Two Thousand Miles (5 page)

“Here’s your keys back, Momma,” he told Dana.

“Thank you for takin’ care of that for me.”

“Anytime,” he said
, and then disappeared.

“He had my tires rotated this
mornin’,” she said to me as I watched Mason walk away from us. “The boy’s a good egg—has a big heart.”

And a big mouth
, I thought. But he was still fun to look at.

“Anyway,” Dana said. “If you ever need to talk, I’m a good listener. I’ve also been known to give pretty good advice, too.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Dana smiled at me, almost sympathetically. It made me wonder how much Marion had told her about why she’d sent me to Slidell and how much of that information she’d shared with her children.

Bit and Shelby came outside with a woozy Dixie in tow. “Momma
, can I borrow your car to drive Dixie home?” Shelby asked.

“You
feelin’ okay, honey?” Dana asked Dixie. “You look a little green.”

“I’ll be alright. I just didn’t get much sleep last night. I had a lot on my mind,” she said, cutting her eyes at me
like I was the reason she hadn’t slept well. Newsflash! Drinking too much alcohol affects a person’s sleep.

“Thanks for the tea, Dana. And the talk,” I said.

“Anytime,” she
shined.

As I stood, Dixie’s face warped, too weak to give me a full on
eat shit
look, but I got the idea, and I was tired of it—of her. I decided that any time Dixie dished shit out that I would dish it back.

“Maybe you didn’t get much sleep last night because your boyfriend spent the night
with me
,” I said sharply.

Shelby gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth, making a noise that sounded like a small engine failing to start as she tried to hold in laughter.

Dixie glared at me, her posture unbalanced. I thought for sure she was going to punch me, but she didn’t.

“You better be
lyin’,” she threatened. Dana was right; Dixie did look a bit green.

“Or what?”
I asked.

“Or else,” she growled.

“Hey, hey, now, simmer down,” Dana instructed, standing up. I winked at Shelby and walked inside feeling pretty good about myself—for getting one over on Dixie, not for making it seem like I’d slept with Mason.

I strutted
into Garrett’s room and had this
now what
feeling sweep over me. I was alone in a stranger’s bedroom with nothing to do.

I grabbed my phone and saw that I had two missed calls and one message
—all from Marion. I played the message; she had nothing new to report about my father. I didn’t feel like talking, so I texted her instead. For a moment, I thought about asking Marion if aliens had abducted Olivia, but decided against it.

I hadn’t talked to Olivia in over a week, so something was definitely going on. At home, we’d been in constant contact. I didn’t think we’d gone a week without talking since we’d met four years ago.

I’d left Olivia two messages before I boarded the plane to Slidell and still hadn’t heard from her. I hadn’t even gotten a text. Marion told me not to tell anyone where I was going, only to say I would be out of town for a while.

I dialed Olivia’s number and counted eighteen rings before hanging up. Her voicemail hadn’t picked up. I had no idea why she would be, but I decided
Olivia was avoiding me—if, of course, she hadn’t actually been abducted by aliens.

I slumped down in the recliner in the corner of Garrett’s room to pout
, but was interrupted by a commotion outside. I stood back up and looked out the window. Bit and Shelby had their arms around Dixie, holding her back. She was shouting something at Mason and somehow managed to get one of her shoes off and threw it at him.

Dana opened the car door and ordered Dixie to get in. Surprisingly
, she quit fighting Bit and Shelby and did as she was told, but first, she shot Mason a bird. I laughed hard, hearing Mason’s voice in my head.
You might think so, Cali girl, and it may have been that way out in Malibu, but here not everything’s gonna be about you.

Maybe not
, but I did know one thing; if the argument he and Dixie had last night wasn’t about me, today’s sure as hell was and there was something truly satisfying about that.

The kids that didn’t belong to Dana hadn’t been around in a few days. The quiet was nice at first, but now I was bored.

Russ worked out in the yard while Bit, Shelby, and I cleaned the house.

“I bet you don’t have to clean at your house,” Shelby whined to me.

“I clean at home.”

“But you have a maid, don’t you?” her tone slightly accusatory.

We had two maids, a
nd a cook, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “Yeah, but not the kind that makes my bed for me and stuff,” I defended. I had friends in Malibu who had never made their own beds. Ever.

My dad once told me that teaching me to be self
-sufficient would be the greatest gift he could ever give me. I didn’t know about that, but I could certainly take care of myself if it came down to it.

“I do my own laundry, and all that, too,” I said.

Shelby shrugged, “If I had a maid, I wouldn’t wash a damn thing.”

Bit laughed, “You hardly wash anything now.”

“I only like to do fun things, and this cleaning bullshit is not fun,” Shelby frowned, sitting cross-legged on the floor, waist-deep in the laundry she was sorting.

“Still has to be done,” Bit said.

“
Still has to be done
,” Shelby mimicked.

Bit looked at me and smirked, “You’d think I was the older sister.”

“Whatever, Bitty! We all know it has to be done. I’m just sayin’ that if I had a choice, I wouldn’t be doin’ this shit.”

“Neither would I,” Bit defended.

“As soon as we’re done, and I do mean the instant; I’m hittin’ the pool,” Shelby stated.

“Could I come, too?” I asked without thinking. Shelby and Bit exchanged a quick look and then Shelby smiled sort of mischievously and said, “Definitely. You should definitely come.” I normally wouldn’t have invited myself, but I was ready to get out of the house.

“So, what’s goin’ on with you and Mason?” Shelby asked, eyebrows lifted.

“Nothing.”

“
Um, excuse me, but spendin’ the night in your room together ain’t nothin’,” she gasped.

“He slept in the chair. It truly was nothing,” I said, a tad regretful.

“Still got way under Dixie’s skin though,” Bit piped in.

Good
, I thought. I’d meant for it to.

“But you like him, right?” Shelby asked.

“Doesn’t matter. He has a girlfriend.”

“Who—Dixie?”
Shelby laughed. “No way. They broke up a while ago.”

“Yeah, a few weeks before you got here,” Bit added. That was surprising in light of Dixie’s acute possessiveness of him.

“But they’re still together all the time,” I said.

“That’s because we’re all friends,” Bit said. “They hang out, out of habit.”

“Habit’s ass,” Shelby smirked. “Dixie wants him back. It’s why she’s such a bitch to you. He likes you, I can tell. And if I can tell, so can
she.”

The buzzer on the dryer went off and broke up our conversation, changing the subject to who was going to fold the load of towels.

“Let’s flip for it,” Shelby said to me.

“I’ll do it;
I don’t mind,” I said.

“She’s got a two-headed coin anyway,” Bitty said. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised.

Once the cleaning was done, we got into our bathing suits, grabbed some towels, and went out the back door.

“Russ!” Shelby called. “We’re
goin’ swimmin’. I’m takin’ dad’s truck.” He waved, and we climbed in an older model red and white Chevy pickup and drove to a neighborhood about twenty minutes away. Shelby parked in front of a two-story white brick house at the end of a cul-de-sac. We got out of the truck, and I followed her and Bit down the steep asphalt driveway to the backyard.   

Logan, Cody, and Mason were at the far end of the pool playing basketball. My gut dropped when I saw Mason.
Then it hit me; this was Mason’s house.
That explained the look Bit and Shelby had exchanged earlier
.  The two of them walked over to talk to the boys. I didn’t.

The pool was a
nice in-ground surrounded by a few wicker lounge chairs. I spread my towel across one and lay down, enjoying the sting of the sun soaking into my skin. I was so relaxed that I was close to dozing off when I felt shade on my face. I opened my eyes. Mason bent down beside my chair and smiled when I didn’t say anything.

“Are you giving me the silent treatment?” he asked.

“No, I just didn’t want to make everything
all about me
.”

He laughed, “So
, that bothered you, huh?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Isn’t that why you said it?”

“Cali girl, you’ve got to get tougher skin.”

“Why do you call me that? Why can’t you call me Kat like everybody else?”

“What’s wrong with Cali girl? You’re a girl from California,” he stated, matter-of-fact.

“Would you like it if I called you Bayou boy?”

Mason chuckled, “Bayou Boy? It is catchy though, sorta like Spiderman, or The Green Lantern.” I rolled my eyes. It was nothing like either of those.

“Alright, alright, Kat it is,” Mason conceded, hands in the air, a beautiful smile on his lips. I smiled back at him. It was hard not to. Suddenly, a wave of water so cold it took my breath splashed across my face and chest.

“You two looked like you needed some coolin’ off.” Dixie stood beside us twirling an empty bucket with a satisfied look on her face.

“Dixie
, I swear!” Mason threatened. He’d gotten soaked, too.

“You swear what, Mason?” Dixie glared, still twirling the empty bucket as if daring him to make good on his threat. “You’re
at my house hitting on another girl!”
Her
house. I never would have come if Bit and Shelby had told me they were going to Dixie’s.

“Crazy shit like this is why we broke up. And if you keep it up, it’ll be why we’re not friends anymore, too.”

“I don’t want to be your friend, Mason—you know that!”

“
We’re done, Dix. We. Are. Not. Getting. Back. Together. Period!”

“Because of that bitch!”
Dixie screeched, pointing at me.

Mason held his hand out for me. “Come on, I’ll give you a ride,” he said in a softer tone than he’d used with Dixie.

I got up without a word and wrapped my towel around me, using the end to dab water from my face as I followed Mason to the driveway. Bit and Shelby were right behind us.

“You’re leaving with her! Really, Mason! Super classy, asshole,” Dixie shouted. “Fine, whatever! Have fun with your California slut!” she called and slung the empty bucket, missing us by a mile.

“Are you okay?” Bit gasped. Physically
, I was fine, but fuming mad.

“That was pretty messed up,” Shelby added. “
She’s crazier than I thought.”

“I’ll drive
Kat back to your house,” Mason told them. “I know it was a bitch thing for her to do, but y’all know Dixie—” “We’ll stay with her,” Shelby cut in.

“Are you okay with that?” Bit asked me. I shrugged, expressing that I didn’t care. I was
going to be pissed off either way.

“We’ll see you later then,” Bit said, and she and Shelby went back to Dixie, who was still ranting about me.

Since she’d attacked me, Mason’s claim that he and Dixie weren’t fighting about me that night at the Broussard’s didn’t hold much water anymore, literally.

Furious, I asked, “So
, are you sticking with your story that you and Dixie weren’t arguing about me the other night?”

“C’mon, let’s go before she starts round two,” Mason said, ignoring my question, picking up the pace.

“I’m not a slut,” I spit.

“I know,” he said, without stopping. “She’s just
ventin’. She said it to hurt you.”

I frowned. “Why are you letting her get away with being such a jackass?” 

“Why did you tell her you and I slept together?” He cut his eyes at me.

“I did not tell her that!”

“But you insinuated it.”

I decided not to argue with him because it was true. I had insinuated that we’d slept together, and I’d done it for the same reason Dixie had
called me a slut.

“She deserved it!” I barked. “She’s been giving me shit from the start, and I haven’t done anything to her.”

Mason stopped walking and looked at me; he released a loud breath, and then took my hand in his. I imagined he’d done it to distract me, to shut me up. And it had, for the three-point-five seconds before I spotted his truck in a neighboring driveway. I didn’t even get a chance to
feel
him holding my hand.