My Favorite Mistake(27)

“You are such an asshole.”

“Watch your language in front of Harper. She’s very impressionable.” He stepped away and crouched next to Harper’s chair.

Normally, Hunter was a douche, but a nice one — if there was such a thing. But it seemed like something had flipped a switch. Hunter had never been mean to me before. Not like that. I had the distinct feeling that it had something to do with Joe and the mysterious meeting.

“Will you come back and help me pick them?” Harper said after she’d introduced me to several more trees.

“Of course I will,” I said, leaning down next to her chair. She held her arms out for a hug, and I gave her one.

“You promise?”

“Pinky swear.”





*****





While Hunter and Mase worked on the tractor — I very much doubted the existence of said tractor — and Darah played with Harper, Hope and I had a little chat. I’d heard from Darah that she’d already had the Hope interrogation that morning and it wasn’t that bad.

“You are such a pretty little thing. What are you doing with a boy like Hunter?”

I nearly choked on my third glass of iced tea. That stuff was good.

“I honestly don’t know.”

She gave me a look.

“He can be a sweet boy when he wants, but sometimes I worry about him. I don’t even want to know what he gets up to.”

No good, that was what. Lots and lots of no good. I bit my tongue.

“He does have that bad boy charm about him though,” she said with a smile. Damn that woman could win the World Smiling Championships. “John was like that, too. Trouble written all over him.”

Darah and Harper were playing Go Fish and from what I could tell, Harper was kicking ass.

“I wasn’t very happy when he started inking up his body, I’ll tell you that much. If his mother, God rest her soul, knew she would have had a litter of kittens.”

I really, really wanted to ask about the mother, but I didn’t want to seem like I was trying to pry.

I also wasn’t going to tell her that I thought his tattoos were beyond sexy.

“As long as he doesn’t get a motorcycle, I think my heart will be able to take it. Thank the stars that John Jr. never got into that sort of thing. I would have had his hide.” I laughed.

“You have a great laugh. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Hunter,” I said without thinking.

“He would.” She turned away from watching Harper and stared at me. Like really stared. Like she was trying to see deep down into my soul. I tried not to flinch while she completed her examination.

“I think of Hunter as my son, and as his mother it is my job to vet any potential females he may be interested in. This is nothing personal, it’s my job.”

“And?” I asked hesitantly. This woman clearly had a set of fangs behind those pearly whites. Noted.

“I don’t want him to hurt you. I don’t want you to hurt him.”

“Me neither. We’re not involved… that way anyway.” I didn’t know what way we were involved. I was pretty sure there wasn’t a definition for it yet.

Hope gave me another once-over with her laser eyes. It was worse than airport security.

“Yet. You’re not involved yet, but honey, I’ve never seen that boy as smitten with anyone as he is with you. You’d have to be blind not to see it.”

Yeah, yeah. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. She didn’t understand how complicated it was.

“Love is simple. You fall and that’s it. You’ll work the other stuff out. You just gotta let yourself fall and have faith that someone will be there to catch you.”

I didn’t want to do any falling. Falling usually led to meeting a hard surface in an unpleasant way.

“All right, that’s enough of the third degree. Now tell me some more about yourself. That top is just darling on you.”

I didn’t tell her that Hunter picked it out. We continued our small talk, but I could tell that she was watching me.





Sixteen





“They’re great. Your family,” I said later that afternoon as Hunter and I drove back to campus. He’d been mostly silent since we’d left. Hope had given me a huge hug and told me to come back soon, and Harper had made me promise I’d sing again with her. John shook my hand again and said I was a lovely young lady. Mase and Darah were staying another night, so I said I’d see her the next day.

“They are.”

“You’re being weird.”

“How?”

“I’ve never seen you so quiet. You’d think someone had died.” I instantly realized my mistake. “Sorry, that was mean.”

“No, I deserved it. I’m not very nice, Taylor.” He almost never called me by my real name. I found I didn’t like it much.

“I know. But that doesn’t give you license to be a jerk.”

“I am what I am. If you don’t like it, there’s a simple way out of it. You have three options. Hate me, love me, do me. Pick your poison.”

“Fuck you.”

“That’s one of the options.”

“I am never giving you a ride again.”

“That’s fine. Now I know where you keep your keys. Sassy and I would have a good time,” he said, patting the dashboard.

“I swear to God, Hunter, if you steal this car, I will stab you in your sleep.”

“Fine. Go ahead.”

What was wrong with him? I turned on an old Avril Lavigne CD just to piss him off. He stared out the window and tapped his leg.

One, two, three, four, five. I wanted to break each one of his five fingers so he couldn’t tap them anymore.

I didn’t speak to him again until we were back on campus. Hunter carried his guitar, and I carried a plastic container with leftovers from Hope that she had forced on me as I walked out the door. How could I say no?

I immediately went to our room and shut the door.



*****





I stayed in there for several hours, munching on the leftovers from the Masons and reading. I thought about calling Tawny, but I didn’t really want to know what she’d have to say about this situation. I didn’t want advice, which would be what she would give me, however unsolicited it might be.

I was deep in the throes of Gone With The Wind when I heard voices in the living room. Must be Dev and Sean. There was a soft knock on the door. Hunter never knocked on our door.

“Hey, we’re going to Blue. You want to come? I’ll buy you a drink.”

I shook my head, not looking up from my book.

“Come on, Missy.”

“You’ve been saying that a lot to me lately.”

“Thank God, she speaks.”

“Bite me.”

“You’re insulting me. Must mean you’re back to normal. Come out with us. It’ll be fun. You can dance and tease me again.”

“Will you let me smash a beer bottle over your head? Because I’d totally sign up for that.”

“Let’s get you out and see how things go. I might let you get a punch in, depending on how drunk I get.”

I’d never seen Hunter drunk. He had a few beers, but I’d never seen him out of control like most people got. Since I was small, alcohol affected me like a hammer. I just needed one or two drinks and I was in happy land. I’d never really seen the appeal of getting drunk. Until tonight.

“I’m in,” I said, swinging my legs over my bed and hopping down. I’d cleaned up the clothing disaster from this morning, but finding the right shirt was going to take another trip through the mire.

Hunter stared at the closet. He knew where my mind had gone.

“Wear that pink one on the left.” He pointed, and I saw a scrap of pink. It was a shirt I had, but never wore. It just wasn’t really me. Tawny had given it to me a few years ago, and I couldn’t part with it because I didn’t want to make her mad. It had a little fabric flower on the neck and was kind of drapey.

“And those dark black skinny pants.”

“Who are you, my fashion consultant?”

“If it’ll get you ready faster, sure. I’ll be your fashion consultant.”

I grabbed the shirt and held it up. Actually, it didn’t look that bad.

“We’re ready when you are,” he said before he left me to change. It was going to be interesting to go out with just me and three boys. If I was a guy, I’d be a pimp. There really wasn’t a good equivalent for a girl.

I decided to leave my hair down. It was looking better than it had this morning, which was unusual, so I decided to embrace it.

“Fuckable?” I said when I came around the corner into the living room.

“Definitely,” Hunter said. I enjoyed the semi-stunned look on his face. God, he saw me every day, but still, when I put on something nice he couldn’t speak. I enjoyed it very much. You didn’t do that with someone you didn’t like.

The other boys smiled politely. I hadn’t seen much of them lately.

“Okay, let’s go, boys. Who wants to carry my purse, and who wants to be my drink bitch for the night?”

They all looked at each other.

“Joke. That was a joke. I wouldn’t emasculate you like that.”

“Carrying a purse wouldn’t emasculate me,” Hunter said. Yeah, I bet.

“I’d carry it, but it doesn’t go with my outfit,” Dev said. We all burst out laughing.