Josh & Hannah (Redwood Falls 1)

“Okay, bye.” Hannah expelled a breath and slowly walked away.

****

On Friday night, the football game was an away game, played in another town about sixty miles to the south. Hannah and Ava didn’t go, but again that night, Hannah was spending the night with her friend. The game had ended about an hour or so before, and the girls knew that Redwood Falls had been victorious once again. They were painting their nails in Ava’s bedroom and Ava was questioning Hannah incessantly about the kiss that had happened the week before, when Ava’s brother poked his head in the bedroom door. Ava didn’t lose a second and sent a pillow sailing in his direction. “What’d I tell you about knocking?”

“Shut up, Ava.” He looked in Hannah’s direction and smiled. “Hi, Hannah.”

Hannah had only met him a few times before, and she couldn’t help it now; she blushed as his eyes stayed glued to her. “Hey, Ty.”

His gaze lingered and feeling more than a little confused, Hannah looked away and dipped the brush back in the bottle of polish. She tried to stay focused as the siblings began bantering.

“You got any money, Ava?”

Her friend’s comeback was immediate, “None that you can have.”

“Come on. Don’t give me that crap. You know I’ll pay you back.”

“Get it from mom.”

“She’s not here.”

Hannah felt Ava’s head pop up from the attention she was giving her nails. “Where’s she at?”

“It’s their anniversary, remember? Dad took her to Fort Worth. They’ll be gone ‘till tomorrow.”

Hannah glanced up and met Ava’s eyes as a frisson of excitement laced with panic slid down her spine. She certainly hadn’t known they wouldn’t have any parental supervision tonight. Not that they needed any. Right? Had Ava known? By the size of her friend’s eyes getting as big and round as saucers, Hannah didn’t think she’d known, or at least, she hadn’t remembered.

Ty continued, “Come on, I need gas money.”

“What for? It’s late already.”

“We won the game. We’re having an after-party and I’m on empty.”

“There’s a party?” Ava looked from her brother to Hannah and then back again. “Can we go?”

Ty’s eyes narrowed on his sister in disgust and then just as quickly his expression turned thoughtful. “Both of you?” Ty looked from his sister and then to Hannah, his eyes piercing into hers.

“Yeah, Hannah’s spending the night.”

“You want to go to a party, Hannah?” he asked, his eyes dropping to her lips before looking back up again.

Hannah glanced from Ty to Ava who was nodding her head frantically, trying to get her to agree. “I guess, maybe. Where’s it at?” Hannah knew she should decline. There was no way in hell her parents would want her running all over the countryside with Ava and her brother. But they’d never know. And she really wanted to go. When would they ever get another chance like this again? Most of the girls at school hated Hannah, and Ava wasn’t in a much better position, either. And the fact that they could show up to the party with one of the football players? It was really too good an opportunity to pass up.

“Nathaniel’s place out on County 165. His parents are in San Antonio buying stock. Gonna be bad-ass. We got a keg and everything.”

Excitement and trepidation in equal measures screamed through Hannah’s brain. Ava was already jumping off the bed and pulling drawers open and throwing things left and right as she searched for something. “We’re in. Right, Hannah?” The other girl didn’t give Hannah time to answer as she tossed out to her brother, “Give us fifteen minutes to get ready. I’ve got money for gas.”

“Give me the money now and I’ll go fill up and then come back and get y’all.”

“No way! Do you think I’m stupid? You’d take the money and we wouldn’t see you again!”

Hannah listened to the verbal byplay between the siblings as Ty’s eyes focused on her and didn’t look away, even as he answered his sister. “I’ll come back and get y’all, Ava. Just give me the money.”

“No.” Ava was adamant.

Hannah felt shaky from the heat coming from Ty’s eyes. He was good-looking, no question about it. He wasn’t Josh Turner, nobody in this world was, but suddenly and shockingly, Hannah realized that she was the reason they were going to get to go to this party. Well, and the gas money, of course. She didn’t want him to get the wrong idea, but so far, all he’d done was throw a few looks her way. She swallowed deeply. “I think he’ll come back for us, Ava. Go ahead and give him the money.”

Ava looked up from her stack of shirts and Hannah knew she saw the look on her brother’s face. Turning back to her top drawer, she peeled some bills from a stack of money and jammed them at her brother’s chest. “If you don’t come back, I’ll make your life a living hell, big brother.”

He just grinned and turned away.

****

An hour later, Hannah followed behind Ty and Ava as they walked from the truck to the front door of the house where the party was located. Her insides quaked as she crossed her arms over her chest. Already, Hannah could hear loud music spilling from indoors, bleeding out into the inky blackness of the night. She was so out of her element here. “Don’t you dump me this time, Ava!” she hissed in a loud whisper, only half jokingly, her insecurities rearing up.

Ava turned back to wait for her, and Hannah could clearly see the excitement shining from her friend’s eyes, as well as remorse for what she’d done to Hannah the week before. “I won’t! And don’t you leave me hanging, either.”

“Not a chance of that,” Hannah mumbled, trying to breathe evenly as the house with all those kids inside came closer.

“Right. You say that now. But I bet you ten bucks Josh Turner’s in that house,” Ava said.

That was the one thought that kept blaring through Hannah’s brain in a rapid-fire beat. She wanted Josh to be in there, but she had no idea how she should act or what she should say to him, even if she got the chance to speak to him at all.

When the girls got to the front door, Ty had already been given a cup of beer and was holding it in his hand as another senior, one who Hannah recognized as a member of the football team, stood glaring in their direction. He looked away from them and settled his gaze fiercely on Ty. “What the hell, Anderson? You brought your little sister?”

Hannah was standing so close to Ava that

she felt it when her friend froze, her body turning to stone as she stopped in her tracks and didn’t try to go any farther into the house.

Ty swallowed a gulp of beer. “Had to, man. Needed gas money.”

The guy guarding the door stood frowning at Ava. “No, I don’t think so. She’s not coming in here.”

“What the fuck’s got up your ass, Ethan?” Ty asked as he looked down at his buddy’s hand that was plastered in the middle of his chest, stopping him from moving forward.

Hannah stood frozen behind her friend as Ethan’s eyes broke away from the intense look he’d had on Ava and landed on her. “Who are you?”

“H-Hannah.”

“This is a party for seniors, Hannah. Are you a senior?” he snarled sarcastically.

Hannah knew good and well it was a rhetorical question because Ethan had to know she wasn’t a senior. “No. I’m a sophomore,” she confessed.

Ethan looked from Hannah back to Ava, his eyes stopping and running down Ava’s body before blasting his heated look back to Ty. “Right. They’re sophomores, Ty. You got a goddamn brain in your head?”

“Shut the fuck up. They’ll be fine.” A loud feminine squeal called out Ty’s name and he jerked his head around. Hannah watched from her place in the doorway as an older girl, still outfitted in her cheerleader gear, threw herself into Ty’s arms and hugged him.

He smiled at the other girl, and then turned back and looked in Hannah’s direction with an expression she couldn’t completely identify, but it looked regretful. The older girl was pushing herself against him and he wrapped his arm around her waist. He issued one last warning to Hannah and Ava. “Stay together. Don’t leave with anybody but me, and you only get one beer each. Got that? I’ve got no desire to clean up girl vomit tonight.” With that, he took one last look at his sister and said, “Be good,” and then he brushed past Ethan and walked into the party, the cheerleader hanging onto his arm.

Hannah’s heart beat loudly in her chest and her feet stayed rooted to the floor, but Ava wasn’t so intimidated and she glared up at Ethan. “Are you going to let us in?”

Ethan continued to stare down at Ava, sizzling anger fuming off him, but he didn’t speak. From her position behind Ava, Hannah was about to say something to try to lighten the dark atmosphere when she spied Josh Turner walking up behind Ethan. Anything she’d been about to say died in her throat as her blood started pumping at such an accelerated pace she could hear it ringing in her ears. Josh’s hand landed on Ethan’s back and Hannah knew he hadn’t seen her yet. Even with Josh’s height, Ethan was almost as tall as his friend and built like the linebacker that he was. He easily blocked most of Josh’s view.