Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(11)
Chapter Three
“Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Easton asked Wyatt as he turned off his four-wheeler. Truman and Memphis never noticed they weren’t following them as the pair of them tore off after the Jeep, even daring to race Harley and the girls.
Easton’s first thought was that Harley had broken it off with his boy. If that were the case, they were going to have to steal more than a few beers from his daddy’s fridge in the coming days. Easton was sure Wyatt would never overcome a blow like that.
Wyatt wasn’t one to kiss and tell. Even if he didn’t have to keep him and Harley on the down low, he wouldn’t have been that type.
But Easton was different. Their fathers were best friends when Easton’s dad was alive, so neither of them had known life without the other. Every terrifying aspect of growing up, from their first steps as toddlers on, they had accomplished together.
They were there for each other through the best times and the worst.
Easton was spending the night at Wyatt’s when they were just boys. Wyatt’s father came in, woke them both, and told Easton his father had been lost in a fire that night. Before Wyatt’s father broke that tragic news, he sat on the edge of the bed in the middle of the night, telling both of them how much honor and pride firemen had, how they were guardian angels and sometimes they were called home before we wanted to let them go.
Easton never cried, not that Wyatt saw, but a part of Easton died that night, too. At least the part that always teased, laughed, and joked. Wyatt assumed that because of that life-altering moment Easton was forced to grow up faster than the rest of them, meaning he dared to do more first—at least with girls.
Easton was the one that told him to stop being a chicken and kiss Harley way back when, told him to screw whatever barriers were around him. If you wanted something, you had to take it because tomorrow is never promised.
That was just the type of guy Easton was. He knew how to charge forward but be safe at the same time. In most cases, Wyatt only knew how to do one or the other and counted on Easton to balance him out.
“She…um…” Wyatt cleared his throat as he sat astride his four-wheeler. “She wants to—she said she was ready.”
Wyatt didn’t have to explain what he was talking about to Easton, and honestly Easton was halfway sure the pair of them had been down that road already. A slow smile came over his face as he held Wyatt’s gaze. “That’s not a bad thing. You just need to be careful.”
“I’m always careful.”
“I mean careful,” Easton said, lowering his head, holding a knowing stare on Wyatt.
Wyatt’s head was spinning too fast to figure out what kind of careful he was talking about…careful because of the trouble they could get in if they were caught? Careful with her? Or careful…oh yeah, that’s what he meant.
“You want me to get some stuff for you?”
Easton’s mom was a nurse. Wyatt wasn’t sure what kind, but he knew she worked with women. Easton was always around the floor she was on or the office she worked in a few days a week. He had snagged protection not only for him, but also Wyatt’s cousin, Brant, and a few other guys at school before. If any one of them had dared to buy it themselves, someone in town would have seen them, or at least they assumed they would have.
“I don’t know how serious she is,” Wyatt said, moving his hand down his face. Harley was always a mystery to him. Most times, her words didn’t add up to what her body language or shy smiles would say, at least around others. When they were alone for more than five or ten minutes here or there, he thought he saw the real her. He wanted to talk about this with her, but at the same time that made him feel like a total girl. Was this even something that you talked about? He didn’t know, and that was his issue.
“What exactly did she say to you?” Easton asked, reading Wyatt like a book.
Wyatt hesitated. “When you’re ready, I’m ready.”
“Are you ready?” Easton asked.
Was he ready? He downright craved Harley. The sight of her alone jacked up his heart rate. He had been waiting for this for years, felt like lifetimes to him.
Instead of saying that, he gave Easton a what the hell do you think? glance.
Easton let a laugh burst through his stoic image. “Look, man, you’re walking this path alone. I haven’t been down this road. I can’t tell you what to expect, what to watch out for, nothing beyond be careful.”
Wyatt pulled his brow together in confusion.
“It’s gotta be different when you have feelings for them. I don’t have a clue about that.”
He wasn’t saying that to be an ass, and Easton was definitely not a player. He was just a blunt son of a bitch. Girls at school would fall all over him, flirt like crazy. When the mood struck him, he would hang around one for a bit. Whether it went somewhere or not, it was nothing to him. He made no bones about it. They knew he didn’t have feelings for them. Wyatt was pretty sure that the girl that took Easton’s virginity thought if they went down that road that Easton would magically spawn emotions; she figured out real quick that nothing and no one could change him.
Wyatt roared his four-wheeler to life, ending the conversation, only giving Easton one nod, a nod that said yes, it’s gotta be different, and yes, steal me some protection.