One Hot Summer (37 page)

Micah sent warning eyes to Xavier and cleared his throat. “Moving on.”

The family asked her a few more questions about her parents and other celebrities, but soon enough the topic petered out in favor of a rousing discussion of Texas A&M's chance of winning a bowl title the next season.

After dinner, as everyone basked in their contented fullness, Micah pulled Remedy to the side of the yard under the shade of the deck cover and gave her a cuddle. “Thought I'd check in with you. Are you having fun?”

She nipped his lower lip with kisses. “Your family is so wonderful. I love them. Xavier too. This is the best night.” To her mortification, her throat constricted and her eyes filled with unshed tears.

He cuddled her closer. “Those tears have anything to do with whatever happened today?”

She dropped her chin to his chest. “I wish I had a family like yours.”

“That can be arranged.” He said it so quietly, she wasn't sure at first that she'd heard him correctly. She was saved from articulating a reply by Micah's sister Maisy, who appeared in the sliding glass doorway holding a huge birthday cake covered in lit candles.

Micah held Remedy's hand and led her to the edge of the group where they joined in with the singing of “Happy Birthday,” then found new seats and settled in to enjoy the cake and ice cream. When Micah finished his dessert, he lifted Ivy from Alex's arms so he could eat in peace. Remedy followed his lead and did the same with Isaac and Xavier, but it wasn't long before Micah disappeared in the house with Ivy to change her diaper, leaving Remedy, with Isaac bouncing on her knee, alone with Alex and Xavier.

“Tell me about you and Micah when you were kids,” she asked Xavier.

Xavier grinned. “That's a big topic.”

“Start at the beginning. How did you two get so close?”

“Back in the day, I used to love provoking bullies. Bring it on and all that shit. I was so stubborn, so angry at the world. I wanted the fight, to show them I was bigger and tougher than they'd ever be. I wanted them to get beat up by a gay kid in front of all their bigot friends. But I could only ever get a few licks in before Micah came charging in the middle of every fight while it was brewing, his fists out, trying to break it up, to keep me from getting in trouble from the school or my parents. He knew they'd whup me good if I was caught fighting, because he'd seen it happen, being that we were next-door neighbors.

“I used to get so spittin' mad at him for breaking up my fights. He's always been the peacemaker, the one avoiding trouble, while I was the one running headlong into it. He doesn't get many opportunities to try and save me from myself anymore now that I'm a boring stay-at-home dad. He still tries.”

“And now his job is to run straight into trouble,” Remedy said.

Xavier wagged his finger at her. “Good point. I never thought about it that way.” He tipped his head to the side, studying her. “You're a rule breaker, too, or so I've heard.”

Remedy nearly choked on her cake at that assessment. “Not really. I love rules and order. It's just that trouble has a way of following me around.”

Alex and Xavier both let out belly laughs. “So Alex has mentioned,” Xavier said. “You're shaking Micah up the way I always did when we were kids, challenging all those careful rules he makes for himself. I like that about you. Don't let him fool you. He likes it, too.”

Micah appeared behind her, a freshly changed Ivy in his arms. “Likes what? Who we talkin' about?”

She tipped her chin up. “You like me.”

“That's true.” He bent down and gave her a kiss.

“Xavier was telling me about how you two became friends.”

Micah groaned. “He only survived his teenage years because I was there to keep him from doing crazy shit.”

“Doing crazy shit is what being a teenager is all about, except you because you were born with the soul of a sixty-year-old,” Xavier said.

“That is not true.”

She nudged his ribs. “It's kinda true.”

“And now it's time for the real fun!” a different male voice bellowed. Remedy turned toward the voice, which turned out to belong to a red-faced Junior, who stood in front of a closed garage door.

“Uh-oh,” Alex said. “Looks like Junior's been hitting the Shiner Bock too hard again.”

Junior's outstretched arms lowered. He pointed at Remedy. “We've got a special guest with us tonight, and I bet my pansy-ass brother hasn't even told her what our family does for fun round here.”

“Not the family!” Micah called. “What you do for fun. Leave the rest of us out of this.”

Still seated on his wicker throne, Micah's dad raised his beer can in Remedy's direction. “My Junior here is a state champion off-road racer. He's been featured on ESPN.”

Remedy's eyes glittered. “Oh my goodness. That's really something. What kind of off-road racing?”

At least five people collectively groaned.

Junior rubbed his hands together. “I'm glad you asked.”

With a practiced flare, he yanked the garage door up, revealing four Power Wheel toy cars and Jeeps, complete with pink plastic bodies trimmed in purple, purple plastic seats, purple roll bars, purple wheels, and the Barbie logo splashed on the sides of the doors.

“Power Wheels,” Junior said. “Barbie Power Wheels, to be specific. It's a new sport, only been round for the past five years or so, but it's no passing fad. It's here to stay.”

“I had a Barbie Corvette when I was a kid,” Remedy said. She used to ride along her house's circular driveway pretending to be a race car driver at the Indy 500, but she'd barely fit in hers by the time she was eight years old, so she didn't see how Junior could possibly wedge his husky body in one.

“So did my sisters. People in my sport—”

“It's not a sport,” Micah muttered into his beer can.

“People in my sport have started branching out from Barbie. There's all kinds of licensed character vehicles on the market these days. Call me a traditionalist, but I'm all about the Barbie Jeep.”

“How do you fit in them?” Remedy asked.

“Like a hog wearin' panty hose,” Micah's dad said with a laugh.

Remedy wrinkled her nose at the visual that conjured. “Don't they only go, what, five miles per hour?”

Junior looked at her with sympathy, as though she'd spent her life under a rock. “We trick 'em out with go-cart and lawn mower engines.”

“I would've killed for one of those when I was a kid. I've always loved speed.” Speed just didn't always love her back.

Nodding toward the garage, Junior winked at Remedy. “Wanna try 'em out?”

“No, she does not,” Micah said, at the same time Remedy answered, “Sure.”

Junior clapped and let out a hoot. “We're gonna have us some fun tonight!”

Micah whipped his face around to glare at her. “Uh, no.”

“Uh, you're not the boss of me.”

“Clearly. But you should trust me on this. I've seen the way you handle golf carts,” Micah said.

“I second that,” Alex chimed in.

Remedy stood and handed Isaac to Xavier. “I don't have to listen to this.”

“Good for you,” Xavier said. “Don't let him boss you around.”

Micah followed her to the garage. “I've seen enough of these ridiculous Power Wheels races to see every kind of injury imaginable. If you've got a hankering to go off-roading, then I'll make it happen, but not in these Frankensteined kids' toys.”

“We've got an off-road course in the field out there. It's for beginners,” Junior said with as much seriousness as a drunk man could muster. “Only a mild downhill. She'll be as safe as pie.”

Remedy wasn't sure what pie and safety had to do with each other, but she was certain that this was something she wanted to do. “I'm learning to embrace a new motto in my life: What would Granny June do?”

“This is all kinds of bad,” Alex muttered.

Micah tugged on her elbow. “Remedy, you can't be serious. This isn't you.”

“Who am I, exactly, Micah? A California princess, like you call me? A sophisticated heiress to a Hollywood dynasty, as the media's been calling me since I was born? Or is it like my parents keep labeling me, as their homesick, spoiled daughter who needed them to rescue her? Or is it like Cambelle and Wynd told me in so many words today, that I'm their bitch, bought and paid, their servant when I should have been their peer? Maybe I just want to be the quirky, awkward girl who's not afraid of anything and who made a choice a long time ago to forge her own destiny—no matter who tries to stand in her way.”

That shut them all up, Micah included. He studied her with a pensive look.

Into the gaping silence, she stuck out her hand to Junior. “I'm going to need a helmet.”

Junior glanced at Micah again.

“Aw, let her do it,” Micah's father said. “What's the harm?”

“The harm?” Micah spluttered. “Dad, are you kidding me?”

Xavier handed his son to Micah's dad. “I'll take a helmet, too. Count me in on the race.”

Alex stood by Micah. “Honey, you can't be serious.”

“I'm dead serious,” Xavier said.

“Okay, well, you're about to be just dead. Period,” Alex said. “Who's going to watch the kids if you break both your arms?”

“That's all I am now? The child-care provider?”

Even Remedy cringed at that assessment.

“Xavier…,” Alex said before giving Micah a pointed look. “Tell him to stop being snippy and melodramatic.”

“Only if you'll tell Remedy she's gonna get herself killed if she pulls this stunt.”

“Look at those two sticks-in-the-mud,” Xavier said to Remedy, gesturing to Alex and Micah. “At least I finally figured out how to help you two bond. You're both think you're the boss of me. I'll tell you what, while I'm kicking Junior's ass in a Barbie Jeep you two can commiserate about how impossible I am.”

Micah pulled Remedy aside. With Ivy tugging on his ear, he bent close to Remedy. “You don't have anything to prove to my family. Or to your family, either. Or to yourself, for that matter. I love you just the way you are, California princess and all that other stuff.”

She gave him a tender kiss. How could she tell him how much his love meant to her but how desperately she needed to let loose tonight and get a little crazy? “Life's too short to play by the rules.”

“A trust fund safety net won't save you from a concussion or broken arm.”

That was over the line. “You keep bringing up my trust fund like it means something significant. I confided that to you, so you're not allowed to throw it back in my face. And you're not allowed to try to save me, either, Mister Hero. But you can cheer me on.”

“I'll do you one better. I'll take you to the hospital after you crash and hurt yourself, and then I'll try to keep my
I told you so
's to a minimum.”

“You're such a good boyfriend.”

She leaned in for another kiss. Giggling sweetly, Ivy slapped Remedy's cheek, then latched on to her hoop earring. After she extricated her earring from Ivy's shockingly strong grip, she joined Junior, Xavier, and Micah's brother-in-law Davey in the garage.

Up close, she got a great view of a line of Barbie dolls mounted on the backs of the Jeeps, frozen in obscene positions, legs spread, some of them fondling each other or locked in embrace. “Nice touch.”

“I thought so. The wife's not impressed though.”

Actually, Junior's wife, Connie, seemed to be a very tolerant woman, all things considered. The X-rated Barbies must have been the last straw for her.

Being a gentleman, as Junior pointed out that he was, he let Remedy pick her vehicle first. She chose the classic Barbie Jeep with a Barbie-on-Barbie-on-Ken three-way happening on the hood.

She putted to the start of the trail. At Bubba's wave of a flag, they were off. The drive was bumpier than Remedy expected. She had to grit her teeth to keep from biting her tongue accidentally, which was inconvenient, because she couldn't stop laughing. Steering in the Jeep was nigh impossible, too. The darned thing just seemed to go where it wanted to.

After the first turn, one in which Remedy turned too wide and scraped up a bunch of bushes, Xavier, his lanky body wedged in a purple glitter Cadillac Escalade, pulled alongside her. He gave her a thumbs-up, but when she tried to return the gesture she lost control of her Jeep. Xavier swerved in her direction and reached for her, trying to help her regain her balance.

Unfortunately, that sent his SUV careening off the path. She thought she saw him launch out of the Escalade with a yelp, but she was already too far down the trail to look back. In no time, she was neck and neck with Junior for the lead. She pressed the gas pedal. The engine lurched faster, revving menacingly as it thumped and bumped over rocks and around corners. She knew the finish line was in sight because Connie was there, waving a maroon-colored A&M flag. Remedy gunned the Jeep again. She thought she might win when Junior swerved into her, bumping her not to help, as Xavier had, but to try to knock her off course.

Remedy fought back. She cranked the wheel and knocked her Jeep's bumper into Junior's Jeep's door. His Jeep tipped onto two wheels, but hey, those were the breaks. There could be only one victor and she was determined to take that crown. She cranked the wheel again and slammed into Junior's vehicle as the trail narrowed and grew steeper.

The whole front axis of Junior's Jeep popped off. In seemingly slow motion, the Jeep nose-planted into the dirt. Junior went toppling over the hood of Remedy's Jeep, taking it out with him. Remedy tumbled onto the dusty trail and knocked her helmet against a bush.

When she looked up, she discovered she was less than two feet from the finish line, a chalk line drawn into the dirt. Remedy stretched her foot over the line without moving the rest of her body an inch.