Troublemaker (Troublemaker, Book 1) (4 page)

“I can’t help myself. You could too if you tried.” She fiddles with my
top. “It’s really about time you abandon this whole earthy crunchy look you’ve been sporting.”

“Not everyone has your body, Jess.”

“You’re right. But you actually do.” She looks down at her phone and seems frustrated all of a sudden.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, fine. Let’s go get us some fun.” Even when Jess is miserable about something, she always finds a way to let loose.

Something I’ve been working on
myself.

For the past twenty years.

* * *

We pretty much did it all- went out to eat, got some ice cream at Tuck’s Creamery, went to see a chic flick, then walked along the boardwalk. After Jess and I exhausted basically everything we could possibly do in Gloucester, Massachusetts, I ask her to drive me home so I can call it quits for the night.

Jess slowly pulls her car up towards my house only to find a group of total strangers on my front lawn. I look up and see someone else hanging out of our sub-unit window and throwing empty beer cans at people on the lawn. The house itself is practically shaking from the loud music that’s echoing between its walls. Even from the street, I can tell that the sub-unit is totally packed with strangers partying their brains out.

Cage
.

I’m going to kill him.

“What the hell’s going on here?” Jess raises her eyebrows in shock and looks to me for answers. “Must be
some
new tenant you picked.”

I shake my head, not even sure where to begin with her. She brings the car to a complete stop and I get out, not sure if I’m totally pissed off or if I want to laugh hysterically. Then it hits me…

Don’t screw this up McKenzie. I don’t ask for much from you so I’m assuming you can manage things for once without me around.

With the wrath of my father fueling my anxiety, I decide to march in and put an end to this.

And to give Cage a piece of my mind.

I walk around back as I prepare myself to confront him. I step over a girl who

is literally passed out on our walkway, cringe my way across the patio which has now been turned into a club dance floor, and break through some guy and girl going at it in the doorway. I head into Cage’s unit with Jessie in tow, who at this point seems completely dumbfounded knowing full well herself how my father would react if he was here to witness this.

I see
Cage. He’s holding a red, overflowing cup of alcohol and wearing a pair of sunglasses and a dreadlock wig. There’s a crowd of people circled around him as he stomps up and down to Pink’s “Raise Your Glass.”

I’m pretty sure steam can literally be seen pouring out of my head. And then our eyes meet.

Cage takes off his sunglasses and wig and raises his cup to me. “Look everyone, it’s my landlord!” he shouts. The crowd of people erupts into a deafening medley of cheering and clapping.

He steps outside of his own self-proclaimed dance floor and walks over to Jess and I.
Cage reaches out his hand to Jess, “You look kind of familiar. I’m Cage,” he yells out over the loud music. Jess shoots me a glance, wanting an explanation of some sort. I shrug my shoulders.

Jess smiles and offers her hand out to complete the introduction. “Hey wait a minute, I know you!” Jess’s eyes light up. “You’re that guy at…”

I remember my mission and cut her off immediately. “What the hell are you doing?” I ask him. I hold my hands out in deep frustration.

“What’s it look like I’m doing?” he smiles and takes a swig from his cup, mouthing the words to Pink. He looks at Jess, “Jess, tell her what I’m doing,” he says, winking at her.

She giggles, offering me no backup whatsoever.

“You’re gonna get me in huge trouble.” I look around and assess the enormity of it all.

“C’mon Jess, tell her!” he shouts out. She slumps over in laughter, falling for his overwhelming charm way too quickly. But not me, he’s gone too far.

I see some
huge guy coming from behind Cage, he puts his finger up to his lips so that we don’t ruin his sneak attack.

“What’s up motherfucker!”
He grabs Cage’s arms, sending his beer flying through the air and onto my father’s newly finished wood floors. Cage looks at me, then Jess, then his idiot friend. The three of them burst into laughter as I stand frozen, not sure if I should cry, scream, or call the police.

Cage
high-fives his friend, who’s about twice the size of him, and turns towards us. “This is my buddy, Ryker. We did some time in Afghanistan together,” he says as he throws his arms around his friend’s shoulder. “Ryker, this is my landlord, Mc…Ken…Zie,” he says, slurring one syllable at a time. I reluctantly reach out to shake his hand. This guy could literally break me in half with his pinky, so I put my anger on hold for a minute.

“And this,”
Cage pauses as he points to Jess, “is my landlord’s ever so lovely friend, Jess.” My heart stings from a wave of jealousy that strikes me.

Seriously?
I hate this feeling more than anything else.

Jess reaches out her hand to greet
Ryker’s. “A pleasure to meet you,” she says. She’s wearing that face that she always wears whenever she’s crushing on some hot guy. I can’t help but feel relief that her focus is not on Cage.

“The pleasure is all mine,”
Ryker says. “Care for a beer?” he asks.

Jess looks at me for approval. I shake my head at her like she’s completely lost her mind. I look solely at Jess, who looks like she’s already fallen in love with
Cage’s war buddy. “Can you give us a second?” I ask, not breaking my eye contact with Jess.

I pull Jess to th
e side for a quick private girl chat. “Jess what the hell? My dad is going to tear me limb from limb.” I look over and see Cage and Ryker watching us, waiting for the verdict.

“Are you crazy?” Jess shouts, way too loudly I might a
dd. “Why didn’t you tell me that the hot guy that almost pounded the shit out of Chase is your new tenant?” I have never in my entire life seen Jess so excited.

“What
’s the big deal? I guess it just never occurred to me since…”

“Bull.. shit!” she says, rolling her eyes at me. “Wait a minute,” she zooms in closer to my face, “are you… could it be…” she pauses and takes a super deep breath, and I know what
’s coming next.

I start shaking my head before she can get the words out.
“Does McKenzie Miller actually have feelings for some guy?” she asks, grabbing both of my hands without my consent.

I shake my head wildly, as if her theory is the most insane idea in the history of the universe. “Jess, no. Knock it off, he’s my tenant. He’s not even remotely my type…” I continue to shake my head, partly to appear as convincing as I
can to Jess, and partly to convince
myself
that I can’t possibly be into this guy.

“Holy crap, Kenz! You like him! McKenzie Miller is crushing on her hot superhero tenant dude!” Jess starts jumping up and down, embarrassing me to no end.

“Okay, okay. Will you calm down?” The two guys are now inching their way closer to us.

“Your dad would kill you if he knew what was
going on! And the fact that you’re crushing on your hippie tenant.”

“That’s not helping matters Jess. I don’t know what to do,” I say. I know things have hit rock bottom when I’m asking Jess for advice in this moment rather than kicking the
fifty strangers out of my house.

“There’s nothing to
do Kenz, except have the night of your life,” Jess says.

“She’s got a point, Kenz,”
Cage says after making his way into our little side chat. “What do you have to lose anyways?”

Besides everything?

Ryker looks at Jess. “You wanna go for a walk?”

Jess looks at me. I shoot her a look back like she’s totally lost her mind. “What about
Evan?” I ask.

“Oh,
Evan.” She looks Ryker’s body up and down. “I forgot to tell you that we broke up this morning.”

“Well looky here, talk about your perfect timing,”
Cage chimes in.

“You broke up? I thought you were about to celebrate your twenty day anniversary in
a couple of days?” I ask, wearing a sarcastic smile.

“Look, we can’t dwell on the past. It obviously wasn’t meant to be so…”
Ryker says, pausing as he reaches for Jess’s hand. Jess happily obliges. “You feel like having a smoke?” he asks.

Jess giggles and simultaneously gives him her sexy eyes that only she can give. “I don’t smoke, but I’ve heard it’s actually pretty good for your health these days,” she says, putting her
arm around his waist and heading off with Cage’s friend.

So much for friends since sophomore year.

“Do you feel like dancing?” Cage asks, smiling as he throws his wig back on and starts doing some ridiculous robot moves.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” I ask.

“
Me
? What’s the matter with
you
?” Cage is now doing a mime imitation. I scoff at his moves and look away, trying to contain myself from bursting into hysterics.

No such luck. I can’t stop laughing as he starts doing a backspin on my father’s floor. He springs up and tosses me his wig. “Here, this will help take the edge off,” he says. He looks sooo adorable to me, I can barely take it anymore.

“You’re going to ruin my life, Cage West,” I say as I adjust the wig on my head.

“Either that or
make it a whole hell of a lot better.” He offers me a cocky smirk as he finishes off whatever was left in his cup.

“You seem pretty sure of yourself.” Our eyes lock together for way too long.

“I don’t know about that,” he pauses, “but I think I’ve got you figured out pretty good, Kenzzz,” he says, tilting his cup several inches above his mouth to let the last drop of alcohol drain into his lips. I find myself in a trance as I stare at his lips… I can’t help but wonder how good they would feel to mine.

This guy is so ridiculously my polar opposite. And yet every time I’m around him the strangest things happen to me, like right now…
just one kiss from this Cage West, just to see…

You’re going insane McKenzie. Totally and utterly insane.

I come to my senses and notice that Cage has slipped away from me. His soldier friend Ryker is coming towards me. God this boy is huge, looks like he’d make a good bodyguard. But somehow he has that gentle giant vibe going on at the same time which helps me relax even though he could flick me to the moon with his fingers if he wanted to.

“What’s up kid? Great house you
got here!” he throws his hand around my shoulder and takes an enormous sip from his cup of beer.

“Thanks. It’s fine I guess.” I say.

“Well, it was fine, until you let my boy move in,” he laughs and shakes his head.

“Yeah seriously, probably not my best move,” I tease back.

Ryker’s eyes shift as he leans closer to me. “He’s a loose canon, but a good guy to have on your side,” he says, winking at me.

I swallow hard, wondering what he means by the whole loose canon thing.
“Can I get some of that since I’m letting you trash my house?” I ask, pointing to his beer.

He smiles and
passes me his cup. I take a giant sip for myself.
Is he messing with me?

Ryker grins and looks at me. “Leave it to my boy to rent from a good looking girl like you, classic Cage move,” he says. I scoff at his compliment.

Cage is basically not even close to my type
, and even if he was, he’s
way
out of my league. Way out of it. And I’m pretty sure he knows that.

“Oh I get it,”
Ryker takes his cup back from me and starts to drink from it, “you’re one of those beautiful women who has everything going for her except…” He stops to polish off the beer in his cup and then continues, “except that you don’t believe in yourself.” He nods his head in approval of his own diagnosis about me.

This isn’t anything I haven’t heard before. But I still know that
Cage West would never be into someone like me.

No. Way.

I lick my lips as I drift off for a moment, imagining the two of us together.

Still. No. Way.

Ryker shakes his head and smiles. “Man, I could tell you some pretty crazy shit about me and him back in the Corps.”

“I can only imagine,” I say.

Ryker scratches the scruff on his chin. “When that dude was a newbie, and I mean literally the first goddamn day he set foot in my barracks,” he pauses and throws his large hands out as if he still can’t believe what happened, “he was nothing but trouble.”

“Trouble?” I ask.

His voice drops down an octave. “Yeah, but the good kind of trouble.” He looks out into the night sky, his eyes buzzing from the alcohol. “Ya know what I’m saying, McKenzie?”