He steps closer, I can smell the beer on his breath. “How about you come find me when you get back down here?” He gives me a wink before walking around me, leaving me gaping at the empty spot where he just stood.
Holy. Crap. I turn, seeing his retreating back and let a nervous giggle escape my lips. That did just happen. Yeah, no way am I going to search him out. Judging by his drunk stumbles, that would be the worst idea ever.
I grab the toilet paper out of Quinn’s truck, one of the empty grocery bags, and hand sanitizer before heading over to the side of the field that seems empty enough. Walking a few paces into the tree line before I stop and push my shorts and thong down to my knees and squat. Making quick work, I wipe, toss the used toilet paper in the bag, and tie it off before cleaning my hands.
My shaking fingers make it hard to right my clothes, but after making sure my shorts are buckled, I head back out of the trees and toward Quinn’s truck again, but I stop in my tracks as butterflies take flight in my belly—right next to the bed of her truck are Quinn’s brothers, leaning against Clay’s Chevy.
“You see what Leighton has on tonight?” My jaw drops at Maverick’s question. I look down, the firelight casting a glow on my outfit. He noticed?
“Did you see Leighton?” Clay retorts as he brings his beer up to take a long drink. “My guess is Quinn got to her and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Maverick is silent for so long, I’m half convinced he isn’t going to answer his brother, but I hold my breath anyway—waiting for what he’ll say. The flutters in my stomach going into overdrive. “Hard to miss when she looks like she’s naked. What the hell was she thinkin’ wearin’ that shit?”
My cheeks flame as those stupid butterflies wither and die. No longer feeling the excited flurries because of the burn that’s taken over my gut as Clay laughs, slapping his brother on the back, and shaking his head. “Not that I need to point this out, Mav, but my guess is she’s trying to get noticed tonight. She looked pretty hot to me.”
Maverick lets out a laugh that doesn’t sound even a smidgen like a real one. It’s deep and almost spiteful. “Yeah, kind of hard not to notice. She looks like a little girl tryin’ to play dress up in her mama’s clothes. The only thing people are goin’ to notice is a kid tryin’ to play with the big leagues.”
Clay stops his beer on its path back to his mouth at his brother’s harsh words and looks over at him, the glowing light from the fire highlighting his deeply furrowed brow. “You see the same shit I saw, brother? I know I ain’t losin’ my mind and I know for a fact I’m not the only one that noticed how good she’s lookin’. Elliott already said something and I’m pretty sure I saw John talkin’ to her not even ten minutes ago.”
My heart is about to beat right out of my chest. I’m not even sure that I’m breathing as I listen to them talk about me. As I listen to Maverick tear into me, each lashing of his tongue feeling like a physical whip to my soul.
“Jesus, Clayton. It’s kind of hard not to see when she’s been paradin’ around like a whore. She’s fuckin’ sixteen and has the body of a ten-year-old boy, for fuck’s sake, so I’m pretty certain we didn’t see the same thing. All I saw, brother, was a kid desperate for some attention. Tell me you weren’t actually lookin’?”
I couldn’t stop the sob that erupts from my mouth if I tried. And of course I tried, so it came out like a gargled, wet gasp. Hearing Maverick voice all my insecurities so harshly brings a shame over me like I’ve never known. Here I was trying to get him to notice me and he thinks I look like a little boy? Tears fill my eyes as both of them turn sharply at my choked cry.
“Shit,” Clay barks and pushes off the truck to walk toward me.
I just stand there holding a tied grocery bag with my stupid used toilet paper. Tears roll down my cheeks while my heart breaks, my eyes never leaving Maverick’s face. He’s turned away from the fire now, so I can’t make out his expression in the shadows, but there is no doubt he can see the hurt in mine. I might have lost faith in the power of my crush over the years, but that doesn’t mean that my heart doesn’t still yearn for the man it will never have . . . but hearing what he thinks about me, even though I always guessed it, well, it just about nearly kills.
Clay stops in front of me, his hands clasping my shoulders just like his sister had earlier, and dips his head down to look in my eyes. “Shit, Leigh, I’m so sorry.”
Clay continues to talk softly to me, but I don’t hear his words, my focus completely on the person that I grew up imagining some grand love story around as he shakes his head a few times. I was right to give up on that stupid fairy tale, but that realization doesn’t ease the burn his words left behind one bit. Maverick is staring intently at the ground in front of him. He looks up, tosses his beer in the cab of his brother’s truck as he lifts his Stetson off his head and runs his fingers through his hair.
He looks over to where we’re standing and I jolt, my body going solid in Clay’s arms when Maverick makes the move to start walking over to us. I look back at Clay, my eyes meeting his sympathetic gaze before I return my focus in his brother’s direction. He’s maybe ten feet away, but the second he takes the first step I jump. Clay’s fingers tighten around my shoulders when I let out a strangled sob. Maverick’s booted foot makes another move closer and I don’t waste a second. The grocery bag, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer fall from my hands as I rip free of Clay’s hold and take off running toward the trees.
“Goddammit,” I hear Maverick snap. “Give me one of the flashlights.”
I run.
The tree limbs strike my bare legs as I flee, but the searing pain doesn’t slow me down. I keep going as quickly as I can.
If I can just keep going, I’ll break through somewhere around where my family’s property butts up to the Davis’s. It might take me an hour or so on foot, but the way I’m running, I’ll be home soon enough.
“Fuckin’ stop, Leighton!”
Maverick’s voice booms out around me and scares me so much that I turn my head around and blindly search through the moonlit woods, searching for him while continuing my quick pace.
That is until I smack right into a tree I hadn’t seen coming because I had been too busy trying to pinpoint his location so I could run in the opposite one.
“Shit!” I cry out when the rough bark scrapes against my thighs and left arm, bringing me to my ass before I know what hit me . . . or what I hit. I yelp when my palms scrape against the rough ground.
Judging by what sounds like a herd of elephants crashing through the woods, I know they’re close. Shame from Maverick’s words now mixing with the embarrassment I feel over my tree collision.
“You all right, sugar?” Clay questions me in concern. He drops to his knees beside me, the light from his flashlight hits my body, and I quickly kick my leg up to knock it out of his hand. “God almighty, Leigh, let me look at you.”