Tatum walked in front of me as he tossed Buster’s toy for him to fetch. Once we were out of earshot, I teased, “Well, that was the quickest swimming-hole excursion I’ve ever had.”
He stopped on the path and turned to face me, his expression serious. “Stay away from Brina, Paige. I mean it.”
“She found me, not the other way around,” I said innocently as he moved closer toward me. With each step he took, my heart thudded more painfully inside my chest. He leaned toward me, his lips mere inches from mine, and I held my breath in anticipation of what might come. Fighting my attraction for Tatum was a lot of work.
“You can’t trust her,” he whispered, and I prayed for him to close the space between us completely. Instead, he turned back around as I stood there dumbfounded, fighting for air.
Field Parties Are a Bad Idea
Tatum
Seeing Paige with Brina royally pissed me off. I had been so happy for all of two seconds when I first saw Paige in the clearing, her black-and-white bikini showing off way more skin than I ever thought I’d see. But then I noticed we weren’t alone, and any happiness I felt evaporated into the hot and humid air. The last thing I needed was for Brina to go filling Paige’s head with lies, stories, and her version of the truth.
“Paige, did you ask the girls not to tell anyone you were here?” I asked, suddenly remembering that Paige was trying to recover from heartbreak and she needed space.
She shook her head, her long brown ponytail moving with it. “I figured if we were going to a party tonight, that’s sort of pointless. Don’t you think?”
Buster ran back to my side, toy in his mouth, and I grabbed it and chucked it across the field. “Shit.” Why’d they have to go and tell her about the party?
“What’s wrong?” Paige’s eyes narrowed and she looked genuinely sad.
“I don’t like the idea of everyone knowing you’re here. After this party, Paige, the whole town will know you’re here. And then who knows what else will happen after that.”
“Is that really a bad thing? I mean, will they tell? Can’t we ask them not to say anything to anyone?”
“We can try, but I’m not sure it will work. Most of the people here are good folk. But this might be too much for even them to handle. It’s more excitement than we’ve had in years.”
I laughed because it was true, but my chest ached at not being able to promise her privacy. Paige being here would be front-page news of our newspaper, if we had one.
“Give me a minute,” I said, handing Paige her towel before running back the way we’d come, leaving Paige standing in the middle of the field with Buster jumping around her.
Jogging back toward the swimming hole, I prayed Brina and Celeste hadn’t left yet. The last thing I wanted to do was have to call Brina on the phone. I’d done a pretty good job of avoiding that task since we’d broken up. I entered the clearing and saw them lying on their towels, chatting away.
“Oh, Tatum. You came back.” Brina sat up immediately, her blond hair falling down around her shoulders. I hated that my dick twitched at the sight of her. What my dick should do is curl up inside itself and run away screaming. If there was ever truth to the rumor that guys’ penises acted on their own accord, this was the proof. Earth to penis, this one’s bad news. Down, boy.
“I just wanted to ask you girls to please keep the fact that Paige is here to yourself. She really needs the privacy right now, and she wants to relax without any of the typical craziness.”
“What do you care?” Brina whined, and I wished someone would knock some sense into her.
“I care because Paige is a nice girl. She’s just trying to catch a break, and if her agent or whatever finds out where she is, he’ll come get her and make her go home.” I didn’t know why I spilled this much personal information, but I needed them to know how important it was that they keep their mouths shut.
“I won’t say anything to anyone,” Celeste said. “And if you guys come tonight, I’ll help keep everyone else quiet about it too.”
“Yeah, Tatum. No one’s really going to care that she’s here. I mean, they’ll care,” Brina said slowly, “but no one will want her to leave.”
Celeste laughed. “Brina’s right. They’ll all just want to be friends with her.”
I shook my head, the list of cons for taking Paige to the party growing with each word they spoke. “Well, just don’t say anything. Please? I’m asking nicely.”
“We already said we wouldn’t. God, Tatum, I always knew you had a thing for her. Every time we’d watch one of her movies you’d—”
I cut her off. “I don’t have a thing for her, okay? I barely even know her.”
“You sure seem to care an awful lot about someone you barely know,” Brina added with a frown, then lay back down on her towel and turned her head away.
I kicked at the dirt and tried to stop feeling so damned frustrated, but dealing with Brina made everything ten times worse. Stalking away, I balled my hands into fists before releasing them. I refused to let Brina affect me. Seeing Paige ahead in the distance waiting for me, I broke into a jog as my anger dissipated.
“Sorry. I wanted to ask them to keep quiet about you being here.”
Paige smiled and I stared at her mouth. Like, I couldn’t take my eyes off her full lips and I wanted to feel them, taste them, have them pressed against mine.
“What’d they say?” she asked, her voice interrupting my inappropriate thoughts.
“They said they would.”
“That’s a good start, right?”
I think she gave people more credit than they deserved, but I didn’t want to disappoint her. “Yeah, it’s a good start.” I smiled back at her, and even though it didn’t seem possible, her smile grew larger. She was so damned optimistic, and it made me want her even more.
We walked side by side the rest of the way to Mama’s house as my insides tore in two. One half wanted to stop overthinking everything in my life and enjoy whatever time I had with Paige doing whatever she’d allow me to do with her, while the other half refused to let down its guard. I didn’t handle being hurt well; I’d learned that from experience. But weren’t some people worth the risk?
I wasn’t so sure.
As we neared the house, I was no closer to an answer.
Partying in the South
Paige
With all the excitement of Tatum crashing my swimming-hole party and making me leave, I’d completely forgotten about my car. I didn’t even think to ask him about when the tire would be in. And the honest-to-God truth was that at the moment, I didn’t care at all. I’d stay here all summer if I could. And I think I’d like it. I liked the way he acted like he was protecting me. With Tatum, it didn’t seem self-serving; he seemed to genuinely want to keep me safe. Part of me didn’t know how to reconcile that in my head. I could count on one hand how many people truly cared about me.
After changing out of my bikini, I walked into the kitchen to hear Tatum and his mom talking about me.
“Tatum. Take her to the field. It will be fun for her,” his mom insisted, and Tatum grunted.
“You grunt a lot,” I said, announcing my presence.
“What?” He glanced at me from the corner of his eye.
“That sound. You do it a lot when you’re irritated. Or maybe you just do it a lot around me because I irritate you.”
He looked away. “You don’t irritate me.”
“Coulda fooled me.”
His head finally turned in my direction and his blue eyes pierced right through me. “I already told you I’m not good at making small talk.”
“Tatum, stop snapping at her and apologize this instant!” his mom yelled before smacking him on the back of the head.