Now I understood. Adam kissed his way from my ear to my mouth. He hooked one thumb in the waistband of my shorts. I kissed him harder.
I enjoyed it. Really enjoyed it. But in the back of my mind, I worried that if we were gone too long, our parents would find us. And I still hadn’t had a private talk with him.
I pushed him away. “We need to go before our parents wise up,” I panted.
He came right back for more, regaining his balance and bracing his arms on both sides of me again, caging me in. “I was just getting started,” he growled in my ear.
I giggled. I’d never pegged myself as a giggler, but when Adam acted like this I couldn’t help it. “Why couldn’t you get started last night?”
“I was sleeping,” he said haughtily. He buried his face in my hair and sniffed deeply. I hoped this was not too unpleasant an experience after all the running.
That was fine. I would have stood there all day and let him sniff my hair. He could take care of himself. But I couldn’t shake the feeling we were running out of time.
“Seriously, Adam, we need to talk while we can.” I put my hand on his bare chest and pushed him six inches away, where he couldn’t reach my hair anymore.
He gazed down at my hand.
“I was talking to Cameron—,” I began.
Adam grasped my wrist with two fingers, like he didn’t really want to touch it, and removed my hand from his chest.
“—about how rude you were to your mom when she offered to help us,” I finished. “Frances had heard about it too. I know you’re mad, Adam, but it doesn’t make sense for you to dig a deeper hole for both of us.”
He scowled down at me. “I’m right and my mother is wrong.”
“I know…” I almost called him “baby.” I know, baby. I caught myself in time. en I wondered why I’d caught myself. It just seemed foreign for this endearment to come out of my mouth. To Adam. And he would not have appreciated it, anyway. After sixteen years as the baby of the family, he did not consider it a compliment.
“I know,” I said again. “But Cameron said your mom would help us if we stay apart for a while first. In the meantime, if you can keep from cussing in front of her, I have a plan that might convince my dad to let us date a lot faster.”
He put his hand on my shoulder. “You make terrible, terrible plans.”
“Hey,” I protested. “One of my plans caught you, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, but you meant to catch Sean.” He took his hand off my shoulder.
I waved his concerns away, along with a cloud of gnats that had found us in the forest. “You’re getting lost in the details. Keep the big picture in mind. e plan is, I will find someone to date who is a hundred times worse than you. You will be the lesser of two evils. My dad will see the error of his ways in banning me from dating you, and he’ll let us get back together.”
Adam nodded.
I nodded with him, grinning. “Good, huh?”
He kept nodding, but his mouth drew into a tight line. “This person you want to date. It’s Sean.”
“Sean!” I exclaimed. Sean hadn’t even crossed my mind. “No! I was thinking about Kevin Ye. Do you know him? He’s two years older than us, but he was in my driver’s ed class last year because he’d flunked it twice. I’m pretty sure he didn’t graduate, what with prison and all. Anyway, one day last week when you and I were driving into town, I saw him mowing the grass with a work-release crew. Maybe I could even convince him to wear his orange jumpsuit on our date. at would really impress my dad.
Do you think Kevin Ye would go out with me?”
Adam’s hand was over his mouth, hiding his baby beard. But his light blue eyes widened with horror. I did not want him horrified. He would be difficult enough to drag into the plan as it was. Instead of just the skull and crossbones around his neck, he needed a more specific warning label that said DOES NOT TAKE DIRECTION WELL.
I wasn’t giving up. The plan was a good one. I could be flexible and change the details until Adam agreed to play along.
“You’re probably right,” I said. “Forget Kevin Ye. Sean would be easier.”
“I knew it!” Adam pointed at me. “You were trying to get Sean this whole time.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What are you saying? I planned to get Sean, I got you instead, but I was always aiming for Sean, and now I’m going in for the kill?”
“You don’t fool me. You play dumb, but you made an A in trig. You’re diabolical without even trying.” I folded my arms on my sports bra. “I’m pretty sure that’s a contradiction in terms, but remind me to look up ‘diabolical’ later.” He put his fists on his hips, which made the bare, tanned chest in front of me look even broader. “I won’t be able to give you that reminder, Lori, because we’re not allowed to see each other, and you’ll be out with Sean.”
“What is this business with Sean?” I insisted. “I thought you and Sean worked everything out. I saw y’all talking Saturday night.”
“Worked everything out? I guess. We agreed that he would not interfere when I tried to get you back, and I would not interfere when he tried to get Rachel back.”
“Oh.” I’d thought they’d talked about something more meaningful and brotherly, like how Sean had mistreated Adam for sixteen years and how Adam had begun to strike back in a big way. I’d hoped they had, because it would have meant Sean might help Adam and me out of our latest predicament. But this was too much to ask.
Before that night, I’d never seen Sean and Adam voluntarily have a talk with each other. Ever.
“Well, fine,” I said. “I won’t go out with Sean either.”
We both jumped when a bird burst from a dogwood near us and soared away. Adam watched it as it went. I watched Adam. He tracked the bird with his eyes, chin lifted as if he’d regained his dignity. I expected the next thing out of his mouth to be an apology for doubting me.
What he said was, “Who’s your next choice? Cameron?”
Brilliant! I hardly even registered the sarcasm in Adam’s voice. I snapped my fingers. “at’s not a bad idea. Cameron’s three years older than me. He’s about to be a sophomore in college. My dad will pass out. He’ll be so happy to have me dating a high school junior again! Even if it’s you.”
“Plus, you and Cameron are so familiar with each other anyway, since you’ve already made out.” His blue eyes accused me. This time his sarcasm was hard for me to gloss over.
Exasperated, I put my hands in my hair, which was a mistake because it was up in a ponytail. I only managed more of a tousled, cornered-by-my-boyfriend’s-superior-logic look before putting my hands down. “Adam, we did not make out. We kissed once, when I was eleven. I should never have told you that.” I really never would have told him if I’d had any idea he would be my boyfriend a week later and he would throw it back in my face. “I am trying to solve this problem for both of us, and all you can do is be unreasonable and furious about everything.”
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to not want you to date my brothers or a freaking convicted felon,” Adam said. “What did Kevin Ye get arrested for, anyway?
Didn’t he steal a car?”
“He stole the driver’s ed car.” I laughed. Then I saw how Adam was looking at me. “He gave it back.”
“They make you give stuff back, Lori, after they arrest you for stealing it.”
I opened my mouth to respond. I was going to say something about Kevin passing driver’s ed the third time he took it, despite his brush with the law. But now Adam was giving me a look that said, I know you are not about to defend Kevin Ye. I closed my mouth.