Faster We Burn

chapter Eight

Stryker

If I said I wasn’t nervous, I would have been lying. I panicked and wrapped the container I put the baked brie in with towels so even if it bounced, nothing would happen to it and checked my appearance in the mirror more times than I had in all the previous years of my life, combined.

I’d even made Trish help me pick out a tie, which was like making a really grumpy cat take a bath.

I’d debated about taking out my piercings, which was another first, but I left them in. I didn’t care what they thought about those. I did, however, wear a long-sleeved shirt that hid my tattoos.

Luckily, I had a nice long drive to panic and try to rehearse what I was going to say.

I texted Katie when I was a few minutes away, realizing that in my nervousness, I was pretty early. My GPS directed me that her house was my next right in a lovely calm robotic voice.

Katie’s neighborhood looked like the set of a quintessential American town. It was a development with houses that all had the exact same-sized lawns and evenly-spaced trees. I’d lived in a lot of places, but definitely none like this. This was a place with snowblowers and riding lawnmowers and potted shrubs and white fences. It was so…clean.

There were at least six cars parked in the driveway and in front of the house, so I had to park on the street in front, partially blocking the neighbor’s driveway.

I unwrapped the casserole dish from the towels, grabbed the bag with my hostess/suck up gift and walked up to the front door. There was a flag shaped like a turkey hanging from the eaves of the porch. Wow. They were those kind of people. The kind of people who had boxes of decorations for every holiday, even the holidays that weren’t really holidays. Like President’s Day. Katie hadn’t mentioned that.

I rang the doorbell and crossed my fingers that Katie would answer. I heard pounding footsteps, which probably meant she was trying to beat someone else to the door. Smart girl.

“Hey,” I said, giving her what I hoped was a confident smile.

“Did you do something to your hair?” She said after staring at me for a full thirty seconds.

“Yeah, I actually brushed it today.” This was partially true. I’d also put some gel in it to make it behave.

“You look, wow.” She blinked, but didn’t move to let me in. She didn’t look so bad herself. I didn’t know anyone who could pull off pink jeans with a white sweater, but she could. Behind her I could hear the hum of people talking and laughing. Panic tried to claw its way into my brain, but I pushed it back. There was no need to panic.

I held out the brie. “I come bearing gifts. Do you, um, think I could come in?”

She blinked again and shook her head, as if to clear it.

“Um, yeah. Come on in.”

“Thanks.” I stepped over the threshold, but she grabbed my arm and leaned to whisper in my ear.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Now isn’t really the time to be asking me that, sweetheart,” I said.

“I know, but—” I stepped around her. No, I hadn’t spent the two-hour-drive-in-the-car-practicing-for-this time for nothing. We were doing this.

“I’m here, Katie. It’s too late now.”

She nodded and dived in front of me so she could make the introductions. I followed in her wake and tried not to drop the casserole dish. I also tried not to watch her ass as she walked away.

At least I didn’t drop the dish.

Her voice made me look up and realize I was in the kitchen and everyone was staring at me.

“Mom, Dad, this is Stryker Grant,” Katie said as I walked behind her and set the casserole dish down on the already-crowded counter. Katie had her mom’s wide eyes, but that was about the only similarity they shared. Katie was very much her father’s daughter, except for the fact that he was about as tall as Zack.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hallman, thank you so much for inviting me. I really appreciate it.” I set the bag with a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers down so I could hold out my hand for her father, who was standing closer to me. He was the first one to unfreeze from his shock. Yeah, I’d expected that, and I was used to it.

“It’s nice to meet you, Stryker. Please, call me Glenn.” He gave me a firm shake. Maybe a little too firm. I let go and looked at Katie’s Mom.

“Mom?” Katie said. For a second, I thought she was going to snap her fingers in front of her mom’s face.

“You’re Stryker?” Mrs. Hallman said, her eyes flitting from my eyebrow ring, to my lip ring and to my earring.

“You have a beautiful home,” I said, picking up the gifts. “I brought you some wine, and this,” I said taking out the flowers.

“Uh, thank you, they’re beautiful.” She took them but didn’t stop looking at me. She finally shook my hand, but it was limp and she let go as quickly as she could. Ah, so that was how it was going to be. This would be interesting.

“I also brought a little something. It’s a baked brie. I tried to keep it warm on the way over, but it might need to sit in the oven for a few minutes to warm up.

“Right this way,” Katie said, glaring at her mother and grabbing the casserole dish. This was also a house with two ovens, apparently, because there was a turkey in one, but the bottom oven was unoccupied.

“I knew she was going to do this,” she whispered as she set the oven and shoved the dish in.

“It’s okay,” I said back as everyone else broke into chatter again. There was a microscopic part of me that wanted to shut the oven and run out the front door to my car, but one thing kept me from doing it.

Katie. Her fingers dug into my arm, and I could feel she was as nervous as I was, maybe even more so. She cared if her parents liked me or not.

“What am I, chopped liver?” An older man wearing a flannel shirt with more than a few holes in it marched over, his hand out.

“Stryker, Grampa Jack. Grampa Jack, this is my friend, Stryker.” I shook his hand and he winked at me.

“Welcome to the family, son.”

“Oh, he’s not—” Katie said at the same time I said, “I’m not—”

He laughed, wheezing. Clearly, he’d smoked more than a few cigars in his life. He crooked his finger for me to lean in.

“Just be careful with my granddaughter,” he said, giving me a roguish wink from under his unruly white eyebrows. He only gave my appearance a quick glance, but I still felt like I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. I wasn’t afraid of a whole lot of people, but this guy scared me. Katie had barely mentioned him when I’d asked about who I’d be meeting, but I did remember her saying he was ex-military, which sounded less intimidating when the guy wasn’t standing in front of me.

I looked at Katie and she rolled her eyes.

“I will. Thank you, sir,” I said, wishing I’d taken my piercings out. Too late now.

He clapped me on the shoulder and wheezy-laughed again.

“Come and sit next to me. I want to hear all about you.” He grabbed my shoulder and steered me toward the living room as a few kids ran by screaming. I sort of wished I could join them.

Katie was right behind me when I heard her mom say, “Katie, can you help me with something?” She gave me an angry look and then smoothed a smile over it.

“Sure, Mom.” Be right back, she mouthed at me before going back into the kitchen.

Great. I had to face the grandfather interrogation alone. There was no choice but to let the man with the iron grip steer me into the next room.

The living room was beige with more beige and simple furnishings, which I guessed made a nice canvas for all the Thanksgiving things. I moved a stuffed cornucopia pillow so I could sit on one end of the massive sectional. He took the other end, and sat back.

“Why did you do that to your face?” he said, pointing at his own lip and eyebrow. It took me a second to get enough moisture in my mouth to talk.

“What?”

“You’ve got metal in your face. How do you go through one of those detectors at the airport?”

For about five seconds, I had no idea what to say. Then he started laughing as if it was the funniest thing he’d said in his entire life. The laugh turned into a cough and I wondered if I should get off the couch and bang on his back or something.

“You okay, sir?”

“I’m fine, son. The look on your face was priceless.” He wiped tears from his eyes and slapped his knee with one hand.

“So, what are your intentions with my granddaughter?”

I was about to form some sort of response that wasn’t She’s using me for sex when the front door opened and someone called out, “Surprise!” The talking stopped as everyone rushed to the door to see who it was.

“Oh my God, Kayla?” Katie shrieked and ran from the kitchen, launching herself into the arms of a girl who had to be her sister. They both hugged, rocking back and forth and I was afraid they were going to tip over in their enthusiasm. Guess it was genetic.

“Hey, Katiebug!” Kayla said, pulling out of the hug, but not letting go of Katie’s hands.

“What are you doing here?” Katie said, her face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. Christ, she was beautiful.

“It’s Thanksgiving and I got on a plane. Hey, Mom.” There was a flurry of hugging and tears and laughter as the family welcomed their new guest. I stayed in the living room and watched it all. Katie beamed and kept her arm around her sister. Even though Kayla was taller, you’d have to be blind not to see that they were two peas in a pod, with identical brown hair and eyes.

Kayla cleared her throat and then whistled to get everybody to shut up. “Um, so everyone, I have someone I want you to meet.” She opened the door again and grabbed the hand of a tall black guy who looked like he wanted to get back in the car, and led him in. Kayla threaded her hand with his and gave him an encouraging smile that he somehow returned.

“This is Adam, and um, we’re getting married.” She held up her left hand to show a simple gold band and beamed at the terrified-but-trying-to-hide-it Adam.

There was a half-second of stunned silence and then house exploded with noise as everyone started talking and yelling at once.



Katie



I couldn’t believe her. She’d mentioned a guy in a few of her emails, but never his name and never that she was serious about him.

I was torn between being so happy to see her and super pissed that she didn’t tell me, but that was just like her. She’d been all set to get her Master’s degree, but then she decided that helping people in third world countries was more important. She didn’t tell us she’d dropped out of school until the night before she was set to get on a plane.

“What the hell, Kayla?” I said when Mom finally stopped freaking out. I felt bad for Stryker. He sat in the living room by himself and I could tell he was regretting that he’d come. Poor guy.

“I’m sorry, it just happened so fast.” She glanced over at Adam, who was getting grilled by Dad, and then her eyes found Stryker. Everyone else was talking to Adam all at once, including Grampa Jack, who’d levered himself off the couch to come and inspect his soon-to-be grandson-in-law.

“Who’s that guy?” she said, loud enough for him to hear. He pretended to be very interested in the couch.

“Ah, that’s Stryker. He’s a friend,” I whispered.

She crossed her arms and gave me a look.

“Now who’s keeping a secret guy?”

“It’s not like that, Kayla. It’s more of a…friend’s with benefits thing,” I said even lower so only Kayla could hear, my face turning red despite my best efforts.

Kayla gave me a knowing smile. “Of course it is. Come on,” she said, linking her arm with mine. “I wanna meet this guy.” There was no way I was going to win that battle so I let her drag me to the living room. I tried to give Stryker a look to warn him, but he was still staring at the couch. He got up when he saw us coming for him, his hands making sure his shirt was tucked in the right way. He really looked damn good all cleaned up like that.

“Well, well, well, look at you,” she said, giving him the once over as he stood still, awaiting her inspection. I had to give him credit; he didn’t even flinch. They stared at each other in complete silence and I could sense they were having a conversation without saying a word. Stryker’s jaw tensed and Kayla’s eyes narrowed before she slowly smiled at him.

It was one of the weirdest non-conversations I’d ever seen, and I’d watched Lottie and Will do their twindar thing any number of times.

“Stryker, this is my sister Kayla, Kayla, this is Stryker,” I said, to try to break up some of the tension. They shook hands and Kayla’s gaze went back and forth between us a few times.

“So, what are your intentions with my sister?” Stryker thought about it for a moment, leaned in and winked at me.

“I’m just using her for sex,” he whispered. Kayla’s eyes went wide and then she started laughing. Stryker relaxed a fraction. He’d taken a risk, saying something like that. It sounded more like the Stryker I was used to.

“I like him. He’s not a douchebag. That’s a first.” Stryker nodded at Kayla and his lips twitched as if he was trying not to smile.

Seriously? “He just said he’s using me for sex and you think he’s not a douchebag?”

She shrugged. “How do you think Adam and I got together? Nice to meet you, Stryker” she said, patting him on the shoulder and going to rescue Adam from my dad.

I stared after her, shaking my head. “I don’t understand what just happened,” I said.

“Go with it. We should probably check the brie,” Stryker said, stepping around me to go to the oven.

“Right, brie.”



***



Kayla definitely took the heat off Stryker, which was a good thing. Mom was too busy gushing over Kayla’s announcement to worry anymore about Stryker’s appearance. She was shocked for as much time as it took Kayla to tell her that Adam was in medical school and was on his way to being a doctor with a huge salary and then she was ready to throw them a wedding in our living room right then and there. Dad just laughed and shook his head and told her not to get carried away.

Adam was quiet initially, but Kayla got him talking about their time in Africa and how they met and all the adventures they’d had with food poisoning, lions and droughts. Hearing them talk about it made me ache, and after a few minutes, I just wanted them to shut up. They were just so…goddamn happy. Kayla was glowing with it, like a firefly. I’d been so happy to see her, but we’d barely had a chance to talk about anything because everyone was so eager to hear about the engagement plans and all that. I just wanted a chance to talk to her, just us, away from everyone else.

But I was trapped at the table with them, Stryker on my right and Grampa Jack on my left. My parents ended up having to bring in another table to fit everyone, including my Aunt Carol, Uncle Clay, their kids Jackson, Ruthie and Andy, my Uncle Ray, Aunt Linda and their kids Bailey and Brandon, our neighbors Poppy, and Ron and their daughter Rosalee.

The dinner was a flurry of passing plates and the salt and everyone trying to cram their plates full. I took a huge helping of Stryker’s baked cheese thing, which turned out to be mind-blowingly good. I would have licked my plate if I was alone.

Mom was busy with Kayla and Adam, so I chatted with Grampa Jack and Stryker. The latter kept touching my feet with his under the table and shooting me little smiles every now and then. I wished he would be less obvious, but he didn’t seem to see the glares I was shooting him back and he ignored it when I kicked him under the table.

Finally, everyone had stuffed themselves and Mom brought out the pies.

“You still have room?” Stryker said, raising his pierced eyebrow. “Where’s it gonna go?” Jesus, I wasn’t that skinny. I’d definitely been smaller in high school, but that was because all my stupid friends were skinny bitches and I didn’t want to be their one fat friend.

“Oh, I can put away some pie. You just watch.”

He leaned toward me, brushing some hair off my shoulder. “Is that a challenge I hear in your voice? Because I bet you can’t finish an entire slice of pie. With ice cream.”

“What do I get if I win?” I said, turning in my chair.

“How about I take you to dinner?”

Oh, I’d make that worth my while. “Deal.”

“What do I get if I win?” he said, running his finger down my arm. I hoped no one was looking.

“What do you want?”

His smile was slow and sexy. “I want you to sing a song with me at the next Band meeting.”

I could agree to that because it wasn’t going to happen. There was no way I’d lose. “Deal.”

Mom passed the pie around the table and finally got to me.

“Apple, pumpkin or cherry?” she said.

“Apple.”

“Ice cream?” she paused, the scoop in the tub of ice cream.

I looked right at Stryker. “Yup.”

The plate was passed down to me and then it was Stryker’s turn.

“Cherry, please. With ice cream.” I handed his plate to him and we clinked our forks together. Everyone else was attempting their own slices of pie, including Kayla and Adam who seemed to be having a similar contest.

My baby cousin, Andy, started to wail, so Aunt Carol went change him as the other kids had an impromptu pie-eating contest while their parents weren’t looking, ending up with most of the pie on their faces and not in their mouths.

“So. Where are you taking me?” I said when I held up my clean plate a few minutes later. “It better be somewhere nice.”

“We’ll see, sweetheart.”

“Shh,” I said, looking around to make sure no one had overheard. Grampa Jack was snoozing in his chair, his pie only half-eaten and everyone else was focused on something else. “Let’s keep that on the down low, okay?”

“Sure thing.” We got up from the table and he grabbed my plates and his and took them to the sink.

“Katie, can I talk to you for a minute?” Mom had finally let Kayla off the hook, and she escaped to the living room with Adam, probably to cuddle and whisper adorable nothings in each other’s ears. I’d never seen my sister so…disgustingly in love.

“Yeah, sure.” I gave Stryker a look and he went to the living room to chat with them. Mom steered me down the hallway toward her bedroom. She made sure that no one followed us and then turned on me. Her face went from happy hostess to pissed-off mom in about half a second. Like flipping a switch.

“What is wrong with you?” she said, putting her hands on her hips. She had a smear of what looked like cherry pie on the front of her shirt. She’d have a hissy fit when she found out.

“What are you talking about?” I had some idea, but I wanted her to say it out loud.

“Bringing a boy like that into this house? With the kids?” My mouth popped open. I couldn’t believe she was actually saying this. I’d thought they’d be upset about Stryker and maybe think he was just a slacker, or a loser. Not someone who would actually hurt children. I worried about how her mind had made that leap with Stryker when she’d let Zack into her house with open arms.

“Are you hearing yourself right now? You think that just because he’s got a few piercings and tattoos and doesn’t look like an all-American college boy that he’s some kind of criminal? Because I have news for you: That guy? Zack? He’s a criminal. Just in case you forgot, he beat the shit out of me.” Every now and then, I still had a twinge of pain as a reminder.

“Keep your voice down,” she hissed, glancing down the hall to make sure no one had heard my unseemly outburst. “That is an entirely different situation.” I didn’t see how.

“Oh, and what about Adam, huh? You know nothing about him and you’re ready to let Kayla marry him just because he’s going to be a doctor. For all we know, he could be a serial killer.” I was pretty sure Kayla wouldn’t be engaged to a serial killer, but I had to make my point somehow. Mom’s face went red and I prepared for another verbal assault.

We both shut up when Kayla came walking down the hallway, the happiness fading from her face.

“Look, if you two are going to have a fight, you should probably be more quiet about it. I can’t hear exactly what you’re saying, but everyone can hear that you’re fighting. Seriously? You can’t even let it ride for one day?” Mom and I had a habit of choosing the holidays to have our knock-down-drag-outs.

At least Mom had the sense to look guilty for being admonished by her own daughter. She dropped her angry face.

“I’m sorry. I was just worried about your sister after everything she’s been through.”

Kayla put her hand on Mom’s shoulder. “I know, Mom, but you really have to stop being so judgmental. I mean, I have a tattoo.”

“Oh my God, Kayla. You didn’t.” Mom clutched her heart. You’d think Kayla announcing she was marrying a guy Mom had never met would cause that reaction, but no, it was the tattoo.

Kayla rolled her eyes like she did when she used to come home after her curfew and Mom would ask her where she’d been. “Jesus, Mom. Everyone has tattoos now.”

Mom started looking Kayla over, walking around her, searching for the tattoo. It was kind of funny. “Where is it? How big is it?”

Kayla looked over her shoulder and then walked toward my parents’ bedroom. Mom and I followed, and Kayla closed the door behind us.

“I just didn’t want everyone to see,” she said, pulling her shirt over her head. On her left shoulder was a quote and a picture of a dandelion blowing in the wind, the fluff floating toward her spine.

Not all those who wander are lost.

“It’s awesome, Kayla. When did you get it?” I said. It rivaled Stryker’s for the intricacy of the work. She must have gone to someone really talented.

She smiled back at me. “Few months ago. It was a present from Adam.”

Mom was still looking horrified.

“It’s nice lettering, I guess. And it isn’t too big.” Wow, big compliment Mom.

Kayla pulled her shirt down again and put one hand on my shoulder and one on Mom’s.

“So, now that we’ve got that out of the way, can you two call a truce, just for today? After that you can go back to normal.”

I would if she would.