“I’m broken,” I whisper pathetically, my head hitting the pavement as it drops back down. I always considered myself a little invincible, but this has proved me otherwise.
“You are.” Jake reaches behind and tugs a phone from the back pocket of his shorts. He flips the screen and dials.
“You have a phone?” I’m fourteen and still don’t have one. My parents are fools that need to get with the times. “Who are you calling? God, not my mother. Please. She’ll kill me. Ring Mitch.”
Jake puts the phone to his ear with an expression of disbelief. “You’re kidding, right? After the whole ‘bring her back in one piece’ comment? I’m so dead.”
“You can’t tell my parents, Romero.”
“They’re going to notice a broken arm,” he points out.
“They won’t! I promise. I’ll hide it under long shirts and hoodies.”
Jake’s eyes widen like I’ve lost my mind. “In the middle of a summer heatwave?”
He ignores my protests and calls for an ambulance, even holding me down when I try rising to grab at the phone.
With it on the way, Jake tucks his phone away and clears his throat. “So … On a scale of one to ten, just how dead am I for breaking the Valentines’ only daughter?”
“For me, I’d probably say an eleven, but for you my parents will probably go easy.”
His eyes harden. “I don’t need anyone going easy on me, Mac. I can hold my own.”
“I’m sure you can,” I snap, the pain making me extra snarly, “but after everything that’s happened, they’re hardly going to be assholes.”
He stills. “Everything that’s happened?”
“With your … your …” Shit, I’m not supposed to know.
“You know,” Jake says flatly.
“No I don’t.”
“Yes you do.”
“No I—”
“Did your Mum tell you? Because she’s supposed to be like my lawyer or something and keep my business private.”
I snort. “Mum’s hardly a lawyer!”
“I never said she was. I said like a lawyer,” he snaps.
“Jared overheard—”
“Whatever, Mac.”
“Dammit, Jake. I’m trying to explain here.” I shift and hiss. Despite our argument, his hand closes around mine and squeezes. The small contact is comforting. “You know, I wrote you a letter after you left.”
“Funny.” Jake cocks his head. “I didn’t get it.”
I close my eyes as the adrenaline wears off and throbbing pain escalates into agony. “I never sent it,” I rasp.
“Oh?”
“It’s still in the top drawer of the dresser in my room.”
“Why did you keep it?”
“I don’t know.” But I do know. It was the only tie I had to Jake. A reminder that he existed out there somewhere, under the same sun and stars. It was comforting in a way that didn’t make sense to me.
The ambulance arrives, minus the flashing lights and siren. It draws a small crowd. My cheeks are hot with embarrassment when I’m carted off on a stretcher for a broken wrist. I’m thankful though. Pain has me dizzy.
I’m given painkillers. Jake sits in the back with me as the pills begin to kick in. He takes my left hand and pets it like I’m his broken puppy.
Who gets to finally go skateboarding with a cute boy and ends up getting carted away in an ambulance? I’m a dick. A confused one. Because I was so caught up in our imminent adventure, I never thought to question why Jake asked me to go with him in the first place. We’re hardly on the best of terms. “Why did you ask me to the park with you?”
“I don’t know. Bored I guess. I might not like you that much, Mackenzie Valentine, but you sure are entertaining. Pretty to look at too.”
It actually felt like Jake and I were becoming friends, so his answer stings. I huff. “Well, your hair is too long. It makes you look like a hobo.” It doesn’t. It makes him look glorious, as if he were Tim Riggins stepping straight from Friday Night Lights and into real life. “And I don’t like you either.”
The ambulance takes a sharp turn. Jake grabs hold of his seat and grins down at me. “Yeah, I kinda worked that out already.”
JAKE
When we arrive at the hospital, Mac is whisked away for x-rays. With her gone, I expel a deep, fortifying breath and phone the Valentine household.
I’m barely given the chance to explain before the cavalry are in the car and on their way here. In what feels like minutes later, Steve, Jenna, Mitch, and Eli, descend on the hospital. I stand from my seat in the waiting room, the instinctive urge to run kicking in. I should have done it the moment I called them. Just left the hospital and never looked back. It was tempting. And easy. I’m only staying with them because the home I was boarding with lost their funding. Jenna’s taking me in a second time until she can find somewhere else for me to live.
I appreciate her help, even though I don’t need it. I have friends I can crash with until I’m old enough to get my own place. But the truth is that I wanted to see Mac again. Now that I have, I don’t want to leave, not until I have to, which isn’t the smartest decision I’ve ever made. Mac and her pack of brothers spell trouble. No sane person would deliberately pit themselves against any of them.
Yet here I am, feet planted to the floor, unable to move. It only proves my lack of sanity. My heart pounds as I face the fierce glowers bearing down upon me. I’ve broken their little girl. Vengeance will be had in one form or another, I’ve no doubt of that.
Steve Valentine, Mac’s dad, reaches me first. His presence is commanding, his body tall and wide. If you were able to choose your own father, he would be it. With sharp hazel eyes and dark brown hair, Steve is not the type of man who sits back and commands his troops. He’s the one who goes out first, leading himself into the heart of battle. Fearless, shrewd, brawny. He intimidates the hell out of me.
I straighten my shoulders.
“Romero,” Steve booms. People stop and stare at him for a moment. “Where’s my little girl?”
“X-ray, sir.”
His nostrils flare and he folds his arms—his silent, unhappy stance prompting me to add, “She’s fine. Just a fractured wrist and maybe some bruising.”
Jenna, Mitch, and Eli peel off down the hall, following the directions that lead to the x-ray room. Steve remains content to eyeball me. “Explain to me exactly what happened.”
“Mac tangled with a skateboard, sir.”
“And?”
“And the skateboard won.”
Steve draws in a deep breath. I watch his wide chest expand beneath his folded arms and wait for the explosion. “Whose idea was it to go skateboarding?”
“Mine.” I lift my chin, bracing for his anger. Only it doesn’t come. He chuckles softly instead. It leaves me baffled. “Sir?”
Steve grasps my shoulder, giving it a squeeze, a sharp one that has me wincing. Fucking ouch. “You’ll learn.”
“I’ll learn?”
He nudges my shoulder, pushing me into walking alongside him. “Trouble finds my daughter wherever she goes. Mackenzie is rash and irresponsible. I won’t have you encouraging her into any kind of risky activity. She does better at more simple activities, like reading or erm …” He clears his throat. “Well, reading is good.”