“And you like him.”
“Mama,” Faith defended, slamming their trunk shut. “I do not.”
“Liar.”
“You know, sometimes I think you’re the child and I’m the parent.”
Her mother softened, some kind of lesson weaving its way into her voice. “That’s because you never let yourself have any fun. You’re too busy studying and watching sports with your dad.”
A tease curved into the last.
“Mama,” Faith huffed again, not even denying it.
She looked back that way to the place where Jace had been, but he was already back inside the store.
Something heavy filled her chest.
“He’s trouble, Mama,” she whispered.
Faith could feel the truth of it tremble all around her.
Her mama reached out and touched her chin. “Maybe. Or maybe he’s just trying to figure out how to survive, just like the rest of us.”
“I need to get back home to study for finals,” Faith said, slipping off the side of Courtney’s bed and into her sandals.
Her best friend looked up from where she was on her stomach flipping through one of the same trashy magazines Faith had been looking at earlier, except this one was giving them all kinds of sex tips.
With the way Faith had blushed through the torture of Courtney reading them aloud, she was pretty sure she was never gonna need them, but Courtney was intent on trying a couple of them out on her boyfriend that night.
It was definitely Faith’s cue to get the hell out of there.
“But you just got here,” Courtney whined.
“Two hours ago. And we have finals all next week. I need to close out this year strong.”
Courtney pouted. “You’re no fun. It’s Friday. Stay and go to the party with me.”
“I have to get home. Daddy is grillin’ steaks tonight. Besides, I don’t need to be within a ten-mile radius if you’re planning that.” Faith pointed at the drawing on the magazine, nose curled in mock disgust.
Courtney laughed. “You’re such a prude. I swear, you should have been born in the fifties . . . or, better yet, the eighteen fifties with the way you’re so obsessed with all that old crap.”
“Crap? Bite your tongue, woman.”
“Oh, I’ll be biting something, all right.”
“Ewww.”
Just ewww.
“I’m out of here,” Faith said, dipping down to smack a kiss to Courtney’s cheek. “Be good,” she told her.
“Never.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
Faith slung her backpack onto her shoulder, leaving Courtney with a small wave as she headed out of her bedroom and down the hall.
“Bye, Jenny!” she called from the kitchen to Courtney’s mother, who was watching television in the living room.
“Bye, sweetheart. You sure you don’t want a ride home?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
She didn’t pause as she ducked out of the screen door and onto the back porch, quick to take the trail that led behind the neighborhood, behind a bunch of trees, and dumped her out right on the old dirt road.
The area was pretty much deserted. Hardly a soul coming down this way.
Which was probably the reason she was so drawn to it.
She lifted her face toward the blazing rays of sun that poured out of the late afternoon sky, letting her eyes drift closed as she rambled down the road, feet shuffling through the pebbles that’d worked their way out of the packed dirt.
She was grinning when she dropped her gaze back down, her step lighter as she started walking, swaying a bit, twirling once.
She loved this time of year, the tease of summer break hanging in the distance. The thought of dipping her toes into the ocean and afternoons spent reading under a big tree.
Birds flitted overhead, the air salty, tinged with the sea.
She came to a stop at the end of the drive that led to the old house, which was the real reason she liked to walk home this way.
Well, if you wanted to call it a house.
It was a mansion, worn down as it was.
A relic from another era, tucked back in the thickest, most gorgeous line of moss-covered oaks.
There was something haunting about it, the way the massive, spindly trees closed out the light and hugged the plantation as if ghosts from the past hissed and swished like phantoms through the branches.
Standing like a hedge of protection that lined the property.
“What are you doing?”
She nearly jumped out of her skin when the low voice hit her from out of nowhere, breathing over her from behind. A rush of chills skated her heated flesh.
She whirled around, her hand pressed to her hammering heart.
“What are you doin’ here?” she demanded, words ragged pants from her lungs. He’d scared her half to death.
That terrifyingly beautiful boy cocked his head. It almost looked like a challenge.
Her stomach dipped.
Oh goodness, why’d he have to look that way?
Like temptation and sin.
Like she wanted to dip her fingers right in and experience exactly what that might taste like.
“Walking home.” He tucked his big hands into the pockets of his pants. “Don’t you know that this road leads to nowhere?”