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Chapter 12 - Laurel
I splashed into the river exactly where I wanted, the chill water cooling my heated skin and dousing some of my unbridled lust. When I broke the surface just in time to grab the rope as the current swept me, I shook the water out of my eyes and grinned toward where I’d last seen Ben on the bank, eager to get back to the magical afternoon we were having.
Except now he was scrambling down and into the water, a look of fury and terror on his face. He dove into the river and was at my side in a second. Gripping my arm, he dragged me toward the bank.
“God damn it, Laurel,” he shouted over the rush of the river, not letting me twist out of his grasp. “You fucking did that on purpose?”
He hauled me onto the bank where I finally wrenched free. “What in the hell are you doing?” I asked, both angry and upset. What happened to the magical afternoon?
He was pale and shaking. “What in the hell wereyoudoing?” he asked, calmer now but still barely controlled. “You could have hit the boulder, or missed the rope. You could have been—”
“There’s no way I would have hit the rock, and even if I did miss the rope, I would have swum to shore just down the bend.” I pointed, trying to control my own anger. “Look, I can see you’re upset, but that’s no excuse for whatever this is.”
I turned away and found my clothes, yanking them over my wet suit. Stomping back up toward the car, I hoped he’d catch up to me and apologize. Explain. Anything but let this day end so badly.
I only waited beside the car for a few minutes when he caught up to me, walking stiffly with his head down. His t-shirt clung to him in wet clumps, and he looked like a miserable dog who’d been forced to have a bath. I felt the same. I wondered if I should apologize, but I didn’t feel like I’d done anything wrong.
The ride back was silent and tense with me sneaking glances out of the side of my eye, always to see him staring straight ahead, a muscle in his jaw working. All I wanted to do was reach out and soothe it away, but if he freaked out every time I did anything remotely dangerous, he was in for a hard time.
When we pulled up to my house, Shakes was sitting in his car in the driveway. I sighed and clapped my hand over my eyes.
“I forgot we were supposed to scout new locations today,” I muttered.
“You forget about him a lot,” Ben said snidely. His brow furrowed when I didn’t get out of the car right away. “What’s with that guy, anyway? Is he a problem for you?” His hands tightened around the steering wheel and he glared toward Shakes.
“No,” I said unconvincingly. “We dated for about five minutes back in high school. He helps me out a lot…”
“So he thinks he has a right to you somehow?” Now his knuckles were white, his teeth grinding.
That about summed it up, but I didn’t want any trouble. I was emotionally exhausted. “No. It’s fine,” I said, getting out of the car.
Shakes jumped out and tried to follow me up my porch steps. “Where the fuck were you, Laur?” he asked. “I’ve been waiting around, and you won’t answer your phone.”
I shrugged my pack off my shoulder to dig for my keys, seeing Ben still parked on the street, still glaring. My phone lay at the bottom of the bag, forgotten in all the fun I’d been having. “I didn’t get your messages, sorry. It’s too late now, anyway.”
Shakes waited for me to unlock the door, leaning against the porch rail as if he owned the place. “Well, let’s order a pizza and watch a movie or something.”
“I’m too tired.”
Now Shakes glared at me. I was sick to death of glaring men. “Yeah? From doing what?”
I squared off, completely done. “Are you kidding me?”
He forced out a teasing smile, but I saw the hardness in his eyes. He actually believed he had a say in what I did and who I did it with.
After I didn’t say anything more, he tried to grab the keys from my hand. “Jesus, can we just be cool and do this inside?” His eyes cut over to where Ben sat in his car, but now Ben was out of his car and shoving Shakes away from me.
He stood between us, his hand out. “It looks like she doesn’t want you to go in her house,” he said in a voice that would have cut through diamonds.
“Like she wants you to?” Shakes asked belligerently.
“I’m not the one trying to take her keys and push her out of her own doorway,” he retorted.
Point to Ben, but I was beginning to feel a little like a toy they were squabbling over. Unbelievably, Shakes tried to swing on him. Ben ducked the wild punch and grabbed his shirt, backing him up against the porch railing.
“Try that again,” Ben said softly.
Like the massive idiot he often was, Shakes actually tried it again.
