Reason Is You (9781101576151) (27 page)

My dad laughed—a deep warm sound that instantly made me relax. Grady looped an arm around Riley and pulled her in for a hug. She hugged him back and then pulled back to stand next to him as her blue eyes scanned the crowd. No floor shows today.

Bob slow-rolled by in his golf cart, his head swinging from side to side, taking it all in. It was the first time I’d ever seen him with a shirt on, and he almost pulled off normal till he swung his metal leg out the side as a wave to me.

“Every year, it’s hot enough to fry eggs on the street, you hear me?” Miss Olivia said, fanning out her yellow-and-white muumuu.

I nodded and checked out the sky, the familiar thickness tickling my skin. A storm was brewing. The quickening of my pulse told me that. “It’s muggy, though. Air’s heavy.”

“Choke you if you breathe too deep.” Miss Olivia adjusted her straw hat. “Rain’s on the way, the weatherman said. Was supposed to be here early this morning, but it’s waiting, I guess,” she said, laughing. “Could blow this whole little party off the street. Y’all get something to eat yet?”

Yeah, it’s waiting.
I closed my eyes for a second and breathed in the wet air. It was for me, somehow. I felt the energy of it on my skin.

“Not yet, but I’m working on it,” Riley said.

“Well, I’m going to see what’s happening on the fishing board,” Dad said, already heading toward the giant stat board used to track the tournament. And Jiminy, who nodded at him and said something they both chuckled at. The two of them slapped each other on the shoulders and ambled off together. My heart warmed instantly at the thought that maybe—just maybe—they were finding that place again.

“Bye, Pop!” Riley called out, and he raised his right hand in a wave, not looking back.

“We’re going for a stroll,” Grady said as he took Riley’s hand. She looked up at him with a smirk.

“A stroll? Really?”

“Thought it sounded nice,” he said, defending himself. “Old-fashioned.”

I patted his shoulder and leaned in closer. “Just keep your clothes on, that’s as old-fashioned as I need.”

Miss Olivia snorted, Riley clapped a hand to her eyes, and Grady turned five shades of red.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Mom.”

I fixed her with a smile. “That’s me.”

“Let’s go,” she said, tugging on his hand.

“Riley,” I said, stopping her.

She turned around, exasperated. “What?”

I paused a second, staring hard into her eyes. “Don’t talk to strangers.”

Grady chuckled but Riley’s annoyance faltered, and she just nodded. I watched them walk away.
She’s gonna be okay. She’s gonna be okay.

“She’s just walking around a festival, not Europe,” Miss Olivia said, leaning into my line of vision.

A laugh escaped my throat, but I didn’t really feel it. “Europe might be safer than Bethany.”

She squeezed my hand. “Take a breath, girl. Let’s go look at that jewelry over there.”

I followed her gaze to a kiosk filled with silver everything, appropriately bannered
SILVER EVERYTHING
, then back to the retreating figures getting swallowed by the crowd. I had the weirdest urge to run after her. Instead, I followed Miss Olivia as she made her way over to the bling.

There was an index card marked up in red Sharpie,
ALL STERLING
SLIVER 50% OFF
! A sweating bald man with a goatee readied himself for a “sliver” sale as Miss Olivia perused the selection. As ringed and braceleted and adorned as she was, he probably figured an easy sale.

Not to be the case. Fifteen minutes later, Miss Olivia had him down to around 90 percent off a whole bucketload of jewelry. I tried on a few rings, a few bracelets, but put them all back. Riley had all the cash I could afford to blow, and I was saving my last five dollars for an Italian sausage po’boy sandwich I’d passed.

There was a pair of brushed silver fleur-de-lis hook earrings that kept drawing my eye, though. I picked them up and glanced at the tag. Twenty bucks. I grimaced. Even at half off, and giving up my sandwich, I didn’t have enough. And I wasn’t going to use Miss Olivia to get it cheaper. The poor guy was frustrated already. Still, I had to hold them up to my ears and check it out in the smudged mirror he had there.

“Those are nice,” said a familiar voice behind me.

I turned to see Jason half grinning down at me, and I chuckled as I put the earrings back, marveling at the heat to my face that had nothing to do with the temperature.

“Hey there.”

He frowned. “You’re not buying them?”

“No,” I said, waving a hand in their direction. “I was just messing around.”

He reached around me and picked them back up.

“Jason—”

“Hush.”

He held them up to my ears again for the mirror, standing behind me so close I felt the goose bumps tickle my skin. “Have you bought yourself anything since you’ve been back here?”

“Hmph,” Miss Olivia said loud enough for me to hear.

“Yep, bought some toothpaste day before yesterday.” I turned so that his raised eyebrow of disapproval was up close and personal.

“Cute.”

“Yeah, she’s irritating that way,” Miss Olivia said, shoving plastic bags of her purchases into her giant pink one.

I tried a loving glare, but she just smiled and leaned against the table.

“I’m good, Jason. I don’t need earrings.”

“Your earlobes might disagree.” He touched my earlobes as he said it and I thought for a minute they might ignite into flames.

“Well, they’ll just have to suck it up.”

He laughed and handed the earrings back to the guy, leaning into me as he did it. I got a delicious whiff of him that made my insides go a little wiggly. He hooked an arm around my neck and led me away, squeezing Miss Olivia’s hand as he did. She winked at me. Oh lord.

“Subtle,” I said softly.

“What?”

“You just slipped her money to buy them.”

He looked wounded. For about two seconds. “You make it really tough to do something nice for you.”

I laughed. “Sorry. Guess I’m not used to it.”

Jason pulled my head to him and kissed the top of it. It stopped me. Intimacy in public was something way outside my box. My feet stopped and I looked up into eyes that already had me figured out.

“Relax,” he said softly.

A thumb ran across my cheek, and I couldn’t look away. He understood me. And yet he knew nothing about me. He dropped a soft kiss on my lips followed by the sexiest grin I’d ever seen.

My stomach flipped over, and I tried not to want to do the girly
scream as we walked on. There were children around, after all. But my giddiness was short-lived. Because right in front of me, sitting on the hood of an old car, was Alex.

I never expected him to be out there. Too much contact potential. I must have tensed or stopped or choked or something, because Jason’s head turned quickly.

“You okay?”

My mouth worked and I couldn’t quite form the words. Alex’s expression hit me to the core. Raw. Pain. The last time—the only other time—I’d seen that on him was when he was talking about Alyssa’s death. My head suddenly filled with that loud wind again, and I shook it away and pleaded with my eyes for him to understand.

“Dani?” Jason said, shaking my shoulder.

“I’m—sorry,” I managed, breaking eye contact with Alex. “I—”

“Well, wasn’t that sweet?”

It was a smart-ass drawl I knew in my sleep just by the level of skin crawl. Shelby and her equally obnoxious husband approached, her carrying a bag of jar candles, him carrying a beer.

“I had no idea y’all were a couple now,” Shelby said, smiling with all but her eyes. They darted back and forth between us, pissed off.

“I could say the same,” I said, glancing around them. Alex was gone. Damn it. “Never seen the two of you actually together.”

Matty ignored us and scanned the crowd, letting his eyes fall to the ass of a twentysomething walking by. Always after the strange.

“I thought you were fishing the tournament,” Jason said, pulling Matty’s attention back.

“Fish were crap the other day,” he said. “We decided it wasn’t worth the time.”

“The boys, either?”

Matty shrugged. “Not sure what Carson’s kids are doing, they probably bailed, too. Storm’s coming, anyway.”

Yes, it was. I rubbed my arms, suddenly itchy as uneasiness blanketed me.

Shelby caught a glimpse of someone better and excused herself. Matty turned to follow her, but not before giving me what I’m sure he thought was a sexy once-over. I pulled Jason away before Matty’s slow response time could even register I’d vacated the spot.

Dad and Jiminy walked up to our right, and I couldn’t miss the expression of curiosity on my dad’s face.

“Nathaniel Shane,” he said as they approached and I said nothing, reaching across me to shake Jason’s hand.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry. Dad, this is Jason, my—” I looked up at him, looking for a description. “Boss?”

Jason laughed and pumped his hand heartily, thank goodness. “Jason Miller, good to meet you, Mr. Shane.”

“You must be the new honcho at the bait shop that Marg has told me about.”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure Marg just humors me, sir. She lets me think I’m the boss, but we all really work for her.”

Jiminy chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth?”

Dad laughed, his eyes lighting up. “Where’s Riley?” he asked me. “She hanging out with her
boss
, too?”

“Cute.”

He winked at me and gave Jason an approving nod. The best he could do, I’m sure. Meeting up with my love life wasn’t something he’d had much experience with.

“She’s with Grady.”

I pulled my hair back and twisted it up with a hair band I had on my wrist. It was hot, yes, but it was more about stress. It felt like my blood was on a switch that someone kept flipping, changing the
direction at will. I ran a hand over my face, wiping away the light sheen of sweat.

I was uneasy. Alex had seen me kiss Jason. That hurt my heart and I felt the urge to talk to him. And not just for that. For whatever else was going on. Whatever the hell else was behind the secrets and the walls and the noises and the feelings I kept getting and my feelings for him that kept igniting in weird ways and Sarah and my computer and my mother. There were just so many unanswered questions. And besides all that, I missed him. I missed my best friend.

And something was bugging the crap out of me with Riley. Something familiar. It was making me a nervous jumping bean that she wasn’t in my sights. And that wasn’t normal. Nothing was normal.

Jason and I walked along, but I didn’t register much. I kept looking for either of them, Riley or Grady. Something to ease the acidic dance my stomach was doing. Then I heard it. What my subconscious knew was coming, but I’d forgotten the signs. The feeling of everything being off.

The laughter. Not happy laughter or even an emotional release. But the bitter, evil, merciless sound of group hate. My eyes and skin burned in unison as I jolted toward the sound and left Jason behind. Not far.

I rounded the kiosk selling the sandwich I’d never see and nearly took down a small redheaded girl watching from outside a circle of people. She wasn’t laughing with the others. She was tearful. And she was dead.

The brief contact with me made us both gasp. Kind of like sticking a paper clip in a light socket, and I had to catch my breath. But I’d seen her confusion and regret in that instant, and I knew she’d asked Riley for help.

Don’t talk to strangers.

Seven or eight teenagers were gathered to pounce on my girl with the taunts and ugly ignorance I knew too well. She was alone; I didn’t see Grady anywhere. She was standing stiff and defiant, jutting that chin out and flashing her eyes, but it got quiet when Carson’s son Drew zeroed in.

“I’m sorry,” the redheaded girl said softly, backing away. I held a hand up.

“It’s okay.”

Five heads swiveled my way as I let my guard down by speaking to the girl they couldn’t see.

“What’s okay?”

I turned to Jason’s questioning gaze, then back to the group in front of me that for a moment forgot about Riley.

“That’s her mom,” whispered a pretty brunette to a girl I recognized as Micah, Shelby’s daughter. Micah nodded but was less interested in me than she was in the fact that her boyfriend was making a spectacle of hitting on Riley.

“Drew, come on,” she said, scooping a stray blonde lock behind her ear. Her eyes darted to a few of her friends and there was a crinkle above her nose. “Who cares what she did. Let’s go.”

He was clearly oblivious to her request, because as Riley attempted to walk around him, Drew stepped in her path, grabbing her around the waist and whispering something that included a tongue wag.

In that one action, I flashed backward twenty-five years. To Matty in the nurse’s office. Blaine behind the stairwell. Carson and his groupies at the party, and nightmare school days too numerous to count. Everything glazed over, coupled with the whispers echoing in my ears. I rushed forward to stop history from repeating itself. But Riley beat me to it.

She slapped his face so hard, even I jumped, stopping in mid-step. Wow. I never did that. Micah sucked in an audible breath at the sharp pop of hand against face.

“Get your fucking hands off me,” Riley said, her voice low and trembling.

Drew’s face twisted in shock and embarrassment, and he grabbed Riley’s arm and yanked her against him.

“What the hell’s going on here?”

I turned toward the voice I recognized as Carson’s, but the view of him became a blur as Grady morphed from behind me, newly purchased pork kabobs and boudain balls flying in his wake as he lunged at Drew. He had him pinned against the back of a giant wobbly plastic ice cream cone before anyone could react.

“Touch her again, and I’ll break your fucking hands,” he spat.

Drew’s face mirrored Riley’s for shock value. Shrieks and oh-my-Gods charged the air and pulled him back into action. Red-faced, he shoved back at Grady, moving him a foot or so with his bulk, but that just gave Grady leverage to slam Drew backward again.

“Drew!” Micah cried.

“Bring it, pretty boy,” Drew hissed. “I’ll mess up that face of yours. See if she wants to fuck you then.”