Raveled (15 page)

Chapter
20

Bobby… sixteen years ago

Shelby pulled the back of her shorts down in a vain attempt to halt the game of peek-a-boo her bottom was playing with Bobby. He made no pretense of looking away. In fact, he’d been enjoying the show and the flash of her rosy pubes since the middle of the first ladder. She hadn’t wanted to climb up ahead of him, and he sure as heck knew why, but he’d insisted it would be safer in case she fell. Besides, he knew that the idea of him catching her as she stumbled would appeal to her fairy tale notions of how a girl should be treated by her prince. Rapunzel and all that shit.

Halfway up the
third ladder that led to the highest loft, she glanced down. “We are high!” she said, fear and excitement commingling in that squeaky voice that grated on Bobby’s nerves like sandpaper on an open wound.

“That’s the idea,”
Bobby said, reaching up and patting her on the ass. “Come on, get moving.”

“Hey,” she said, swatting at his hand. “You’d better not be looking,
Bobby Kettrick.”

Jesus
Christ, did girls think guys were really this stupid? Well, she was only fourteen. He could excuse her childish manipulations—as long as she put out.

The final step onto the loft required an awkward lunge.
Bobby leaned back from the ladder to get a nice, long look as Shelby’s leg went wide and rotated inward to get her footing. Only a shredded piece of denim between him and ecstasy. He felt himself getting hard and immediately reached down to put things in their proper place.

He
joined her a moment later. She sat on the bare wood, panting. Bobby knew her heart wasn’t racing from the exhaustion of climbing a few ladders. Nah, it was from the anticipation of being alone up here with him. This chick probably couldn’t believe her luck. They sat quietly for a moment, adjusting to the dusty atmosphere with its lingering sawdust, before Bobby popped open two beers. He sucked one down fast, seeking the extra high of being buzzed and dizzy up here where the air seemed thinner. The place still smelled like fresh-cut lumber ‘cuz the Hesters had only built the overdosed monument to their drug profits a couple months before their sudden departure. Bobby’s dad had confided that the Hesters had plenty of money but were caught up in a bad scene with some take-no-prisoners meth dealers in the mountains. Local story went that they had foreclosed on the place, but truth was, they’d gotten wind of an ambush so they took off in the middle of the night, leaving behind all their furniture, animals, and even food in the fridge.

Their misfortune
had made Bobby’s summer. He and the whole football team had thrown a party in July that made New Year’s Eve look lame and tame, and he’d gotten blown on this very loft just last month. That Mary Jean Putney knew what she was doing and then some. Too bad she was dating Bobby’s tight end at the time; otherwise, he might’ve asked her out. But he couldn’t start thinking about that now or his dick would get stiffer than the plywood under his legs.

He leaned down on his elbow
and propped himself next to Shelby. As he reached out to stroke her thigh, she pushed it away. “Please. We ain’t even dating.”

“This
ain’t a date?” Bobby said. “That’s funny ‘cuz it sure feels like a date to me.” He put his hand back on her leg, ignoring the tiny bumps of stubble that were even more prevalent than the freckles coating her skin. Girl probably shaved with her dad’s old, chipped blades. She didn’t move his hand this time. The two of them stayed like that for a while, drinking and wondering what the next few moments might hold.

“My father says you’re nothing but trouble, you know,” Shelby said. “He’d kill me if he knew I was up here
with you.”

“People think they know me, but they really don’t,”
Bobby said, shifting and laying his head back on clasped hands.

Shelby couldn’t help but sneak a side glance at his body
as he pulled his shirt up a few inches from his waist, exposing taut, tanned muscles. He saw her noticing. Hell, he didn’t do 125 crunches a day to keep his six-pack a secret.

The beer took its welcome toll on Shelby and she leaned
up on her elbow until she was on her side, facing Bobby. When he suddenly rolled towards her and lifted his head to hers, she was too stunned to react. His full lips touched her quivering ones. It didn’t last long, but Bobby knew it would be enough to get her juices flowing. That was all he wanted. For now.

“There’s a couple blankets over there by them rafters
,” he said. “Let me get ‘em for us.”

He jumped up and was halfway to the
thin, wool blankets when the voices inside Shelby’s head must have gotten too loud to ignore. “I can’t do this, Bobby. I’m sorry.”

“Do what?”
Bobby said, trying his best to seem naïve and curious.

“Well, anything, really.
I mean, I drink beer and stuff… a bit… but I ain’t real comfortable doing much with… boys. You know, boys I ain’t dated properly.”

“That’s not what
I—” Bobby stopped himself. No reason to put her on the defensive. Now that he thought about it, chances were pretty good Kyle Thompson had made up that whole story about feeling Shelby up in the boys’ bathroom. Kyle lied to his teachers and parents every day. Why not his friends? Damn. Now Bobby mighta gone and wasted his whole night on this chick. But, like an unexpected interception in the last quarter, he figured he could still turn things around, maybe even score.

“
That’s not what I brought you up here for.” He smiled shyly, as if hurt that she would think anything else of him.

“I d
idn’t mean to insult you,” she said. “I mean, I really like you.”

No shit. What fourteen-year-old wou
ldn’t?

“So, you want a ride on
my swing?” he said. “It’ll be amazing.”

Shelby lit up, eyes wide.
Bobby could see her nipples going hard.

“Sure thing!”
she said, gulping some more beer to steady her nerves.

He held
out his hand and helped her to her feet, then untied the anchor rope from the pole where he’d secured it earlier. As he pulled the swing in to where they could reach it, it began to arc up.

“You gotta stand on this here crate to get on,”
he said. “Might be a little awkward ‘cuz I ain’t had time to work out the kinks yet.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” she said. “Been riding horses most my life and even the small ones are more than twice my size.”

Bobby pulled a steel pocketknife from his back pocket and asked Shelby to hold onto the anchor rope. He walked over to the wall near the dark, acute angle where the ceiling pitched up, grabbed something, and returned with a spare length of rope. “No time to build a harness yet as a back-up in case you slip off the seat or something.”

“I ain’t gonna slip,” Shelby said
, batting a hand against his chest. “I ain’t spastic or nothin’.”

“Still,”
Bobby said, “let’s secure you to the main rope just in case. That way, if you slip, you’ll still be attached.”

“All right,” Shelby said. “How should we do it?”

With his knife, he slashed through the spare rope and made two shorter pieces. He lashed the longer one around her waist, making sure his fingers stroked her belly as he did so, then he made a slip-knot out of the other piece and placed it over her tiny wrist. Finally, he kicked the crate to a position directly under the tractor seat and told her to climb up. Even standing atop the crate, she stood a couple inches shorter than Bobby. He tied the tails of both pieces of her makeshift harness to the vertical rope holding the swing, attaching Shelby to it by default.

“All right,” he said. “That oughta do it. If by any chance you
fall, you’ll still be attached by your wrist and waist.”

“And I’d just be dangling out there like a spider?”

“Like a sexy spider, yeah. But I’d pull you in real fast.”

Shelby’s nerves started to get the better of her. “Maybe you oughta go first?”

Bobby sighed. “Well, we got you all secured now. You’ll be fine. I promise.” He looped his fingers into her waist rope and pulled her in close, reaping some extra stimulation when he thought about her being tethered to his creation. He kept her in that teasing position until he heard her breathing speed up, then he leaned in and kissed her. More fully than before. He felt her go limp; he went anything but.

“
A kiss for good luck,” he said. Then, looking away shyly, he added, “I hope that was okay.”

Shelby found herself mute with delight.
With a big grin, she yanked herself up, straddled the tractor seat and clutched the rope. Just before she was ready to launch, Bobby pushed her out over the barn floor forty feet below and shouted, “Bon voyage!”

“
Bobby!” she screamed, the initial jolt scaring her enough that her face flushed and her knuckles went white as she clasped the rope for dear life, but a moment later, as the ride swayed into a wide, smooth sweep, she let loose. “Whoo hoo! This is awesome!”

“Told you.”
Bobby watched the direction of the swing, not realizing until now that he hadn’t calculated what would happen if she started swinging sideways, towards the high window at the side of the barn. He wasn’t much good at thinking more than a couple plays out. Oh well, guess he’d find out. He could always control the slack with his anchor line, and he did like having control. She looked so helpless out there.

“How is it?”
Bobby yelled.

“I lo
ooove it,” she said. “I can’t believe I’m the first one on it.”

Shelby’s swing
ing pattern became more of an oval. Bobby yanked on the rope a little to keep her in check. As she grew more confident, she arched her back and let one arm fully extend so that she was looking up at the ceiling, her long hair following behind like a loose cape. The whole position made her chest stick out more.

“Better
hang on now,” Bobby said.

“You gotta try this,” she said. “It’s making me dizzy.” She giggled, then
wrapped her legs tight onto the tractor seat and let both arms flail about as she sank back. Her body went horizontal and then some as she gazed, wide-eyed, up at the cathedral ceiling of the loft. Her head fell all the way back ‘til she was nearly upside-down.

“Shelby,
for shit-sake, hold on with at least one hand. You’re crazy, girl.”

Shelby took her time but eventually complied and rose up with a face nearly as red as her hair.
“They musta spent an awful lotta money on this barn,” she said. “It’s plum nicer than my whole house.”

Most houses in Lavitte were,
Bobby thought. Shelby’s dad had been in and out of construction jobs so long, he should have just quit altogether and taken to fixing up his own lean-to. ‘Specially if they kept cranking out brats the way they did.

“
How many kids in your family now?” Bobby asked.

“Seven,” she said. “I’m the third, but I’m the oldest girl.
Hey, you know what’s awesome?”

“What?”
Bobby asked.

“Well, I hardly ever get time to myself at home. And
this moment right now might be the first time in a long while when not a one of them knows where I am or what I’m doing.”

Bobby
didn’t know why, but the thought of Shelby’s isolation excited him. He didn’t even try to repress his boner. Just the opposite. He smiled, adjusted his jeans, and let his thoughts run wild.

“
Hey, Shelby,” he said while she spun in a spiral. “You gotta do something for me.”

“Whaddya mean?” The glazed smile on her face told
Bobby that she was in just the right state of mind. Drunk, horny, and downright giddy.

“
You ever play that game
Mr. Brown, Please Let Me Down
?”

“’Course,” she said
. Then her green eyes expanded into pools of cautious anticipation. “Uh oh. What are you thinking of?”

“Well we got to play it proper,”
Bobby said. “Wait’ll I ask.”

“All right. But I gotta be
Mrs
. Brown or it won’t make sense.”

Bobby
complied. “Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Brown, what will you give me if I let you down?”

Shelby threw all her weight in one direction. The beam
holding the rope creaked, but not enough to draw anyone’s attention. She twirled in midair as she arrived at an answer. “I’ll give you… another kiss.”

Bobby
held onto the anchor rope with one hand. With the other, he placed his index finger on his cheek as if to weigh the offer. “Mmm, nope. That won’t do.”

“Why not?” asked Shelby.

“I already had that today. It’s gotta be something new. Let’s try again.”

Shelby giggled,
twirling herself in the other direction and making Bobby feel lightheaded just watching her.

“Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Brown, what will you give me if I let you down?”