Breakable (Contours of the Heart, #2)(80)

Chastity was game to play – but not out in public, dark or not, and not anywhere near her parents. When I picked her up, she said she’d convinced them she’d run into some friends from her school in Fayetteville. ‘I told them they’d drop me off by midnight, after a fish fry and s’mores on the beach.’

I couldn’t believe they’d fallen for that.

‘Take me to your place,’ she urged, after we’d kissed and strolled around on the beach with a few dozen other people. ‘I can be real quiet. Promise.’

So I did something I never did – I snuck a girl into my house. It was only ten or so, but Dad was an early riser and went lights-out early, too. His room was down the hallway from my pantry. We meandered through the dark living room and into the kitchen, avoiding every squeaky board.

Once we made it into my room, I shut the door and she whispered, ‘Holy shit, this is tiny. Is this a … a pantry?’

I switched on a nightlight I’d stuck in the wall and turned off the overhead light. Kicked off my battered deck shoes next to hers.

‘You want to discuss my room, or …?’

‘I just thought everything was bigger in –’

I stripped off my T-shirt and her mouth fell open. I leaned to kiss her, drew her tank over her head and pulled the tie at her nape, unwrapping that peppermint bikini top and spilling her tits into my hands. She scooted back on to the bed and I followed.

‘You were saying?’ I said, and she shook her head, pulling me down on top of her.

We woke up around one a.m., which would have been bad enough on its own since she was an hour past curfew and had missed calls, voice mails and text messages out the ass on her phone – which she’d switched to silent.

But the reason we woke up was because of Dad. I have no idea why he decided to open the door to my room. If he’d done that before, I didn’t know about it. Maybe he was checking to see if I was home for some reason. But Christ, we were all wide-awake five seconds later.

‘Landon Lucas Maxfield – what in holy f*ck are you doing?’ he bellowed, and then turned fully round, because Chastity sat straight up, still topless. ‘Jesus f*cking Christ! Can I assume her parents don’t know she’s here?’

I cleared my throat as we grabbed our clothes and put them on, awkwardly, stuck on my twin bed with Dad blocking the door. ‘No, Dad, they don’t.’

‘Do they know she’s with you?’

I looked at her. She shook her head. ‘No, Dad, they don’t.’

‘Get her back to her hotel. Immediately. Goddammit, Landon. Goddammit.’

This was the most I’d heard him cuss at one time in forever. As we passed him, the muscles in his throat clenched and his face was pure fury.

I dropped her at the entrance to the hotel. She’d texted her dad that she’d accidentally turned her phone off. He was waiting just inside the lobby, scowling, when we pulled up.

‘Shit,’ I said.

‘I’ll handle it. He deserves whatever he gets from me. Trust me.’ She turned back and leaned to kiss me. ‘Thanks for making this trip way better than I thought it would be. There’s a broody guy in my lit class with a few piercings. I always thought he was kinda creepy, but I may have to give him a shot now.’ She grinned and hopped out.





LUCAS


Sunday evening, I sent the last worksheet to Jacqueline, along with my now-standard message: New worksheet attached, LM. I wanted to say so much more, but what I most wanted to tell her couldn’t be reduced to words.

Near ten p.m., my cell rang. Jacqueline’s face filled the screen – a pic I’d snapped of her on this sofa. She smirked up at me like she had a secret.

We’d not communicated – aside from the self-defence-class interactions yesterday – in over a week. More importantly, she’d never called me before.

When I answered, she said, ‘I need you.’

I stood, dropping my pen and textbook on the sofa next to Francis, and strode to my bedroom. ‘Where are you?’ I shoved my lace-up boots aside and grabbed the Nocona shitkickers I’d had since I was seventeen – the only footwear I bought new in high school.

‘In my room.’

I shoved my feet into the boots and grabbed my hoodie on the way out the door. ‘Be there in ten minutes.’

Her answer, before disconnecting, was a near whisper. ‘Thank you.’

I got into her dorm as easily as I had last time, took the stairs two at a time and thumped softly on her door. A tremor passed through me. I had no idea what waited on the other side of this door, but whatever she needed me to be, I was ready to be it.

She opened the door, but didn’t push it aside. Her eyes filled with tears when she looked up at me.

‘Jacqueline – what –’

‘He did it again, Lucas – and it’s my fault.’

‘WHAT?’

‘Shhh.’ She shook her head, laid a hand on my arm and scanned the empty hallway. I heard voices from inside her room in the same moment she said softly, ‘Another girl. At a party, last night. She’s here. Erin and I don’t know what to do next.’ She swallowed. ‘She’s a freshman. She’s so upset, and scared, and we didn’t know who else to call. I’m sorry.’

I cupped her face in one hand. ‘Don’t ever apologize for calling me for help. I’ll do whatever you need. Will she talk to me?’