Page 35 of Heart of Dixie
I let my gaze follow his. “Damn kids, can’t they leave anything alone?” I kicked off my shoes and tucked my phone in my bra strap as I proceeded to scale the makeshift ladder we nailed into the bark of the trunk. Once I was high enough I scrambled across the limb and let my bare feet dangle. “Come on up, Deke. Remember how much fun we used to have here? All three of us.”
“I remember the three of us spending time up here.” He shoved the flashlight in his back pocket and ascended the few planks it took to reach our branch. It shook as he took a seat facing me; I held on. His voice lowered. His expression grew serious in the glow from the light he propped on the board beside him. “I also remember plenty of hours you and I were here alone.”
My body warmed. I had a recent reminder of some of that alone time to draw from, and it was a hardship to keep my body on lockdown. I studied him from beneath my lashes. We were in close quarters, his widened knees caging mine in, not touching me. If I moved even an inch or so . . .
I scooted to the left.
The limb bobbed and I let out a surprised laugh, even as the edge of my knee aligned with his. I entwined my ankle around his calf like a vine. The next move was his. Or maybe it was mine.I didn’t have a plan, only a cocktail of liquor, memories and emotions guiding my actions. I looked up and waited for him to stop surveying the area as though he’d never seen it before.
I grazed my knee against the inside of his leg to get his attention. “It’s a good thing our parents never discovered what we did up here the night before graduation. Your father would have given you that long, sad, disappointed face, but I think my daddy would have beat the shit out of me. You know how he was.” Even with his body on a cold slab and waiting to be buried, the memory sent a shiver racing down my spine. I let out a shaky laugh to chase it away. “Old Cooter would have come chasing after both of us with a deadly weapon.”
Deke was still focused on a point somewhere in the darkness. I laid my hands on his thighs over the thick fabric of his jeans. Dear God, his muscles were warm and hard. The more time I spent with the man before me—talking, laughing, dancing—the more I recalled what I loved about the boy he used to be. And how dangerous our relationship was becoming.
I let my hands follow the length of his thighs, back and forth. My thumbs cruised intimately along the inner seams of his pants as my eyes followed his gaze and stared into the night, but there were only trees past the edge of the clearing. The night was still and quiet except for the symphony of night insects. Deke hadn’t moved since he climbed onto the platform. My hands stilled on his knees. “What do you see, Deke? What are you thinking?”
His hands captured mine and wove our fingers. I stared down at where our knuckles lay against each other, his so much larger than mine. “I did it. It was me.” He finally—finally—turned to face me and the anguish on his face made me gasp.
“What was you, Deke?” I’d only been around for a few days, but surely I would have heard if a serial killer or rapist was on the loose, right? Not that I would ever believe Deke could pull that off, but—Deke reached up and proceeded to pull his shirtoff over his head. My heartbeat picked up speed. “Deke, what thehellare you talking about?”
Before I could react, he reached for my hand and pressed it to his abdomen, to a long, jagged scar I’d noticed earlier. “Goddamn it, Dixie, I asked you to fucking marry me and twenty-four hours later you skipped town like I meant shit to you. When I realized you were gone, I lifted my dad’s bottle of Jack and brought it out here. In my mind, this was our place. This was where you were. In the rustling of the trees, in the fresh scent of the cedar and pine, in the brilliant blue of the sky and the magical shapes of the clouds above. In the beat of my heart.”
I swiped at the tears coursing down my cheek. That had been the absolute worst day of my life. “What did youdo, Deke?”
“By the time Blake found me, all that was left of the treehouse was pretty much what we’re sitting on right now. The rest was in a pile of lumber over there.” He nodded his chin off to the right.
“Is that where this came from?” I gave his scar a gentle rub to indicate it.
He nodded. “Between the whiskey and the adrenaline, I didn’t even feel it happen. I felt the stitches, though. Those hurt like a fucker.”
I let out a light chuckle and closed my eyes. It would be so easy to stretch forward and rest my lips against his marred flesh. To soothe any ache and promise that the hurt was all past—that the leaving was behind us. But I would still be saying good-bye. And no matter how much I was beginning to dread my return to LA and its fast pace and glamour, Deke had a life here. Family and friends, and an election to win. Chances were, he would hardly miss me.
“I haven’t been here since that night. I didn’t realize it still hurt so much.”
Well, hell.
20
Deke
My ears had barely stopped ringing from the noise a half dozen adolescent males could create in the back of an SUV. We’d just dropped off the last of our crew and the blessed silence nearly had me weeping in gratitude.
“So. You and Dixie hightailed it out of The Barn pretty quick last night. Am I gonna get the lowdown?”
“You know, Blake, I was just contemplating how nice the silence was after all the commotion this morning. You know . . .silence.” I gave him a pointed stare. “That space of time when nobody’s talking.”
He chuckled. “Silence. Sure. You sound like an old man. I’ll just keep on driving like I’m the fucking chauffeur.”
“Wait! Slow down.”
“What?” Blake quick checked the rearview mirror. “Cop? I’m driving the fucking speed limit.”
I chuffed out a laugh. “No, idiot. Over there. Back up.” I pointed at the trailer we just passed on the left. “That’s Cooter’s house. Why’s the yard flooded?”
He pulled to the edge of the blacktop beside where the gravel driveway bisected two sections of yard, one full enough to wade in. I climbed out. Was Dixie here? I had mixed emotions about seeing her today. My heart was still a little tender from the night before. In hindsight, I should have faced the beast years ago rather than let that wound fester. I had no idea it was still so raw until I climbed the tree and suddenly felt gutted.
On the other hand, the clock was ticking down.
Blake stuck his head out the car window. “That’s one hell of a mud pond, Deke. S’pose we could line up a couple of girls, make a party of it?”
