Broken Beautiful Hearts(83)

“That’s when they started fighting,” Natalie adds.

“Who? Grace and the Twins?” I ask.

“Just the Twins,” Tucker explains. “They were still going at it when I took off to find you.”

We follow Tucker to the parking lot.

I hear the Twins before I see them. Christian and Cameron are rolling around in the dirt and punching each other like overgrown kids.

“You’re both acting like total jerks,” Grace yells from Cam’s truck.

“Stay here,” Owen grumbles.

Tucker raises his hands and steps back. “No argument from me.”

“Be careful,” I say.

“Drinking messes with your coordination, and your cousins drank way too much.” Owen trudges over to the Twins. He grabs Cam by the back of his jacket and hauls him off Christian.

Cam staggers and looks around, disoriented. He sees Owen, but the way Cam is squinting, I’m not sure he recognizes him. “What the f—”

“Don’t be stupid,” Owen tells Cam as he drags Christian to his feet. “I don’t want to mess up that pretty face of yours, Cameron.”

“Owen?” Cam brushes the dirt off his clothes. His forearm is scraped and bloody, but otherwise he looks fine. “Where did you come from?”

“The land of Not Completely Drunk and Stupid,” Grace shouts from the pickup.

“Grace…” Cam wanders toward the truck, but Owen stops him.

“I’d let her cool off for a while.”

I climb into the truck with Grace, who looks angry enough to kill the Twins. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Grace crosses her arms.

The Twins start arguing, and Owen shoves them in opposite directions to keep them separated.

I lean across the seat and yell out the driver’s-side window. “You’re both acting ridiculous.”

“I’m sorry, Grace,” Christian says.

Grace looks over at me. “Why don’t I believe him?”

*

Grace and I ended up driving Cam’s pickup back to Hawk’s. The Twins were staying at Titan’s, and Cameron didn’t want to leave his truck at the mill overnight. Grace didn’t seem like she was in the mood to do Cam a favor, but I think she wanted to come hang out and talk.

Hawk stocked the kitchen with some of my favorite foods—powdered doughnuts, Lucky Charms cereal, and chocolate milk. We took the cereal and doughnuts up to my room, and now I’m watching Grace pick the marshmallows out of the box.

Dutch is watching, too. Every once in a while she tosses him some of the crunchy cereal, which she has stripped of marshmallows.

“I meant to tell you earlier, but you were amazing during the cheer routines tonight. I don’t know how you let those girls throw you into the air like that.”

“I’m used to it.” She tosses Dutch some cereal, and he springs to his feet. I’ve never seen that dog move so fast. “I’ve been in cheer since I was young. Fliers have to be small and I was always the smallest kid in my class, so it was sort of a given.” She pops a handful of marshmallows into her mouth. “After what I said to April tonight, I won’t have to worry about cheerleading.”

“April won’t let you quit if it means risking the squad’s chances at the state finals. And even if she didn’t care about losing, your coach will.”

“You think so?” Grace sounds hopeful. I remember her saying she needs a cheerleading scholarship.

“Just wait until your coach hears that the squad doesn’t have a flier. I bet she calls you in to her office and asks you to come back before the end of the day on Monday.”

Grace smiles. “It’s nice to have a real friend looking out for me.”

I break a doughnut in half and pop a piece into my mouth. “Maybe you want to tell your real friend what’s going on between you and Christian?”

“Nothing, I guess. One minute it seems like he might actually like me, and then the next minute he’s flirting with other girls right in front of me. This isn’t new. It’s been going on for years. And I know what you’re thinking. If he liked me, he would’ve said something by now.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But it’s true. I just didn’t want to see it. After tonight, I can’t pretend anymore.” She crosses her legs and twists the frayed threads on the bottom of her jeans. “And I feel awful about dragging Cameron into this mess.”

Is that what she thinks happened? “Nobody dragged Cam into it. He went after Christian on his own.”

Grace hugs her knees. “Cam feels like he has to protect me.”

“I don’t think that’s it.” I can’t say more without betraying Cam’s confidence.

Grace falls back on the bed. “Talking about me is depressing. I want to hear about you and Owen. Please tell me there has been kissing.”

I cover my face with my hands and groan. “There has and it’s only making things harder.”

“What things? It sounds like everything between you two is going perfect.”

I don’t believe in perfect anymore—not perfect days or perfect relationships. But I have to admit that when I’m with Owen it feels pretty close.

I fall back on the bed next to Grace and I stare at the ceiling. “Have you ever made a mistake that you can’t forget about no matter how hard you try? And you just don’t want to make it again?”