They The Pretty Stars (Court High 1)

“It’s okay, girl. We’re leaving,” I soothed my dog through the window. Seeing me, Hershey got on her hind legs, wagging her tail. I reached in, giving her a good pet before putting on the rest of my clothes.

“It’s only six. Maybe you’ll be okay.” Royal sat on his haunches, bare from the waist up as he gazed at his cell phone with squinting eyes. With the way his jeans slouched low on his hips he definitely didn’t have anything on underneath.

Hot damn.

My life flashed before my eyes not just due to potential repercussions from my dad, but from my sister who probably wouldn’t be too happy to know I screwed her best friend. I probably wouldn’t be if it’d been the other way around. I pushed hair out of my face. “We shouldn’t have slept together. Paige?”

“It’s too late for that now, princess.” He pushed his cell phone into his back pocket before reaching down and shrugged his shirt on. He danced blond eyebrows at me. “Don’t you think?”

He gave me a kiss after that with another one of his stupidly cute grins. I hadn’t found them cute before this morning, more so annoying.

What the hell is this boy doing to me?

I knew exactly what he was doing and he did too when he hopped off the truck bed. Landing on boots, he lifted hands for me, twirling me like a damsel before placing me down.

“You’re stupid,” I told him. “And you’re going to get me killed.”

“Not if we hurry.” He nudged me before going to the driver’s side, and as soon as I opened the door, my puppy launched out, making me giggle when she licked my face.

“Don’t worry. We’re going home—”

I turned upon a rustle in the corn maze, and with the way the breeze moved the long stalks, I actually thought I may have seen something in there. Royal tapped two short honks, making both me and Hershey freak the fuck out when we jumped. I turned, and he had an arm rested on the wheel, the truck running.

“This chariot ain’t going to wait forever, Em,” he said, wagging his eyebrows. “Get your ass in here before I change my mind about getting you back.”

Why did I have to like it so much when he called me Em?

Groaning, I braced my puppy as I slid inside. Royal went double time back to our cars, but I didn’t think it mattered how fast he went. If my dad was up, I was most assuredly dead.

*

Royal didn’t have to follow me home to make sure I got in okay, but since he did, I gave him the job of puppy handler, sliding him keys so he could put Hershey in the guesthouse. If I went inside my dad’s house having stayed out all night and with living, breathing contraband I was as good as annihilated. His car was in the garage when I pulled in and on quick time, I didn’t check to see if Royal got Hershey in the guesthouse okay before going in through the garage. I assumed the best.

“Have you lost your goddamn mind? Staying out all night? What were you thinking?”

Turned out, I should have assumed the worst, peeling my bag off in the house’s entryway. My dad was coming down the stairs, his path directly in the line of where the garage door opened to the house.

Fuck me.

Dad stepped down a stair, the epitome of rage flashing across his face. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself—”

“She was with me, sir, and I apologize. I lost track of time.”

My back shot up, and when I turned, Royal was behind me, sans dog and with my keys in his hands. He followed me through the garage.

What the hell did he think he was doing?

“You know how I can be,” he said, shocking the hell out of me. He flashed a smile. “We were just hanging out at the pumpkin patch like Paige and I used to.”

He had to have a death wish, the only logical explanation he could possibly have for coming into my dad’s house and standing up to him. I had visions of shotguns and a wild-eyed father pursing a reckless boy for taking his daughter’s honor.

Not an older man who closed his lips.

But that’s exactly what my dad did, the man completely silent as Royal stepped into his house and stared at him full on. In fact, the pair stared at each other so long I exchanged a glance between them both, and eventually, Dad worked a hand through his hair.

“I didn’t know she was with you,” he said, my jaw dropping. What the fuck? Dad nodded. “Just don’t make a habit of it, all right?”

I seriously felt like I was having an out-of-body experience, Royal standing up to my dad and my dad just taking it like he didn’t get off chiding me whenever he had the opportunity. Sometimes, I believed he actually got joy from it he’d done it so much in the past.