I laughed. “Yeah, he is. But anyway… so one of his students—or whatever you’d call them—is a freshman, and he just joined the baseball team. The seniors all give the freshman one thing they have to do to truly be… accepted. It’s kind of like hazing, but it’s pretty innocent. It’s not like that crazy hazing shit that ends in a beating or something.”
“Okay…” Fallon was looking at me like I was insane, but I kept going.
“Well… Jackson’s initiation is to steal Mr. Mertle’s flag that he hangs on his back porch. No one comes out here because he’s a mean son of a bitch, hence the name Mr. Mertle. They even say he has his own version of The Beast.”
Fallon’s eyebrows shot up to her forehead. “Huh? The Beast? Mr. Mertle? Do you know this person?”
I closed my eyes briefly. “You know, from the movie The Sandlot.”
Fallon’s face scrunched up. “The Sandlot?”
This time I really couldn’t believe it. “You’ve never seen The Sandlot?”
She swallowed and shook her head no. “I’m adding that to the bucket list asap.”
She giggled. “Okay, so we’re just gonna steal some flag for some kid?”
“Yep,” I said. “It’s just through that hayfield.” I flicked the headlights on so Fallon could see a little farther.
“You mean… past the “No Trespassing” sign?”
“Yep,” I said again, holding back my laughter from the worry in her voice.
“Why can’t the kid just go get it himself? Isn’t this his thing?”
“Eh. Yeah, but like I said… he’s underprivileged. He can’t sneak out of his house at night because of the neighborhood he lives in, and Axe also said that his mom works through the night, so he has to stay with his younger sisters. I just know that he can’t do it and he’s a good kid who’s trying his hardest to fit in, so I thought I’d help out. I told Axe if he covered at the shop tonight, I’d do it. Tyler’s a good kid, and he deserves to have some good in his life, you know?”
Fallon only stared at me. She was so hard to read sometimes. One second, she was making me feel like the luckiest guy on the earth just for making her smile, and the other, I was feeling confused as fuck, wondering what she was truly thinking.
“I like you, Emmett,” she whispered. “You’re just so… good.”
I flicked an eyebrow up. “I’ve been called many things before, but never good. I’ve been told that I’m a bad boy… and I’m not gonna lie…I have the tattoos to match it.” I winked, trying to lighten the shift in the air.
A small grin appeared. “You can pretend you’re a bad boy, Emmett. You do have that mysterious enigma about you… at first. You can come off as dangerous, and you’re right, the tattoos are a clear indication that you could be labeled as a bad boy. But you’re the kindest man I’ve ever met.”
My heart flipped.
My mind was going in a million different directions, and then she continued on.
“I was just some crazy girl with a bizarre life who wanted her belly button pierced, and somehow, you were able to swoop in and make me feel all sorts of things I’d never felt before but so desperately wanted to. You decided to help me with this absurd bucket list that I created due to my impending arranged marriage, and now you’re here, stealing some flag for a young kid that Axe knows just so the boy can have a chance at a normal life on his school’s baseball team.”
My heart was still flipping and seemed to be growing in my chest to the point that it felt too big to stay in my ribcage. It was trying to escape, and I was so desperately trying to push it back inside. “It’s not that big of a deal, Fallon. Plus, have you ever looked in a mirror? And I mean truly looked? How could I stay away from you? I felt compelled to help you. There’s just something special about you, even though you can’t see that.”
“No turning this back on me. You’re a good guy. The best. Just admit it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Never. I’m a bad boy for life.”
She threw her head back and laughed, which did nothing for the swell inside my chest.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“But once again, you just can’t stay away from me.” I gave her my most charming smile, and she sighed.
“I really can’t.”
I felt the shift in the air again, and instead of inhaling it like it was my only source of oxygen, I opened the car door. “Let’s go be reckless.”
Chapter Seventeen