Just as Stubborn Read online

“I slept,” I said. “You feel okay?”

  “Yeah, why?” he replied.

  I thrust my hands in the pockets of my jeans. My eyes widened. He was wearing glasses. I’d never seen him in glasses. The drumming in my chest intensified, a pinch of excitement stung my belly. He looked unbelievably amazing. For a second, I forgot what I had been obsessing over.

  “Because you drank the entire beer aisle, that’s why.”

  “Naw. I didn’t drink much. It’s not my thing. I was tired. Where’s Caleb? He was passed out in the room next to you.”

  I froze halfway to the table and held my breath.

  Next to me? He checked?

  “In the master bedroom,” he added. He pulled the glasses off in a hurry and closed them in his hand.

  “I didn’t know.” I glared at the glasses, wishing he’d put them back on. Apparently, I didn’t know a lot of things. Like the fact that Gabe wore glasses or that Caleb slept next door. Or that it was Caleb who snuck into my bedroom and fooled me until it was too late.

  “Oh. Uh…these? Yeah. I had to get them for reading. It’s dark in here. Pretend you never saw them.”

  Gabe grabbed a broom from the utility closet and walked into the living room. He wore his jeans and a fresh T-shirt. I grinned when I noticed he had on his cowboy boots. I liked the look.

  I wanted him to put back on the glasses. It was highly unlikely that I would forget he had them.

  “This’ll get him up and out. He’s not staying. I don’t care if the road is closed and he has to detour to China.”

  He lifted the broomstick several feet into the air and pounded on the lowest section of ceiling. His muscular arms stretched over his head. After a moment, we heard something hit the floor. Gabe strolled back to the kitchen, wearing a satisfied grin.

  “Gonna rain all day again. I can feel it.” He rubbed the back of his neck. I loved how his hair was a little longer than I remembered.

  “We hardly ever get November rain. If anything falls from the sky, it’s usually frozen,” I replied.

  “Hungry? Or did you stay up all night eating through the pantry?” He motioned to the boxes on the counter. “You look good. I like your hair all wild.”

  I closed my eyes and ran a hand over the length of my hair. I was so flustered I forgot to look for a comb. “It wasn’t me that made that mess. But I’m thirsty.”

  “All we got is water and warm Cokes. Fridge is dead. Help yourself.”

  A strawberry Pop-Tart box sat crumpled on the countertop beside an empty can of peanuts. Caleb must have gotten the munchies. I glared out the window at the backyard. From what I could see in the rain, there were gardens and a huge in-ground pool.

  “I tried your phone. Still nothing,” he said.

  “I thought you were allergic to phones.”

  “I was wondering about Meggie.”

  “Did you know there’s another cabin out there?”

  Gabe stepped over to the sink and rested his back without looking out. He jerked his elbow into mine and smirked. “Pool house, two bedrooms. Lake’s right there.”

  I drew my eyes through the rain and focused on the backyard. I had to tell him what happened last night before Caleb did. He would figure it out.

  I let Caleb kiss me. I could hardly repeat it to myself without needing to gag.

  “Jeez it’s dark in here,” Caleb said as he stumbled down the last step. “What’s going on? Who got me up?”

  “Time for you to go,” Gabe said from the sink. He inched closer to me so I could smell him. He’d used a new shampoo. Had he taken a cold shower?

  “After the party I brought you last night? It’s my birthday. You can’t kick me out. This place is just as much mine. It’s big enough for all of us.”

  “Then we’re leaving,” Gabe drawled.

  “I need to change,” I said in a hurry. “I need my bag from the truck.” I knew how Gabe made hasty decisions to run off without any notice. I had to brush my teeth and comb my hair before I returned to civilization. I needed to wash Caleb off of me.

  “I’ll get it. I’m gonna try the radio in my truck. Find out what’s happening,” Caleb said as he approached us at the sink. He dragged his eyes on the ground but looked up just to catch my eye. My throat tightened as he stretched past me and pulled a pitcher off of the shelf and proceeded to fill it with water. His arm brushed against mine on purpose.

  At least he didn’t say anything. Maybe he forgot.

  I took a seat at the table and watched the brothers, standing side by side, Caleb guzzling a gallon of water with both hands wrapped around the pitcher. Drops dribbled down his chest and into his waistband as he wiped his mouth. They were built from the same mold. It was uncanny.

  Both had their hazel eyes on me, watching me watch them.

  “You got a case of double vision, legs?” Caleb asked humorously. He dropped the pitcher into the sink. “I feel like I slept on a bed of nails. I think I broke a rib.” He slid his hand over his heart and winced.

  “I guess you don’t die after twenty-four beers,” Gabe said.

  Caleb turned fast and flipped Gabe’s HalRem hat off his head.

  “I’ll get the bags,” I announced and stood. I wasn’t interested in witnessing another wrestling match.

  “No, hey. I’ll go. I need some air. This place is stale.” Caleb took his shirt off the banister where he had left it in the night. “Send for the Coast Guard if I don’t come back.”

  Part of me hoped he’d get lost.

  * * *

  “You don’t strike me as a rainbow and hearts kind of gal,” Caleb teased as he dangled a purple backpack in front of my eyes twenty minutes later. It was covered with silver stars.

  I wasn’t going to speak to him, but he seemed clueless about his behavior. “That’s not mine.”

  “Well, butter my biscuit. Gabe’s got a thing for Hello Kitty notebooks and watermelon gum.”

  Gabe tore the sack out of Caleb’s hand. “Where’d you get this?”

  Gabe liked watermelon gum. It was somewhat funny.

  “Back of your truck,” he said as he swiped a hand through his wet hair and dropped my bag in front of me.

  Gabe kicked the backpack. “It’s not mine.”

  “Well, this isn’t mine unless I’ve been moonlighting as Kid Rock.”

  He waved a leather wallet in Gabe’s face and then tossed it over his shoulder.

  “There’s no radio. No satellite. The one local station they got out here is all static. I wonder what’s going on back home,” he said.

  “This really isn’t mine.” I pulled open the wet bag and jostled the contents. “How did it get in the truck? The groceries are all in the bags still. Wet, but nothing is miss—”

  “What’s missing?” Gabe asked.

  “The candy’s gone. All of the candy you bought,” I replied.

  “Kit Kat burglar? She must be related to you, little brother,” Caleb told him and laughed.

  I scooped up my bag and took the stairs, cautious of my leg and the fact that Gabe was antsy to leave. In the bathroom, I sat on the edge of a whirlpool tub just like the one I saw in Gabe’s bathroom in Benjamin and examined my bandaged leg. I dug inside my bag for a Band-Aid but pulled out my brush instead. After I dealt with the snarls in my hair, I got up to test one of the hand creams I spotted on the countertop and dropped it in the sink when I heard rustling.

  “You better not be a mouse,” I mouthed. “Gabe? Please don’t try to scare me.”

  The noise sounded again, and I knew it was alive, whatever it was. I stepped up to the shower, though my pulse throbbed a warning march. There was no way one of the brothers snuck in while I was sitting there. I was sure it wasn’t the wind. With a quick flick of my wrist, I yanked open the shower curtain and my heart slammed my ribs.

  I drew my eyes upward from a pair of sneakers all the way to her wet head. I jumped out of the way and released a scream that ricocheted off the tile floor and repeated over and over in my head. My
fragile leg buckled on impact.

  The girl’s scream matched mine in volume. She stumbled out of the shower stall, pulled open the door to the adjoining room, and bolted.

  I covered my heart with my hands and dragged myself to the doorway as Gabe shot around the corner and bumped into my shoulder.

  “What in the damn blasted universe are you shouting about? I’ve never heard you shriek like that.”

  “There’s a girl in there, Gabe. She jumped out of the shower,” I panted and pointed.

  Caleb sauntered in the same door the girl left through and stopped in front of me with a scowl on his face.

  “What the freak was that? My dang head’s already pounding, legs.”

  “She’s in there! Go look.” I waved my hand at the doorway behind him.

  “Who?” Caleb crumpled his forehead in amusement as he came to stand in front of me. My eyes dropped to my fidgety hands; my back pressed against the sink. I couldn’t look him in the eye or at his mouth. I was afraid he’d bring up the accidental kiss. “There’s only us in here.”

  Gabe pushed his useless brother out of my space and into the closet door. I heard a knock on the roof outside the window as we gathered in the bedroom.

  “She must have jumped,” Gabe said as he looked out and pulled open the window. “Hey you!”

  I stuck my head into the warm drizzle as his hands disappeared over the windowsill. I watched him slide down the roof and onto the porch cover. I didn’t see her again. My gaze flung around to catch Caleb watching me.

  “Aren’t you going to help him?” I asked.

  He still didn’t move, aside from rubbing his temples.

  I carefully skipped down the stairs and glanced out the front door for any movement in the downpour. A patch of light glimmered through the clouds, but it was so small the haze was going to eat it up. Scattered branches stuck under the truck’s tires, in the grill.

  Caleb barreled out of the front door and ran past me like a man on fire. His boots smacked in the puddles. I didn’t know what was going on until Gabe came around one side of the house and shot toward the line of canopy trees that bordered the drive. Caleb headed in the same direction.

  I spotted her.

  She was fast. She sprinted into the backyard past Gabe as he took off from where he had stopped to catch his breath. The girl was soaked, with her long hair pulled back. I couldn’t imagine what she was doing in the cabin or why she followed us to the remote area.

  “Hey you!” Gabe hollered from the side yard.

  I shuffled to the corner of the cabin and witnessed Caleb leap at the girl and slip on the grass, almost catching her leg, but not fast enough. He landed on his side and swore a line of profanity like I had never heard before.

  “She’s coming around the side,” Gabe told him. “You stay here. I’ll run her back. She’s got nowhere to go.”

  Caleb didn’t listen to his brother and instead ran around the opposite side of the house and vanished. I wasn’t in any position to run, so I leaned on a column and waited under the shelter of the porch.

  I spied the girl dart at Gabe’s truck. Caleb was on her tail. He must have been waiting beside the cabin. She ran around the truck, and he chased her until Gabe joined him.

  “I’m mighty fast, girl. Whoever you are, you aren’t getting out of here,” Caleb warned.

  Gabe crouched beside Caleb’s silver Raptor, the exact replica of the truck he had before his rollover accident in the summer. He waited for her to pass. He reached his hand out and almost caught her sleeve.

  “Dang, girl. She’s a speedy one!” he shouted.

  “I’ll get her,” Caleb yelled into the rain as she took off for the woods again. Gabe sprinted after him.

  Hardly a minute later, the brothers emerged through the trees, Gabe behind Caleb, drenched. They walked with a similar stride, looking like twins.

  “She took off,” Caleb informed me. “She’s just a kid. I nearly broke an ankle running in these boots. Remind me to wear tennis shoes next time I hang with you two.”

  I stepped back as Gabe kicked the ground beside me and then launched a rock into a pond that had formed in the yard.

  “I’ll check her bag again. Get her name,” I said.

  “So we can turn her in,” Caleb replied.

  I dumped the purple sack all over the entryway floor. We dove into the pile like it was a downed piñata. I pushed around the gum and some paperbacks and read the off-beat titles. Notebooks were covered with doodles of hearts and peace signs. They looked like journals until I thumbed through the pages and realized they were full of music.

  “She reads unusual books and composes,” Gabe said as his eyes appraised the music compositions. I could tell he was impressed. They looked impressive to me too. Maybe she copied them. “Did you get a look at her? Something was odd. I think I’ve seen her before.”

  “Plastered on a milk carton,” Caleb said and sneered as he picked up a pocket knife and swung it around. The blade shot out and my shoulders jumped. “Jeezus creepers. She was armed.”

  Thunder cracked in the distance.

  I remembered her face. “She was at the market. She’s the girl who was running from that blond guy. I’m pretty sure now that I think about it,” I told Gabe while he studied one of her paperbacks in detail. “She had on sunglasses. She was in trouble, remember?”

  Caleb and Gabe both straightened up. Every time I caught Caleb’s eye, I thought he was going to expose me. He always had that mischievous look that made me crazy. Everything was a joke to him.

  “Well done, mystery solved. Little girl pinched the wallet,” he said.

  “We should help her, shouldn’t we?” I asked.

  “Naw. She’s a crook. Why would we? Just lock the doors. Did she say anything at the store?” Gabe asked. “Were you talking to her?”

  “She asked if you were my boyfriend.”

  Caleb fell back on his elbows and laughed. “She’s fast as greased lightning, but she’s got sorry taste if she’s into you.”

  “Up yours,” Gabe snapped.

  “Can you go find her?” I pleaded. “In case she’s not okay. It’s terrible out there.” I stared at the notebooks and wondered how old she was. I was just as guilty of drawing hearts around the name of the boy I loved.

  An engine started up. We all jerked our heads to the front yard. Gabe jumped up and breezed out the door faster than I could blink.

  “My truck! Goddammit! Get back here!” he croaked.

  “What in the blue blazes?” Caleb’s voice cracked. “Sweet merciful crap. She can drive.”

  I strung our bags on my arm, scooped up the girl’s notebooks and as many of her belongings as I could, and slammed the door behind me.

  We were leaving. I didn’t even have to ask.

  “Step on it or let me at the wheel,” Gabe told Caleb as his head unscrewed from his body. “She’s gonna crash my damn truck. You gotta catch her.”

  The wipers were not working fast enough to clear the downpour. The girl knew how to handle a truck better than I did. She was already out of sight when we got moving.

  I scanned the radio stations while I sat sandwiched between the two dripping wet bodies. Caleb was going so fast he could have passed a bullet train.

  “How in the freaking hell did she get my keys?” Gabe turned on the heater full blast.

  Caleb grunted. “She broke in. Aren’t you supposed to be the genius?”

  “The back door,” I remembered out loud. “She must have come in last night to eat some of the food.”

  Gabe grunted, “Dang. Can’t you go any faster? That girl’s a maniac.”

  Frustration radiated like steam off of Gabe’s body.

  Caleb hit the gas, and we cornered so hard Gabe grabbed my shoulder and held me back as the truck spun out on the wet road.

  “Please be careful,” I pleaded. “We’re not going to find her if we’re all dead.”

  “Oh, we’ll find her. I’m gonna ring her neck and turn h
er over to the authorities. Hurry up. I swear if my truck has one ding—”

  I opened the girl’s bag and stuck my hand inside the pockets. When I got to the zippered section, it crumpled and I knew there was something more at the bottom.

  “It looks like it was a flyer at one time. All that’s left is a zip code and maybe that says Red’s something. She drew a bunch of hearts all over the words. Maybe it’s a restaurant.”

  Caleb’s eyes came off the road to glance over my lap. “That’s in Tennessee. Memphis, Tennessee.”

  “How do you know that zip code?” I asked. “It’s so random.”

  “I know a fun gal from Memphis. She was a nurse in Williston for a while, sends me postcards the old fashioned way,” he replied.

  “The ones with the lipstick kisses Meggie pins up in the office. You got girls all over the freaking map,” Gabe muttered under his breath.

  “That’s where Graceland Mansion is,” I told them. Otherwise I knew nothing about Memphis.

  “No way my truck will get there on half a tank. She’ll have to stop,” stated Gabe.

  “We’re dealing with a nerdgirl who reads strange books, writes music, and hoards candy. Now she’s got a thing for Fords. Sounds like Gabe’s soul mate,” Caleb laughed. “She got anything else hidden in there?”

  “This notebook says D. R. loves somebody in a heart on the inside cover. It’s scribbled out. Not much help,” I answered.

  We traveled forever without passing a turnoff or an intersection. I was starting to believe all of Texas was barren, straight, and under an eternal black cloud.

  “There’s a sign sticking out of the trees up ahead. Pull over when you get to it.” Gabe slapped the dash. “I think it’s one of those Big Al’s truck stops.”

  Caleb pulled into the establishment. There were no lights on inside the building, and nothing was lit up near the pumps. My eyes scanned rows of tractor trailers and tow trucks.

  “Spread out and look,” Gabe ordered as he slid off of the seat and then charged into a maze of eighteen-wheelers.

  Caleb grabbed my arm. “If she didn’t stop here, she crossed into Arkansas.” I shook his hand off.

  Gabe stopped short of the gas pumps, short of a shelter where a handful of men took cover and smoked. I glanced at his face and read his sour expression.