Shallow (6 page)

Jessie angrily slung the car door open and immediately tore into me. “This isn’t where Payton’s car was parked. What have you been doing with her?”

I recognized his unspoken accusation and knew he was insinuating that I moved the car behind the building so I could screw Payton in the backseat. Any other time he would have been right, but not tonight, not with her.

“Chill out, Boone. I had to move the car because she puked a river by the driver’s side door. I didn’t want you to have to walk in it and this was the only parking spot open.”

He accepted my explanation, but I could tell that he still wasn’t thrilled about finding me in the backseat with Payton’s head in my lap.

“Claire’s ready to go. Do you need a lift home?”

I looked down at Payton. I didn’t want to leave her but it would be stupid for them to drive me all the way back to Collinsville when I could catch a ride home with my brother. “Nah, I’ll ride home with Jake and Gabbi.”

I opened the door and gently lifted Payton’s head as I got out of the car. Dane Wickham stepped around me and said, “I’ve got her,” as he replaced me in the backseat. I’ll be damned. I’d have taken Jessie up on the ride if I’d known another dude was going to climb into the backseat with her.

“It was nice to meet you, Nick,” Claire said as she got into the car. “And thanks for staying with Payton so Jessie and I could have a good time.”

I definitely had my own agenda for doing it. “No problem and it was nice to meet the only girl in this world that could settle this guy down.”

Claire was inside the car with the door shut and Jessie told me, “Thanks again, Hawke. I know that babysitting
Mouth of the South
couldn’t have been much fun when you could have been finding a chick to nail later tonight.”

It was crazy to think that I preferred to have this sleeping girl’s head in my lap rather than finding someone to bone, but there was no place I would have rather been. “Really, it was no problem at all.”

“I don’t know how we’re gonna get her upstairs.”

He was out of his mind if he was going to take her inside her house. “You’re going to carry her into her house? Aren’t you afraid of what her parents will do?”

“No, she’s spending the night with us because her parents are out of town.”

What the hell? “What do you mean by spending the night with us?”

“I’ve been living with Claire and her parents for the last six months, so that means we get to carry her up the stairs to Claire’s bedroom and pray we don’t wake The Deverauxs.

That lucky bastard. He and Claire were definitely sneaking into each other’s beds every night after the parents were asleep.

Jessie put his fist out and I bumped it with mine. “Good running into you, Hawke.” He looked at Payton passed out across the back seat. “Tonight was fun even if she did show her ass. We should get together again soon.”

Dane’s window was down. “Hey, I’m having a party at my house tomorrow night. You should come.”

There was only one reason I’d step foot at a party at East Franklin. “Is Payton going to be there?”

“Yeah, the Social Butterfly never misses a party.”

I couldn’t miss an opportunity to see her again. “Count me in.”

Sure, Payton told me she wouldn’t go out with me, but she was wrong about that. She just didn’t know it yet.

≈ ≈ ≈

I stared at my ceiling thinking of Payton for hours after I got home. Thinking about her was far better than any dream that might have invaded my head during sleep.

She was beautiful, that was a given, and her beauty certainly didn’t hinder my interest but that wasn’t what fueled my attraction to her. It was her immediate distaste for me and her smart ass mouth. Oh, how I loved to hear the sarcastic wit spilling from those venomously, glossy lips.

I was surprised I was able to sleep at all, but when I woke the next morning I rolled over and immediately reached for my phone on the nightstand. I guessed I hoped that Payton had gotten my number from Jessie and had texted or called, maybe to say thank you for sitting with her or something. Any form of contact would have made my day, but I had no such luck. All I had was a text from Samantha Hodges that read, “
Get 2gether 2nite? Make it worth your while.”

There was no way in hell that Samantha and I were ever happening again, so I quickly thumbed, “
Got plans,”
and hit the send button. Maybe she would take the hint and get lost.

I looked at the time and saw that I had slept later than I thought because it was a little after eleven. Anything after ten should be considered neutral ground, so I scrolled to Jessie’s contact in my phone and hit the call button. It rang once, twice and then a third time before Jessie answered on the fourth ring, “Waddup, Hawke?”

“Hey, I was calling to see how everything went after you left last night. I mean, did you get Payton to bed okay?”

“Yeah, but she didn’t make it easy on me and Claire. Shit, I didn’t realize how trashed she was, but we lucked out and got her in without the Deverauxs waking up.”

“Is she still there?”

“I don’t know. I’m working at the garage today but I went by Claire’s room this morning before I left for work and she was asleep on Claire’s bathroom floor. I’m betting she’s still in bed taking it easy.”

He wasn’t gonna like this, but I had to give it a shot. “I wanna call her.”

I heard him huff through the phone. “I think Payton made it clear she doesn’t plan on going out with you and I’m not letting you hold her to that hinky bet.”

“Come on, Boone, she was too trashed for us to have a real conversation last night and all I need is half a chance to convince her to go out with me. I bet there wasn’t anyone who thought you were right for Claire and look how wrong they were.”

I heard silence on the other end and I knew he was thinking it over. “I’ll give you her number, but I’m telling you now that she doesn’t do Collinsville dudes. She likes her guys preppy and rich so be prepared for rejection because she doesn’t sugar coat anything for anybody.”

I was positive that there was a time when Claire didn’t do Collinsville guys either, but look at who was living with her and climbing into her bed every night. “Consider me forewarned.”

I hung up from making plans with Jessie about meeting up before Dane’s party and looked at Payton’s number. I felt nervous when I thought about calling her but it didn't stop me from dialing her number. I listened to five rings before it went to voicemail and then realized calling her this early after the drunk she pulled last night was a stupid idea because she was probably still in bed nursing a hellacious headache.

I couldn’t convince myself to hang up before I had the chance to listen to her sweet voice on her voicemail recording say, “Hi, leave me a message and if I don’t call you back, it means I’m not interested.” Even her voicemail greeting was smart ass.

I hung up without leaving a message. I told myself it was probably better to wait and see her tonight at Dane’s party instead of waking an angry beast but the truth was that I was scared. I was afraid of leaving a message and never hearing back from her because she wasn’t interested in me.

I was busy thinking about my next move when I heard Jake tap on my bedroom doorway. “Hey, Dickhead! I’m taking the boat out on the lake today. You wanna come?”

I probably needed a way to pass the day so I didn’t spend it fixated on a beautiful blonde with honey brown eyes. “Sure, I’m in.”

“Okay. I’m leaving in half an hour if you’re riding with me.”

“I’ll be ready.”

An hour later, we were on the water. I always had a blast at the lake with Jake, Gabbi and her hot friends but today was different. It seemed to drag as I impatiently waited for Dane’s party tonight.

I felt a fist to my upper arm. “Dayum, little brother. What is with you today? You haven’t said two words and you’re not hitting on any of Gabbi’s friends. What gives?”

I shook my head but stared ahead. I was not telling him that I had become obsessed with a chick. “It’s nothing.”

Jake plopped down in the sand next to me and I knew that meant he wasn’t leaving without an answer. He shook his head like a dog and then shoved his wet hair away from his face. “Don’t lie to me, you little Piss Ant. Something is up with you and I want to know what it is.”

Fine, he could laugh if he wanted. “It’s a chick.”

“Let me guess. The leggy blonde you were with on the dance floor last night at the club?”

I didn’t care for his description of her, even if it was dead on. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

“She was one smokin’ hot chick, but is she hot enough for you to break your own rule?”

I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I pretended I didn’t. “And what rule would that be?”

“Come on, Nick. Everyone knows that you don’t have any use for a chick after you screw her and I know for a fact that you walked out the front door with her and didn’t come back for almost two hours.”

I could see how he might get the wrong idea about me and Payton. “I didn’t sleep with her.”

Jake started laughing at me. “Since when do you call it
sleeping
with them?”

“Since I met her, okay?” I reached for my sunglasses on top of my head and put them over my eyes so I could hide behind them. “She’s
different
.”

“I get why you’re sniffing around her but she’s not the right kind of different for you, kiddo. She’s a hot piece but what makes her different from the chicks you usually do is that she’s a different breed. I took one look at her and knew she was rich and uppity. Take my advice and stick to what you know and what won’t get you in trouble.”

I dropped my head as I shook it and stared at the wet sand. “I don’t think I can stay away from her.”

“Like always, you’re thinking with the wrong head, Little Brother, but make no mistake. Your fascination with screwing this uptown girl is going to get you into serious trouble.”

“This isn’t about sleeping with her. Don’t get me wrong. I definitely would, but that’s not what I’m after.”

“You don’t know this chick. You just met her. You can’t possibly think you’re falling for her.”

I continued to look ahead and didn’t comment either way but I could see his stare out of my peripheral vision. “Shit, Nick. She’s just like Mom and look at how things turned out between her and Dad. He was never good enough for her or her rich family and she left all of us because of it. You and Dallas don’t remember what it was like when she left because y'all were so young, but I won’t ever forget it. This chick is trouble and you’d be doin’ yourself a favor to not forget that anytime soon.”

“Duly noted, Brother” I replied through my clenched teeth as I refused to look at him.

The rest of my day at the lake consisted of avoiding Jake because I didn’t want to hear how he thought he knew everything about Payton Archer and her type. He didn’t have a clue what he was talking about when it came to her. Payton was nothing like Mom, even if she did call me Saint Nick.

≈ ≈ ≈

I met Jessie and Claire at a convenience store in Franklin and followed them in her fancy convertible to Dane’s house on the most Eastern side of town. As we drove, it became more and more apparent that the further east you lived, the richer you were so it was an understatement to say that Dane’s family was very Eastern.

After we parked on the side of the driveway stretching to Dane’s house, I looked at the enormous mansion before me. I studied it as we walked up the drive and wondered why anyone would need a house that size. I looked at every luxury car we passed on the walk toward the house, but not a one of them was Payton’s Lexus. “Is Payton already here?

“She should be. Dane and his brother, Paxton, came by around four and picked her up.”

It didn’t sit well with me that Payton left Claire’s house with two guys but I guess I didn’t have much of a say about it.

We walked around to the back of the house through a gate where there was a huge crowd of people hanging out. I immediately began to scan the crowd looking for the only one that drew me here, but I didn’t see her anywhere.

“Looks like I’m gonna have a bigger turnout than I expected.”

I recognized Dane’s voice and turned to see him standing next to us with two red plastic cups of beer in his hands. They both were fresh pours because each had huge foamy heads floating just below the rims and he passed one to me. “Here, have a beer.”

There was no way I’d be able to fit all these people at my place. “Yeah, this is a pretty big crowd to have at your house at one time.”

“If they keep showing up, I may have to send my bro’ for another keg. Speaking of which, I probably should check on it and see how fast the beer is going because it would totally suck to run out.”

“Hey, ya’ know where Payton is?” I called out to Dane as he walked toward the keg.

“Inside,” he called over his shoulder and pointed to a window to my left.

I looked through the window and saw Payton in the kitchen. She was sitting up on the countertop picking at the label on the bottled water in her hand and I took that as a sure sign she was probably still not feeling well from last night’s attempt to forget the pansy in the pastel shirt.