“Yeah, man,” Nate laughs. “But I’m going to kick your ass if you put a single mark on her.”

  Jesse salutes him before tossing the keys to his Range Rover to Tyson and dropping down into the Mustang. Nate watches on with an amused smirk as Jesse starts up the car and revs the absolute shit out of it with nothing but a massive, excited grin across his face.

  Nate shakes his head and takes my hand. “Come on,” he says. “I want to take you home and celebrate… our way.”

  “Really?” I smile up at him before roaming my eyes up and down his body. “I don’t want to wait until we get home. I’d rather celebrate in the back of the Camaro. After all, we need to christen it.”

  Nate’s eyes flame and not a moment later, we’re dropping down into the Camaro and he speeds away, taking us somewhere we can have a little privacy without the eyes of every senior and junior from Broken Hill High on us.

  “Hey,” I say as he pulls out of the dirt road and joins the traffic on the highway. “I know a place I want to show you.”

  “You have a place?” he scoffs with an evil little smirk that has me wanting to reach across and squish it right off his face. “Do you take all the boys there or just me?”

  “Shut up,” I laugh. “It’s not like that. I just want to show you something.”

  “Ok,” he grins. “Show me the way.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Nate pulls into the empty parking lot of an old factory warehouse. “Where the hell are we?” he grunts, looking up at the old, huge building.

  I unbuckle my seatbelt and open the door. Nate follows my lead and I meet him around the front of the Camaro, taking his hand in mine. “Dad bought this place a few years ago as an investment,” I explain. “He had some big plan of turning it into office spaces or something like that so he could rent it out, but it never happened. It’s just been sitting here empty.”

  “Ok,” Nate murmurs, watching me and probably wondering why the hell I give enough of a shit to make him drive out here.

  “I overhead dad on the phone the other day. He’s going to sell it and I thought this could be the perfect place for you to build your shop.”

  “What?” he grunts with wide eyes, flicking his head back towards the warehouse with a whole new perspective.

  “It’s big enough, right?” I question, not really knowing what he’d need to start his business. “Come on,” I say, dragging him along. “Last I checked, the side door was broken.”

  Nate lets me drag him along and his silence tells me there’s a lot of thoughts going through his head right now. I just hope they’re all good ones, but if not, it doesn’t really matter. We can find somewhere else.

  The closer we get to the side door, the more appreciation begins to seep into his eyes and it’s almost as though I can see the ideas rushing through his mind.

  We reach the door and it’s clear as day that it’s broken and I try my best to open it, but the fucker is jammed. Nate shoves me aside, grabs the door handle and with one quick move, he shoulders his way through the door.

  We break into the wide open space and I pull up the flashlight app on my phone as I search around for the light. I find it beside the main entrance and the second I hit the big button, the warehouse lights up like the fourth of July.

  “Woah,” Nate whistles, low under his breath as he takes it all in.

  “Do you like it?” I question.

  Nate spins around, taking it all in and though he hasn’t said anything, I see the answer in his eyes. This place will be where he has his beginning, whether he has to buy the property from my dad or rent it.

  We walk around the warehouse and I point out all the places where I think things should go with Nate promptly correcting me and reminding me that when it comes to building a shop specifically for restoration, I have no clue what I’m talking about, so I just keep quiet and let his dream come out, imagining how it will all piece together.

  “Thank you,” Nate murmurs as we get back in his Camaro.

  “Are you going to do it? Is this the place?”

  He nods his head as he looks at the warehouse. “Yeah, I think it is,” he tells me. “It needs a bit of work but I think it would be perfect for what I need.”

  “Do you want me to talk to dad about it?”

  “No,” he says, staring up the engine and backing out of his spot. He looks across at me with that boyish smile that completely lights up his face and takes my hand. “I’ll do it.”

  “You know,” I grin. “We can call this place ‘Nate’s Big Bad Cars’.”

  “You’re shitting me, right? You couldn’t possibly think that’s a good business name.”

  I try to keep a straight face, but the image of Nate wearing a cap with the name across the front is too much for me to bear and I burst out laughing.

  Chapter 22

  Holy shit. We nearly made it. There are only two weeks left of senior year and so far, we have kicked its butt. I only got suspended twice. Well, they were my only two suspensions in my whole school career, but they’ll still make an interesting story for me to tell my kids one day.

  We have prom on Friday night, meaning Nate will have to skip a race for once, though if I know my boyfriend well enough, I have a feeling he’ll be slipping out a side door, racing like he was born to be on that track and getting his ass back to prom just in time to be declared prom king, no matter how embarrassing that might be. Though Jackson might attempt to take the title from him and even though neither of them wants it, they also don’t want the other to get it. I’m sure it will be a great night. One I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

  This year has been incredible. I’ve made so many new friends, I’ve had moments that have defined me in ways that I can’t even begin to understand, I’ve overcome mental illness, and have become a stronger, happier version of myself.

  I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s been a whole lot of shit to go along with the good things but I don’t want to dwell on it. It’s all in the past and now I have college to look forward to, you know, after enjoying my summer getting tanned at Broken Hill lake while Jesse finally gets a proper chance to use his stupid boat. I’ll probably end up on the jet ski with Nate though. Nothing gets me hotter than being on that thing with him. He’s so reckless and wild while also being the most caring human being I’ve ever met in my life.

  How did I possibly go so many years without him? I hate that he bullied me for five years. If only he just came clean at the beginning, I would have probably said ‘Ewwwww,’ but eventually, we would have gotten together. We wasted precious time together, but we made it work in the end and it’s nothing short of beautiful.

  I walk through the hall on Wednesday morning. The bell for first break has just rung and students are pouring out of classrooms, desperate to enjoy the next twenty minutes before heading back to class.

  I meet Brooke by my locker as I throw my morning’s books inside. “How was calculus?” she murmurs, leaning into the locker beside mine to watch the students passing by.

  I shrug my shoulders. “It was alright. A bit on the boring side, but what do you expect?”

  “Yeah,” she grumbles. “Same with advanced science. I wanted to gouge my eyes out. I swear, that teacher just drones on and on after explaining the same thing over a hundred times. It’s like, we get it already. The only good thing about that class is that I had Tyson across the hall, making faces at me the whole time.”

  I roll my eyes and laugh. I go to make a comment about the thought of the two of them possibly dating when the familiar sound of someone being shoved into a locker draws my attention.

  I look up over Brooke's shoulder and gawk at the sight of Jesse and Jackson walking down the hall together. It’s clear as day Jesse just shoved Jackson into a locker but what’s surprising is that way Jackson bounces back and hurries after him before taking the place beside him, when in a normal world, Jackson would be grabbing Jesse and trying to get sweet, sweet revenge.

  “What the hell?” I grunt, watching them before me.

  “Her fucking name is Christy,” Jesse growls, loud enough for the whole hallway to hear.

  “It’s not,” Jackson roars back at Jesse. “It’s Lucy.”

  Students start hurrying to get out of their way and as they do that, I get a glimpse of a… wait. Is that a baby in Jesse’s arms? I blink a few times. This couldn’t be right.

  The boys angrily make their way down the hall and I find myself jumping out in front of them before they pass. “Ummm…. WHAT?” I demand.

  The boys stop in the center of the hallway, making everyone else have to walk around, but my attention is on the baby in Jesse’s arms. I focus every ounce of my being on it and quickly realize it’s one of those fake ones that you get in that Child Development elective.

  Jesse rolls his eyes as Jackson glares. “Your favorite little lap dog decided to start a fucking fight in the middle of the locker room today and now I’m fucking stuck with him until school goes out.”

  “Wait… what?” I question again, turning my attention on Jesse, hoping in his angry state, he’s able to make a little more sense of the situation than Jackson can.

  “I fucking tried,” Jesse says, throwing his hands up and holding the fake baby by the leg, making it cry. “Kaylah wanted me to be nice and I fucking tried.”

  “What happened?” I ask as he tries to shove the baby in my face.

  I push the baby back at him and he groans before Jackson rips it out of his hands and takes over. “I saw him go into the locker room, so I went in to talk and the fucker freaked out.”

  “I didn’t freak out.”

  Jesse scoffs. “You thought I was coming to fight. You instantly went on the defense and threw a fucking punch.”

  “What do you expect?” Jackson scowls. “It’s not like you have a great track record.”

  Jesse rolls his eyes. “We got busted fighting,” he explains. “Watkins doesn’t think the usual forms of punishment are working on us, so he gave us a fucking baby to look after for the next two weeks. It’s apparently some bonding experiment type of bullshit.”

  “It’s supposed to get us to work together as a team,” Jackson offers.

  “It’s fucking bullshit is what it is.”

  Brooke howls in laughter. “By being daddies together?”

  “Shut up,” Jesse demands.

  “Ok,” I say, trying my absolute hardest to keep a straight face as I spy Nate and Puck at the other end of the hallway, making their way towards us. “So, why are you still fighting?” I question.

  “Because,” Jesse groans. “I want to call the baby Christy, and this fucker thinks it looks like a Lucy.”

  “I’m not calling my baby Christy,” Jackson demands.

  “It’s our baby,” Jesse seethes.

  “Careful,” Brooke grumbles beside me. “If we’re not careful, Jessica is going to start lactating.”

  Jesse narrows his eyes on her. “I don’t know what the fuck that is but I know an insult when I hear one.”

  “Calm down,” I groan. “She was just suggesting you need to relax.”

  “I can’t fucking relax. This baby won’t stop crying.”

  “What the hell is that noise?” Nate questions, peering around Jesse to see Jackson with the baby, trying his hardest to rock it as Jesse glares at his brother.

  “You need to change her diaper,” Jesse orders.

  “I already changed her diaper,” Jackson scolds. “She needs a bottle.”

  “She needs a diaper,” Jesse shoots back.

  I swear, I could watch this shit all day.

  “Holy shit,” comes shrill laughter from behind me. I look over my shoulder to see Kaylah watching her big brother and her boyfriend fighting over this fake baby’s ass while she nearly falls to the ground, unable to control herself. “So, it’s true? You fuckers have to look after a baby for the next two weeks.”

  “What?” Nate demands. “You’re not bringing that shit home.”

  Jesse blanches. “I’m not leaving her with Jackson to fuck up.”

  Kaylah laughs as she wipes at her watery eyes. “I don’t want it waking me up in the middle of the night either.”

  “What?” Jackson demands of his sister as Elle appears at his side.

  She takes in the baby and surprises us all when she slips it out of his hands, holds it up over her shoulder and pats it’s back, making it instantly stop crying. “What?” she questions. “I took this class last year. It’s easy.”

  Jesse grins down at her and she shakes her head. “No way in hell, dude. Just because I said it was easy doesn’t mean I didn’t lose a shitload of sleep over it.”

  Jesse groans and steps aside so he can fall into the lockers. “I’m already exhausted and it’s only been an hour.”

  “Serves you right for bombarding my brother in the locker room,” Kaylah reprimands. “Don’t think for one second I don’t know about that.”

  “Are you kidding me?” He demands. “I went in there to smooth shit out. He’s the one who threw a punch.”

  This goes on and on for the majority of first break, until Jesse cracks the shits, steals the sleeping baby from Elle’s arms and storms off down the hallway with Jackson hurrying after him.

  “Um,” Nate says, pulling me into his arms. “What the hell was all that?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  Nate drives me back to his place after school and I’m not surprised to find Jesse, Jackson, and Kaylah already here. I mean, it’s normal for Kaylah to be here now, but Jackson? I’m not going to lie. When I saw him lounging on the outdoor couch by the pool, I did a double take.

  Nate’s phone screeches to life in his pocket and he digs in and pulls it out. "It’s Puck,” he announces before bringing the phone to his ear and walking straight out the back to join the others.

  I walk to the door with him but stop in the doorway. “Do you guys need a drink?” I call out.

  Nate nods while Jackson gives me the thumbs up. “I’ll come help,” Jesse offers, getting up from the couch and jogging toward me.

  I step back from the doorway and head into the kitchen before reaching up into the top cupboard for the glasses. Jesse hurries in and helps me get them down, as let’s face it, I’m simply too short for this house.

  “Thanks,” I murmur as he finishes that and I head to the fridge to find something to give everyone.

  Jesse brings the glasses over to the counter and lines them up as I start pouring soda into each one. “I, um… wanted to talk to you,” he murmurs, sounding a little cringy.

  “I’m not taking your baby if that’s what you’re about to ask.”

  “No,” he laughs. “Nothing like that. Don’t get me wrong, I thought about asking you but I figured Nate would rip me a new asshole.”

  “That’s the understatement of the year,” I murmur, concentrating on not spilling the drinks. “What do you need?”

  Jesse pauses. “Kaylah doesn’t think you like her.”

  “What?” I grunt, putting the bottle down and turning to face Jesse. “I like her. Why would she think otherwise?”

  “I know you like her and I told her as much, but she’s not buying it,” he rushes out, hoping not to offend me. “She comes from a world where she was surrounded by girly girls who all fawn over each other, and here, you hardly talk to her.”

  I cringe, realizing he’s right. I haven’t made much of an effort to get to know her, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like her. I’ve just been a little preoccupied with all the drama. “You realize I’m not one of those girly girls who like to compliment other girls on their new hairdos?”

  “I know,” he says. “I’m not asking you to. It’s just… it’s serious with her.”

  I turn and pull him into a hug. “It’s ok,” I tell him. “It wasn’t my intention not to include her. I didn’t even realize it was happening, but I promise, I’ll stick to her like glue and make more of an effort. I mean, if she’s good enough for you to fall in love with, then there must be something special about her that I haven’t worked out yet.”

  “Thanks,” he smiles fondly.

  “Who knows?” I grin. “Maybe I’ll fall in love with her too and steal her away.”

  “You wouldn’t?” he accuses, narrowing his eyes on me.

  I grab as many drinks off the table that will fit between my fingers and walk towards the backdoor. I look back over my shoulder to Jesse, who’s grabbing the remaining glasses. “Want to find out?”

  I make my way out the back and Nate shoves his phone between his shoulder and ear before coming over and taking the drinks out of my hand. At first, I assume he’s just being a gentleman but it doesn’t take me long to realize he thinks I’ll probably trip over my own feet and send soda all over their backyard.

  Nate hands out the drinks with Jesse as he finishes off his conversation with Puck. I drop down beside Kaylah and she holds up her drink. “Thanks for this. I would have died before the boys thought of getting up and getting drinks.”

  I don’t mention that she could have freely gotten up and done it herself, but then, some people are funny about helping themselves to things inside other people’s homes. Me? I’ve never had that problem. Especially not here. I guess that’s something she’ll have to get used to.

  “No problem,” I smile as I feel Jesse watching us out of the corner of his eyes. "How’s the baby been all afternoon?"

  “Oh, my god,” she groans before launching into her spiel about the two main boys in her life arguing over which was the front and back of a diaper.

  Nate hangs up his call and soon drops down on my other side. “I invited the boys over,” he announces to the group as he leans back into the couch, pulling me back with him so I rest into his side.

  Jesse and Jackson both grunt and I assume that’s their way of acknowledging what Nate had just said, making me wonder how Jackson would feel being in the lion’s den with all his friends, having been the enemy for so long, but watching him now, it looks as though he doesn’t have a care in the world.

  “Can I invite the girls?” I murmur as I lift my chin to kiss his cheek.