Thick & Thin (Thin Love, #3)(27)

She didn’t look back. Aly didn’t bother to even slow her steps as she headed for her car. I could have watched her walk away all day—I would have, imagining scenarios in my head of what she thought as she peeled away down the street or how many times she’d shower just to be rid of the smell of me. But the patio door on the other side of the room slid open and there came a low, amused chuckle behind me, taking me from any thoughts I might have of my ex and where her temper would bring her to.

“Man, I gotta say, that shit was fun to watch.”

“Who the hell are you?”

The stranger pushed off from his lean against the patio doorway and jerked his chin in way of a greeting. I immediately caught the scent of cigarettes wafting off of him. “Keira said you headed out before she could tell you I was here.”

“Still doesn’t tell me who you are.”

The man was fit, but no taller than 5’10. He wore tight blue Wranglers and leather shit kickers that hadn’t seen a shine in a long while. In his hand he held a straw cowboy hat rolled severely at the sides, cupped so that the ends almost touched the crown. Girls probably went a little stupid for him because he was a pretty boy with high cheekbones, a long, straight nose and eyes that were somewhat slanted and crystal blue. He could have been an actor, I supposed, but for the scar that ran the length of his temple to the curve of his left cheek, like someone had gone at him and left their mark behind for him to remember every time he caught his reflection in a mirror.

He came further into the room with his hand outstretched and when I only looked at those calloused fingers, lifting my eyebrows in a challenge I didn’t really mean, that scar on his cheek dented deep with his smile. “Cass Colson.” He kept that hand outstretched and nodded, encouraging me to shake it. “I’m working with your mom on a recording contract.”

“So I hear.” I shook the man’s hand, just to get him to lower it, but still kept my distance, arms folded as I watched him shrug, passing off my rudeness like it didn’t bother him. “You come here a lot? When no one’s home?”

“No, not really, but Keira said Mack had practice for a school…”

“Makana. Her name is Makana.”

“Your little sister,” he tried again, leaning against the back of the sofa with his long legs outstretched and those ugly boots crossed at the ankles. “Anyway, Keira had to get her kids to school and I was here early because my pick up had a flat this morning and the only ride I could manage had to be in Lafayette by eight.”

Something about this guy got under my skin. Maybe it was how relaxed he looked, how he moved around the house like he’d seen everything in it a thousand times before. I didn’t like the constant smirk or how nothing seemed to get to him. I had a good eighty pounds or so on this guy and I wasn’t going out of my way to be friendly. Riley-Hale Intimidation 101 that my father had instilled in me since I was sixteen and desperate for his approval. Still, this Colson guy didn’t flinch, didn’t seemed worried in the least that I wasn’t friendly.

“So, who was the girl?” he asked, walking around the sofa to sit, propping one grimy boot on the coffee table.

“No one you need to know about.”

“Okay, man. I got you.” He sat up, as though he thought readying himself for a pounce was necessary. “Relax. She’s not my type anyway.”

Dumbass. Aly was f*cking flawless. She was everyone’s type. This * just didn’t want me thinking he had ideas about her. Not that it mattered. She wouldn’t give a redneck like him a second glance no matter if he looked like something out of an old sixties Western.

“I wouldn’t give a f*ck if she was and neither would she. Trust that shit.” I moved to the column, leaning against it like I’d taken Colson’s advice and relaxed a little. But my guard was up and it would stay there as long as this guy was in the vicinity.

Sometimes you meet people and they just don’t mesh with you. Something about them grates your nerves, has your instincts warning you that that person meant trouble and it wasn’t the sort you could easily be free of.

I was protective of my family, sure, especially my mom, but this went a little deeper. I just couldn’t put my finger on why.

“I got zero time for hook ups. Your mom keeps me real, real busy.” That he added with a little too much sarcasm, like he thought it was funny to get me worked up. This idiot was clueless if he thought making jokes about my mom, no matter if they were harmless or not, was epically stupid. My father was still possessive as hell when it came to Mom.

When I cocked my eyebrow at him, Colson didn’t bother hiding his smile which only annoyed me further. “Take it easy, dude. I’m just messing with you.”

“That is not a good idea, dude. Not today.”

He messed with his hat a little, shifting it between his hands before he slid it on his head. “Well, I can see that, but if you want my advice…”

“I don’t.”

Colson lifted his hands, a mild, disinterested surrender that I ignored. I was ready to kick this guy out of my folks’ house, tell him to come back when my mother’s voice carried from the other side of the front door.

“No, I told you ten a.m. Kona, are you ever going to write appointments down?” Then her voice went silent before she made a sound loud enough for me to hear. “What the hell happened to the door? Son of a…”