“I haven’t been to one of these since...” she trailed off biting her bottom lip.
The last field party Lana had been at, she’d covered for Beau and Ashton. When the realization that Lana had known Beau and Ash were messing around behind my back and not told me, I’d been upset. I’d always thought she was on my team. It wasn’t her fault. I had moved on enough now to see that clearly. Reaching across the seat, I grabbed her hand.
“The last time was when Beau and Ash were messing around behind my back. Although you covered for them that night it wasn’t your fault. No worries, okay.”
She let her bottom lip pop free of her teeth and it appeared red and swollen. Well damn, that was just too tempting. I let go of her hand, slid my hand between her thighs, and pulled her over to me.
“That’s better. You were too far away,” I whispered before I bent my head so that I could pull her bottom lip into my mouth and gently suck on it. The surprised little noise she made had me pulling her closer. I let my hand slip further between her bare legs and squeeze the soft skin of her thigh in my hand.
Lana pressed her chest against mine and made a pleading noise in her throat. Picking her leg up, I draped it over my knee and slid my hand up a little higher inside her thigh. Her breathing hitched and I realized my heart was racing the closer I got to the edge of her panties.
“No, don’t,” Lana said breathlessly as she gave me a gentle push breaking the kiss. She quickly slid her leg off my knee and closed her legs. I’d been really close to doing something I hadn’t done but once in my life; I’d been in seventh grade and a little confused as to why Nicole wanted me to touch her panties.
“I’m sorry,” I said, sitting back in my seat and focusing on the trees in front of me instead of checking to see if she was mad at me or worse, terrified. I needed to get a hold on my pounding heart first. I’d been so close and she’d been so warm.
“Don’t be sorry. I just... I’ve never done anything like that before and I got a little nervous. I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”
Her small hand covered mine and my tight fist eased under her touch.
“Me either,” I replied, finally turning to meet her eyes.
Her eyes widened in surprise, “You either—what?”
I let out a chuckle and flipped my hand over so that our palms were touching. Then I threaded my fingers through hers. “I’ve never done anything like that before. Unless you count seventh grade when Nicole locked us in Kayla’s closet during a game of spin the bottle and forced me to touch her panties or she’d tell the whole school I was too scared to kiss her.”
A small bubble of laughter escaped Lana’s mouth and she slapped her free hand over it to keep from laughing out loud. I smiled and squeezed her hand. It was a funny story.
“Let me tell you, what we almost did blew that very strange and disturbing memory out of the water.”
This time the laughter was too loud to cover up with her hand and I reached over and pulled her hand from her mouth. “Don’t. I like to hear you laugh. And that is one helluva funny story. So laughing is expected.”
“I can’t believe Nicole threatened you,” she said, still laughing softly.
“Really? Have you met Nicole? She was determined to lose her virginity before high school if at all possible. I think Beau may have helped her reach that goal our eighth grade year.”
“Oh, my.”
Her laughter faded away and a serious thoughtful expression replaced it.
“What’s going through that head of yours now?”
A forced smile immediately appeared on her lips, “Nothing, sorry.” She glanced out at the bonfire in the distance between the pecan trees. “You ready to get out?”
She was very closed off about a lot of things. The more she didn’t want to tell me the more I wanted to know about her.
Her phone began singing some sappy love song I’d heard before on the radio and she reached into her purse and pulled it out. Instead of answering it, she quickly turned it off and slipped it back inside the pocket of her purse.
“No one important?” I asked, wanting her to share something, anything with me.
She shook her head and reached for the door handle, “Nope. No one I can’t call back later.”
I watched as she jumped down out of my truck before I got out on my side. Lana McDaniel held everything close. I wondered if I’d ever really know what she was thinking.
~*~
Sitting on the tailgate of Jake’s truck with Lana tucked between my legs, I was satisfied. Ash curled up in Beau’s lap wasn’t even on my radar. I’d managed to talk to everyone, Beau included. We discussed football, college, and our camping trip without any problems. It was nice. Lana was nice. No, Lana was more than nice. Having her in my arms made everything bearable.
“Heads up, Kyle and Nic just showed up,” Ethan said, before taking another swig of his beer. Nicole hadn’t been around much since Beau and Ash had hooked up. She’d made a go for me a few times. Once, I’d even been tempted to take her out to my truck one night and just screw her. Get it over with. But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want my first time to be with Nicole in the back of my truck at a field party. I’d waited this long, I could wait longer. Ash was going to be my one and only. But that plan was now over. I figured one day the right girl would come along and when that happened the place wouldn’t be important. Just so it was with the one person I couldn’t live without.
“She’s coming this way,” Kayla said smugly. The girl loved drama. With Nicole around drama was bound to follow.
“You wanna go, baby?” Beau asked Ashton, starting to shift so he could stand her up.
“No. I’m not scared of Nicole, Beau. What’s she going to do to me? Hmmm?” Beau chuckled and leaned in and gave Ashton a kiss on the nose. My chest ached only slightly at the sight of them. Nothing like the times in the past when I’d been unable to take a deep breath when he kissed her.
“Well, look at the Vincent boys. Getting along. Both of you all snuggled up to a girls. No one trying to beat up the other one. Looks like Sawyer has moved on, Ash,” Nicole drawled out as she winked at me and sauntered over to stop in front of Lana who stood in her way.
“Since you’ve gotten over your Ashton depression, why don’t you and I go out one night and have some fun?”