Whisper (Novella) (6 page)

But she didn't stay quiet for long. “I hope you aren't thinking what I think you're thinking.”

“What's that?”

“Rex. Now that he's single again, you aren't going to . . . ?”

“No.” My heart cracked around the edges.

The seconds ticked by as I kept taking in Evie's news, and when a cheer went up from the dock, I glanced over to see a sight that suspended my pulse.

Rex was sauntering toward his open-armed friends. He was in his swimming trunks, his skin warmed and worked with gym-honed muscles. It was like I'd conjured him just by picturing him in my mind.

Something in my chest twisted again, like it was being drilled. And when one of the cheerdevils called out, “Guess who
else
is here, Rex?” I wanted to die.

“Can we go?” I whispered to Evie, wishing we'd taken off ten minutes ago. Forget taking a stand against the others.

From the dock, a chant started: “Lo-ser! Lo-ser! Lo-ser!”

And they weren't talking about Rex, their gridiron god.

“Come on,” Evie said softly, standing and turning her back on the jerks. “Pretend they don't exist.”

I wished. But I managed to piece together all the dignity I could as I pulled on my cut-off jeans shorts and a halter top, then stuffed my towel in my oversized hand-me-down bag. My legs shook as I walked side-by-side with Evie, who was obviously taking great pains to block everyone's view of me.

But I couldn't stop myself from peering around her to get a glimpse of Rex.

He was telling his friends to be quiet, and as their jeers petered out, his gaze caught mine. Even with the tense distance between us, the connection rocked me and, for a suspended moment, we were back in the first week of college, on the lawn in front of the brick dorms. I was reading a book when I felt a shadow cover me.

Don't I know you?
he asked, a dark figure haloed by the sun. Still, I'd recognized him. Who didn't?

My heart was in my throat, my pulse tripping in my veins as I looked up at him.
We went to high school together
.

I thought so. We didn't have the same classes
.

That was true. When he'd first moved to Aidan Falls junior year, I'd already been on the honors track, then AP. He'd skated by in the lower-level classes, powered by an amazing football arm and the knowledge that he'd have his pick of colleges on a sports scholarship.

Then he'd smiled with those kissable lips.
You grew up over the summer, didn't you?

A blush. A stammer. I wasn't used to the attention because I
had
changed lately. I'd finally grown out of my gawky body and into this new, improved one.

I suppose
I did
, I said.

I recognized your hair, though
. He'd sat next to me, a rush of shivers rolling over my skin. And when he'd brazenly touched my hair, I bit my lip, just to make sure I didn't gasp.

Blondest I've ever seen
, he said, grinning.

But now, he wasn't here by my side, and my heart wasn't pumping because of his nearness. It was because I wanted to run away before things got ugly again. And they would, because his friends were crowding around him, flanking him.

When he looked away from me first, a pained expression on his face, my stomach sank. It felt like someone had wrapped a towel over my face and shoved me underwater.

Evie pushed me ahead of her as we entered the copse of trees where I'd parked the used, paint-challenged gray Ford pickup Mom had bought for me on my sixteenth birthday. As soon as we were in the clear, relief overcame me, and my legs almost gave out before I opened the driver's door and plopped into the seat, dropping my bag down next to me.

Evie didn't make a sound as I started the engine. She only clicked on the radio, which was tuned to a throwback station that was playing a '70s song.

But she changed her mind about the white noise, turning off the tunes as soon as I drove onto the lane leading away from the lake.

“That stunk,” she said. “I'm sorry for putting you through it.”

“I put myself there, Evie.” I swerved the car onto the main road and gassed the pedal.

She changed the subject. “What's going on with you for the rest of the day? You up for a sundae at the DQ?”

“I've got to run some errands for Mom before I go into work.” I jerked my thumb to the tarp-covered bed in back. “Lawn mower is giving her fits, so I have to take it to the fix-it shop.”

“Deacon & Darwin's?” She paused. “Can't they just come to your place for a house call?”

“They charge an extra fee for that, and Mom's trying to cut every corner these days because of the café. So I volunteered to take it in and pick it up for her.”

“You know who works at Deacon & Darwin's, right?”

“People who know how to fix things?”

Evie's mood changed for some reason, lightening up with a secretive grin. “Just take me with you since it's on the way, then you can drop me off at home.”

I didn't think too hard about it, but that was only because I couldn't stop torturing myself with the haunted gaze Rex had given me before he'd looked away; I couldn't stop thinking about the army of friends who'd surrounded him, shooting fire at me with their eyes.

Evie put the radio back on, and we were quiet as white fences sped by, steer grazing on the grass, oaks dotting the landscape that stretched from here to forever. Everything seemed so open . . . and closed at the same time. Shut away, shut out, just like I'd been back at the lake.

We pulled onto the fringes of town, past the rusty old gas station and the summer stock playhouse with its gingham-curtained restaurant that always seemed to be closed, and I slowed down as we pulled into the parking lot of the next building.

Dust scrolled by the windows as I cut the engine. In front of us was what looked to be a warehouse with a painted wood sign announcing “Deacon & Darwin's,” and no further explanation was needed since everyone knew who the hell-on-wheels twins were and what they did in their repair shop.

“If only they fixed more than lawn mowers,” I said.

Evie paused before she opened the door. “There's something I should tell you before we go in.”

“Oh, Lord. Who else cheated on Rex?”

“Funny, but that's not
quite
what I was going to say.” She smoothed her Picasso T-shirt over her stomach. “That guy who got Jadyn Dandritch to sleep with him? He works here with his cousins now.”

I blinked. Micah Wyatt, right? It was a name that was hard to forget. “His cousins. As in Deacon and Darwin Wyatt?” I should've caught on to that before. The twins were former-glory defensive players for the Aidan Falls Rebels. Of course they'd have a cousin who was like them, sleeping around the whole town.

But what Evie had said about Micah lingered. A rumor . . . Rex's insecurities about his girlfriends . . . testing Jadyn with another guy at a party . . .

No way. The story was too insane, even for a bunch of hormonal people like us.

Evie nudged me with her elbow. “Aren't you the slightest bit curious to know what he's like? The one guy who could lure Jadyn Dandritch from Rex?”

I stared at the building. Maybe I was curious in a perverse way. Jadyn had been known as a loyal person, the kind of girlfriend Rex had obviously needed after our breakup. What had been so wonderful about Micah Wyatt that Jadyn had broken down and hooked up with him? How'd he been able to seduce her away from a superstar?

“Let's get in there,” Evie said.

I wasn't about to show how curious I was, so I said a vague, “Whatever,” then opened the truck's door and jumped to the ground, shutting it, striding toward the shop with Evie at my side.

I might've been curious, but with every step, I realized that I was also feeling defensive when it came to Micah. It was that warped side of me that still had feelings for Rex. Excellent.

When we got inside the shop's lobby, she casually dinged the service bell on the counter, and I stood by, my arms folded over my chest while an overhead fan tickled the hair off my humidity-sticky back and neck. The service door was open, letting in the smell of grease and the sparky waft of machinery. My curiosity was bashing at me, acting like a substitute heartbeat.

Evie rang the bell again, and I bumped against her.

“Eager much?” I whispered, just as someone walked into the room, wiping his hands on a rag.

I tightened my arms over my chest, my pulse exploding as I read his name tag.

Micah
.

Crystal Green
is a RITA-nominated romantic fiction author. As Chris Marie Green, she has written fantasy novels, including the Vampire Babylon series and the Jensen Murphy, Ghost for Hire series, as well as the new adult SHE CODE books and the first Aidan Falls novel,
Honeytrap
. As Christine Cody, she wrote the supernatural post-apocalyptic western Bloodlands series.

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