Page 26 of The Facade

“It feels wrong?” She turned to look back at me. I couldn’t see her face through her helmet and goggles, but from the tone in her voice I figured she was probably rolling her eyes at me. Hard.

“Okay, so it just would look weird to have such a masculine guy like myself holding onto a girl who’s over a foot shorter than me.”

“Well, lucky for you, everyone’s already gone, so no one will be around to witness you setting your man card aside for a few minutes.”

I’d already humiliated myself enough by wrecking, did she really not want to leave me with any shred of dignity?

She pushed the button to start the vehicle. I knew for a fact that she didn’t care about my ego whatsoever.

With a sigh, I tentatively placed my hands on her hips and said, “Fine. Take me back to your castle, Your Highness.” And since making jokes was my preferred coping mechanism when put in an uncomfortable situation, I scooted closer and wrapped my arms around her stomach, then added, “Just don’t get any ideas about this, okay? I’m only snuggling up to you because I don’t want to fall off the back with your crazy driving.”

“Says the guy who just drove into a tree.”

She put her thumb on the gas, and then we were headed back toward the barn we’d left only ten minutes earlier.

8

Mack

I was moresore than I expected to feel as I followed Cambrielle up the steps to her house, the muscles in my legs groaning with each motion, and I wondered if I’d be covered in bruises tomorrow.

Cambrielle led me through the sitting room inside the back door and into the dining nook just off the kitchen.

“Have a seat.” Cambrielle gestured at the table and chairs where we had eaten breakfast this morning. “I’ll be right back with the first-aid kit.”

But instead of sitting like she asked, I walked into the kitchen where Marie was busy cooking what smelled like spaghetti and washed my hands in the sink she wasn’t using.

“What happened to you?” Marie asked when she looked up from stirring the spaghetti sauce on the large stove. “You fell off your four-wheeler?”

“Crashed into a fallen tree.” I winced as the warm water stung the small cuts on my hands. “But don’t worry, Dr. Cambrielle is planning to bandage me all up.”

Marie shook her head and muttered something under her breath about teens being too reckless these days. Then she said, “You need to be more careful. Your parents don’t need a son in the E.R.”

“I know,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat as I thought about how stupid my reckless driving had been.

But after the phone call with my dad right before the ride, I hadn’t exactly been in the most responsible frame of mind.

Didn’t really see the point in being safe and responsible when Fate did what she wanted with you, anyway.

I finished washing my hands and went back to the table again. I was just sitting down when Cambrielle returned with a big plastic container with the wordsFirst Aidwritten on it.

“You know you’re lucky that the only injury you got is a sprained wrist, right?” Cambrielle said as she turned her chair toward me and sat down.

“I know.” I sighed, feeling tired all of a sudden.

She studied my face for a moment. “That’s all that’s hurt, right?”

Physically? Probably.

Emotionally and mentally?

Well, I had a feeling things were only going to be getting worse for the next while.

I cleared my throat and tried to push the thoughts of impending doom away. “I’m sure I’ll be really sore tomorrow morning and probably bruised, but I think my wrist got the worst of it.”

She nodded and pulled out a new tan elastic bandage from its box. “Why were you driving so fast, anyway?”

I shrugged. “Ava and Carter were going too slow for my taste, so I figured I’d take a shortcut to get ahead and get to the falls first.”

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