My Sweetest Escape (35 page)

out the window, which was partially

covered with what looked like shower

curtain. The world was dark all right, but it

was also covered in snow. From the looks of

it, there were several inches and it was

piling up fast. Double shit.

“Renee said it was supposed to snow,

but I was hoping the weather people would

all be wrong. I mean, it’s not like they can

predict the future,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“True. We should probably get you

home.” He started to move, but I latched on

to him to make him stop.

“It’s not really that bad.”

“Joscelyn,” Dusty said, giving me a look.

“I’m not letting you drive in this. There’s

just no way. So you can give up now and let

me drive you, or we can fight about it a

little bit and then you can give up and let

me drive you. The choice is yours.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I can call Mase if you’re going to get

that upset about it. He’s got a plow truck.

He’d probably be willing to give you a ride,

too.”

“No, it’s fine. You’d be surprised how

good my car is in the snow.”

“So you’re allowed to stop me from

driving in the snow, but I’m not allowed to

stop you from driving in the snow? Double

standard much?”

“Fine, fine. But if I get a ticket, I’m

holding you personally responsible,” he

said, kissing me. This was the first time he’d

kissed me since I’d cried. And I let myself

give in to it because it felt damn good, and

if this was going to be our last kiss, I was

going to make it fucking count.

“Your mouth is all salty and chocolaty,”

he said, smiling as he kissed me.

“Is that bad?”

“No, it’s good.”

And we didn’t talk for a while after that.

His hands and my hands moved up and

under and between our clothing, searching

for skin-on-skin contact. We were both a

little hesitant, him because he probably

didn’t want to push me after I’d been crying

and me because I was afraid of letting

myself go too far.

I was so, so close to saying fuck it and

ripping his clothes off and mine off, even

though this was Hannah’s room and she

was outside and her neighbors would

probably hear us.

I’d finally found something to drown out

the bad parts of my mind. People had been

using sex for centuries as an escape. Why

did it take me so long to realize it could

work for me, too?

“Dusty,” I said, pulling away from his

mouth.

“Oh, Red. We have to put the brakes on,

even though I don’t want to. This isn’t right.

Not right now, as much as you can probably

tell I want it.” Yep, I could tell. Really, really

tell.

“This is Hannah’s bed and this just isn’t

the right time. I don’t want to go further

like this. I want it to be because we both

know it’s right.”

“Why are you such a gentleman?”

“You wouldn’t say that if you had met

me a year ago.”

And just like that, the mention of what

he used to be like shut all the good feelings

down. What was I doing? I pushed myself

away from him.

“I’m going to call Mase.” I got up and

climbed over him, getting my phone from

Hannah’s desk. Dusty followed me, moving

my shirt aside so he could kiss my neck. I

tried to ignore it as I realized I had about a

million missed calls from both him and

Renee.

“Hey, what’s up?” I said, knowing very

well that Renee was going to lay into me.

“Where the hell have you been? I’ve

called and called you.

The snow is getting pretty bad, so I think

you should come home. If you didn’t

contact me in another ten minutes, I was

going to send Mase to get you anyway.”

“I’m sorry. My battery died, and I

couldn’t find my charger so I had to use

Hannah’s.”

She sighed and Dusty kept kissing me.

Damn, that was distracting. I reached my

hand back and smacked him a little, hitting

his nose and also poking him in the eye.

“Ow,” he said, moving away from me.

“Sorry,” I mouthed.

“What was that?” Renee was instantly

on alert.

“Nothing, just dropped something.” I

hoped she bought it.

“Okay, well, Mase is leaving now.”

“Okay, ’bye.” I hung up and spun

around.

“Not nice. Renee definitely heard you.”

He looked up from my neck.

“So? I’ll just say that I came here to say

hello. Taking my guarding duties seriously.”

He was smiling, but I didn’t think it was very

funny.

“Not the best thing to bring up right

now, Dusty.” I moved away from him and

got the rest of my stuff together.

“Buffy!” I yelled and Hannah came

rushing in.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I was just wondering if it

would work for me, too. Mase is coming to

get me with the truck. Will you please

convince Dusty to let Mase give him a

ride?”

She went to the window and looked out.

The wind whipped the frothy white snow

around, and the usually bustling walkway

was bare of people.

“Damn. It’s looking pretty gnarly out

there. I wouldn’t want to drive anywhere.”

“I live in Old Town. I could practically

walk if I had to,” he said.

“You can give in now, or we can fight

about it and then you can give in,” I said,

throwing his words back at him.

Take that.

He threw his hands up. “Fine, fine. I

really suck at saying no to you, Red.”

“That’s as it should be,” Hannah said,

nodding and patting Dusty on the shoulder.

“Your woman is always right.

Even if she isn’t.”

Mase texted me when he was in front of

the building.

Hannah had volunteered to keep my

candy bucket safe for me, because there

was no way I could explain that and not

have everyone get suspicious.

“I swear, I won’t touch it. Those Skittles

are tainted.” She made a face and pushed it

to the back of her closet.

“Good, because I would find a really

creative and painful way to murder you if

anything happened to them.”

“Point taken.”

The storm was in full rage mode when

we got downstairs. I pulled my hood tight

around my face and Dusty did the same.

“Don’t you own a winter coat?”

“I kind of rushed out of the house in a

hurry, Red. Didn’t have time to consider the

proper attire.”

Oh. Right.

We both ran for the truck, and Dusty

boosted me in so I rode bitch in the middle.

“Hey, man, what are you doing here?”

Dusty grinned in a casual way. “Just

came to check on Jos and got stranded by

this crazy storm. You mind giving me a ride

back to my place?”

“No problem.” Mase was giving me a

look, and I wondered if maybe my face was

still red from crying. Hannah and Dusty had

both assured me it wasn’t, but you never

knew.

Mase drove confidently through the

snow-covered streets, and before I knew it,

we were at Dusty’s.

“See you, man,” Mase said, turning his

head as if he was watching something

fascinating in the opposite direction.

Smooth.

“Yeah, thanks for the ride.”

Dusty looked at me, and I saw in his eyes

that he wanted to kiss me goodbye, but

that wasn’t possible in our current

situation.

“’Bye, Red. See you later.”

“See you,” I said. Once again, lame

goodbye. I almost told him to say hello to

Napoleon for me, but that would have been

like admitting I’d been to his place and then

there would be a lot of questions that I

couldn’t answer.

Just before he slid down off the seat, he

grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard,

once. I squeezed back and he let go and I let

out a breath as he shut the door and a little

bit of snow swirled into the car. I watched

him walk to the back of the building and go

up the steps and the automatic light flash

on when he got near the top. He waved

once and then closed the door.

Mase coughed and turned the radio

volume up louder.

“Be careful,” he said.

“Careful of what?” I was still watching

Dusty’s apartment as we pulled away.

“I think you know,” Mase said, and I met

his eyes in the dark cab of the truck.

“Please don’t say anything.” I didn’t

need Renee finding out and flying off the

handle like I knew she would. Besides, I was

going to end things with Dusty before they

even began, so there would be nothing to

freak about anyway.

We were done. Finished. Sure, I’d still

hang out with him when he was at the

house. That was pretty much unavoidable,

but I wouldn’t go out of my way to be alone

with him, and if he tried anything, I’d just

keep telling him it couldn’t be. Eventually,

he would find someone else. Someone that

was not emotionally damaged.

Someone who wasn’t responsible for his

brother being dead.

I thought Renee was going to tackle me

when I walked in the house.

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” she

said, nearly squeezing the life out of me.

Christ, it was like I’d gone off to war or

something. I’d done way more dangerous

things than this, things she knew about, but

that didn’t stop her from giving me a nice

and thorough tongue-lashing about keeping

my phone charged and not doing things in

snowstorms. We did live in Maine, so that

pretty much meant I wasn’t allowed to do

anything for at least half the year. I just

listened and hoped she didn’t pop a blood

vessel and waited for it to be over.

“So, how did you do with your project?”

she said, switching gears so fast I got

whiplash. Shit. I’d taken my backpack, along

with the socks, into Dusty’s apartment and

forgotten to grab it when I ran out.

“Shoot, I forgot my backpack,” I said.

“Well, I can take you to Hannah’s

tomorrow morning and you can grab it.

Hey, maybe this will get so bad that they

cancel classes.” She sounded kind of

bummed that they would cancel classes. I

remembered feeling that way.

“No, that’s okay. I’ll just…get it from her

when I can.” I couldn’t let Renee drive me

to Hannah’s because my backpack definitely

wasn’t there. Oh, what a twisted web I’d

gotten myself stuck in.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” I walked into the living room

just so I wouldn’t have to look at her and lie

to her face anymore.

Everyone else was watching the

weather.

“It’s not looking good for tomorrow,

kids,” Taylor said.

The weather guy was gesturing wildly

and using words like
nor’easter
and
school

closings
and
power outages
and
whiteout

conditions.
The crawler on the bottom of

the screen was already flashing with school

closings and bingo games being canceled

and offices being closed.

“They’re not going to close. Remember

that time last year when we had nearly a

foot and they had all those accidents

because they refused to cancel?” Hunter

said.

“I vote we take bets,” Taylor said. “Who

thinks they will close tomorrow?” She

raised her hand, and Darah, Paul and I also

raised our hands. “So the rest of you think

they won’t?”

They all nodded.

“Okay, loser has to take the winner out

for dinner and drinks and foot the bill.

Deal?”

“Deal,” we all said.

“We got this,” Taylor said, holding her

hand up for a high five. I gave her one and

sat down on the end of the couch to watch

the weatherman ramble on and on and

hope that class would get canceled. Then I

would have more time to figure out what to

do with the backpack situation.

It would also give me some time to hang

out downstairs, away from everyone else,

and think about what the hell I was going to