CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“I think there’s a great beauty to having problems.
That’s one of the ways we learn.”
-Herbie Hancock
CALEB
I was so whipped.
How did it come to this?
I needed to reassert my manly authority in this relationship and quit letting Gianna get her way just because she was so damn hot. And Beautiful. And Funny. And Smart. Oh crap. I was in trouble.
I couldn’t believe I was sitting in on an art club meeting after school. Wait, I could believe it because Gianna promised if I spent an hour at art club, checking it out, she’d spend an hour in my room tonight doing whatever I wanted.
Oh yeah.
Finally, it was over. When I left the art room, Gianna was outside leaning against the wall, smiling smugly.
“Why do you look so pleased?” I placed my hands on either side of her head against the wall, and swooped down for a kiss.
“Because,” she said in between kisses.
“Because why?” I asked in between more kisses.
“Because I can tell by your face you enjoyed art club.”
“It was alright,” I said noncommittally. “What’d you do while I was in there? Sit out here, waiting for me? Yearning for me?”
“Psh, whatever! I went to the gym to watch cheerleading practice.” She looked shy and embarrassed, avoiding my eyes.
“Thinking about rejoining?”
“Maybe,” she admitted softly as her cheeks turned pink.
“You know I’ll support whatever makes you happy, right?” I tipped her chin up to look into her blue eyes.
She sighed. “I miss it. Plus, it was a good dance workout Monday through Friday. I’m going to get out of shape if I don’t rejoin or start going to the gym.”
Holding her hand as we walked out to my car, I brought her hand up to my mouth and sucked on the tip of her index finger. “I can think of another good workout you could try.”
Gianna gasped, yanking her hand away. “You are so bad.”
“You love it.” I ran the back of my fingers along her cheek. “And I love it when you blush for me.”
“It’s not every day that some guy starts sucking on my body parts,” she whispered as if we had an audience.
I laughed at her embarrassment. “I’d hope not. Don’t forget, you owe me an hour in my room tonight. There are many parts of you that have yet to be sucked on.”
Her cheeks went from pink to red. I imagined what other parts of her body I could make blush. Perhaps I’d find out tonight.
I teased my girlfriend the whole way home by hinting at all the things I was going to do to her tonight. I planned on doing everything short of actually having sex with her. I’d rather my nosy stepmother not be downstairs baking or knitting or whatever the hell she did, while I was having sex with Gianna for the first time. We’d go to my mom’s place for that. When my mom wasn’t there, obviously.
“My god, Caleb Morrison! You are such a pervert!” Gianna turned the radio up to drown out my naughty words, but the song on the radio was “Bedrock” by Young Money. I laughed as she fumbled to turn it back down.
“What’s the matter, Gianna? Does that song make you think of how I’m gonna make your bed rock tonight?” I grabbed high up on her thigh and squeezed. She squealed and pushed my hand away.
“I’ve made a deal with the devil. But it’ll be your bed rocking. Your room, remember?” Gianna didn’t seem too enthused. It hurt a man’s pride. Maybe she doubted my seduction skills. I’d just have to enlighten the poor girl.
“All this talk is making me hard-” I started saying.
Gianna interrupted so I couldn’t go on, “You are such a pervert! My virgin ears are burning!”
“That’s not all that’ll be burning by the time I’m through with you.”
“Pervert!” Gianna yelled, covering her ears. She was trying so hard not to laugh.
“Now that you mention it-” I began, but Gianna cut me off again.
“Crap!” Gianna sounded panicked and I swung my head to see what caught her attention.
Pulling up in front of the house, I understood what she was referring to. Parked right in the driveway like it belonged was a big black truck. “What the hell is he doing here?”
Gianna had her face in her hands, muffling curses. “Take one guess.”
“I’m going to kick his ass. Again.” I took my time getting out of the car and going around to Gianna’s side.
“No, I’m not getting out. I don’t want to deal with her.”
When Gianna didn’t budge, I reached down to unbuckle her seatbelt and pull her out. “You’re making me think you’re ashamed of me, princess.”
Gianna looked at me with wide eyes. “I’m not ashamed of you! I just don’t want to deal with my mother freaking out about you.”
“In my opinion, I think Josh is doing us a favor. It’s about time this came out in the open.” I guided her forcefully towards the front door.
Before I could open it, Josh came waltzing out with a satisfied smile on his face. He looked momentarily surprised to see us, but his smile soon returned. I let go of Gianna to shove him to the ground.
Gianna stepped between us, placing her hands on my chest. “He’s not worth it, Caleb. We have bigger problems to worry about.”
I looked at her, then down at Josh, then back at her. “Let’s get this over with.” Before going into the house, though, I kicked Josh in his knee. As I slammed the front door shut, I saw him limping to his truck. I’d still beat that fucker later.
When I turned around, Gianna waited with a scowl on her face. “Are you done?”
“For now, unless he wants to come back for more.” Shaking off the anger, I wrapped my arms around her. “It’s gonna be alright. I’m sure your mother can be reasonable about this.”
“Doubtful,” Gianna muttered.
As if on cue, Julie entered stage left from the living room. Gianna tried to back out of my embrace but I held my arms tightly around her while steadily meeting Julie’s shocked gaze.
“Please tell me what Josh said isn’t true. Please tell me you two haven’t been sneaking around behind our backs.”
Gianna’s spine straightened as she backed out of my arms. “Mom, quit being so dramatic. You make it sound so dirty and seedy.”
“It’s wrong! You two are stepsiblings! You aren’t supposed to date!” Julie was about to lose it, if she hadn’t already.
“We’re related through marriage. It’s not like we’re blood-related. We didn’t even know each other until recently,” I pointed out.
Julie turned towards me, eyes flashing. “I don’t want to hear your attempt to defend it, Caleb. I welcomed you into my home and this is how you repay me? By defiling my daughter?”
“Dammit, mom, quit making it sound like that. Caleb cares about me and I care about him. Plus, no defiling has taken place.” Gianna then unthinkingly added, “Yet.”
I groaned inwardly. That was not a smart thing to say right now.
Julie’s face turned red with anger as she practically frothed at the mouth. “This is going to stop right now! I’ve already called Scott and he’s on his way home. Gianna, go to your room. Caleb, wait in the living room for your father to come home. I’m going to go start dinner. This will all be settled shortly.”
Gianna let out an exasperated sound and ran up the stairs. I did as my wicked stepmother ordered and sat on the couch. This should be interesting. Twenty minutes later, I could hear my dad pull into the garage. When he came in through the garage door, I heard Julie already bitching at him about me.
My dad entered the living room with Julie at his heels yapping like a dog. “Tell him to stay away from my daughter, Scott.”
My dad looked tired and stressed. “Caleb, is this true?” He already knew it was true. He found out about it weeks ago, but maybe he didn’t want Julie to know he’d been keeping it a secret for us.
Standing up so we were all o
n equal footing, I tried to explain. “Yes, but it’s not the way Julie describes it. She makes me sound like some sort of sexual predator. I’m serious about Gianna. We haven’t even had sex yet,”
Julie got in my face. “Yet? That’ll never happen. Gianna is too good for you! Before you came along everything was perfect. It’s probably your fault she quit cheerleading and broke up with that wonderful boy, Josh.”
Now I was pissed. “My fault? It’s your fault she quit cheerleading! Ask her yourself. And as for that prick Josh, why don’t you invite him over for another talk and ask him about how he tried to force himself on her? Or about the time that he banged her head against a brick wall and knocked her out?”
“I don’t believe a word you’re saying,” Julie stubbornly denied.
I looked to my dad. “You don’t actually think I’m going to break up with Gianna just because Julie wants me to?”
I could tell my dad was confused by the whole situation. “No, I don’t think you will.”
“Make him!” Julie screamed, having definitely lost it.
“How do you suggest I do that, Julie?” my dad asked her. If she didn’t watch it, his temper would rise too.
“I don’t care how you do it! He’s your loser son! You deal with him!” Julie stalked back to the kitchen.
My dad followed her and I let out a relieved sigh. It was good to have that crazy bitch out of my face. My dad and Julie were still fighting loudly in the kitchen when Gianna peeked her head into the living room. “Is it safe?”
I held out my arms. “No, but come here anyways.” She rushed over and sat on my lap. Wrapping my arms around her, I tried reassuring her with a kiss.
Julie and my dad stormed back to the living room. Julie zeroed in on Gianna on my lap and went ballistic. “Gianna, get away from him!” Julie tried forcing Gianna off my lap, but Gianna was holding on tightly to my neck.
“Deal with it, mom! You can’t make us break up!” Gianna yelled.
“No, but I can make him leave!” Julie hollered back.
My dad would only be pushed so far. “My son has a right to be here!”
Julie got in my dad’s face now. “You don’t seem to understand, Scott. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep a delinquent like your son away from my daughter!”
“He’s just a kid! You make him sound like the scum of the earth!” He wasn’t backing down and it was clearly pissing Julie off.
“He’s not good enough for her! I bet she doesn’t even know half of the things he’s gotten up to!”
Gianna interrupted their argument, “I don’t care about his past, mom. I only care about his present and presently he’s my boyfriend. You can’t do anything about it.”
Julie slowly looked from Gianna to me to my dad. She had a strange look in her eyes now and her face was going pale. “Take your son and leave, Scott.”
My dad was taken aback. “What?” he asked faintly.
“I want your son out of my house and away from my daughter permanently. Take your degenerate son with you and leave.” She moved away from him toward the doorway. “You can come home when you send him back to live with his mom.”
“You fucking bitch,” my dad whispered. Julie’s face crumpled and she left the room.
Gianna jumped off my lap to follow her mom. A few seconds later, I heard Gianna and her mom fighting.
My dad still had a stunned look on his face. I didn’t really know what to say to him, so all I said was, “I’m sorry, dad.”
He cleared his throat. “Don’t worry about it, Caleb. I wouldn’t want to stay with a woman who looked down on my son, anyways. I think it’s best if we leave right away. I still have the condo and it’s in-between renters. We’ll go there. Go pack enough for the next few days.”
My dad looked defeated as he climbed the stairs. I’d never wanted to hit a woman before, but I was coming real close when it came to Julie.
I didn’t really see any choice but to do as he asked. I ran up to my bedroom and grabbed my largest duffel bag. I was throwing things in there when Gianna slammed into my room. “What are you doing? Where are you going?” She was panicking and I wanted to comfort her but didn’t know how. Things were so fucked up at the moment. More than anything, I was hurting for my dad. He loved that crazy bitch.
“Leaving. So is my dad. Since your mom kicked us out, we’re going to my dad’s condo.”
She had tears in her eyes. “Are you going to break up with me?”
Rushing over to her, I hugged her. “God no! It’ll be okay, don’t cry.” I used my thumbs to wipe away her tears. “Please stop crying, Gianna. It’s only twenty minutes from here.”
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to stop crying. “It’s just that I’ve gotten so used to you always being here. Are you going to switch schools?”
“I don’t see why I should. It’s not that far. I can even pick you up every day.” That finally got a smile out of her.
“My mom would love that,” Gianna croaked sarcastically.
“She’ll probably sit on the front porch with a shotgun.” I laughed just picturing it. My Camaro would never survive.
“I’m trying not to freak out here,” Gianna explained. “I need to talk to my dad. I’ll be right back. Don’t leave yet. I have to go get my phone because my dad needs to hear about how crazy my mom is acting.”
Gianna went to her room to call her dad in Houston. Would he really back her up? Or would he agree with Julie that I wasn’t good enough for their daughter? Julie said she’d do anything to keep us apart, but how much crazier could she get? She’d already kicked me and my dad out of the house in an effort to get rid of me.
Could Julie talk Gianna into breaking up with me? I didn’t think so. Julie couldn’t talk Gianna into something as small as staying in cheerleading, so I doubted she’d succeed in getting her to break up with me. The thought of not being with Gianna caused an ache to my chest. I didn’t want to lose her.
Before I met Gianna, I’d thought I was living life to the fullest, wild and carefree. Now that I had her in my life I understood what it really meant to feel alive.
What could be done about Julie, though? Obviously something drastic would have to happen to get her to see reason. As I was zipping up my bag, an idea popped into my head.
Going into Gianna’s room, I found her crying while on the phone. “Dad, you have to talk to her. She’s gone psycho. You remember how crazy she can be.”
Gianna barely glanced at me as I went to her closet and pulled out a suitcase. Opening it on her bed, I started throwing clothes and shoes in. I took the suitcase to her dresser and tossed in bras, panties and socks.
I heard Gianna tell her dad in a rush, “Um, dad, I have to go, call you later.” She got up off her bed and watched me zip up the suitcase. “Caleb, what are you doing?”
“Get your toiletries and makeup out of the bathroom.” When she just stood there, I said, “Hurry!”
She left the room, coming back a few minutes later with a large cosmetic bag stuffed full. I slipped it into front pocket of the suitcase, grabbed both our bags and said, “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Gianna asked worriedly, following me down the stairs.
“Shh!” I warned her.
At the bottom of the stairs I didn’t see anyone around, so I grabbed Gianna’s hand and we quietly snuck out the front door. I threw the bags in the trunk and opened Gianna’s door for her.
After a clean getaway, we were driving out of the neighborhood when Gianna’s patience ran out. “Can you tell me where we’re going, Caleb?”
I gave her the wicked smile I reserved for when I was doing something really bad. “We’re going to do the last thing left on your list, number eight.”
“Caleb, we can’t do that right now! My mom will freak out!” Gianna shrieked.
I chuckled at the possibility of Julie getting any crazier. “Yeah she will.”
Gianna had a dazed expression on her face. “I can’t believe I’m going
along with this. How far is the drive to Vegas?”
Book 2 of the Beware of Bad Boy series
Coming November 2013
Also by April Brookshire:
YOUNG LOVE MURDER
DEAD CHAOS
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