“Served your time? What is it with you and this town?”
“No one has let you in on all those details yet?”
“No?”
“You should hang out with the locals more. Some of them enjoy telling this story.” He sighs and sits up again. “When I was fifteen, I started smoking pot to help me with everything that was going on with my head. It helped with my stutter, which was the thing I wanted to overcome. It sucks to be fifteen and to trip over your own words, especially when you start getting into girls.
“I got caught at school with some weed on me, and rumors were going around that I was dealing—which wasn’t true—and I got suspended. I was so angry I took Uncle Bill’s tractor and drove into town in the middle of the night and kind of ruined the lawn of the memorial garden and crashed into the base of Chester Arthur’s statue. It only came out later that that was me.” He chuckles drily. “I turned sixteen a week later and ran away from home to spare Uncle Bill and Aunt May any more hassle and embarrassment. I ended up at Cash’s house a few days later. The weed was one thing but combined with taking out the statue…the police didn’t see it as mere delinquency. I’m the only one in the family with a juvenile record.”
Cash did mention something about a juvenile record that Friday afternoon. “I can’t believe you had to deal with all of that on top of everything else.”
“I brought that onto myself, but I didn’t know how to deal with the anger.”
Or the hurt and the pain and the loss I want to say, but Raiden takes a deep breath and huffs it out in some relief, and I keep quiet.
“Uncle Bill and Aunt May have forgiven me for running away. Hunter has always understood why I had to, but it hit Ethan and Liam hard. Ethan—” Raiden breaks off with a sigh. “We were close, and we still are, but I hurt him bad, broke his trust in a way, because I told him I’d never leave.”
There’s so much guilt in those words that my gut twists tight for him. All these men have gone through a lot as boys, and every new thing only adds on. “We all do something rebellious at some point.”
He reaches for his clothes. “And what did you do that was rebellious, Georgiana?” he asks, his tone lighter.
“This—all of this is my rebellion. I’m a late bloomer.”
“And such a beautiful bloom too.” He gathers a few stray hairs and tucks them behind my ear where I’m still resting my head on my arm. “How do you see this ending?”
For a moment we stare at each other, his blue eyes open and honest, filled with hope that I’m going to say something he wants to hear.
I take his hand where it’s lingering in my hair and lace our fingers together. “After we’ve dropped off the tiny house at the expo in Boston, I go home and collect the things I’m allowed to have and come back to you…wherever you are. I’ll find a job in Boston if you’re going back there. I’m sure my mom’s voice doesn’t screech that far.”
“I’m not sure if you noticed, but I’ve sort of made you a job offer. It doesn’t matter what Mommy Wess has to say. Anybody would be stupid not to hire you, but I want you for myself.”
“It was a very well-disguised job offer, Mr. Logan.”
“You know I suck at admin.” He presses a kiss to my hand and lets go to pull on his T-shirt.
I pick at my clothes and start to dress as I digest his words. “Does that mean I get to draw up my own contract?”
“Pretty much.” He reaches for my phone where it’s slipped out of my shorts pocket onto the towel.
“What’re you doing?” I watch him opening the camera app. I’m only in my underwear but if he wants a photo of me like this…
He nods to my shirt. “Finish up.”
“Oh.” I don’t want to sound disappointed. “I can get naked again if you want?”
Raiden cuts me a sly gaze from under his lashes. “Yes, that would be awesome but for my eyes only, so save that thought for later.” He steals a peck from my lips. “It isn’t what I had in mind for right now. I’m only taking a portrait. Just your face, so smile.”
I blink, roll my eyes, pull my tank top on, and smile.
Raiden snaps a few pics and hands me back my phone. “There. Now you can post a photo of you on Tic Tack Tiny and at last show our twenty thousand followers what the other half of the team looks like.”
For all that he had been disgruntled, grumpy, and disobliging when I started Tic Tack Tiny, he’s been checking out our feed. When he reaches into the basket, asking me if I want a mint and producing a tiny box of Tic Tacs, I’m on my knees and wrestling him down into a sandy hug.
29
RAIDEN
I lean against the tiny house’s doorjamb and watch Georgiana charm the film crew into another orbit. I love how she’s grown so confident and sure of herself during her weeks here. That first week she was all bravado, faking it until she made it.