Chapter Eighteen

Love Rollercoaster

Tuesday, September 27

Mandy’s pulse pounded in her ears as Caleb turned down her street, tires squealing. He really needed to chill out, but she didn’t have time to argue with him. He pulled into the driveway and she jumped out of the car, not bothering to close her door.

She burst into the house, scanning the living room for her gran. When she saw her sitting in her rocking chair, blanket draped over her lap, holding a cup of tea, she expelled a huge sigh of relief.

“Gran, are you okay?” She crossed the room to kneel next to her.

Gran nodded. “Everyone needs to calm down. Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I’m fragile.”

Mandy sighed, glancing at Mrs. Cleary, sitting on the small love seat. “She’s okay, sweetie. I adjusted her oxygen. But she really ought to see her doctor to have her levels reevaluated. She tells me it’s been a while.”

Mandy sighed. Her gran was so stubborn about that stuff. The front screen door squeaked open, and she glanced up to see Caleb hesitate as he entered, glancing around the house. She was surprised to see him, since she’d assumed he’d left.

“And who is this fine specimen of manhood?” Gran asked, perking up.

Mrs. Cleary laughed, and Mandy felt a blush spread across her face and neck. “Gran,” she whispered. “Stop it.”

Gran glanced at her, blue eyes sparkling with mischief behind her glasses. “But honey, you have to admit I’m right.” She glanced at Caleb. “A very fine specimen indeed. Even with the hippie hair.”

Mandy laughed out loud at that, knowing Caleb would hate being called a hippie just because he had longer hair.

“Um.” He cleared his throat, and she knew he was pretending he hadn’t heard her Gran. “I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“Come in here, young man,” Gran said. “Don’t be shy.”

Caleb approached them slowly, his gaze darting between Mandy and her gran. She sort of felt sorry for him, especially because it had been sweet of him to come inside to check on her gran.

“So you must be the new boyfriend Reginald told us about. What’s your name?”

Mandy wanted to die a thousand deaths. Her gran certainly seemed fine now, and she was relieved, but she really wished Gran would take a nap instead of humiliating her. She shot Gran a warning glare but Gran was focused on Caleb, who looked as embarrassed as she felt.

“I, um…Caleb. Caleb Torrs.”

“Torrs? Your father owns T&R Engineering, doesn’t he?” Mrs. Cleary asked.

Caleb nodded.

“Engineering?” Gran said. “Are you planning to follow in his footsteps? Take over his business some day?”

“Gran!” Mandy gasped, embarrassed for Caleb. “Don’t be so nosy.”

Gran peered at her over the rims of her eyeglasses. “Any boy who dates my granddaughter can answer a few questions. Your dad’s not here so I have to be the hard-ass.” She winked at Caleb. “Lucky for you, I’m a sucker for bad boys in leather.”

Mandy closed her eyes, praying the floor would swallow her. Reluctantly, she half opened her eyes to see Caleb smiling at her gran. Now he looked more amused than embarrassed. Great.

“I don’t plan on going into engineering,” Caleb said, glancing at Mandy. “And, um, I should go. I just wanted to check on things.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Gran said. “Mandy was just about to get me some ice cream. You have to join us.”

Caleb shot Mandy a smirk. “Rainbow sherbet?”

Gran sighed happily. “It’s about time,” she said cryptically, and Mandy jumped to her feet, desperate to get Caleb out of earshot before Gran declared him the perfect boyfriend.

“Come on,” she muttered, heading into the kitchen.

Gran was okay; that was what mattered most. Yeah, Mandy was dying of embarrassment, but it was a small price to pay in the scheme of things.

Caleb leaned against the doorframe, surveying their small kitchen, which was nothing like his gleaming granite showplace. She wondered if he felt sorry for her. She hoped not, because there was nothing for him to pity. Yeah, their place was small, but it was home. And it was full of people who loved her—except maybe Reg, but she hadn’t given up on him yet.

She yanked open the freezer, grateful for the blast of cold air that refocused her brain. Ice cream. Bowls.

“Who’s this?” Caleb asked, studying the collage of photos on the wall. Mandy set the tub of ice cream on the kitchen table and moved next to him, swallowing as she caught a whiff of his spicy Caleb scent.

Focus. Focus. “It’s my family.” She pointed to the photo of her parents, a smaller version of the one she had in her bedroom. “That’s my parents.” She pointed to a faded photo of Reg and her dressed in matching red jammies in front of a Christmas tree. “Reg and me, before we hated each other.” He shot her a curious look, so she pointed to another photo of her mom and a group of girls dressed up for a night of disco, glittering and laughing at the camera. “Mom and her friends.” She glanced at him, an embarrassed smile tugging at her lips. “Disco night.”

He met her gaze, his own lips quirking in response. “You definitely inherited the disco gene.” He glanced at the collage again, then back at her. “You look like your mom, but your dad’s the redhead.”

She nodded, suddenly feeling vulnerable and exposed, wondering if he was making fun of her in his thoughts. She sneaked another glance at his profile as he studied the collage.

“I don’t have many pictures of my mom,” he said softly. “I wish I did.”

She swallowed, overwhelmed by guilt. Of course he wasn’t making fun of her family photos. This felt like the day at the park, and part of her didn’t want to move because she didn’t want to break the snow globe spell.

He turned toward her. “Grab the bowls. I’ll scoop.”

“You…don’t have to stay.”

He frowned. “You want me to go?”

“It’s up to you. Go or stay. I don’t care.” Total lie, but suddenly she was thinking of their hallway kiss, and then Gus bringing her lemonade, and her mind spun in confusion.

She turned to the cupboard and grabbed four bowls. His lips quirked when he saw how many bowls she’d grabbed, and she knew she’d revealed more than she wanted to. She handed him the ice cream scoop, giving up on pretending she didn’t want him to stay. He took it without a word and began filling bowls.

And even though she was confused by the way Gus was acting, somehow when she was with Caleb—this Caleb, the real one—she definitely wanted him to stay.

After Mrs. Cleary reassured Mandy that her gran would be fine, Mandy called her dad and promised to take Gran to the doctor as soon as possible.

“I hate to put his burden on you, doll,” her dad said. “I’ll be home by next weekend, but she should get in ASAP.”

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of it.” God, she wished she could rely on her brother to help out. But she couldn’t.

“Homecoming’s next Saturday, right?” her dad asked. “I’ll definitely be home for that, so I can meet your new boyfriend.”

Mandy’s heart thrummed as she glanced at Caleb. Too bad he hadn’t asked her. Wait, that wasn’t what she wanted, was it? And he wasn’t her boyfriend. Frowning, she said good-bye to her dad and sat down next to Caleb on the love seat, careful to sit as far away as possible.

He stayed to eat ice cream and watch an episode of Arrow, Gran’s favorite show. Gran furthered her humiliation by commenting that Caleb looked he might do a workout routine as intense as Oliver Queen’s.

“You’re hiding a lot of muscle under that leather, aren’t you, young man?”

Caleb rubbed his neck and stared at the floor. “Uh,” he mumbled.

Mandy giggled because it was sort of hilarious that the one person who seemed to discombobulate Mr. Tall, Dark, and Broody was her gran. He glanced at her, and his embarrassed smile made her insides twirl around like a disco ball.

He set his empty bowl on the coffee table and stood up abruptly, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets. “I should go.”

She stared up at him, flashing back on that hallway kiss again. “Okay. I’ll walk you out.”

He said good-bye to her gran, who winked at him but fortunately didn’t say anything else embarrassing…until they reached the front door, when her gran called out, “You can show him your room, sweetie, but keep the door open!”

Mandy buried her face in her hands. “This is the worst day of my life,” she muttered, and Caleb laughed softly.

“Want to show me your room, Disco?” he murmured, reaching out to gently pull her hands off her burning face. “So I know exactly what to picture late at night?”

She yanked her hands out of his. “Caleb! You’re—you’re—”

He grinned. “I think it’s the least you can do, after your gran flirted with me all night.” She groaned, squeezing her eyes shut, but that didn’t stop him from stepping in close. “Come on, Disco. Just one little peek.”

Her body was on fire standing this close to him. The sudden desire to kiss him overwhelmed her. She swallowed and stepped back.

“One peek. Then you have to leave.” This was crazy, but the idea of him thinking about her in her bedroom late at night…well, apparently she had no willpower about some things.

He followed her down the short hallway and into her bedroom, lit only by the string of amber lights draped over her bookcase and the orange glow of the lava lamp next to her bed.

“Wow,” he whispered. “It’s like a shrine to the seventies.” He stood next to her, his arm brushing hers, setting every nerve ending on fire.

She followed his gaze as he lazily surveyed the posters on the wall—posters that had been her mom’s—of Earth, Wind & Fire and Blondie and the Bee Gees. Posters of the old Soul Train TV show and American Bandstand. He took in the packed bookshelf and shot her an approving smile, then his gaze moved to her bed, which was a tangled mess of blankets and pillows, and she thought she might melt into a pool of mortification.

At least she hadn’t left any underwear lying on the floor.

“So you’ve seen it. You can go now.” She moved away, but his hand reached out to grab hers.

“Wait,” he said, his voice low, making every hormone in her body do cartwheels and backflips. He reached out and tipped up her chin with his other hand, his fingers grazing her throat.

The room wasn’t so dark that she couldn’t tell his eyes were burning up. Just like she felt.

“We need to talk,” he said, his fingers brushing down her neck and sending shivers shooting straight to her girl parts.

For once, talking was the last thing she wanted. But that was crazy…mixed up…not right.

Or was it exactly right?

“W-we do?” she whispered, licking her lips. He swallowed, then grasped her waist, pulling her in close, his other hand cupped around the back of her neck.

“It can wait,” he said roughly, then his lips were on hers, and just like the last time she was gone…drowning in a sea of Caleb, in surging waves of hot, urgent kissing, his tongue dancing with hers, his body molded to hers, her throat making sounds that were embarrassing, but only made him kiss her harder, deeper.

Her hands moved of their own accord, trailing up his chest, his neck, and into his glorious rebel hair. She tugged her fingers through it, reveling in the silky, tangled strands, and now he was the one making embarrassing sounds and moving against her body in a way that made her understand why Gran insisted on leaving the door open.

Fake? Real? She had no idea what this was…which meant she should stop, even though she didn’t want to. She untangled her fingers from his hair and pushed gently on his chest, wrenching her lips away from his.

“Stop. We have to stop.” It sounded like she was talking more to herself than to him.

He didn’t let her go, staring down at her with stormy dark eyes. “Why?”

She swallowed, staring up at him. A girl could totally forget her own name staring into those eyes. “Uh, we…well, because this isn’t…we aren’t…”

“Aren’t what, Disco?” He kept one hand wrapped around her waist and brushed loose curls off her burning cheeks with the other.

“Y-you said we have to talk. What about?”

His hand stilled on her cheek, then dropped to his side. He sighed heavily. “Yeah. So…don’t freak out, but I sort of told Gus that we’re going to homecoming together.”

She stepped back, and this time he let go of her. She crossed her arms over her chest as warring emotions streaked through her—confusion, excitement, apprehension, suspicion. She couldn’t decide which feeling to focus on, but she knew the question she had to ask. “Why?”

His face hardened, and he was back to His Broodiness. “Because I don’t want you to go with him. I don’t like him.”

One emotion rose to the top from the messy pool swirling within her.

“What the hell, Caleb? Who put you in charge of my life?” The dreamy haze of their kiss dissolved as she lashed out, thinking of Kay’s lies about Gus, and how rude Cammie had been to Gus earlier tonight. What was wrong with people?

He crossed his arms over his chest. “You shouldn’t go with him.”

“But…but you didn’t even ask me to go the dance! You just made the decision for me because you don’t like him! And it’s totally the opposite of our plan, Caleb.”

His eyes narrowed. “So you still want to go with him? Even after…” He grimaced, and she knew he was referring to the kissing.

She flushed, embarrassed. He was right—how could she kiss him like that and still want Gus? Because of this stupid fake thing, that’s why. Because she’d lost sight of what was real and what wasn’t.

She made herself look into his eyes. “I’m not going to the dance with someone who didn’t even ask me.”

He stared at her long and hard. “Fine. I think we should give up our stupid plan.”

That felt like a slap. So apparently all the kissing was fake for him. Just something he did when he had a girl alone in her bedroom, a girl who lost all functioning brain cells once his lips touched hers.

“I think you’re right. It was always a dumb idea.” She tossed her hair over her shoulders, determined not to show how hurt she was. “Guess you’re stuck with your stalker.”

He shrugged. “Nope. She got closure, just like you said. She’s not gonna be an issue anymore.”

“Perfect,” she said, baring her teeth in what she hoped was an I’m-done-with-you smile. “Then we’re done.”

They glared at each other, and Mandy’s mind reeled, wondering how they’d gone from another snow globe night to that toe-curling kissing to this.

Because it’s not meant to be. Because the universe doesn’t support fake relationships.

“I’ll let myself out.” He turned and stalked out of her room.

When she heard the front door close, she sank onto her bed and curled up in a ball, trying to make sense of what had just happened, because the hole in her heart definitely felt real, not fake.