Page 16 of A Real Goode Time

Instead, however, she slid her arms around my neck in a hug. God, she smelled good. Felt good leaning against me. Soft, warm. I hugged her back.

“Thank you, Rhys,” she whispered. “I’d still be out in the rain if it wasn’t for you.”

“Yeah, I—no problem. It’s my pleasure to be able to help you out.” I had to let go. Didn’t want to, but if I didn’t let go, my idiot dick would start thinking something was going to happen, and I’d never sleep.

When I let go, so did she, and there was a split second, a brief moment when we were within kissing distance, and I felt an electric sizzle like static jumping from my lips to hers.

A heartbeat…

And the moment passed.

I stood up. “I, uh…I’ll hunt down some extra sheets, blankets, and pillows. I think there’s some in my closet.”

She licked her lips, watching me with an expression on her face, one I couldn’t hope to fathom. “Yeah, I’ll open this up,” she said, gesturing to the pull-out.

It wasn’t an awkward moment. It was…tense. Thick with chemical reactions.

I dug the extra sheets and blankets from the top of my closet, brought them to the couch, and I flung the fitted sheet toward one corner, and Torie, already on that side of the bed, took it and fitted it onto the corner of the mattress. Working together, we finished the job as if we’d been making a bed together forever.

It was a stupid little thing, but something about the ease with which Torie and I moved in synch stuck in the back of my head as being…shit. Something? I had no words for it, but it was just a tickly, niggling, fuzzy little feeling of…rightness.

Too bad she was going to Alaska, and I’d never see her again.

“I’m uh…gonna go.” I spotted her wet things on the bathroom floor. “I’ll toss your stuff through the washer and dryer.”

She grabbed her backpack, pulled things out of it—hairbrush, cell phone charger block and cord, and a handful of other items.

I also spotted a Ziploc bag with something green in it—she was quick and crafty about the way she moved it so I wouldn’t see it, but I did.

“Rule breaker, huh?” I said, grinning.

She seemed embarrassed. “Yeah.” A shrug.

“Hey, no judgment here.”

She lifted the bag and held in up, displaying it. “You ever smoke pot?”

I shook my head. “Nah. Was offered it a few times, but I was too scared of getting hooked on pot and ending up a meth-head like so many people I knew, so I just never had the balls to try it. I knew my only shot at getting out of the trailer park was keeping clean, saving my cash, staying out of trouble, and leaving the very second I had my diploma. I’m a follow-the-plan kinda guy, anyway. Not really rules, just…I figure out where I want to be, make a plan to get there, and I don’t deviate from the plan.”

She withdrew the small bag. Eyed me. “Now that you’re out, and on your own…interested in trying?”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to seem like a straightlaced nerd. I wasn’t. But old resistances died hard. But like she said, I was on my own, running my own business. Why not?

“Sure?”

She shrugged. “No pressure. Just offering.”

“Would you smoke right now, if you were at home?”

She nodded. “It’s been a hell of a day. One little hit will take the edge off my stress and let me actually fall asleep. Otherwise I’ll be up for hours, no matter how tired I am.”

I snorted. “That I get. It’s hard as hell for me to fall asleep. My brain is just always going.”

She fished in the outside pocket of her backpack, and pulled out what looked like a ceramic cigarette, and a clear red plastic lighter. She opened the bag, reached in, pinched off a tiny bit, thumbed it into the tip of the…whatever that thing was called. It wasn’t a pipe as I’d think of it, and damn if I had a clue about paraphernalia terminology. She closed the baggie most of the way, pressed the air out, zipped it the rest of the way closed.

“Outside?” she asked.

I nodded, gestured at the door near the kitchenette. “That goes to a separate entrance.”