Summer Seventeen & You Read online

  He put his hands back in his pockets and looked down at the line in the middle of the road. “Maybe it isn’t your words,” he looked at me. “Maybe it’s your actions. I should head back inside. I’ll try to remember to stay on my side of the road.”

  “I can’t laugh with you again. You can’t keep crossing that line.”

  He shrugged. “I will play it one day at a time, Trouble. I’ll see ya around.” He turned and walked back into his house.

  “And I’m not trouble,” I mumbled before walking back into my house.

  This is insane! You’re leaving, too?”

  I watched Wyatt pack his bag as I laid on his bed. “I thought I’d at least have my cousin to hang with at the beginning of summer break!”

  “Maybe you should take a vacation, too.”

  “And go where by myself? I’m seventeen and can’t book anything without my parents. I asked them already, and they got all parental on me for once in their lives and told me I couldn’t go alone because it wasn’t safe. I live alone, and everyone knows it. That’s not safe.”

  He laughed. “Do you know how many teens would love for their parents to never be home?”

  “Be the teen that is alone, and then ask the question again.”

  “You’re pretty amazing, Sam. You have no parents at home telling you what to do, yet you still do great in school and make pretty good decisions, besides dating Logan. Most kids would have dropped out of school and lived off their parent’s money forever.”

  “I’ve thought about it,” I teased. Truth was, I didn’t want to rely on them forever, even though I could. I wanted to have a career and work hard for it at college. I didn’t want everything handed to me. Okay, maybe some things, but not everything.

  “I’ll call you every day. I promise.” He smiled as he zipped a bag.

  I looked at my cell phone. “I have to go. Dad hired a guy to come and clean our pool today. At least I’ll be able to swim. Alone. All alone…” I frowned.

  He threw a dirty sock at me.

  “Ewww!” I jumped off the bed and laughed. “Have fun, but not too much fun!”

  “Okay, sex with only five hot girls.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Gross.”

  I SAT ON the front step and waited for the pool guy. He was late. I looked at the number in my phone that Dad had texted me just in case I had to call. After one more minute passed, I called.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, pool service guy, have you ever heard how hot Georgia summers are? I want to swim and—”

  “I’m on my way.” I heard familiar laughter and my mouth fell open when Elliot walked out of his house with his cell phone to his ear. He hung up and crossed the now barely there purple line.

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  He smiled. “I have to earn money somehow.”

  “You’re obviously loaded. Your brother lives in one of the best neighborhoods in this town.”

  His smile faded. “It’s my grandparents’ house. And what he has or doesn’t have isn’t the same as what I have or don’t have.”

  “Oh.” I walked down the steps and toward the back yard with Elliot behind me. “No checking out my ass, pool boy.”

  I heard him chuckle a little. “No, man in his right mind would agree to that request.”

  I looked over my shoulder at him and swung my hips a little more. I smirked a little when I turned around. God forbid I allow him to see me smile.

  When we got to the back, I motioned with my hand toward the pool. “I’m sure you remember how bad it was from my party that night. All of the cleaning stuff is in the shed. Have fun.”

  He nodded and went to the shed. He brought all the tools and cleaning supplies out and put them next to pool. I then watched as he pulled off his shirt.

  Oh, my damn.

  I cleared my throat and tried so hard not to stare. He caught me looking, and I smiled. “At least the pool guy is hot.” I flipped my hair and walked into the house.

  I immediately called Quinn as I peeked out the kitchen window.

  “I’m about to get on the plane, what’s up?”

  “Elliot Shaw is cleaning my pool!”

  “O-kay?”

  “Quinn! Why is he cleaning my pool?”

  “Did you ask him to?” she asked slowly and sounded like she was trying hard not to smile.

  “No! My dad hired him! I bet he had some lame ad on Craigslist or something! How could my dad hire some random person to clean our pool? What if he was a killer or some weirdo who preyed on young girls and—”

  “Sam, he’s in high school and you know him. Sort of.”

  “But my dad doesn’t!”

  She burst into laughter. “I think your biggest worry right now is not peeking through your kitchen window and checking out his six pack.”

  “How’d you know he has a six pack?”

  She laughed some more. “I knew you were totally checking him out! Just be good and don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

  “That isn’t much.”

  “I know!” She giggled. “I gotta go! Be good and remember Logan is coming home in two weeks!” She hung up, and I moved out of the window quickly when he looked toward it.

  I paced the living room, debating whether I should offer him some help. If this was some random company, I’d feel like I didn’t owe them a hand, but I knew Elliot. Kind of. Maybe I could help and prove that I don’t make people feel inferior to me. Yeah, that was a good enough excuse to go out there with him. Right?

  I went outside and watched him vacuuming out the pool. He didn’t need my help; he was perfectly capable of doing it on his own. I could at least offer him something to drink. I didn’t want the poor guy to dehydrate.

  “Do you want something to drink?”

  He looked up at me and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. “A water would be great.”

  I nodded and went back inside. I grabbed a bottle from the fridge and went back out. I set it next to the pool.

  “I’ll go grab you a towel, too.” I went back inside and hated myself for checking him out. Logan would be so hurt if he thought I might have feelings for this guy. And I didn’t. But it would crush him if he knew that I was being even a little nice to the guy he considered an enemy.

  I brought the towel back out and looked at Elliot. “Did you know this was the house you’d be at when my dad called?”

  “Yes.” He looked up from what he was doing, walked over to the edge of the pool, and took a drink. “Thanks for the water, Trouble.” He put the bottle down and started working again.

  “Why do you call me Trouble?” I sat down on one of the lawn chairs.

  He shrugged. “It just seems to fit.”

  I smiled. “Oh. So, are you cleaning pools all summer or do you have other jobs planned?”

  “Mostly just cleaning pools. I have a few lawns lined up to mow. Yours being one of them.”

  “Maybe I should tell my dad about the line I drew.”

  He laughed and continued working. “Your line is starting to fade. You may want to go work on that, Trouble.”

  “I’ll show you trouble,” I mumbled as I walked to the garage. I pulled out a bottle of spray paint and walked barefooted to the middle of the road. Zach was cleaning his car. He stopped when he saw me shaking the can.

  “Samantha Scott, what are you doing?”

  I opened the lid and sprayed a line down the street. “Creating boundaries.”

  “For my little brother?” Zach laughed.

  “As a matter of fact, yes.”

  “The boy in your pool right now?”

  “He’s working. That’s different. This is for after hours.”

  “You don’t know Elliot Shaw very well.”

  I shrugged. “And he doesn’t know Samantha Scott very well.”

  “This is true. And this will be very entertaining.” He went back to cleaning his, car and I went inside my house.

  Who did Elliot think he was? He’d known this was my house when he accepted my dad’s job offer, so he knew that I didn’t want him near me. I bet he’s doing this on purpose. He probably wants to get to Logan even more. Well, two could play this game, and I was better at it.

  I groaned when I heard a lawn mower outside. I looked at the time and saw it was 7:00 a.m. I threw the pillow over my head and cursed. I tossed and turned until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I got out of bed, threw my hair in a messy bun and jerked the front door open. Elliot had earbuds in and was not paying a bit of attention to me.

  Ignoring me, huh?

  I walked out into the grass and pulled the earbuds from his ears, and he stopped.

  “It’s summer, you idiot!” I yelled over the roar of the mower.

  He turned the mower off. “I realize it’s summer. Which is why I’m mowing early. You know how hot it gets later in the day?”

  “How can you even be up this early?”

  He smirked. “I’m an early riser.” He looked me over. “By the state of your clothes and hair, I’m guessing you’re not.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Obviously. I need coffee.” I rubbed my tired eyes. “Did you see the new line?”

  He laughed. “What line?” He put his earbuds in and started the mower up. I scrunched my eyebrows together and hurried over to the road. The line was pretty much gone. There was only a faint trace of it left.

  I put my hands on my hips and chewed on my lip. I couldn’t help but smile. I kept my back turned, so he wouldn’t see. After my smile faded, I turned and walked back into the house.

  I started a pot of coffee and scrolled through text messages from Logan.

  Logan: I miss you.

  Logan: I’m ready to come home.

  Logan: I wish you were here.
>
  All of his texts were the same, and it made me feel good that he was thinking of me even though he was on an awesome vacation with his family, but the weird thing was, I didn’t miss him as much as I would have thought.

  I brought my coffee upstairs and started my bath water. I had a busy day ahead of doing absolutely nothing. My summer officially sucked.

  I WOKE UP from a deep sleep to my phone ringing. I saw mom’s name flashing across the screen.

  “Mom?” I answered sleepily.

  “Samantha?”

  “Yeah, mom. It’s me. Is everything okay?” I looked at the clock, and it was 8:00 pm, but I didn’t remember ever falling asleep.

  “I didn’t mean to call you. I meant to call one of our business partners.”

  “Oh. Well, since I have you on the phone, which is rare, do you have a second to talk? I’d like to update you on life back home.”

  “Don’t be silly, Sam. I have more important things to do than waste time on the phone talking about nothing that really matters. You know how demanding my job is.”

  “Yeah. Maybe later.”

  She hung up before I could even say bye.

  I sat up and set my phone down. What if I were telling her I was pregnant? Or that I overdosed on drugs? Or anything for that matter? She didn’t care. Neither of them did. I got out of bed and went downstairs to do what I did when I was hurt or pissed. I cleaned.

  I turned up the music as loud as the speakers would go, and I cleaned every inch of the kitchen. I tied up the trash bag and walked to the front door. I looked at the perfectly groomed lawn and could’ve screamed. My dad only took the time to hire Elliot because he didn’t want the neighbors’ yards looking better than ours. I looked at my car. He bought it for me because he wanted to show off to his friends that he could buy his daughter a car better than theirs. All of this...this house...everything was to be better than everyone else’s stuff.

  I hurled the trash into the front yard and proceeded to go out and kick the hell out of the bag a few times. It tore open and the wind blew trash all over the yard. Tears fell down my cheeks as I walked over to the trash bin and kicked it until it rolled into the street.

  Arms wrapped around me from behind. “Calm down, Trouble,” Elliot said quietly.

  I wiggled out of his hold and shoved his chest. “Don’t touch me! You don’t know me! You have no right to try to comfort me! You don’t know me!”

  He looked down at me and gently touched my face. “I may not know you, but I know when someone is upset.” He wiped a tear away with his thumb. He dropped his hand and looked at the yard. He didn’t say anything else as he started cleaning up the mess.

  I watched him for a second before going inside and getting a trash bag. I came out and started helping. When we were done cleaning up, he started walking back to his house, but I didn’t want him to leave.

  “Do you ever get lonely?” I asked him when he made it to the middle of the street.

  He turned and looked at me. “All the time. I’m a new guy in a town of people who seem to hate me for breathing.”

  “They hate you because you’re damn good at baseball and took some of the attention away from Logan.”

  His eyes saddened. “My dad taught me baseball. I love playing.” He took a step closer to me. “And if I had known that everyone would hate me for the position I got, I might have gone after a different one.” He shrugged. “I guess that’s life.” He stepped even closer to me. “Do you ever get lonely?”

  I nodded and swallowed hard. He was making it hard to breathe, and only Logan was allowed to do that. I took a step back, putting a safe distance between us.

  “Why did you get rid of the line?”

  “I don’t like being told I can’t go somewhere.” He gave me a cocky grin. “Have a good night, Trouble.” He turned and headed back across the street.

  I started to go inside but stopped. I heard his front door close and sat down on my front step. I rested my chin on my hand and stared at Zach and Elliot’s house. I wondered what his story was. Why was he living with his brother, and why hadn’t I ever seen him over there before? Or maybe he did come over, and I was just too consumed with my own life to notice. Elliot seemed like a good guy. A troubled guy with the sexiest, most serious, brooding gaze I had ever seen. The way his forehead creased and his eyes...Stop, Sam.

  My eyes went to Zach when I saw him walking out of his house.

  “Where’d the line go?” Zach said with a smile as he put envelopes in the mailbox.

  Before he could answer, the front door opened. “Zach, where is it?” Elliot asked in an angry voice.

  “Where is what?” he asked as he shut the door on the mailbox and flipped the flag up.

  “You know what! My art book!”

  “Why are you getting all shitty with me? You act like I took it! I don’t know where you put your damn stuff!”

  I stood, about to go inside. I didn’t feel right eavesdropping on their issues. But instead of going in, I just stood there. I hugged myself when the wind picked up and watched them argue.

  Elliot glared at Zach. “You’ve taken it before. Where did you put it?” he asked through clenched teeth.

  “I didn’t do anything with it! The last time I took it, we were kids, and it was joke. Chill out, man. How about I go help you look for it? Maybe it’s under the pile of clothes in your room. Ever heard of doing laundry?”

  Elliot opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when he spotted me. His eyes looked so sad. He turned and went back inside without another word.

  Zach rubbed the back of his neck and closed his eyes. He let out a heavy sigh and wiped his eyes. Was he crying? He looked at me before going inside.

  I went inside too and found my phone on the couch. I looked at it and saw a missed call from Logan. I wanted to call him back, but I was so confused about what had just gone down between Zach and Elliot to talk to anyone. They were both sad and angry, and I had a feeling it wasn’t just about Elliot’s art book.

  I was looking for a shirt to wear in the pile of clean clothes on the chair next to my window when I heard something outside. I jumped when I saw Elliot near the pool and knocked over some of my books on the night stand. Elliot looked up, and his eyes immediately went to my chest. I looked down and froze. I was completely topless. I pulled the curtains shut, and my mouth fell open. Why is he here? He wasn’t supposed to be here today. It was a Saturday, and he only worked on the pool Mondays and Wednesdays. I grabbed a sports bra and tank top, and put them on. I ran my fingers through my wet curls before stomping my way outside.

  “What are you doing!”

  “I’m cleaning the pool.” He looked up at me. “Sorry about earlier. I didn’t expect to look up and see…” He waved at my chest. “All that.”

  “You are hired for two days out of the week! And don’t ever mention what just happened again. Ever!”

  He chuckled a little. “I won’t be here on Monday, so I wanted to go ahead and clean it. Check it out. And no promises.” He picked up all the cleaning materials and headed for the shed.

  My phone rang from my back pocket, and I answered it as I watched Elliot.

  “Hello?” I snapped.

  “Damn, what did I do?” Logan chuckled.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. “Nothing. Sorry. Just fighting with the pool boy. He has no idea what he’s doing.”

  “Awww, is my baby being a diva?”

  “No. He is awful! I miss you.”

  “Miss you, too. Eight more days, and I’ll be home. Think you can wait that long?”

  I sat down on a chair near the pool and pouted. “No.” I looked at Elliot as he closed the shed door.

  “What company is your dad using anyway? I can send you our pool guy’s number.”

  I knew I should tell him, but I didn’t know how. Logan would flip, and I didn’t feel like dealing with it. “Don’t know and don’t care. I’ll call my dad and let him handle it.”

  “Okay. Hey, Sam?”

  “What?”

  “Be nice and go do something fun. Don’t sit around and pout because everyone is gone. Hop in that pretty little car of yours and go somewhere.”