"You bringing her back here?" Sam stiffened beside me. He was my best friend and knew my concerns about other people knowing my situation.
"I'm not sure." I shrugged and pulled open the door as the icy winter wind smacked into me. "Fuck. It's going to be a rough ride tonight."
"Just get in the damn truck with me. Your mother would be upset to know you're riding that bike, anyway." He closed the door behind us. "Speaking of...how is she?"
"She's good. Better. She's at work tonight, and yes, she's taking something for her cough. They checked it out in the hospital and hooked her up." I pulled on my helmet and nodded at him before starting the bike and riding toward the party.
My first hope was that Val was going to be there tonight, but my second was that she'd let me take her out to the lake for a little while. It was incredible out there, and even though it was far too cold to be out and about, we wouldn't stay long. I just loved how beautiful it was up there and had yet to get the chance to share it with anyone.
I owed her something for helping me with the swim tryouts – or maybe I didn't.
Either way, I wanted to do something nice for her. It was a bit self-serving seeing that my true desire was to drag her in deep and see her again. The plan was to take it slow and let her warm up to me before I unleashed just how badly I wanted her in my bed – and maybe in my life, as well.
That part would be up to her.
Chapter 13
Val
"I'm really not in the mood to do this," I mumbled as I worked hard to pull myself from the brinks of depression. I shouldn't have taken my friends to my mother's earlier that day. It had all of us in a shitty mood as we headed out to Ben Thatcher's party. It was sure to be a lot of fun, but being in our current state, it was going to take more than some handsome guys and good beer to pull us through.
"Me, either, but we're not letting your mother win." Katelyn reached over and squeezed my arm. She was riding shotgun and my other two friends were in the back, chattering about something.
"True. I just wish I had something to look forward to." I ran my fingers through my hair and pulled into the half-frozen field in front of Ben's house.
"Maybe that cute football player will be here tonight." Katelyn lifted her eyebrows at me.
"Kade? No, thanks. He's a good guy, but I'm going to butter him up for Amy back there." I smirked and turned the car off.
"I'd love you forever and a day if you could do it." Amy squeezed my shoulders from behind me before we all piled out of the car. "Something tells me that you're much more his type than me, though."
"You never know." I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and let out a long breath and started to chant, "I'm going to have fun. I'm going to have fun."
"Yes, we all are." Lucinda moved up on my other side as we approached the large house ahead of us. All the lights were on and music was blaring from the open front door. Seeing that we were halfway out in the country, there was nothing to be concerned with, nor anyone to really bother. Ben's nearest neighbors were a mile back toward town.
"Woohoo, more pretty girls." Some random guy greeted us at the door and lifted his beer toward us. "The liquor is in the kitchen and condoms in the bathroom. We're sure glad you girls are here."
"Brother." I rolled my eyes as I slipped past him and tried to settle myself. I might be hanging over the edge of a shitty mood, but the party would help. I didn't mind mingling so much, and there were plenty of people in the room that I didn't know.
"There she is!" Dill reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me into a group of basketball guys. "She totally scored the first three points. Tell them, Val. They don't believe me."
I shrugged. "No clue what this guy is talking about. I'm head of the homemaking group at UMN."
He laughed loudly as I turned to find my friends again.
Katelyn was wrapped around Martin in a far corner of the living room. A twinge of jealousy raced through me. I didn't want a perfect match by any means, but it would have been bliss to simply find a guy that I could spend my time with, maybe invest in a little.
"Here you go, my friend." Amy handed me a glass of blue punch. "Bottoms up. This night is sure to get better after we have a few of these."
"Who's designat
ed driver? I thought I was?" I accepted her offer and took a quick sip. The tangy punch was delicious, and I could see myself taking out a pitcher of it all on my own.
"Lucinda is going to take your turn. You need tonight more than the rest of us." Amy brushed my hair with her fingers as her eyes moved across me. "Did you invite Tate tonight?"
"No, but I wonder if he went through with the try outs today." I turned to find Martin and Katelyn taking a momentary break from their make-out session and decided to go straight to the source. "Let's go find out."
"You do that. I'm starving. I'll catch up with you in a minute." Amy smiled before heading back into the kitchen, where I assumed Lucinda was.