Page 2 of Drive Me Wild (Owl Creek #2)
I was hoping it was Zoe sitting next to Avery when I walked my bag of potato chips over to the food table.
I haven’t seen her since the first weekend of the summer. Not since the night of the music show at the Grange Hall. The night my body switched into Rambo mode, trying to get between her and some drunk asshole when it looked like he was going to get violent.
We’ve only met briefly a couple of times, and I definitely hit on her every single one of those times. She’s hot as hell in a bookish, innocent way. But that’s not why I’m happy she’s here.
Somehow, I sense that she sees people for who they are—that she can see through the rumors or stories about them. I don’t know how I know this, but I do.
I’m trusting that I do.
Maybe that’s why I wanted to protect her that night.
Because she’s genuine. She’s the kind of woman you know is bringing light into the world just by the way she looks at you.
Because the first time she looked at me, I felt like she saw me.
Not the grease man who fixes your car. Not the Casanova who can pick up any chick that comes to town and make her beg for more.
Me . It scared the bejeezus out of me because I don’t even know who that guy is.
But I’ve also never felt better. And even if I won’t ever be the right guy for her, I want to protect the light she shines.
I start to walk over to her and Avery, but my brother Cole grabs my arm.
“Wasn’t sure you were going to come. It’s good to see you.”
“Yeah, well, I almost didn’t.”
He leans into my personal space.
“What the hell, Caleb?”
He’s whisper-shouting to try and avoid our parents overhearing our age-old battles.
“You’ve been pissy at me for months but haven’t said one word about why.”
“I realize that you’ve been busy here.” I nod toward Renée. “I get it. But if you paid attention, you’d know what this is about.”
“So you’re not going to tell me?”
I let out an exhausted sigh, even though I just arrived.
“I’m tired of you not seeing me.”
“What are you talking about? You’re standing right in front of me. I can see you.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
I yank my arm away and look back toward where Zoe is sitting, but she’s no longer with Avery near the fire pit. I turn to reach into the cooler to grab a beer and smack my head—hard—against Zoe’s head.
She was reaching for a beer, too, and now we’re staring at each other with hands on our foreheads and tears in our eyes.
“Uh. Hi. You okay, Zoe?”
I can’t help but search her face, hoping for the same look she gave me in the spring.
The look that woke me up.
But with tears threatening, she places a beer against the spot where we collided, and scrapes her bottom lip with her teeth. My eyes drop to her pouty mouth, and for a second, the asshole in me wants to say something about biting her there.
“Hey, Caleb. Nice to run into you.”
I cough out a laugh.
“Maybe we should get some ice packs?”
Zoe turns and heads inside the house, and like a puppy dog, I follow. She’s wearing a loose, cropped t-shirt with the neck cut wide. It’s slipped over one shoulder, and I notice a constellation of freckles peeking out.
She starts rifling through the cupboards, looking for some kitchen towels. Then she puts some ice cubes from the freezer in them, wets them down, and hands me one with the cubes bunched inside.
“When did you get back to Owl Creek?”
“Just now. I just drove up. You parked right next to me.”
“That’s your Volvo?”
“Mhm.”
“Those are good cars. Solid. I rarely get a chance to work on them.”
I noticed when I parked it was packed to the roof, and the back of my neck heats up as a thought takes form.
“Do you always carry that much stuff in your car?”
“Ah…nope.” She looks through the window at her car as if trying to find the words in the bags and boxes she brought. “I moved. Out. I moved out of my house in Downsville.”
“Oh.” Now it’s my turn to search for words because all I can think is that if she says she’s moving to Owl Creek, I am going to have a hard time staying away from my brother’s house even though I’m still pissed at him.
“I’m going to be renting the apartment above the garage.”
Heat rushes from my neck to my chest. “So you’re going to be living here.”
I have the strangest thought— that I’m not ready for her. Not yet. I need more time to become the kind of man who deserves a woman like her. As soon as the thought enters my mind, I push it away.
The first time our paths crossed, I had already had a few drinks and couldn’t help myself. I trotted out my routine moves—the ones that usually get me laid while other guys are too busy trying to prove their mastery with a pool cue—as if that ever worked.
I’ve been kicking myself ever since that night, wishing I’d had enough self-control to treat her the way I know a woman like her deserves to be treated.
And I guess that’s why I know she’s too good for me.
Because even though I’m sure she’d been warned against me, the look on her face, when I had her pressed against the wall of Fat Joe’s Bar, had me choking on my words.
She looked at me like I was good. Like I was something.
“Um, yeah.”
“You two doing okay in here?” Avery steps into the kitchen, looking at us both carefully. “That looked like a painful collision.”
Zoe nods and gives Avery a strangled smile. My mind starts spinning, imagining what they were talking about when I was heading toward them.
I know what everyone says about me—hell, most of it is true. And for a long time, it was easy to go along with it—I didn’t care. But meeting Zoe last spring made me question for the first time if that is how I want to keep living.
“Maybe you should sit down again.” Avery smiles at me, grabs Zoe by the arm, and leads her out of the house.
A couple of cars pull down the driveway and park on the other side of my truck. Serena—the town mayor and pain in my twin brother Cody’s ass—climbs out of one. Trevor’s wife Brittney steps out of the other.
I put the ice pack down and walk out to help Trevor carry food and lawn chairs while everyone gets settled. As I’m setting up more chairs around the fire pit, I catch a glimpse of Zoe chatting with Avery and Renée, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s relieved not to be talking to me.
I wonder if she has started to believe the stories about me. The ones that I want to change because of her .