Trouble From the Start Read online

“Nothing’s going to happen,” she assured him. “Just like nothing happened last summer, if you’ll recall.”

  Ouch! I thought. She’d known he liked her. Maybe she liked him, too, but she had obviously moved on and wanted to shut him down.

  “So what about you, Avery?” she asked. “Hooked up with anyone yet?”

  “Nope. Saving myself for college.” I said it like I’d had a choice.

  We reached our cars.

  “See you guys tomorrow,” I said as I unlocked the door and slid inside. I inserted the key in the ignition, turned it. Trooper puttered and died. “No, no, no.”

  I tried again. Same thing. I banged my head on the steering wheel. Then nearly leaped out of my skin when there was a knock on the window. I rolled it down.

  “You got a problem?” Marc asked.

  “Yeah, it won’t start.”

  “I could be all macho and tell you to open the hood, except I wouldn’t know what I was looking at, and that could prove kind of embarrassing. But I can give you a ride home.”

  He lived in a town thirty miles in the opposite direction of where I needed to go.

  “I’ll be fine. I’m going to call home.”

  “I’ll at least wait until you do that.”

  “What happened?” Mom asked immediately when she answered. She always expected the worst when I called at night.

  “Trooper won’t start.”

  “Okay, I’ll be there in a bit.”

  “Can’t Dad come?”

  “He got called out.”

  Which meant she’d have to wake Tyler or find someone to watch him. “Mom, I can get a ride with someone; come back for Trooper tomorrow.”

  “It’ll be fine, honey. Just tell me where to find you.”

  I told her where I was parked.

  “Keep the doors locked, windows up,” she reminded me, as though I didn’t already know that.

  “See you soon,” I told her. I looked at Marc. “My mom’s coming.”

  “I’ll wait.”

  “I hate for you to have to do that. It could be a while.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll just go home and binge-watch Game of Thrones again.”

  Smiling, I got out of the car. We sat on the hood. The moon was still a bright orb in the sky. The breeze blowing off the ocean was keeping the bugs away. I could hear the lulling rush of the surf in the distance. I’d love to sleep out here some night. Better yet, in one of the beach houses. Not that I could afford the rent.

  “You should have asked Katie out last summer,” I said quietly.

  Marc groaned. “God, did I look that moony-eyed last year? Did everyone know?”

  “My dad taught me to pay attention. When we’d go to the grocery store he’d grill me afterward. What did the lady at the checkout look like? Describe the woman on the ice cream aisle. It was kinda fun.” I waited a heartbeat, then asked, “So why didn’t you?”

  “Was afraid she’d say no.”

  “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

  “Guys have very fragile egos.”

  I laughed. “Not the ones I know.”

  “Maybe you’re not as observant as you think.”

  I lay back and stared at the stars. Because there were so few lights out here, it was like looking at a velvet blanket covered in stardust. “Maybe she’s not serious about him.”

  He hunched forward, elbows on his thighs. “She is.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Guess you and I could date.”

  “Wow, with an offer like that, how could I say no?” I asked.

  He groaned. “See, that’s why I didn’t ask her out. I’m not smooth.”

  “You don’t have to be smooth. You just have to be honest.”

  “Okay, then. I’d like to go out with you sometime.”

  “And now I have to be honest. I think we’re better as friends.”

  “Guys hate the f-word. You know that, right?”

  “But friend is such a good word. It’s a good thing.”

  “Only a girl would say that.”

  Sitting up, I tucked my legs beneath me. “I think you still like Katie.”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “So we could go out as friends. The whole honesty thing—it won’t be a date.”

  “Fair enough.”

  The silence eased in around us.

  “So that Joffrey’s a prick,” I finally said.

  Marc laughed. “Yeah, he is.”

  “Have you read the books?”

  “Last summer when I should have been asking Katie out.”

  “You know, you can date and read. One doesn’t preclude the other,” I chastised. Then we started comparing books made into movies, what worked, what didn’t, and what we liked about each format. The time seemed to speed by.

  As I became aware of a rumbling, I looked over my shoulder. “Think that’s my ride.”

  “Your mom drives a motorcycle?”

  He sounded so impressed that I hated to disappoint him. “No, it’s a friend.”

  “Oh? Must be a good friend to come out this time of night.” He nudged my arm playfully. “A really good friend.”

  I slid off the hood. “He’s staying with us.”

  “I’m intrigued.”

  “It’s no big deal.” But I thought if the sun was out that he might see me blushing.

  “Don’t make my mistake,” he said. “Don’t be so afraid of rejection that you don’t take a chance.”

  Is that what I was doing? Was I so afraid Fletcher would reject me that I was tamping down any feelings I might have for him?

  Fletcher brought his bike to a halt, turned it off, and I could sense him sizing Marc up. Marc doing the same. Honestly, guys could be so juvenile sometimes.

  “This is Marc. He works with me,” I said. “This is Fletcher.”

  They each nodded, said nothing.

  “So are you going to help me with the car?” I asked Fletcher.

  “Yeah, pop the trunk. Your mom said you had some tools.”

  “Think you’ll need a jump?” Marc asked. “I can stay.”

  “Might. Appreciate it.” Fletcher got a flashlight out of the trunk, popped the hood, and shone the light over the engine. “Try to start it.”

  I did and got the same results as earlier. He fiddled with something, told me to give it another go. Trooper refused to cooperate.

  “Okay,” he said. “We’ll call for a tow truck.”

  “What about what Marc suggested?” I asked. “A jump.”

  “It’s not your battery and it’s too dark for me to get a good look so I can try to fix whatever it is.” He turned to Marc. “You don’t need to wait.”

  Marc looked at me. “You sure?”

  “I’m sure. Thanks for hanging around.”

  He took off, while Fletcher called the towing service. After he closed the hood, I popped back onto it to wait. Fletcher stood nearby, sweeping the light from the flashlight over the dunes and weeds, like he was searching for something.

  “So who’s the guy?” he finally asked.

  “I told you. Marc. We work together.”

  “Do you like him?”

  “Sure. He’s a nice guy. He realized tonight that he should have asked Katie—a girl we work with—out last summer because now she has a boyfriend, someone she met at college.”

  He stopped sweeping the flashlight around and sat on the hood. “You know you could have answered that with a yes or a no.”

  “Unlike you, I’m not a person of few words. And if I answered yes, you might not have understood that we’re just friends.” For some reason it was important to me that he completely understand that.

  “That’s good,” he said. “You shouldn’t date people you work with. Things don’t work out, makes it awkward.”

  “Like you’ve had experience with that?” I asked.

  “I hear things. So how was work?”

  “You mean other than the fact that Trooper let me down when I needed her the most? Tiring. My feet hurt.