Within seconds she was completely drenched and the trellis turned into a slippery challenge. She used her arm to push away the wet hair out of her face as she cursed Tristan under her breath. The jerk. Like she really wanted to spend the night alone with him. Puhlease. She wouldn’t go somewhere that she wasn’t wanted and he clearly wanted nothing to do with her.
In a matter of minutes she managed to climb to her window. She carefully twined her left arm in the trellis so that she could reach out with her other hand and try to open her window.
“Almost…almost…,” she mumbled to herself. A few seconds later, she discovered, unhappily, that her window was locked. Grumbling several words that would make even her father blush, she climbed down the slippery trellis. Halfway down her grip slipped. She fell the three feet to the ground, somehow landing on her backside in the wrecked flower garden, which now mostly consisted of watery mud.
“Goddamnit!” she yelled with her hands raised to the sky in frustration.
For the next two minutes, she struggled to climb out of the muddy mess. Every time she managed to pull a limb out it was met with a loud suction noise and then a large splatter as she slipped and landed back in the mud until she was completely covered from head to toe. Oh, her day officially sucked ass.
Finally, and with one less shoe, she managed to trudge through the large pools of water taking up residence on the front lawn and made it to the safety of the front porch where she huddled next to the front door. She turned her back to the wind and rain. She pulled her phone out and sighed with relief. At least some things were looking up. Her phone had somehow survived the mud bath.
She took a minute to figure out who she should call. Her father was definitely out of the question, at least for the moment. She didn’t want to ask him to come home to let her in since he was handling a double shift. Beth and Tom were definitely out. They would only come back so that Beth could find another way to stick her with Tristan.
With her luck, Beth would lock them up in her shed out back until they promised her marriage and grandchildren. Her friends were probably out as well. Half of them were at work at the moment and wouldn’t be able to leave. The other half were either studying or with their boyfriends. Unfortunately, that half didn’t own a car or would willingly cut into their time with their boyfriends to help her out. They kind of sucked.
Wrapping her arms around herself, she cursed herself out for losing the spare key a year ago. Why she hadn’t replaced it before it came to this, she didn’t know. Oh wait, yes she did, because she was an idiot. Within minutes she was shivering. She looked wistfully across the street. Damn Beth and her matchmaking ways. If not for that, she could be happily on the couch across the street, fighting with Denny over the last slice of cake. Instead she was going to freeze her ass off out here.
She glared in the direction of Tristan’s house. There was no way in hell that she was going back there begging to be allowed inside his house. She’d rather die out here and be found in the morning as a giant mud popsicle than beg him for anything. He wasn’t that kind boy from her childhood that she remembered. He was the cold bastard everyone accused him of being. Screw him. She wanted nothing from him.
Nothing.
*-*-*-*
“It’s pouring out there, lad,” Shayne said for the tenth time.
“Uh huh,” Tristan responded absently as he fought through a pack of demons to get to the next level.
“She’s probably freezing her wee ass off,” Shayne added.
“Probably,” Tristan agreed with a smirk.
“Maybe,” Shayne cleared his throat nervously, “Maybe ye should go out there and ask her to come back here.”
Tristan chuckled. “Like hell I will. She wanted to go and play burglar. I’m not about to go beg her to come here. If she wants to freeze her ass off, that’s her business.”
“That’s cold, lad,” Shayne said, sounding shocked and a little disappointed. Tristan didn’t know why. Shayne knew that he was a cold bastard after all. Hell, everyone knew it. Still…..
“Hey, I invited her in. She’s the one who decided my invitation was lacking and hauled ass out of here,” he said defensively.
“I know, but still……”
“Still, what?”
Shayne shrugged, “It’s Marty, lad.”
He closed his eyes and groaned. Leave it up to Shayne to get to the heart of the matter. Marty was out there alone, cold, and wet and could be hurt. Even after all these years the thought of her less than happy was enough to piss him off and get him off his ass.
Tristan paused the game and tossed the controller on the couch. “Don’t f**k with my character or I’ll put child blockers on the internet and put a halt to your free p**n ,” he warned.
Shayne flipped him off and mumbled a promise to sign Tristan up on every g*y hookup site he could find if he came between him and his p**n . Knowing that it wasn’t an idle threat, Tristan kept his mouth shut and walked to the door. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get Marty here, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to beg. If he had to throw her over his shoulder and carry her spoiled ass back here he would.
He grabbed his keys, a small black plastic box and slipped it into his back pocket, and headed out, not bothering with a shirt since it would just get wet anyway. Within seconds of walking outside he was completely soaked.
A minute later he was strolling up the short driveway towards an equally soaked and muddy Marty. She was sitting on the front stoop, shivering and looking seriously pissed.
“Couldn’t get in?” he stupidly asked.
She shrugged. “Yes, I could, but it’s so much nicer out here, don’t you think?”
He sighed heavily, wondering why he’d left his warm house for this shit. “Listen, I came to invite you back to my house.”
“No, thank you,” she bit out through clenched teeth.
That brought him up short. “You’d rather stay out here and freeze than come to my house?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” he asked, unable to hide his confusion.
She pushed her wet hair out of her face and shook her head. “Just go away, Tristan. I don't want anything to do with you.”
Instead of doing what she’d asked, he ground his teeth and stepped past her. He pulled the small black box from his back pocket and kneeled in front of the door. In less than a minute, he had the front door unlocked and opened.
“How did you do that?”