TROUBLE, A New Adult Romance Novel (The Rebel Series) (5 page)

“You going to work on that water pump for me?”

It’s Colin.
 
I brace myself as a shiver runs over my skin.

“I don’t think so,” I say, embarrassed that he witnessed my big exit.
 
I feel bad now for telling Quin to shut up.
 
She was just being Quin and that normally doesn’t bother me so much.
 
Today is a weird day for my hormones, apparently.

“Here, let me help you.”
 
Colin pulls a wet wipe out of a box and uses it on my fingers. His strong hands massage the grease right off my skin and leave me breathless as a side-effect.

“I’m sorry about being so … stupid,” I say, wishing I could take the words back as soon as they leave my mouth.
 
Pregnancy has made me lose brain cells, I’m sure of it.
 
No wonder I can’t read
Pride and Prejudice
.

“Who’s stupid?
 
You?
 
I don’t think so.”
 
Colin takes a paper towel and wipes my hand dry.

Without thinking, I lean closer to him just the slightest bit and inhale.
 
I love the way he smells.
 
I don’t know if it’s laundry soap or cologne that keeps going up my nose, but it’s amazing.
 
And it’s not too strong either, which would be a problem since pregnancy has given my nose superpowers. I step back a couple inches when I realize I’m about to close my eyes and sigh over it.

Shaking my head to get it back to reality, I try to explain myself. “Quin was just playing around like she always does, and I know she didn’t mean anything personal by it.
 
I guess I should feel complimented that she teases me like she teases Teagan.”

“It means she likes you,” Colin says.
 
His voice holds no judgment and for that I’m grateful.
 
He’s being way too nice to me, considering I pelted him with about a hundred of his most feared objects today.

“I guess I could do with some less aggressive friendship at this point in my life,” I say.

“Maybe.
 
Maybe not.”

I look up at him, even though he’s standing really close and it’s kind of intimate to be face to face like this.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugs.
 
“Dunno.”

I pull my hand out of his grip and move back another step.
 
“Huh-uh.
 
You’re not going to say something challenging like that and then just let it go.”
 
My left hand rests on the edge of the bench and my fingers curl a little as my stress level rises.
 
The nubs that used to be fingernails drag across the scarred wood surface.

“I wasn’t challenging you.”
 
He moves away, taking a tool off the table and stepping over to the car, sliding the loose engine part over to the corner so he can reach the spot he’s aiming for.
 
His broad back muscles stretch and flex under his tight t-shirt.
 
Holy mackerelandy.

“Yes, you were, don’t lie.”

He pauses as he’s in the process of leaning over the engine.
 
Twisting his upper body towards me, he fixes hard eyes on me and says, “I don’t lie.”
 
Then he goes back to his work and proceeds to use his tool somewhere deep inside the mess of hoses and engine parts I can’t see very well.

“Well, what do you call that comment, then?” My breathing rate has increased and I can feel the heat rising in my face.

His voice sounds funny, muffled a little by the hood of the car.
 
“Just an alternate way of looking at the situation.”

“How so?”
 
I tap my finger over and over on the bench.
 
The rhythm keeps me from wanting to throw things.

He continues working while he answers.
 
“You said you could do with something different.
 
But maybe you say that because you just want to stay miserable.
 
Maybe Quin and Teagan could help you to feel happy again, but you don’t want to let them because you’re too focused on punishing yourself.”

“What?”
 
My blood is starting to boil.
 
I’m not even sure I’ve fully processed what he’s saying, or that I’m sure about what he means, but I have a feeling I’m not going to like it.

He stands up and faces me.
 
“Nobody in this place understands that mindset more than me, okay?
 
I wrote the fucking book on it.
 
You don’t need to hide your shit from me.”

I huff out a breath of air, trying to stay civil in the face of his rudeness.
 
“I really wish you’d stop swearing like that.”

He shrugs.
 
“Don’t cloud the issue.”

“Cloud the issue?
 
I’m not clouding the issue.”
 
My voice is going up in volume, but I can’t seem to stop it.
 
It echoes around the large open space.
 
“Everywhere I go around you people I’m hearing the F-word and the S-word and the C- word and the D-word. Teagan and Quin have a swear word for every letter of the alphabet. Why can’t any of you express yourselves without using foul language?”

“Somebody used the C-word around you?” He’s smiling.
 
He actually has the nerve to
smile
when I’m upset.

“You’re surprised about that?”
 
I throw my hands up and let them fall down to slap my legs.
 
“I don’t get you, Colin.
 
You paint like a master, you swear like a trucker, and you smile like an angel.
 
You are a walking, talking, out-loud lie of epic proportions.”

He stands there for a few long seconds frowning at me before he responds.
 
“Uhhh … I’m not exactly sure … did you just compliment me or insult me?”

“Arrrgh!” I scream, storming off.
 
I stride through the office and out the front door of the garage.
 
I cannot stand to be in the same room with that man for another second.
 
I’m liable to nub him to death with my pitiful used-to-be fingernails.

“Where are you going?”
 
Colin’s behind me, yelling from the doorway as I trudge across the parking lot.

“None of your beeswax!
 
Leave me alone!”
 
I have no idea where I’m going, but he doesn’t need to know that.

I spy some golden arches in the distance and decide this is probably the best place for me to burn off my anger.
 
I can get a free ice water and use their bathroom - double score.

Putting all my anger into my stride, I make it to the fast-food place in under five minutes.

CHAPTER FOUR

I’M SUCKING DOWN THE LAST bits of an ice water delivered through a fat, plastic, yellow-striped straw when I spy a pregnant girl coming in the door.
 
She looks like she’s ready to pop, and the minute I spy her cankles I recognize a kindred spirit.
 
I totally feel her pain.

She looks over at me and smiles shyly.

I smile back because for the first time all day, I feel like I’m looking at someone who can understand what I’m going through.
 
It helps to not feel like the only one in the world suffering like I am.
 
There are now two potbelly pigs in the house.
 
I wonder if she snorts when she laughs too. I never used to do that.

She goes up to the counter and orders.
 
When she gets her tray, she walks over in my direction.

I quickly look down at the table, embarrassed about being caught staring.
 
I know I hate it when people do that to me.

“Hi.
 
Is this seat taken?” she asks, gesturing to the spot across from me.

I look around at all the empty tables around us.
 
We’re the only ones in the whole place.
 
Why does she want to sit here?

“No, I guess not.”
 
I squirm a little in my seat.
 
I’m not used to strangers approaching me, and now this is twice in one day it’s happened.
 
Am I wearing a sign that says,
Make friends with me, I’m lonely
?

“Good.
 
Because I am sick and tired of sitting in the corner alone,” she says, smiling again.
 
Her teeth are so white they glow.
 
Her hair is pulled back in a slick pony tail and her skin is flawless, the color of dark mahogany.
 
I can’t stop staring at her face.

“What?
 
Do I have something on me?
 
A sesame seed?”
 
She wipes at her cheek.

I shake my head.
 
“No.
 
I was just admiring your complexion.
 
You’re one of those pregnant girls who glows.”
 
I sigh heavily.
 
“I’m the kind that tarnishes and blotches.”

“Oh, flub that.
 
You’re gorgeous.”

I smile.
 
“Flub that?
 
That’s original.”

She shrugs as she chews a bite of her happy meal hamburger.
 
“You know.
 
Gonna have a baby and all. Gotta start going with the Rated-G stuff.”

When I see her eating the little kid meal and her round little face, it strikes me how young she looks.
 
“How far along are you?” I ask.
 
What I really want to know is how old she is, but I don’t want to be rude.

“Eight months, three days, and forty some minutes.
 
I am
so
done with the pregnancy, you have no idea.”

I rub my belly absently.
 
“Oh, yes I do.
 
Believe me.”

She grins.
 
“Oh.
 
I guess you do.
 
That’s cool.”

I glance at her ring finger.
 
It’s empty like mine.

Catching me staring, she holds up her left hand.
 
“Nope, not married, in case you were wondering.”

My face flames red.
 
“Sorry.”

She waves off my embarrassment.
 
“Don’t apologize.
 
I’m an open book.
 
My name is Charity, I’m sixteen, I’m not married and I do not want to be.
 
What’s your deal?”
 
She dives into her french fries with gusto, holding up the greasy packet towards me.

I shake my head at her offer, but surprise myself as I answer.
 
“My name is Alissa, I’m twenty-one, I’m definitely not married nor do I want to be.” I smile a little, moving past my embarrassment.
 
“And I’m almost eight months pregnant and cannot wait to be
not
pregnant.”

“Boy or girl?” she asks.

“Girl.”

“I’m having a boy.”

My next question flies out of my mouth. “What are you going to do?
 
After he’s born, I mean?”
 
I can’t believe I’ve asked such a personal question, but I’m dying to know the answer.
 
Maybe she’ll have ideas about what I should do once my baby is born, because so far I’ve come up with nothing.

“Go back to high school.
 
I’m putting him up for adoption.”

My jaw drops open.

She looks at me and stops eating.
 
“What?
 
You against that kind of thing?”

I shake my head briskly.
 
“No, no, of course not.
 
I mean, I don’t know if I could do it personally, but I’m definitely not against it.
 
There are tons of people out there looking for babies to adopt and love.”
 
The lady from the grocery store comes to mind.
 
I can still see her standing there with tears on her cheeks as her hands rest on my belly.
 
I imagine that I can almost feel the warm spots she left still there, handprints of desperate love.

Charity shrugs.
 
“I’m too young and poor as dirt. I need to finish high school and then go to college before I can do a good job as a mom. I live with my grandpa and we don’t have the money to raise a baby right.”
 
She sighs as she throws the rest of her fries in the box that her meal came in.
 
“Sucks to learn lessons the hard way.”

I nod.
 
Sucks
doesn’t even begin to cover it.
 
I’m jealous that she at least knows what she’s going to do.

“Have you picked out a family yet?” I ask.

“Nope.
 
I haven’t even started.
 
Isn’t that crazy?”
 
She smiles at me, but it’s not a very happy expression this time.
 
“I know this is what I want to do, but every time I think about it, I see a report on the news about some couple abusing a kid and I worry that will happen with my baby, you know?
 
I mean, how do you know they’re good people?
 
‘Cause you can’t take the baby back. Once it’s done, it’s done.”

I shake my head.
 
“I don’t know.
 
I guess you get to know them a little first.”
 
I watch her bag up her garbage, wanting to help her solve her problem.
 
I can’t solve my own but maybe I can do something worthwhile for someone else.
 
“They have agencies and stuff, right?
 
People who want to adopt are checked out and fingerprinted and stuff.”

“Yeah, probably.
 
And I see ads online and on billboards and stuff from people who want a baby really bad.
 
I don’t know.
 
I feel like …”
 
She stops and looks down at the table.
 
She seems embarrassed.