Trouble From the Start Read online

  I propped my hip against the bike, needing some sort of support for my weakening knees. How was it that he could make me feel at once steady and unsteady?

  I ran my fingers up into his hair, relishing the fact that right now it was only us, the night, his lips moving over mine.

  Drawing back, he stroked my lower lip. “I’ve got no resistance where you’re concerned.”

  “That’s a good thing. I know you like me, Fletcher.”

  “I’m not good for you, and I’m not going to bring you down to my level.”

  Is that what last night had been about? Some misguided sense of protecting me? “Shouldn’t what’s good for me be my decision? And there’s nothing wrong with your level. It’s not beneath me.”

  “You’re smart, Avery. Scary smart. You’re going to college. You’re going to meet smart guys—”

  “You’re smart.”

  “Not the way you are.” He skimmed his fingers along my cheek. “You’ve got a future. You can do anything—”

  “So can you,” I interrupted. “You can be anything you want to be. You can have anything you want to have. You just have to be willing to work for it, to do what it takes to make it happen.”

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “I didn’t say it was easy, but someone once told me ‘easier isn’t always the right choice.’ If it was easy, it wouldn’t have value.” I threaded my fingers through his hair. “I believe in you.”

  With a low groan, he jerked me forward and buried his face in the curve of my neck. “No one ever has before,” he said in a low rasp.

  Tears burned my eyes. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to never have anyone in your corner.

  “My parents do or they wouldn’t have taken you in. Smiley does or he wouldn’t have given you a job.”

  Fletcher leaned back, studied me. “And if you’re all wrong?”

  “My dad will kick your butt. After I’ve finished kicking it.”

  He released a soft chuckle. “You’re something else.”

  “Do you like me?”

  “More than I should.”

  I couldn’t stop the joy spiraling through me. “I like you, too.”

  He jerked his head toward my car. “We need to go. Make sure it works.”

  Leaning in, I gave him a quick kiss. “We’ll talk some more when we get home.”

  I went to my car, unlocked it, and climbed in. I put the key in the ignition, turned it—

  And Trooper purred like it had fallen in love. The car hadn’t been this quiet when we bought it. Fletcher had done way more than rotate a few tires. I gave him a thumbs-up before pulling out onto the street. I couldn’t believe how smooth it drove. I looked in the rearview mirror. Fletcher was following me.

  When I pulled into our driveway, I hopped out of the car. I couldn’t wait to thank Fletcher for whatever it was he’d done to Trooper. I wanted to hug him and kiss him.

  Instead I just stood there and stared as he whizzed by. No wave, no acknowledgment at all. He just carried on and disappeared into the darkness.

  Chapter 26

  FLETCHER

  I didn’t know where I was going. I had no destination in mind. I just knew that I needed to keep riding until Avery was far away and couldn’t pull me in. She made me want to believe in dreams and a future and plans worth having. She made me smile. She made me laugh, deep down, where I hadn’t even known laughter existed.

  Dangerous, so dangerous to forget who I was, to forget where I came from. I wasn’t totally stupid. I’d taken biology. I understood genes and how they worked. That our parents contributed to our makeup. I didn’t remember much about my mother. I remembered too much about my father.

  Sometimes when I looked in the mirror I saw him in my black hair and my dark brown eyes.

  I pulled onto a narrow lane and stopped just shy of the entrance to the trailer park. I turned off the engine and started walking. It was late at night and I knew a lot of the trailers weren’t soundproofed very well. I’d wake up half the people here if I drove through. Then they’d look out the window to see who it was and what was going on. I didn’t want anyone to know I was here.

  So I strolled along. I heard the occasional bark of a dog, a TV turned up too loud, a couple arguing. I hated arguing. I hated loud talking. I hated anger.

  Me, who everyone at school was wary of, who everyone thought was so tough—I’d never hit anyone. Shoved on my dad to try to keep him off me, but I’d never hit him. He was my old man, and it just seemed wrong to even think about hitting him.

  I stopped and stared at a dilapidated trailer. It was dark, no lights on. I doubted my old man was asleep. He was either out drinking or still in jail. I’d come here to remind myself of what I was. Someone who didn’t dream, who didn’t believe life got better.

  Avery made me want to dream. She made me want to believe everything she said.

  When I was with her, I felt different. I felt clean. I felt like she understood me, even though there was no way that she could. How could she understand this when I didn’t even understand it?

  What if I had inherited whatever it was that made my dad the kind of man who’d beat on his kid?

  I believe in you, she’d said.

  Four little words.

  They scared the hell out of me.

  Chapter 27

  AVERY

  I took a deep breath, slid beneath the surface of the water, and did several breaststrokes before coming up for air. Beneath the pool, the lights were on, but other than that I was encased in darkness. In the house, everyone was asleep. I told myself that I’d come out here because I wasn’t tired, but the truth was that I wanted to be out here when Fletcher returned. He would return. He had to. But even as I thought that, I knew he could keep riding forever.

  During my eighth lap, when I came up for air, I heard the roar of a motorcycle, then silence. Relief washed through me because he’d come back. Now I just had to figure out how to act the next time our paths crossed. How to act. I hated pretending. I hated having to watch my actions or words. I’d been brought up to believe in honesty, truth, the American way.

  I sliced through the water to the edge of the pool. I could see the door to the apartment over the garage. I thought about going to Fletcher, talking to him, but he obviously needed time alone.

  I heard his feet echoing on the steps. Then he appeared at the door, stopped, turned. I thought he was looking over the fence into the backyard. He’d see the pool lights on. I didn’t know if he’d see me. I thought about waving, I thought about moving to the center of the pool so he’d see my silhouette in the water. But I stayed where I was.

  He started back down the steps. Silence. The back gate creaking open.

  I watched Fletcher stride across the lawn. He hunkered down at the edge of the pool. The lights cast a blue glow over him.

  “You’re wearing a bathing suit,” he said. “Disappointing.”

  I welcomed his teasing. Maybe things weren’t as bad as I thought. Laughing, I flung water at him. “Of course I am.”

  He glanced back at the house. “Looks like everyone’s asleep. Who would know?”

  “I would.”

  “Which room is yours?”

  I realized we’d never given him a tour of the entire house. He was just the guy who lived over the garage. “The one on the second floor with the corner window.”

  “That looks out on the garage?”

  “Yeah.”

  He turned to me. “So you can see when I come and go.”

  “If I’m in the window, but it’s not my job to keep tabs on you.” I felt the need to confess. “But that first night, I saw you sitting on the steps. You looked lonely.”

  “That’s why you came and talked to me.”

  I pushed myself away from the side, floating back. “Just like you saw me tonight and came to talk. Where’d you go?”

  “To my past.”

  “You didn’t stay very long.”

  “Decided