Stilettos & Scoundrels (31 page)

Dirt glared at me, which didn’t faze me at all. I
wasn’t about
to be intimidated by someone I
had known for years.

“Why did you call him? Why not me
,
Pr
es?” Brain asked. I
just looked at him, actually grateful for the interruption to break from Dirt’s star
e, but that was short-lived. I
started to answer when Dirt interrupted.

“Why
did
you call him
,
Pres? He has no place here,” Dirt snapped.

“Oh, for the love of Pete! I felt
Cooper
had a right to know what’s going on. I have the right to tell anyone I choose, so get over it.”

Dirt turned to my
dad, “Mr. Thurman, I’m about done here anyway. I’ll try to catch the Thompsons on my way out. Maybe they’ll be home by now. I’ll give you a call back tonight or tomorrow and let you know if I f
ind
out
anything.”

While
he finished talking to my
dad,
I
turned to Brian. “Brian, why are you here anyway? Did my mother call you?”

“I most certainly did not,
young lady,” my mother interjected. I held up my
hand.

“Mother, please. Let me handle this.”

“Your mother didn’t call me. I heard it on the police scanner at my shop. I listen to it for company sometimes. I wanted to make sure
everyone was
okay,” h
e said, rubbing my
arm again. He was far bey
ond the annoyance stage now. I
had to put a stop to this
, no matter what my
mother wanted.

“Presley
,
I need you to stop by the police station as soon as possible to speak to the FBI.” Without even waiting for a response, Dirt turned and walked away.
Whatever
, I thought. I
would have to try to talk to him later.

“Listen, Brian. I thought I made it clea
r the other night,” and then I
stopped. Another car was coming up the drive. For God’s sakes! Who was it now? Half the tow
n was already here. This car I
didn’t recognize at all. A royal-blue Dodge Neon.
I
didn’t recognize the girl driving either. Her brown hair
was
pulled back in a ponytail and the serious frown on her face made her not quite as cute as she probably normally was. Brian saw the car and
blanched.

“Oh shit,”
he said under his breath, thinking this was not going to be pretty. There were a few minor things he had not told Presley, and he knew she would be pissed when she found out, especially after the way he had acted toward her.

They all looked at
Brian
.
I raised my
eyebrows questioningly at him and he looked thoroughly embarrassed, as if he had been caught doing something wrong. Brian looked back at
me
sheepishly
then toward the newcomer.
He took a step back and
I turned around to follow Brian’s gaze
. A petite brunette in jeans
,
adorable yellow sandals
decorated with flowers, and a plain yellow t-shirt stomped up onto the porch. She
was cute in a wholesome way, I
would give him that. So cute,
I
wondered why he had been pulling shenanigans with
me
. However,
this girl
was also extremely pissed off at finding
Brian
here.
I shook my
head at him. Some people never changed
, and I
couldn’t wait to see how he was going to get out of this one.

“Brian Roger Ames! What the hell are you doing here? You said you were working. Last time I looked
,
this wasn’t your shop,” the brunette screamed, getting ready to take a swing at him.
Cooper
stepped in and tried to calm her down. Too bad, this w
as just getting interesting. I
would love to see Brian get beat
en
up by a girl
,
and this girl seemed like she had quite the
temper. He so deserved that. I
could tell
that my
mother had no idea Brian had a girlfriend and was just figuring it out, making thing
s even more interesting. I
had no doubt
his
mother
would
be getting the full s
coop of what happened here, my
m
other would make sure of it. I
almost started feeling sorry for him
, b
ut not quite. This was pretty funny.

“Hi, I’m Presley Thurman,”
I said, holding my hand out to the brunette. I
wasn’t sure what
Cooper said to the girl, as I
had been too busy enjoying the look of horror on Brian’s face, but it seemed to have calmed her down a bit. She still looked mad, but not ready to do bodily harm.

“Barbara George,
” she replied, shaking my
hand while staring Brian
down
at the same time. If he knew what was good for him
he would say something. I
just wanted to laugh.
Poor guy.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Brian spoke. “Barbara is my girlfriend.” He seemed to have a har
d time saying the words. I
assumed it wasn’t because he didn’t want to admit Barbara was his girlfriend, but rather, be
cause he had to admit to me
he had a girlfriend after the way he had been acting.
I was sure he wondered if I
was going to bust him or keep
my mouth shut. As much as I
would
have
love
d to rat him out, I thought keeping my
mouth shut and having something to hang over his head m
ight
work m
ore to my
advantage down the road. Plus
, I
didn’t want to hurt Barbara’s feelings over what was really nothing.

“We just moved
in together,” she said. I
raised
my eyebrows at this. I
was just at Brian’s house the other night. Where had Barbara been? Oh my, that would have been awkward.
I
glared at
Cooper
as
I
saw him
suppress a laugh, which made me
want to start
laughing. Barbara looked at me
funny
, wondering what I
found so amusing, while Brian stood there with a hangdog expression on his face. He knew he
was in trouble with both
Barbara
and me
, and
he
still wasn’t sure if
I
was going to ke
ep his actions just between us
.

“I’m sorry, Barbara. It has just been a long stressful day. Brian just came to check on my parents. Didn’t you, Brian?
Someone threw a rock through the window, Barbara, so we’ve had a bit of drama here.”

“Oh no! I hope no one was hurt. I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“No one was home. Pr
obably just kids.” While I knew that wasn’t true, I
saw no reason to tell her what was really happening
, e
specially since
they weren’t even sure. “It was nice of Brian to come out and check
on them
.”

“That’s my Brian. Always concerned for other people,” she said and to
ok his hand. It took all I
could
manage
not
to
gag, but as long as they were happy
, who was I
to interfere
? I
was sure he still had some explaining to do, but he wasn’t totally in the doghouse. Barbara seemed to accept everything he said. This ma
de me
think Barbara was either stupid
,
or so in love
that
she w
as temporarily stupid. Maybe I
was being too cy
nical. Either way, it wasn’t my problem and now I was sure Brian would leave me
alone.

They left hand in hand, with Brian talking in earnest, no doubt to further try and smooth things over. Once they were out of earshot
, I
started rolling with laughter
.
Cooper
join
ed in while my
mother look
ed
at us with
disapprov
al
.

“It’s just so ironic. Brian made me feel guilty because I didn’t have feelings for him
,
and here he is, moved in with some chick. I think I’ve seen this episode before, ten years ago.”

Even my dad had to laugh at that. My
mother, on the other hand, was not at all amused. She frowned at
us
and stomped into the house
, p
robably to call Brian’s mother.
Poor Brian.
He still had some trouble to face
,
much worse than what Barbara could dish out.

“Seriously though, King. What happened here tonight?”
Cooper asked me
.

“What does it look like? Someone threw a rock through my parents
’
window.”

“There’s more to it than that,”
Cooper said, brushing my
face with his hand. There was that spark again.
Damn that spark.
I
c
ould tell by the look he gave me he felt it too. I
wished
we
were somewhere a little more private.
Cooper had a strong suspicion that this incident was not kids playing pranks. It was way too much of a coincidence. He needed to make some phone calls and get to the bottom of this. He couldn’t bear to think of me, or my family, in any kind of danger.

“See you kids later. I need to get started on boarding up this window until the repair folks can get out here. It’s supposed to rain
,
and we don’t want any animals crawling in to sleep with us.”

“Bye
,
Mr. Thurman.”

“I’ll be back in a few,
D
ad.”

Cooper suggested we go for a walk, so we went down behind my
parents
’
house. There were woods and trails that we
nt on for miles. As a child, I
spent hours running up and
down the trails. Even though I
hadn’t been on them in years, they still looked familiar.

“C’mon,” I
said to
Cooper
, “Follow me.”
I
went down the path on the right.
I
knew it ended up at a little
creek, as it had been one of my
favorite spots as a child
, and e
ven as a teenager for that matter.
Though as a teen, I liked it for different reasons—mainly because my parents never came back here looking for me. This spot had seen a lot I would never want them to find out. As we neared the spot, I
was excited to see
that
the rock fo
rmation that had always been my
hideaway
was
still there. Time hadn’t changed anything there.
I
walked around the larger rock to sit on the smaller one
that overlooked
the creek. It was getting a little chilly as the sun started to go down, but
I
didn’t feel it.
I
could only think about
Cooper
and that kept
me
warm enough.
I
decided this might be a good time to ask him what happened all those years ago. Why
we
seemed to have such a great time
,
but yet
,
the next day
, he acted like I
didn’t exist. Even though it didn’t matter
now
and was probably really stupid,
it was just curiosity that
I
wanted to satisfy.
It was strange how something forgotten for years could come back and just annoy the piss out of you.
Must be why closure is so important
. I sat down on my
favorite rock and motioned for him to do
the same. His body next to mine
radiated heat
,
and he
put his arm casually around me
, which radiated a lot more than heat.
What was it about him that aroused me so much? I couldn’t remember a time where the mere presence of someone could make me feel this way. Talk about a chemical reaction. I put my
head on his shoulder and just sat there for a few minutes lost in thought
, e
njoying the moment.