Page 47 of Live for Me

She stopped to smile right at me.

And it dissolved every bit of that pissy feeling I was trying desperately to hold onto.

It really hadn’t been all that difficult. Montana was new. Once I had the knife away from him, it was pretty easy. But it certainly hadn’t gone as smoothly as it should have.

“I’ll see you outside, angel. Soon as it’s dark,” I said and turned to leave her alone with her books.

Kyle and Indy were waiting for me in the kitchen when I walked back through.

“Just books?” Indy asked. “For real?”

“She said she missed them.”

“You really need us out there for this movie?” Kyle asked.

“Idon’t,” I laughed. “Trust me, the second that she suggests she doesn’t either, I’ll be happy to tell you both to scram.”

“That hardly seems fair. All that effort just for you to be the only one to get anything out of it. Least you could do is let us stay and watch,” Indy huffed.

“You’re a weird kid,” Kyle said and walked out, still shaking his head.

“You guys hear from Richmond yet?” I asked as soon as the door was closed.

“Just take the night off,” Indy said. “It’s good to see you like this, hoss. The work will still be waiting on us tomorrow.”

I went upstairs to shower as quickly as possible. As much as I really didn’t believe Memphis was remotely close to wanting the next step in a physical relationship yet, it wouldn’t hurt my case to wash the smells of gross hotel rooms and fist fights off me. The sun shot shockingly fast this time of year, so I didn’t really have time to waste.

Memphis wasn’t in her room by the time I made my way back downstairs. Nobody was in any of the common areas of the house, so I ventured out to the garage just to find myself stopped cold at the sight. Memphis had moved one blanket right in front of the projector, so that it was centered with our makeshift movie screen of the back wall of the garage. She had one of the other blankets wrapped around her already, the other two blankets piled up like pillows behind her, and she’d moved all the little coolers within arm's reach of where she was sitting.

No Indy.

No Kyle.

No anybody.

She looked at me for just a second when she noticed me, but she looked right back into her lap.

“I’ll send you back inside too if you make it weird, Utah. I swear I will. I don’t mind watching this movie by myself.”

I tripped over fucking nothing when I decided I’d better get moving before she really did change her mind and make me leave. I couldn’t get there fast enough. She laughed at me while I slid across the grass to try to slow myself down, and she definitely squealed a little when I jumped right over her to land on the other side of her on the open space of the blanket. As soon as I was sprawled out beside her, she grabbed one of the other blankets and threw it over my face.

“Everything about you really is just so fucking weird,” she said.

“You’re one to talk, nerd.”

I balled the blanket up and held it against the back of my head so I could lie back on it like a pillow.

“You really shouldn’t have gone back to my house,” she said while she stood and went to the projector to start the movie.

“Then you shouldn’t have told me you missed your books, sugar.”

She sat way fucking closer to me when she dropped back down on the blanket again. She occupied herself by wrapping the other blanket back around her, rather than risk looking at me now that she was right next to me.

“You didn’t have to do this either,” she said quietly once she’d looked back up to the wall where the movie started playing.

“We probably need to start scheduling nights off for all of us every so often anyway. Feels like this is about to get really heavy really fast with the direction we’re headed,” I said and paused. “Besides, this part was way easier,” I admitted. “I made Indy do it all.”

She smirked. “I don’t think either of them really wanted to be out here to watch this. Kyle didn’t seem overly fond ofnotsitting out here, though. Like he wasn’t allowed to leave me alone out here with you just because he knew Jersey wouldn’t like it.”

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