Chapter 8

Stevie McGabe

To say my dreams the last few days had been X-rated was an understatement. Ever since having unadulterated views of a mostly naked Darryl in all his inked glory, dripping wet in his swimming shorts, my imagination had been torturing me every time I fell asleep.

All I can say is it’s a good thing I’m not a boy because my sheets would have been ruined every single morning.

The last two weeks of the summer vacation were when my cheerleading camp was held. It was out of state, so that meant two blissful weeks away from the drama of next door.

My mom was still spending more time with Jake and Abi than home with us, and my dad was trying to keep Grayson and Vinnie occupied when he was out of work, and Gray was home from his day camp.

Darryl was who the hell knows where, all day and all night. I know Jake dragged him to work with him at his record shop some days, but not enough days to stop his parents worrying about him.

My mom had been a cheerleader all through high school, and dad had been the starring QB. With them as parents, I think it was inevitable that Grayson and I followed in their footsteps.

My dad worked for the 49ers as a physio, but he was also the head coach for the high school football team, the one Gray was adamant he was going to rule when he started in a few weeks.

After two weeks packed full of twists, jumps, and aerial tricks, I was more than ready to go home. My body ached, and to be totally honest I had missed my asshole ex-friend.

I had spent an inordinate amount of time wondering if he was okay, if he had gotten himself into any serious trouble.

Grayson had told me Darryl had not been around much from what Vinnie had told him, and I couldn’t ask my mom about him without her asking me too many questions back, so I had just had to wait until I came home.

“Hey, sweetheart,” my dad chuckles as I run into his open arms. “I take it you’re ready to come home?”

I nod several times. “Most definitely.”

“We’re usually prying your hands off the cabin to get you to come home, did you not have fun this year?” He swings my bags into the trunk effortlessly—my dad was still in excellent shape even in his late forties.

He’d always been drooled over by my friends, and their sisters…and their moms. It was somewhere between amusing and awful.

I sigh, sinking into the passenger seat of his Jeep. “It was fun…I’ve just been worried about mom and Abi.”

My dad reaches over the center console with a sad smile and squeezes my hand. “It’ll be okay, sweetheart.” Famous last words.

***

It was the last Sunday before we started back at school, and our families had decided to gather for one last barbecue of the summer. I’d been stuck in the kitchen of my grandad’s house with my mom, my sister, Abi, and Helen, all day.

Between us, we had prepared an insane amount of food, but with three teenage boys, an athlete, and a stoner, I had no doubt it would all be eaten.

Through the window, I had been surreptitiously watching Darryl, who was looking sexy as sin in a faded Pantera t-shirt with the short sleeves rolled up higher over his biceps, teamed with a pair of long camo shorts. Even his damn bare feet were sexy. I’m in so much trouble.

“What’s with you?” Carrie nudges me out of my drool-fest.

“N-nothing…why?” I take the plate of rolls from her and follow her outside.

“You’ve been in a daydream all day. It’s not like you.” We unload our armfuls of food and make our way back in for the rest.

“Have you ever liked someone you really shouldn’t?” Carrie frowns, nodding with a deep sigh, running her hand through her pompadour haircut.

“Yes. And as someone older and wiser, believe me when I say it never ends well.” I watch my older sister as she snatches up the last bowl of salad and stalks back outside. What the hell was that about?

***

It almost felt like the good old days, with my family and Darryl’s family just sitting around, joking and reminiscing.

Even Darryl seemed to be in a fairly good mood, only sending me slightly tainted looks instead of the full-on dirty ones I’d been used to, although he still didn’t really join in with any of the conversations going on.

Jake and my mom were cuddled up as usual, both giggly after smoking a joint not so secretly. My dad was throwing a ball around with the two grandads and Gray.

Abi was deep in conversation with Carrie and Helen. Vinnie was lost in-between the pages of some fantasy book with dragons and muscly looking men emblazoned on the cover.

As I look around, my eyes meet Darryl who had gone back to glaring at me. I frown at him, silently asking him what he was staring at me for, and his face relaxes into a smirk.

“Darryl, honey…could you run inside and grab me a blanket or something? I’m getting a little chilly.” His head swings towards his mom, and he scowls.

“What am I, your fucking slave?” Abi’s cheeks flush at his words. “Has your mystery illness taken the use of your legs or something?”

Silence ripples over the family until Jake growls at his son. “Darryl Taylor Nelson! Do what your mother asks you and don’t fucking talk to her like that!”

Darryl rolls his eyes, pushing himself out of his chair with a groan. I watch as Abi blinks back tears, and Helen takes her hand pursing her lips sympathetically.

The door bangs open as he forcefully wrenches it open, making us jump. “I swear to fuck I’m gonna knock him out soon if he keeps this attitude up.”

“Jake…” Abi admonishes her husband with a shake of her head. The door crashes open again, and Darryl strides out with one of Helen’s patchwork quilts clutched in his hand.

I half expect him to throw it at his mom after the way he just spoke to her, but with a tenderness I hadn’t seen from him in a while he lays it over her shoulders and presses a kiss to her crown. “Thank you, honey.”

Darryl mumbles something under his breath and pulling a battered packet of cigarettes from his back pocket, settles himself back on his chair before he lights one.

Vinnie had shrunk back even further into his chair when his brother and his dad had been shouting, almost disappearing behind his book.

Darryl blows out a huge plume of smoke, noticing his little brother and leans over to ruffle his long hair. “Whatcha readin’ bud?”

I almost smile as Vinnie lights up at Darryl’s attention and can’t contain my giggle at Darryl’s enthusiastic responses to Vinnie’s synopsis of his book.

His green eyes flick up to me, and an emotion I can’t quite place runs through them before his walls go back up and he drops his gaze back to his brother.

Eventually, the temperature drops too low for any of us to stay outside any longer, and we kiss our grandparents goodnight before piling into our cars and winding our way home.

There are more goodnight hugs and kisses in the shared driveway, although I notice Darryl slipping through his front door immediately after he escapes from the car.

I trudge upstairs and spend some time making sure I had everything ready for school tomorrow before I strip out of my clothes and pull on my sleep shorts and vest.

As I stand in front of my full-length mirror, brushing my long hair and plaiting it to keep it neat while I sleep, I realize I can see straight into Darryl’s bedroom. Straight into his en suite bathroom. Where he was currently showering.

Even at that distance, through a mirror, a window, and behind a slightly steamy shower screen, I could see enough to know Darryl had definitely grown into himself.

Feeling slightly flustered by my new view, it suddenly occurs to me that he could probably see directly into my room too, and I rack my brain to try and remember if I’d done anything incriminating or embarrassing recently.

I look back up at just the right moment to catch him stepping out of the shower and reach for his towel, and my skin grows hot. Looks like I’m in for another night of sexually charged dreams tonight!