“Of course,” Nate promised. He had no desire to cause trouble. But he had no desire to get into trouble, either, and when his dad told him a few days later that somebody had lit a haystack on fire and inadvertently destroyed two fields and killed a couple dozen head of cattle in the process, Nate bit his tongue, not wanting to tell his dad he knew who’d done it.
His conscience nagged at him, though. Burning down fields and killing cattle wasn’t a victimless prank. It was a serious blow to some poor rancher’s livelihood, and Nate vowed to distance himself from the Orange Grove group as much as possible. By the time October rolled around, he was looking for excuses to avoid Brian and Brad. He didn’t want to be one of them. What he wanted was to be with Cody, but Cody had become inaccessible. On several different occasions, Nate wandered into the field, looking for him, but Cody was never there. Nate found only their deck of playing cards, wrapped in a plastic baggie to keep it dry, tucked into the corner of the wagon. In social studies, Cody always sat by the door, although these days, he talked to Logan more than he talked to the rest of the student body put together.
Jealousy burned in Nate’s chest every time he saw them with their heads together in class. Everybody liked Logan except Nate, leaving him the odd man out again.
Once, Nate tried waiting outside the classroom, determined to stop Cody at the door. He planned to tell Cody that he was sorry, that he’d rather be friends with him than any of the Orange Grove residents, but Cody arrived next to Logan, so lost in conversation that he didn’t even notice Nate standing there, and Nate hung his head in defeat as he made his way to his desk. Cody didn’t even look his way, although Logan gave Nate a look he couldn’t quite interpret.
When class ended, Nate gathered his books as fast as he could, but he couldn’t get past the crush of students in order to reach Cody in time. He stepped into the hallway, looking both ways, trying to see which direction Cody had gone.
He caught a glimpse of black hair a few yards away, but he only made it three steps before he was stopped short by Christine Lucero.
“Hey, Nate. We’re having a party on Friday at Jimmy Riordan’s. You want to come with me?”
It was the third time she’d invited him to a party with her. The first had been to a gathering at the mine, with the Grove residents. The second party had been at the rock quarry, with the cowboys. Nate had declined both times, confident he’d be horribly out of place. But this one would be at Jimmy’s place. Nate knew who Jimmy Riordan was, even though the only classes they had together were PE and social studies. Jimmy lived in the trailer park. He was one of the “burnouts,” as Cody called him, often ditching class to smoke cigarettes in the parking lot, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.
Nate hesitated, contemplating. Would Cody be there?
“Sure,” he said, as noncommittal as he could manage. “Maybe. I’ll have to see.”
“It’ll be cool, I promise.”
She touched his arm before walking away, and Nate watched her go, sure the exaggerated sway of her hips was just for him. She glanced over her shoulder once, blushing when she caught him still looking at her.
“You know she puts out, right?” Brian said from behind him.
Nate jumped, wishing he’d seen Brian coming so he could avoid him. “That’s what I’ve heard.”
“It’s true, man. She doesn’t even make you work for it. I went to her house last week. Wasn’t even inside five minutes before she was in my lap.”
His triumphant grin filled Nate with a deep sense of shame, and a fair amount of sympathy for Christine. “Show me a girl who can’t say no, and I’ll show you a girl who’s spent too many birthdays waiting for her daddy to come home.”
Brian blinked at him, his brow wrinkling, but only for a moment. Then he laughed. “Show me a girl who can’t say no, and I’ll ask her to homecoming.”
That night, Nate dreamed of Christine Lucero.
She was in his bedroom. He didn’t know how, or why, but she was in his bed, in his arms, lying beneath him.
Nate kissed her, thinking even as he did it how he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He thought about all the guys who had kissed her before him. Brian and Brad, and God only knew who else. But it didn’t matter. Nate was hard and ready, and he didn’t necessarily want what they were doing to stop. He just wished it was with somebody else. Like maybe Jennifer Parker. Or Jennifer Carrington. Or Amy Prescott. Or maybe Cody.
Cody?
He saw Cody’s smile. He heard Cody’s laughter in his ears. And suddenly, that’s who was under him. Cody gave him that secret smile Nate suspected only he had ever seen. He was laughing at Nate, yet somehow encouraging him too—an invitation in his dark eyes that made Nate ache in the most wonderful, erotic way. Cody was perfection, so sweet and sexy and shy and unapologetic, all at the same time, and Nate wanted him in a way that made no sense whatsoever.