He accepted my explanation, but I could tell that he still wasn’t thrilled about finding me in the backseat with Payton’s head in my lap.
“Claire’s ready to go. Do you need a lift home?”
I looked down at Payton. I didn’t want to leave her but it would be stupid for them to drive me all the way back to Collinsville when I could catch a ride home with my brother. “Nah, I’ll ride home with Jake and Gabbi.”
I opened the door and gently lifted Payton’s head as I got out of the car. Dane Wickham stepped around me and said, “I’ve got her,” as he replaced me in the backseat. I’ll be damned. I’d have taken Jessie up on the ride if I’d known another dude was going to climb into the backseat with her.
“It was nice to meet you, Nick,” Claire said as she got into the car. “And thanks for staying with Payton so Jessie and I could have a good time.”
I definitely had my own agenda for doing it. “No problem and it was nice to meet the only girl in this world that could settle this guy down.”
Claire was inside the car with the door shut and Jessie told me, “Thanks again, Hawke. I know that babysitting Mouth of the South couldn’t have been much fun when you could have been finding a chick to nail later tonight.”
It was crazy to think that I preferred to have this sleeping girl’s head in my lap rather than finding someone to bone, but there was no place I would have rather been. “Really, it was no problem at all.”
“I don’t know how we’re gonna get her upstairs.”
He was out of his mind if he was going to take her inside her house. “You’re going to carry her into her house? Aren’t you afraid of what her parents will do?”
“No, she’s spending the night with us because her parents are out of town.”
What the hell? “What do you mean by spending the night with us?”
“I’ve been living with Claire and her parents for the last six months, so that means we get to carry her up the stairs to Claire’s bedroom and pray we don’t wake The Deverauxs.
That lucky bastard. He and Claire were definitely sneaking into each other’s beds every night after the parents were asleep.
Jessie put his fist out and I bumped it with mine. “Good running into you, Hawke.” He looked at Payton passed out across the back seat. “Tonight was fun even if she did show her ass. We should get together again soon.”
Dane’s window was down. “Hey, I’m having a party at my house tomorrow night. You should come.”
There was only one reason I’d step foot at a party at East Franklin. “Is Payton going to be there?”
“Yeah, the Social Butterfly never misses a party.”
I couldn’t miss an opportunity to see her again. “Count me in.”
Sure, Payton told me she wouldn’t go out with me, but she was wrong about that. She just didn’t know it yet.
≈ ≈ ≈
I stared at my ceiling thinking of Payton for hours after I got home. Thinking about her was far better than any dream that might have invaded my head during sleep.
She was beautiful, that was a given, and her beauty certainly didn’t hinder my interest but that wasn’t what fueled my attraction to her. It was her immediate distaste for me and her smart ass mouth. Oh, how I loved to hear the sarcastic wit spilling from those venomously, glossy lips.
I was surprised I was able to sleep at all, but when I woke the next morning I rolled over and immediately reached for my phone on the nightstand. I guessed I hoped that Payton had gotten my number from Jessie and had texted or called, maybe to say thank you for sitting with her or something. Any form of contact would have made my day, but I had no such luck. All I had was a text from Samantha Hodges that read, “Get 2gether 2nite? Make it worth your while.”
There was no way in hell that Samantha and I were ever happening again, so I quickly thumbed, “Got plans,” and hit the send button. Maybe she would take the hint and get lost.
I looked at the time and saw that I had slept later than I thought because it was a little after eleven. Anything after ten should be considered neutral ground, so I scrolled to Jessie’s contact in my phone and hit the call button. It rang once, twice and then a third time before Jessie answered on the fourth ring, “Waddup, Hawke?”
“Hey, I was calling to see how everything went after you left last night. I mean, did you get Payton to bed okay?”
“Yeah, but she didn’t make it easy on me and Claire. Shit, I didn’t realize how trashed she was, but we lucked out and got her in without the Deverauxs waking up.”
“Is she still there?”
“I don’t know. I’m working at the garage today but I went by Claire’s room this morning before I left for work and she was asleep on Claire’s bathroom floor. I’m betting she’s still in bed taking it easy.”
He wasn’t gonna like this, but I had to give it a shot. “I wanna call her.”
I heard him huff through the phone. “I think Payton made it clear she doesn’t plan on going out with you and I’m not letting you hold her to that hinky bet.”
“Come on, Boone, she was too trashed for us to have a real conversation last night and all I need is half a chance to convince her to go out with me. I bet there wasn’t anyone who thought you were right for Claire and look how wrong they were.”
I heard silence on the other end and I knew he was thinking it over. “I’ll give you her number, but I’m telling you now that she doesn’t do Collinsville dudes. She likes her guys preppy and rich so be prepared for rejection because she doesn’t sugar coat anything for anybody.”
I was positive that there was a time when Claire didn’t do Collinsville guys either, but look at who was living with her and climbing into her bed every night. “Consider me forewarned.”
I hung up from making plans with Jessie about meeting up before Dane’s party and looked at Payton’s number. I felt nervous when I thought about calling her but it didn't stop me from dialing her number. I listened to five rings before it went to voicemail and then realized calling her this early after the drunk she pulled last night was a stupid idea because she was probably still in bed nursing a hellacious headache.
I couldn’t convince myself to hang up before I had the chance to listen to her sweet voice on her voicemail recording say, “Hi, leave me a message and if I don’t call you back, it means I’m not interested.” Even her voicemail greeting was smart ass.