Page 67 of Them Bones

She pushed herself off the counter and stepped up into his space.

“I think it’s best you be going, now. Before mybrother”she spat the word at him “finds out you’re picturing me bent over his kitchen counter.”

Nick forced her backwards against the countertop, his hands gripping the edge on either side of her.

“And if I don’t care about your brother?” he asked, dropping his head so their noses were almost touching.

Something flared in her eyes – surprise, wariness, uncertainty, and then… heat.

“You should,” she breathed.

“Consider me warned." They stood there glowering at each other.

He was no stranger to women. He wasn’t the tallest guy, but he was in okay shape and reasonable looking, had a car and his own place. He’d always done okay with girls in school, and these days he usually had his pick once the girls were done pining for Cary. Butthis girlwas something else. Everything about her screamedgood time –from the way her back bowedagainst the counter to her teeth scraping her lower lip. He hadn’t been this amped up without being naked since high school.

His hands dropped to her ribs and he lifted her up onto the counter, her bare legs wrapping around his waist.

“Are you going to ask how old I am?”

“No,” he said, running his hand down the outside of her thigh and over her knee.

“You don’t care?” she murmured.

“Not right now I don’t,” he said, their lips almost touching. He snaked his hand up her inner thigh, and just as his fingers brushed the cotton of her panties someone cleared their throat, loudly.

He jumped back and whirled around. The boy was standing in the doorway to the kitchen with an angry look on his face. But he wasn’t looking at Nick, he was looking over Nick’s shoulder at Laney.

They just stared at each other for a few moments, and then the boy huffed and walked off, slamming his bedroom door shut. Nick discreetly adjusted his cock.

Laney slid off the counter and brushed past him, running her hand over his belt buckle as she walked by.

“See you around,” she said, and disappeared without looking back.

I’m gonna be stuck out here another few weeks,Cary had said.

Suddenly 'errand boy' didn't seem so bad.

DUSTIN

Dustin didn’t like Nick.

He was nice to Laney, but Dustin knew what he wanted. He looked at Laney the way men looked at Ma. Like she was for sale, and he just needed to bid the right amount.

He always seemed to have wads of cash in his pockets and constantly offered to take Laney out. Sometimes she’d take him up on it, dressing up and going out with him. Sometimes she’d bring Dustin, though he knew Nick didn’t like that. Sometimes she’d turn him down entirely, kicking him out of the house, not even letting him hang around.

She brought home stacks and stacks of books from the library every few days, writing down the titles of the ones she liked on a list on the fridge. Shane visited Dustin at the bakery one morning, picking him up and taking him out for breakfast. When Laney saw his truck back out of the driveway after he dropped him off, saw that he hadn’t come in, she’d ripped her list off the fridge and thrown it in the trash.

She let Nick into her room that night. He didn’t come out for a long time.

MR DAVIES

Paul was excited to see Laney Hawton on his tenth-grade class list. It had been grueling last year, trying to survive the awful grammar, worse spelling, and generally crap writing of his English students. A handful of students had been tolerable, but Laney was the only real star he’d encountered in any class his whole first year of full-time teaching.

“How was your summer, Laney?” he greeted her as she slipped into a desk in the back. She looked tired.

“Rainbows and unicorns, Mr. Davies,” she said. And then she stared out the window.

He frowned but got the attention of the class.

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