes are warm and reassuring. I want to
believe every word. I touch the ring band on my finger, and he
notices. He puts his hand on mine.

“
I want you so much,” he
says. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone else. Not even close.
You have this way, Hale, I don’t know how to describe it, but you
have this way about you that I can’t resist. When we’re apart, it’s
like I find these little holes in myself. Holes I can’t fill up on
my own. Things are missing and the longer I’m away from you, the
more clear and deep those holes become. But then you walk into the
room, and everything comes back together for me again. All my
emptiness is filled in. I can’t resist you, Hale, because I need
you so much. Without you, I’m not even me.”

I climb into his lap, taking his face
between my hands, and guiding his mouth to my kiss. This time, it
is my tongue that searches for his, and my hands that find the edge
of his shirt, peeling it up, over his head. A deep moan grows from
inside his throat. I slide a knee on either side of his thighs and
deepen our kiss, pressing to him, until the sound of his pleasure
vibrates against my lips.

Oscar reciprocates. He wraps his arms around
me, sliding his hands up my back, and grips my shoulders, pulling
me down against him. My knees spread even wider and I feel his
desire growing stronger as our kiss intensifies. He exhales, hot
and fast, across my cheek as he arches to press himself more
tightly to me. I pull back and he stops.

“
Did I hurt you?” he
asks.

“
No,” I say. “I just...” How
do I say I panicked, feeling him between my legs? It’s stupid. It’s
not like we’re even naked. He’s only half naked, and I’m not at all
naked, but I’m still panicking,
feeling
the fact that he wants to
do
it.
He catches
my lip between his teeth.

“
No,” he pleads in a
whisper. “Don’t ask me to stop this time, Hale. Please
don’t.”

I don’t want him to stop,
but I’m afraid to go any further. I know how sex works, I’ve read
books that explained it, but now that I’m sitting in his lap, there
are too many variables. The worst being, I don’t know what I’m
supposed to do. We aren’t married. I’m not on The Pill or anything.
He told me he wants me to be good in bed, and I don’t have a clue
how to do that. I’m afraid he’s going to be completely turned off
by my total ignorance, when we actually do
it.

I move to swing my leg onto the floor, but
Oscar grabs my hips, pulling me back down to him. He lays his head
back, looking up at the ceiling.

“
I’ll stop,” he says, “but
you’ve got to talk to me. I need to know how to make you
comfortable with this. You want to be married before we do this, is
that it?”

“
I guess,” I say. I’d say
anything to escape it right now.

“
I don’t have a problem with
that,” Oscar says. “We don’t have to have sex yet. But can I touch
you? Can we do anything else?”

“
I don’t know,” I blush,
looking into my lap, which means I’m also looking into his too. He
feels so good against me; I don’t want to stop. But I’m scared to
go further.

“
Hey,” he says, lifting my
chin so our eyes meet. His are so dark and deep. I don’t want to
stop. How do I say I don’t want to stop, without saying I want to
keep going? “I’m asking you to make the rules. I promise not to
cross the line, but I need you to tell me where the line
is.”