Page 11 of Nixon’s Promise

“Did you have fun?” I asked Mandy as she approached, shopping bags dangling from both arms.

“The mall was a bust. But we stopped at the Queenstown outlets. Scored all sorts of summer clothes.”

I didn’t want to think about what her idea of summer clothes were. It was still spring, therefore it could still dip down into the forties, yet Mandy’d already pulled what she called shorts out of her drawers. I called them too-short-to-wear-in-public. This was another source of irritation. She’d repeatedly called me a prude. However, I knew damn good and well neither my father or Carla would allow her to leave the house with her ass cheeks hanging out of the back of her shorts.

“Great. Listen, before you go to bed tonight, you need to clean the bathroom and pick up your room.”

“Jeez, I just got home and you’re already riding my ass. Can’t I at least get into the house before you start—”

Her bitching was cut off when an orange Kubota popped out of the woods and raced toward my Altima, jerking to a stop and missed clipping my front bumper—just barely.

“What the hell?” Mandy asked, saying what I was thinking. Zack was driving and Nixon was sitting in the passenger seat very calmly explaining something to my brother. I could see his lips moving and Nix was pointing to something near the steering wheel but I couldn’t hear. “Who’s that?”

Splendid.

Mandy’s voice had turned breathy and she was standing a little taller. Her fully developed teenage body on high alert.

“That is Nixon Swagger. And, Mandy, you better be on your best behavior.”

“Oh, I will.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it. He’s a grown ass man, and you’re a teenager. Do not go there.”

The thought of Mandy throwing herself at Nixon had me seeing red. I didn’t think for a second Nixon would catch any of Mandy’s passes but I barely knew the man, and as I stated, my sister was seriously beautiful.

“God, you’re always such a—”

“Hey.” Zack’s greeting cut off Mandy’s gripe. “Isn’t Nix’s Kubota cool?”

“Sure is. It’d be nice if it’d stay cool—and my car, too. Almost took out my bumper.”

“I know. Sorry about that. Nix’s teachin’ me.”

“Hi, Nixon. Hope Zack wasn’t over there causing trouble.”

Zack rolled his eyes. Nixon smiled. Holy hell, that smile.

“Not at all. Told him he’s welcome anytime.”

Zack launched right into telling me all about his plan to help Nixon tear apart an old milking parlor. By the time he’d gotten to the part about his payment being a dirt bike he was practically bouncing on his toes. I hadn’t seen Zack like this since he was ten and I told him I was taking him to Knotts Berry Farm and we had front-of-the-line passes.

“What about all this shit around here?” Mandy asked snottily.

The excitement was wiped clean off Zack’s face and his eyes cut to his sister.

Damn her.

“What about it?”

“Don’t think I’m gonna pick up your chores around here so you can go work over at his place.” Mandy jabbed her finger in Nixon’s direction.

“I’m not the one who runs off when there’s shit to do. You don’t even take care of the horse you begged McKenna to get for you. And who cleaned out the duck pen this morning and changed the water in the kiddy pool? Me. But they’re yours. You brought them home. Now me and McKenna have to take care of them because you’re too busy running off. And it’s your week to clean the bathroom. But you didn’t do that either. It looks like your hair and makeup shit exploded. And I’m not cleaning it because I already cleaned up after the animals you had to have. So mind your own business and stop getting in mine.”

McKenna? Zack had never called me by anything other than Micky—ever.

At present, I was in the midst of one of those parenting debacles where I didn’t know what to do. Zack was right. Mandy did do those things and Zack did look after the animals Mandy just had to have. He may give me attitude and have fifty girls he was stringing along causing sophomore girl heartache—leading to sophomore girl fathers wanting to commit murder—but he did help. Even if he forgot to lock the gate and Sally frequently escaped, he still took on the responsibility of caring for a pony that was not his. One he hated. And he was cursing, something I wasn’t sure he should be doing at fifteen, but really? I needed to pick my battles.

“Whatever. Everyone’s always—”