Vindicated (14 page)

Chapter 28

A few days later at precisely nine o’clock in the morning, a tremendous banging brought Karly straight out of bed. With her heart hammering in her chest, it took a few seconds for her to realize the sound wasn’t a zombie apocalypse raining terror upon the city, but someone knocking on the front door of her apartment. She groaned, rolled over, and tucked the blanket around her head, eyes squeezed tight against the light streaming through her bedroom window.

The banging escalated, forcing her from sleep. She swung her feet onto the floor, threw on a robe, and padded to the door. A peep through the keyhole revealed an inquisitive eye looking back at her. Only one person had eyes that shade of jade green—Ally. Karly opened the door. Ally stood in the hall dressed like she was bound for the Arctic Circle in snow suit and boots. Behind her loomed the silhouette of Jack. Karly shifted to the left, beckoning them inside with a sweep of her arm, when she spied a third person lurking around the corner. Her heart flipped as Randy moved into view, broad-shouldered and solemn.

"Were you still in bed?" Ally asked as she pulled off her mittens.

"It’s barely daylight," Karly grumbled and tightened the belt of her robe. Even without looking at him, she could feel Randy's sharp gaze on her body. She ran a self-conscious hand through the tangles of her hair. “This better be some kind of emergency.”

“It is,” Jack replied, mischief in his tone. “It’s a snow-fucking-emergency.”

"Go get dressed." Ally's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. "We've come to kidnap you."

"I don't think so," Karly muttered. How anyone could be so chipper in the morning was beyond her. She needed coffee and a shower before she could even think about being civilized.

"We won't take no for an answer." Ally turned Karly around by the shoulders and gave her a small shove toward the bedroom. "Now, put on some warm clothes and hurry up. We're going sledding."

"Sledding?" Despite her grogginess, Karly's inner child perked up. She hadn't been sledding since seventh grade. Back then, before her father’s drinking problem and her mother’s withdrawal from life, her family had made every significant snowfall into a delightful event. Memories of laughter and hijinks, making snow angels and snowmen, seemed like flashes of someone else’s life. "I need coffee," she said.

Randy stepped forward and thrust a Styrofoam cup toward her. "Here. I thought you might say that. It’s a caramel cappuccino." Her favorite drink. He'd been paying attention.

"And we've got hot chocolate in the truck,” Ally added.

"And I've got this," Jack said, revealing a silver flask from the inside pocket of his coat.

"I don't know…" She frowned, torn between a day of fun and a day of duty. The job search never ended, and neither did homework.

"Come on. You know you want to." Jack raised an eyebrow and gave her one of his movie star smiles, complete with dimples. "Besides, Ally won't go unless you do. You know how she is—stick up her ass and all that." Ally turned and gave Jack a playful punch on the arm. "It's taken me a week to convince her to try it."

"You've never been sledding before?" Karly asked.

Never a risk-taker, Ally shook her head, a slight furrow deepening between her brows. Of course she hadn't. Her father had never really been around when she was a child, and she didn't have siblings. Ally's version of fun was a ten-key calculator and a backlog of unpaid invoices.

"My grandparents really weren't into it," Ally said with a shrug.

Jack grabbed her and pulled her back against him, wrapping his arms around her waist, and gave her a kiss on the top of her toboggan. The furrow in her brow dissolved into a soft smile. "Well, we're going to fix that today, aren't we, babe?" he asked.

Ally turned to look up at Jack. The love in their eyes was enough to make Karly’s heart swell with happiness for her friend.

"Can you guys put a lid on it for a little while?" Randy asked. “I just ate.” Despite his growling tone, his warm smile suggested he felt the same way about his friends.

"Why you gotta be such a hater?" Jack asked, tightening his grip on Ally as he spoke.

"I don't know. Why you gotta be such a dick?" The two men glared at each other in mock irritation, but their eyes shone with playfulness.

"Come on, Karly. Don't leave me alone with these two. I'll go crazy." Ally rolled her eyes imploringly, but her lips broke into a rare smile. She was happier than Karly had seen her, glowing with an intangible inner radiance that could only be a result of Jack.

"Okay. Fine." It did sound like fun. Hadn't she been wishing for a break from the stress and strain of life? The heaviness of constant worry lifted, if only temporarily. "Hang on. It'll take me a second to get dressed."

Chapter 29

The four of them crammed into Jack's truck for the trip. Their collective breath steamed the windows. Ally sat in the middle next to Jack, which forced Karly to sit on Randy's lap. Not that she minded, since the heater didn't work, and he exuded heat like a well-stoked campfire. He rested one arm along the back of the seat behind Ally and the other on the door sill, as if afraid to touch Karly. Despite the several layers of clothing between them, she felt every rise and fall of his chest and the warm puffs of air on the back of her neck as he breathed. It was downright distracting to the point that she had to squeeze her legs together to control the growing dampness down there.

"Comfortable?" Randy asked. His deep voice resonated in her ear and sent warm goose bumps down her spine.

"Yes." She smiled at him. He smiled back, and the awkward tension of their previous meeting dissipated like the morning fog. "You're enjoying this aren't you?"

"Damn skippy. Not every day I get to have a pretty girl in my lap." He shifted slightly beneath her.

"Don't let him fool you," Jack said, reminding her they weren't alone. "The only way he could get a girl into his lap was by taking a job playing Santa Claus at the mall a few years back."

"Thanks for sharing, dude," Randy replied.

"You played Santa Claus? Seriously?" Karly bit her lip to hold back a smile and saw his gaze zero in on her mouth. He licked his lips in subconscious response. Somehow she couldn't picture him dressed in red velvet with a white beard, bouncing children on his knee.

"That's a little pervy, don't you think?" Ally asked.

"Not the way Randy does it," Jack said with a laugh. "Dude scared away half of them, and the rest cried or pissed on his lap."

Ally and Karly burst into laughter.

"Guy's got to make a living." Randy shrugged. "And as I recall, we were both pretty hungry at the time. It was either that or starvation. Jack wouldn't do it because he's too pretty."

"Bullshit."

"You know it's true. You didn't want to get your hair messed up."

"Whatever."

The friendly banter eased Karly’s stress. It was nice to hang with friends, people her own age, who weren't obsessed with work and school and getting ahead. Sure, Jack and Ally had problems of their own, with Chelsea and the baby and all that, but none of it seemed to matter in the close quarters of the truck cab. If Randy had any inner demons chasing him, he didn't show it. But somehow Karly sensed a tension inside him, smoldering like an ember, forgotten but not dead.

***

Jack drove them to a place south of the city called Cannon Hill. It had been the sight of a Revolutionary War skirmish and named for the cannon that topped the hill during the fight. The terrain rolled and plummeted around the edge of a lake frozen into mirror-like glass. The hill rose up into a cloudless blue sky, fresh snow sparkling like diamonds beneath a brilliant sun.

The boys had brought an assortment of sledding material including a plastic disk too small for anyone but Karly, a Flexible Flyer wooden sled that appeared to be as old as dirt, and a monstrous four-person toboggan. After a good deal of arguing, cursing, and an impromptu snowball fight, they finally agreed Randy and Karly would take an experimental run down the hill on the Flexible Flyer. Karly sat in the front, and Randy sat in back, long legs wrapped around her, arms securely around her waist. Jack gave them a push, and they flew down the hill. The trees and brush whizzed past them. At the bottom, Randy tried to turn before they reached the lake. The sled tilted up on one side. They tumbled into a snow bank. Randy landed on top of her with a force that drove the wind from her lungs.

"Are you alright?" He scrambled off her while she lay face down on the snow. Her lungs burned as she gasped for breath. Panicked, he turned her over and began to frantically wipe the snow from her face. “Are you okay? Karly?"

"Can’t…breathe," she finally managed to gasp.

He thumped her on the back. She gulped frosty air and sputtered clouds of white steam. After a few uncomfortable seconds, her breathing evened out, and she recovered enough to glare at him.

“Jesus. You scared the shit out of me,” he said, face accusing.

“It’s a wonder you didn’t freaking kill me,” she answered, still glaring. “How much do you weigh anyway?”

“Enough to mash your ass into the ground apparently.” The frown on his face dissolved into a mischievous grin. “I’m not used to playing with pixies.” He extended a hand to help her stand. She gripped it with her right hand, letting him pull her up, and grabbed a handful of snow with the other. Before he could release her, she quickly stuffed the snow down the front of his sweatshirt.

“Paybacks,” she teased.

“Man, that’s cold,” he gasped, clutching his shirt. “You little shit. You’re going to pay for that.”

She took off running with a shriek, bounding through the snow. He could have caught her in a few strides, but instead, he let her stay just out of reach, bobbing and weaving to cut off her escape. The snow was perfect for snowballs, wet and heavy. She managed to scoop up a handful as she ran, packed it into a tight ball, and launched it at him. It caught him in the middle of the chest with a muffled splat.

“Now you’re really in trouble,” he shouted and leaped at her. He rolled her into a nearby snow bank, this time shielding her fall with his arms. She squirmed beneath him, overcome with laughter as he rubbed snow into her face and shoved it down her shirt.

“Stop. No fair. I give up,” she said, followed by a loud gasp as the snow hit her breasts. He grabbed her hands by the wrists and stretched them over her head, pinning her arms against the snow and holding them there with one hand. She bucked beneath him, determined to get free, until she caught the look in his eyes. The smile on his face faded as his eyes locked with hers. The playful look was still there but it had intensified into something much more precarious.

“I like this,” he whispered into her ear. The heat of his breath tickled her neck. “I’ve got you at my mercy.”

Flat on her back and helpless to move, she felt the raw power in his arms and body. He kneeled over her, straddling her torso, and stared down at her with amusement. The idea that he could do anything he wanted with her made her inner core quiver in excitement.

“Never,” she replied in challenge and lifted her chin, the spark in her eyes matching his. There was no way she could escape him, but she was too stubborn to admit defeat and curious to see how far he’d go to win.

“We’ll have to see about that,” he said, eyes glittering. He ran his tongue over the dimple in her left cheek, licking away a bit of snow. Her breath caught. She pressed her thighs together to stave the sharp pang of desire. His gaze locked onto her mouth. Her heart skipped a beat then another. He was going to kiss her. She was certain of it and held her breath in anticipation.

Thwack!
A snowball pelted Randy in the back. Two more followed in quick succession. Ally and Jack appeared over the hill, armed with snowballs in a full-scale attack. Randy released Karly’s arms and rolled away from her. He scrambled to his feet, scooping snow as he ran, leaving her breathless and disappointed in the snow.

***

Afternoon sun glinted over the snow-slickened streets when they returned from the sledding adventure. Jack and Ally remained in the truck. Randy walked Karly to her apartment door. He leaned one shoulder against the wall in the hallway as she rummaged for her key, watching her with interest, hands shoved in his pockets.

“Thanks for walking me up. You don’t have to wait,” she said for the third time.

“I know,” he replied.

The way he watched her, eyes trained on her face, made her hands tremble. What the hell was his deal? She enjoyed his company. At the same time, she wanted to wring his neck. Being with him kept her on edge. It was like balancing on the edge of a precipice, always waiting and wondering when ground might give way beneath her. Not to mention, she was horny as hell after their little movie escapade last week and their almost-kiss in the snow today.

“You’re not coming in,” she said sternly, still scrambling for the key. He was so close she could feel the heat from his body in the cold corridor. Her nipples tightened into painful nubs. Every one of her instincts urged her to cup his stubbled cheeks in her hands and kiss him, but uncertainty and irritation held her back. Why hadn’t he kissed her earlier? He hadn’t touched her since the movie. Had she done something to turn him off? The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.