Second Chance Summer (Chance Series, #1) (6 page)

“I want it, Reese, all right?” I shout. “Is that what you wanted? Are you happy now? I’ve admitted it. I want it all again! But I can’t have it. I can’t do that, so that’s why I “run,” as you put it. I’m protectin’ myself.”

“You’re hurtin’ yourself, and me. This summer, Kia…”

“But it won’t be just this summer!” I yell. “It won’t be one summer, Reese. It’ll be now, and next year, and the year after. I wanna be around you, but not like that.” I look down. “Friends, Reese. I wanna laugh and joke like we used to. I can’t have more.”

“Why?”

“Because the more I have, the more I want.” I look back up, and he’s right in front of me. “And I can’t have any more than I’ve already had.”

He sighs. “Kia, baby,” he whispers. “You’ve already got it all.”

His breath fans across my lips, and I breathe in.

“Then maybe its best if I give it back,” I whisper. I turn from him, pushing the screen door open and walking through. I slide it closed behind me, glancing up at his still figure for one last time. I hold his searing gaze for a second before his lips move, forming silent words.

“I won’t take it back,” he mouths. “Think about that.”

He jumps from the porch, disappearing around the side of the house.

~

Luce chews her way absently through a Twizzler and props her feet up on her coffee table. “So he turned up? Just like that?”

“Yep.”

“And then left?”

“Yep.”

“Damn.” She shakes her head in amusement.

“What’s so funny?” I demand, picking at the packet of Nerds on my lap.

“You’ve been back a week or so, and he’s already on chase mode.” She rips a bite of her Twizzler off and continues to speak through her mouthful. “He’s like, what do you call it?”

“Uh, persistent?”

“Well he’s definitely that. I tried to warn you, Kia.”

“Don’t do that “I told you so” shit with me, Luce. I knew he would say something, but I didn’t think it would be quite like that. And I sure as hell didn’t expect him to kiss me before that all came out.” I sigh.

“Admit it!” she cries. “Just admit you had no idea what he’d do and that you still want him.”

I half-scream, half-groan, and curl my face into the side of her sofa.

“When did the dinosaurs come back?” Leo, Luce’s brother, questions as he strolls into the room. I grab a nerd from my packet and pointlessly throw it in his direction.

“Fuck off, Leo,” Luce snaps.

“I’m just passing through!” he replies. “Y’know, squirt, it’s my house, too!”

Luce gives him an evil look as he walks through into the kitchen, and I grin a little.

“Oh, how I’ve missed your bantering ways.”

“You’re not off the hook, girl. I’m taking your groan as admission of still wanting Reese Pembleton.”

“I’m pretty sure I came here for support, not to be pressured into getting with Reese,” I grumble.

“I’m not pressuring,” she counters. “I just want you to admit.”

“I already did.”

“What? When?” She sits upright, staring at me.

“Yesterday.”

“Oh no.”

I purse my lips. “Oh yes.”

“You told him you still wanted him?”

I open my mouth, then close it again, nodding instead.

Her eyes bug, a piece of Twizzler falling out of her mouth and onto her lap. “So why the fuck are you here with a face like a smacked ass, and not cuddled up against his very, very lickable body?!”

My lips twitch. God, I’ve missed her. “Because I told him I couldn’t have him. And I’m stickin’ to it, Luce. I mean it.”

She picks at a thread on her pants, looking at me with her head tilted to the side slightly.

“What?” I ask after a moment of silence, wondering what’s going on in her head.

“Kia,” she says softly. “You’re not your parents.”

“So everyone keeps telling me – but I don’t want to end up like them, either. I don’t want to find myself just like my momma in fifteen years’ time because Reese decided to take off. We’re just kids, really. How likely are we really to find everything we’re ever gonna need in each other?”

~

Mom teeters through the house on sky high heels, half-drunk, and I bite my tongue to stop myself saying anything. She’s dressed as trashy as the bar she works at just outside town, and I find myself really beginning to wonder where it all went wrong. She got that job a few months before Dad left, and it’s all too easy to imagine her drinking before he did. Maybe she just hid it well, or maybe I’ve blocked it all out. The few weeks around the time he left are a total blur to me, full of unanswered questions. I was never told why he left and I’m still not strong enough to ask.

I guess a part of me still believes he’ll come back. Even now.

She blows me a cursory kiss, grabs her purse, and strolls outside to the waiting cab. Even on her night off, she still goes back there. The door shuts behind her with a deafening bang, and I chew on my thumbnail. This house. It’s quiet, too quiet.

I could go and get my guitar. Play it out. Sing it out. Instead, I grab my cell from the coffee table with every intention of calling Luce.

But I don’t.

I dial Reese’s number.

“I wasn’t expecting you to call,” he says as soon as he answers.

“I wasn’t expecting to,” I admit. “Are you busy?”

“Are you offering to make me busy?”

“Are you being a jackass?”

“Probably.” He laughs. “No, I’m not busy. Why?”

“I need to get out.”

“I’ll come and get you.”

“I can drive to wherever I need to get to, Reese.”

“I’ll come and get you,” he repeats and hangs up.

Damn him. I hoist myself up from the couch and get ready to leave. Pajama pants aren’t gonna cut it, really.

A horn beeps outside, and I take my cell before running from the house. Reese leans over and opens the truck door from the inside, holding his hand out to help me up. I pause for a second, not looking at him, before my hand makes its own way into his.

His fingers are rough and hot as they curl around mine. I try to focus on where I’m putting my feet instead of the feel of his skin. I slam the door shut after me, taking my hand back, and Reese pulls out of the drive without saying a word. We drive across town in silence, and my eyes flick several times to the way his muscles flex when he changes gear.

“No questions?” I ask quietly, finally raising my eyes to his.

He stops the car outside his house and turns his face toward mine slowly, the faint glow of the light from his front porch casting shadows across it.

“No questions,” he answers. “Why would I? I know you, Kia, and I know you need company, not someone that will dissect your day.”

I smile, but I don’t feel it. My stomach churns and it makes it harder to tear my gaze away from his burning hazel eyes and hop from the truck.

It makes it harder, because he gets me. He gets me in a way not even Luce does, and it makes me want him even more.

I drop to the ground by the lake, the almost-set sun casting a lazy orange haze across the water. Above that, in the darkening sky, thousands of tiny stars faintly twinkle. Reese hits the ground next to me and lies down.

I watch the sun as it goes down, slowly disappearing over the horizon through the trees.

“I’m confused,” I say, breaking the silence. I lean back on my hands and look up at the stars.

“What are you confused about?” Reese rolls onto his side, propping his face on his hand.

“Why aren’t you mad at me?” I ask quietly.

“What?”

“Ever since I got back, you’ve made a huge fuss about me not comin’ back at Christmas, but you’ve never been really mad over it. If it bothers you so much, how can you spend time with me?” I look down at him. “If it really bothers you that much, how can you forgive me?”

“I haven’t,” he replies simply, staring into my eyes. “I haven’t forgiven you and I’m pissed at you, Kia. Shit, I’m real pissed, but I figure if I start yellin’ at you every time I see you, you’ll run in the opposite direction. So I might be mad, but my want to spend time with you outweighs that.”

“Huh.” I turn away from him again, thinking how much sense that makes in a crazy way. “I was thinkin’ last night.”

“About?” he questions.

“Last summer. It was the best one, right?” I pick at the grass. “I spoke to Adam last night, and we were talkin’ about that big water fight we had. Remember?” He nods, smiling. “When we were running all over town. I don’t know if anyone didn’t get wet that day.”

I feel his eyes flitting across my face, tracing the lines of my profile and settling on my lips. I hold my breath because I know exactly what he’s about to say next.

He chuckles low. “That was the first time I ever kissed you.”

“Don’t! Reese! No!” I’d screamed, hiding behind a tree. Reese laughed, shooting me with his pistol anyway. I pinned my back against the tree, breathing heavily, and he whispered, “Boo,” in my ear. I shrieked and ran away, laughing at us. My wet hair bounced around my shoulders, and my white top was clinging to my body and showing the bright red spots on my bikini top.

I looked over my shoulder and shot him with the last of my water. “Oh, shit!” I cried.

“You’re done for now!” he yelled, grinning like a crazy man. I could hear him running faster and see him closing in on me.

“Reese, Reese!” I shouted, seeing him get even closer. “Please don’t, please.” I laughed and stopped, bending over at the waist to rest my hands on my knees.

He stopped next to me. “Give in?”

“Yes,” I wheezed through my crazy laughter. “I give in.”

“Good.” He grinned, uncapping the part of his pistol that held the water. It hit the back of my head, soaking me even more, and I cried out.

“Oh. My. God,” I sputtered, straightening. “You did not just do that.”

He looked around innocently, putting the pistol behind his back. “I have no idea what you’re on about.”

“Liar!” I stalked toward him, my eyes narrowed. He backed up until his back almost hit the tree, and I kept walking up to him. I stopped when we were inches apart, stretching my arm out to reach round him.

He dodged to the side, scooting around me.

“Reese!” I shouted, turning toward him. He grinned playfully, his eyes twinkling.

“What?”

“Stop runnin’ away from me!”

“I kinda like it when you chase me.” He waggled his eyebrows.

I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth to keep from smirking. I kinda liked chasing him. “Let me have that pistol.”

“Why? Because it’s bigger than yours?”

“Exactly!” I giggled, leaping toward him. He threw the pistol to the side, catching me. We stumbled backward and slipped, landing in a heap on the wet grass.

“You weren’t supposed to catch me,” I grumbled, peeling my body off his.

“You’re the one that jumped on me!” he argued, chuckling slightly.

I rolled to the side, flumping backward onto the grass. I felt Reese shift, so he was lying on his side.

“You were supposed to just give me the damn pistol,” I muttered, opening my eyes.

His lips curled up at the side. “That would have been no fun.”

My eyes searched his. “Why not?”

“Because,” he whispered, lowering his face to mine and causing me to hold my breath. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this.”

His lips touched mine. His hand reached my face, and he ran his thumb across my cheek. I kissed him back, one of my hands resting on his back. He tasted like the toffee popcorn he’d been secretly munching on all afternoon when he thought no one was looking, and his lips felt as soft as they looked. He tickled the crease of my lips with his tongue, and I responded by sucking gently on his lower lip.

“I know,” I say softly, bringing myself back to the here and now. “I think you chased me into the woods deliberately, y’know.”

“I did.” He grins. “My plan was to get you alone all along and Adam’s job was to keep everyone else away from us.”

I snap my head up. I should yell at him, but I’m too damn amused. I smile widely. “I knew it.” I shake my head.

“What?” he asks innocently and sits up. “Hell, I’d been chasing you for three months, but you kept blowing me off, taking me on those stupid double dates.” I snort. “I wanted to kiss you so I did.”

“Those double dates were kinda funny,” I try. “I mean, Luce and Adam
do
have a thing for each other. I don’t get why they never got together.”

“Because the dates were never about them. They were always about us, just like that whole summer was.”

“I guess you’re right.” I look down. “Everyone was just watchin’ us; waitin’ for the day we’d finally give it in and get together. And then I left.”

He sighs, lying back again. “We never did get there.”

“Oh, we got together all right. Just not in the way we thought we would. Maybe not in the right way, but we did,” I trail off sadly, lying next to him. I expect him to say something else, but when I turn my face toward his, his eyes are shut.

Conversation over for now.

~

I open my eyes slowly to darkness. There’s warmth behind me and I instinctively snuggle into it, closing my eyes again. Arms tighten around me, and I-

Arms?

My eyes snap open again, and the last thing I remember is lying by the lake with Reese… I roll over, grunting slightly, and look straight into a pair of hazel eyes.

“You’re beautiful when you sleep,” Reese says softly.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I rub my neck and sit up. His arms leave me, and I’m cold without the contact.

“You looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to disturb you.” He sits up next to me.

“Hmph.” I stretch out my legs, shaking them slightly. “What’s the time?”

“About ten,” he answers.

“Dang it.” I bite the inside of my cheek. “I need to get home.” To be ready for my drunken mother’s arrival.

“Why?”

I turn to look at Reese. “It’s gettin’ late.”

“So?” His lips twitch upwards. “We used to stay out all night.”

“It’s different now.”

“And just do stupid stuff. That’s what you said you wanted, right? To be friends, and do the stupid stuff. Let’s do it.” He shrugs a shoulder.