Just as Stubborn Read online

  “Probably hanging with his loser friends,” Gabe announced. “You pack his bag up, and I’ll hitch him to the bumper. He’s not gonna wanna go. I don’t even wanna go. Why are we going?”

  I borrowed lotion from the bathroom closet and slathered the parts of my leg where there were no Band-Aids. My jeans rubbed against my raw skin, and I walked around on my toes because I suffered the oddest sensation being minus the cast. It was almost as if I was still heavier on one side and my leg was going to snap with each step. I was glad I remembered to pack the extra shoe to the pair I’d been living in.

  “Here’s his stuff. He didn’t have any clean clothes from what I could smell.”

  Gabe tossed the duffle and my backpack into the locked toolbox in the bed of his black F-150 pickup truck.

  I quickly realized I was about to spend two days stuck in a pickup truck sandwiched between Gabe and Josh. I didn’t mind the time with Josh, but how were Gabe and I ever going to be alone?

  “You lock up the house? My dad changed all the locks and put in a fancy security system. It’s tighter than a maximum security prison. Meggie don’t like the system on. Says it makes her feel like a caged animal.”

  He scooped up a pile of books and jogged off to the coop. I watched him for a few seconds before I took off limping. His top shirt blew open in the wind. My heart revved a little as I thought about following him into his room, but he didn’t seem to be in any rush to get me alone.

  Gabe’s books fell all over the grass when he halted in the moonlight. I bumped into his back, and when I straightened up, I caught a glimpse of Meggie’s office door.

  “Why are you following me?” he asked, annoyed.

  “The office door is open.”

  He bent down to scoop up the books.

  “Shhh. Get in the truck,” he hissed.

  “No way,” I said. “Somebody broke in. I want to see if they took anything.”

  The motion-sensitive floodlight that I learned to dodge all summer didn’t go on when Gabe tapped the toe of his boot against the door. The knob had been busted off. He disappeared inside, and I followed on his heels.

  So much for security.

  After we looked around, Gabe fiddled with the handle and pulled the door tight. He made his way to the number two on the wall and let himself into his room. He marched out with a rifle case strapped to his back and a screwdriver in his free hand.

  * * *

  Ten minutes later we were standing in the parking lot of a fast food taco joint looking for Josh. I propped my sneaker on the bumper and scratched the welts and bumps on my new leg. A truck driver ogled me from where he was stalled in traffic, and then he blew his horn and whistled when he rolled along.

  “No way, José. Not even in another lifetime. Sorry, man. I’m not going anywhere near Benjamin, Texas, or Benjamin Franklin’s grave,” Josh said when Gabe announced we were leaving town.

  “Josh, she’s going to have the baby any day. She really wants you there,” I replied in an effort to help Gabe out.

  “Get in the truck. I’ll let you drive some,” Gabe told Josh as he held the driver’s side door open. “If you’re not stoned.”

  “Sorry. I got plans.”

  “Hey, dude,” some guy called to Josh from the entrance. “You coming? You got all the money, man.”

  “Catch you later, Avery. I didn’t even know you were coming out,” he said.

  I slumped into the door panel when Gabe brushed past me and grabbed Josh’s arm. “You’re coming with us. Your mom wants you down there. Get in.”

  “Gabe!” I cried as he jerked Josh toward the truck. “Let him go. What is your problem?”

  “You broke the lock on the office. Busted out the bolt and everything. Stole from your mom again, didn’t you?” Gabe asked Josh as he held his arm tight below his elbow.

  I studied Josh’s thin face, his Mohawk haircut. He looked rougher, older.

  “Gabe? What are you talking about? Josh wouldn’t do that,” I said.

  “Oh yeah? Ask him. You lie down with dogs, you wake up with stinkin’ fleas.”

  I shook my head. I’d never seen these two act like enemies. Gabe’s rage spooked me.

  “Ask him what he’s been up to. Ask him if he liked the inside of a jail cell,” said Gabe.

  My jaw dropped as Josh looked away from me and scowled at Gabe.

  “Get in the truck, or I’ll use Av’ry’s phone to call your mom and your pop and let them know how me and Caleb rescued your dumb ass from the law. How about that?”

  Gabe’s eyes flashed to me, and he glared with a knowing eye.

  “Let go of me and I’ll get in,” Josh agreed. “You don’t have to hurt me.”

  Gabe dodged the ruts in the worn-out roads as we left Williston, crossing the Missouri River, heading south. I didn’t want to know what Josh did. I couldn’t believe he did anything worse than drinking or four wheeling on private property.

  The silence brought me back to old times in the truck cab. Gabe wore his perpetual frown, and Josh listened to his iPod. My leg itched all the way to the South Dakota border and then I fell asleep. At some point, Josh pushed me off his shoulder and onto Gabe’s. I tried to curl up on the seat, but there was no room. When I really woke up, I had my nose in Gabe’s side. He had his arm around my back, a Tootsie Pop in his mouth. I lost a few good hours to sleep when I could have been staring at him.

  “Where are we?” I whispered.

  “Near Valentine, Nebraska,” Gabe answered.

  “I need breakfast.”

  “Chocolate bar in the glove box.”

  “Don’t you want to stop and eat or let me or Josh drive?” I asked.

  “You learn to drive a big truck since I saw you last? I don’t think so. It’s a lot of responsibility,” Gabe said into my hair as I whipped him with my ponytail to be funny.

  I reached past Josh’s knees where he was sound asleep against the window and popped open the glove box. A paperback fell onto his foot. I could hardly believe my eyes when I noticed a tattoo on the back of my cousin’s arm. I tried to imagine the image wasn’t there and it wasn’t naked.

  “Don’t talk responsibility to me. How many speeding tickets do you have here? Fifty? You could wallpaper the coop with these. I could afford six month’s rent in an apartment with all of those fines you pay.”

  “That’s nothing. I can pay your rent, my rent, and the White House’s rent nowadays.”

  “Never mind,” I grunted and held up the deformed candy bar. “Now can you stop? I need to use the restroom and I’m starving. This chocolate looks like it melted a few times too many.”

  Gabe pulled into a truck stop in the pitch dark. He and I climbed out. Josh wasn’t fully awake, so I tugged on his sleeve to get him to jump down. As soon as he hit the cement, he took off in a sprint.

  I stood absolutely stunned.

  “Hey, you!” Gabe shouted.

  The chase took no longer than thirty seconds, and Gabe had him in a headlock, swearing up a storm.

  “Jeez, Josh. What’s gotten into you? Where were you going to go?” I asked.

  “I got his wallet. He ain’t going anywhere fast,” Gabe said huffing. He made Josh walk in front of him like a prisoner.

  I didn’t laugh when he pretended to kick Josh’s backside with the side of his boot. Josh’s attitude had me curious.

  “Laugh out loud. Great sign to stick in front of a truck stop,” Josh said. I narrowed my gaze on the plaque in the window. “We don’t serve women, bring your own.”

  I crossed my eyes and wondered who this rude kid was. Maybe everyone I knew in Williston had a lobotomy.

  “Soon as I get there, I’m leaving,” Josh threatened as Gabe stood behind him, waiting for his half-brother to slide into the booth. For a second, I thought Gabe was going to sit beside me. He locked Josh in and yawned.

  “Your mom wants you there when she has the baby. Maybe not in the room, but for support. Why are you all of a sudden so anti-everything-Meggi
e-and-Mr. Halden?”

  Josh slapped a pack of cigarettes on the table. I didn’t recognize the foreign label. It looked French, but I wasn’t sure. He glared at me and then at his fingers as they tapped the pack. He waited for a reaction. I didn’t give him one. Neither did Gabe.

  “Let’s see. Did you ask your mom who your dad was about three million freaking times and did she lie to your face? No. Even he knew. They all knew.” Josh jerked his chin at Gabe.

  “You got that all wrong. Me and Caleb didn’t know anything. Acting like a delinquent won’t solve anything either. It is what it is. We all gotta deal with the lieutenant.”

  “It’ll be fun. I’m on vacation,” I said as I remembered that Gabe didn’t have the greatest track record at being good company for me in Texas.

  “Vacation? That’s what you’re calling this? You’re a runaway,” Gabe told me as he slumped in his seat and threw an arm over the torn vinyl bench. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, but I wanted to set him straight.

  “You shouldn’t talk. You could’ve been arrested for having an underage girlfriend,” I said.

  “Didn’t hear you complaining none, Av’ry. And I didn’t do nothing to you underage.”

  I squirmed as he leaned forward and set his elbows on the table, chin in hands, dreamy eyes on mine.

  Josh crumpled his paper placemat and threw it at me.

  “Spare me the image. She’s my cousin and you’re my brother. That’s revolting. Technically, she’s your stepcousin by me, right?”

  Gabe didn’t move other than to slide his boot across the floor and tap my foot. My stomach rumbled.

  “Josh, haven’t you discovered girls yet? You’re a little old to be disgusted, aren’t you? Meggie never said if you had a girlfriend.”

  “I don’t. I did. I mean I already discovered them.”

  The boot slid up my new leg to my knee and the eyes smirked. I was pretty sure my heart pounded visibly.

  “He discovered them on paper. Thanks to Caleb’s magazine stash. I don’t even wanna know what he does on the computer. Meggie locks the office, but I’ve caught him in there at night.”

  My cousin’s blush matched the color of the artificial rose on the table.

  “Josh, that’s gross. Can’t you get a girl to go out with you from school? Don’t they know you’re one of the Haldens now?”

  “Hey, you don’t like me for my Halden money,” Gabe sulked. “Don’t give him ideas.”

  “Whoever said I liked you?” I teased.

  I kept a straight face when Josh chuckled. It was the first time he sounded like the old Josh since we left Williston.

  A waitress approached and took our breakfast order before the sun came up. I couldn’t wait another minute for food. I was becoming impatient about everything.

  After our meal, Gabe insisted on driving until noon. We hit the same motel in Scott City that we used on our trip to Benjamin, Texas, last summer when I left his guitar behind. He paid up so we could all sleep until the afternoon. Bunking with the flight risk cramped any chance we’d have to spend time alone. I was too tired to enjoy Gabe. I told myself he was too grouchy to make good company anyway.

  When Josh took a shower, Gabe stripped to his boxers right in the middle of the room and tossed his clothes on the chair. I practically fell off the end table I was sitting on when he rammed one of the beds into the front door and then collapsed. My eyes shot right to the small scar on his side. Next, they trailed to the small scar I noticed one hot summer night on his leg.

  He called me over and patted his chest.

  “No way. We’re not alone, Gabe. Go to bed. I might take a nap later,” I said, shifting my eyes toward the bathroom door.

  “You’re gonna watch me sleep.”

  My fist went to my hip. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  He rolled to his belly and curled his arms around the pillow. I watched the muscles in his back flex, and I held my breath until it seemed as though I would die.

  “Don’t let that boy leave under any circumstance. Don’t give him any money either. Scream if he moves this bed or jumps out the window and I don’t wake up. I don’t want the wrath of the lieutenant if I get home empty handed. He’s a lunatic lately,” he mumbled. “And Av’ry?”

  I stepped closer and wilted into the chair on top of his jeans and shirt. I was so tempted to crawl in bed and wrap myself around him like a pretzel. I still missed him even though he was right there, six feet away.

  “Yeah?” I said.

  He turned his head. His hair covered his eyes.

  “Stop eyeballing my butt.”

  Two

  At dusk, we left the motel to pick up dinner at a convenience mart next to a gas station. Josh and I ordered sub sandwiches, but when he was finished, he ended up in the frozen aisle talking to a girl in a leopard print mini dress. She had dyed pink-tipped hair, and her high heels looked more like weapons than shoes. I stood at the counter flipping through magazines and tried to ignore his sloppy flirting.

  Apparently Josh had crossed to the other side. What did he possibly see in her?

  Gabe was scrutinizing the receipt he pulled out of the machine when I located him in a line of gas pumps. I only had a second to admire him before his eyes shot to me and he shouted, “Hey, where is he? I told you not to let him out of your sight.”

  “Relax. He met someone,” I told him as I swung the bag of subs in the air with each stride. My prominent limp hung on. The sneaker didn’t fit right. “She’s harmless.” I laughed. I couldn’t help myself.

  “Go find him and tell him to scamper out here. We’re gonna hit Benjamin after midnight, as it is.”

  My head flew around at the sight of Josh barreling out of the market. He called to Gabe as he ran, “Let’s go! Let’s go, Gabe!”

  A baldheaded guy with leather pants was on his tail. He dragged Casino Barbie by the elbow. I tossed the subs on the seat and Gabe tossed them out the sliding back window into the truck bed as I slid into the center of the cab. When I saw Josh vault over a line of garbage cans, I curled over, in preparation for him to jump in. He slammed the door and slumped in the seat so his head was hidden.

  “Drive! That dude’s gonna kill me. Hurry up!”

  “What the hell did you do?” Gabe sneered as he started the engine and then pulled out of the parking lot. The thug charged the truck. He got close enough to pound a fist on the side panel before Gabe peeled out into the road.

  Thankfully, no one was coming in either direction.

  I narrowed my eyes on Josh’s stained mouth as he straightened up. Pink lipstick was smeared from his bottom lip to his cheek.

  “She was into me,” he boasted and ran a hand over his unusual hairstyle. “I thought he was her dad.”

  “You got a lot to learn, brother. Girls like that are more trouble than you got time for.”

  My head swiveled on my neck. I wanted to elbow Gabe in his ribs, but I saw he was grinning wide in the shadow. Watching his toothy grin made my breath catch in my throat. I was finally with my boyfriend after spending months apart, and we couldn’t get a moment alone. I was waiting for the opportunity to ask him what he meant when he said he had plans for us. I held hopes I’d find out in Texas if Meggie’s labor dragged on. I was excited to find out if Gabe would sneak me into his bedroom at night.

  Gabe’s eyes were glued to the rearview mirror. I swung around and caught the headlights closing in. The odometer jumped. We cruised like a rocket. The hilly road made my stomach slosh around.

  “Why are you speeding?” I asked. His foot dropped the pedal again. I clamped my fingers around his knee. “Please, Gabe. It’s too fast.”

  “Punch it, baby,” Josh told Gabe as he slapped the dashboard.

  “No, don’t punch it! You can’t even see up ahead,” I yelled.

  “There’s nothing for a hundred miles,” Gabe said.

  “Slow down. Really.”

  I shot a glance over my shoulder. The headlights closed in faster than I c
ould whisk the sweat off my neck.

  “That’s him,” Josh said. He poked his fingers into the side of his forehead. “Gas it!”

  “No!” I shouted as my good foot stomped Josh’s ankle. “Don’t tell him that. I’d like to live to see Meggie’s baby. I’d like to live to do a lot of things.”

  Gabe bit his lips tight and glared sideways at me with his dark brows raised in question. I knew what he was thinking. I grimaced at his timing.

  “If he catches us, you won’t live to do anything,” he drawled.

  “Watch the road. Slow down,” I muttered and drew my knees to my chest. He was going to kill us. “I’m serious. I’ll get out if you don’t.”

  Gabe remained tight lipped and continued to speed through the dark, with only the blur of grasslands visible on the edge of the road. I released his knee. He didn’t seem to notice my hand.

  “I don’t think you can get out, Avery,” Josh teased.

  “Oh, I could if I wanted to. Watch me.” Impulsively, I thrust my arm across his lap and pulled the door handle until it clicked. The door opened halfway into the wind and surprised me. I only meant it as a threat. Josh grabbed the handle and yanked it shut. I had no idea how gusty it was.

  “Cut it out, Av’ry! You looking to be road kill? I’m gonna ditch this dipshit. Sit tight.” Gabe huffed and raked his fingers through his chestnut hair.

  My fists balled up until my fingernails cut into my palms, and I choked down my frustration. I didn’t like Gabe being sore at me, but he was out of control. He was the one taking my life in his hands.

  “They’re getting closer,” Josh said. “Go faster. You gotta lose him.”

  I felt the tires hit rocks and turtles and debris. I wanted it to stop. Any second a deer would prance across the highway, and we would end up rear-ended by the maniac behind us.

  “This time it’s your own fault you’re being chased. Next time, keep it in your pants,” Gabe chuckled. “You better not be turning into a Caleb wannabe.”

  His sense of humor returned, but fleetingly. My fear came true. Gabe shot around a broken tailpipe in the road, and I heard his breath suck in as his foot eased off the gas.