15. FIELD

FIELD

A fter a quick stop at Duke’s for fries and a shake, Ryan took my hand and led me back down through the gates toward the Cooper house. It was one of the only ones that looked out over the small lake that separated our town from the next. Most families had vacation houses; otherwise, the Cooper house would have always been dubbed the party house when their parents left.

Until that night, I had never thought about what Mary did during those. She didn’t seem like the type to enjoy her older brother's shenanigans, but what did I know? We had only spoken once or twice before, and I was making the same assumptions that everyone had made about me.

The house was already packed with people, but Ryan bypassed the steps and wandered around the side of the house to a small wooded path that led down through some trees to a private section of sand with a raging fire and only a handful of people from school.

I recognized a few of them. Landry tossed a football in the sand with a few of the other baseball players. His older sister, Margaret, was settled into a chair with her boyfriend and a few of their friends, laughing and drinking loudly.

“Look,” Ryan pointed down the beach a bit to where Mary sat, her toes tucked into the sand, staring out over the water with a book in her hand.

The fact that he had noticed the budding friendship left a warm feeling in my chest as he pulled me toward Landry.

“Hey, you made it. I was worried there for a second that Mayor Field locked you in his dungeon,” Landry joked and gave Ryan a pat on the back. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at a party, Lorraine,” he said to me, and I braced for the joke. “It’s nice,” He said instead and pointed to something behind me. “There’s drinks in the cooler. We tried convincing Mary to play, but she flipped me off and wandered the beach. You should see if you can get her to join us,” he smiled at me and jogged a few steps back before slinging the ball over his head to his friend.

“You want anything to drink?” Ryan asked, nudging my shoulder, and I shook my head at him.

“I’m going to make a friend,” I smiled at him, and his mouth turned upward, mirroring mine.

“That’s my girl,” he teased and released my hand. “Here,” he knelt down in front of me and patted his knee for my foot before untying my laces and slipping them off with the sock. “Other one,” he hummed and repeated the process. He gently gripped my calf with an encouraging squeeze before rising and kissing my forehead. “Have fun,” he added, kicking off his boots before ducking toward the cooler with my shoes in his hands.

I walked through the warm sand toward Mary, whose attention was on her book. I sunk into the sand next to her. “Hey,” I said, and she looked up at me with confusion painted across her cute round face.

“Hi…” she said slowly as she closed her book. “You came to a… party?” She said.

I laughed at her hesitation, “Ryan snuck me out.”

“Oh…” she said, looking over my shoulder at the group of players now getting rowdy in the sand close to the water’s edge. “ Oh!” Mary gasped with a tiny laugh. “Are you two like…”

“I don’t even know where to start,” I said gently.

“From the beginning, duh!” Mary set her book aside and gave me her full attention as I went through what had happened for the last week and a half. Saying it all out loud to another person made me feel crazy, but the more I talked about Ryan, the more I realized that he wasn’t the only one with ridiculous feelings.

“You guys are like a movie!” She hummed and fell back into the sand with a long sigh. “He really tells you that he loves you every single time?” She asked.

“Every time. At first, I thought he was crazy, but now I kinda…” I trailed off and looked over my shoulder at him. The wind pushed around the fabric of his shirt as he lifted his arm to throw the ball, exposing the soft lines of his tanned stomach and the swooping lines of his pelvis leading into the top of his jeans.

The sun was setting behind him, painting the sky with pinks and purples that framed him in a soft haze, making him look more like a fantasy and less like a teenage boy. He cheered as the ball landed cleanly in the hands of another player. He whipped his baseball hat around his head until the brim was backward. He wrapped Landry into a celebratory bear hug, both laughing and fighting in the early summer air.

“Wait for it?” Mary laughed, “I would too. Ryan Cody is a dreamboat.”

The ball soared across the beach and landed at our feet with a splash of sand that made Mary giggle, but I was too lost in my overwhelming need to tell Ryan just how much I loved him. When the hell did that happen?

Mary stood up and chucked the ball back with surprising speed and accuracy. It landed between Landry’s palms, and he gave her a wink. “Thanks, little Coop,” he smirked at her and Mary turned about nine different shades of pink before sinking back into the sand with me.

“What the heck was that?” I asked her, and she shrugged.

“He always flirts with me, but I think they’re all scared of my brother, so none of them ask me out… It kinda sucks.” Mary said quietly, “Landry is the cutest.”

“You have a crush on Landry?” I gasped and stared at her.

“Shut up, you can’t tell anyone!” Mary poked me as laughter bubbled from her.

“Who am I going to tell? You’re my only friend.” I said.

“Mm, not true.” She nodded to the horizon and caused me to turn.

Ryan and Landry stood shoulder to shoulder, staring at us, a massive smile on his handsome face. The one that curled a little to the left and showed off his perfect, sharp smile.

“That boy is in deep, Lorraine.” Another small laugh left Mary’s lips. I didn’t have a proper response, so I just sat wondering if it was possible to love someone you’ve only known for a week as if you had been loving them your entire life. And I believed it, looking at him, the way his eyes twinkled under the setting sun.

“Hey, you want a snack? Tyson bought way too much food on Dad’s credit card and there’s no way we can finish it before they get home next week.” Mary rambled and pushed up from the sand with her hand out to me.

“Yeah, sure,” I said, taking her hand and getting up from the sand. Ryan stepped forward, his eyes always watching, but I shook my head at him. I’m fine . He nodded back, two of his fingers coming up, and patted the space over his heart twice.I'd never seen him do it before but I could feel his reassurance like he was standing directly beside me, it spread through me like a warm safety. A quiet promise between the two of us.

The house was packed; people occupied every piece of furniture, even the ones not meant for sitting or lounging. Tyson Cooper, a male copy of Mary with dark hair and big brown eyes full of wonder and light, was leading what sounded like the most animated game of spin the bottle in the living room with a group of kids who had graduated the year before.

“This way.” She led me through the hallway toward a separate room with a closed door, opening it to reveal a pantry stocked with just about every single junk food I’d ever seen and hadn’t been allowed to eat in the last two years. “Take your pick,” Mary said.

After collecting an armful of candy and chips, we decided that retreating to her room would be more fun for both of us. However, she wanted to grab a couple of cans of soda before we did, so we moved back through the house to the kitchen.

“Shit,” Mary swore as we rounded the corner to Cadence and her groupies. “Cadence… looking pretty as always,” Mary sneered quietly and moved around them, but my route was blocked; all I could do was stand and stare at the three of them.

“Who the hell invited you here?” Cadence asked and the other two giggled in chorus of what could only be described as snakes hissing.

“Ryan,” I said with all the confidence I could muster, which wasn’t much when his name came out a stuttered mess. It’s two syllables, Lorraine…

“R..R…Ryan,” Paisley teased, and Georgia lost it laughing, which only made me feel worse about the stumble.

It was hard to find the girls buried beneath the monsters when they cornered and teased me like this. I tried to remember what Mary had said about them, but nothing seemed to stick long enough for me to find my confidence and fight back. They all smelled sickly of cranberry juice and vodka, drunk off their faces and looking for a target.

“Ryan’s community service is almost up, loser, and you’ll go back to being the loner you were before,” Georgia added when she had composed herself.

That made Cadence snort before a wicked smile plastered on her face. “You might be rich, Lorraine, but parties like these…aren’t for people like you .”

I opened my mouth to excuse myself, stepping back into a wall of warmth.

“You’re going to have to explain that one to me, Caddy, because I’m not really sure what you’re trying to say?” Ryan’s voice floated over the four of us as his hand wrapped around my stomach and pulled me tightly to him.

“You know exactly what I mean, Ryan. She’s a loser, she barely speaks, and it’s almost cruel the way you parade her around like you actually care.” Cadence narrowed her eyes on him, but there was a sweetness to her voice that wasn’t there before.

A week ago, not knowing Ryan or having been convinced otherwise, her words might have allowed the doubt to seep in through the cracks. But with him wrapped around me, I didn’t have a single doubt that he cared. I knew he did. I could feel it vibrating from him.

Ryan chuckled, his breath warm on my ear as his fingers dug into my stomach and he leaned forward into me. “What it sounds like is you’re acting like a whiny bitch because you want attention, but I have news for you Caddy,” he said and she flinched at the nickname. “Not everything is about you, and the sooner you learn that the sooner you can start working on your lifelong dream of being a trophy wife to the next wash-out car salesman. Our town would go under without people like you.”

Cadence looked like she might be sick as she bristled from his comments and tightened her hot pink claws around her cup. “You’ve changed, Ryan Cody.”

“You say that like you know me, Cadence.” He sneered with another small laugh as she started to back away. “One more thing,” he said as the three of them started to exit the kitchen, “if you ever look at Lorraine wrong again, if I hear one rumor that even remotely sounds like it came from any of you, we’ll have this conversation again, but I won’t be nice next time.”

Mary snorted, scaring me after forgetting she was also in the kitchen with us.

“Run along now,” she said to them as they had already started disappearing. “She’s going to spiral about that car salesman comment for a week.”

“Good,” Ryan pressed his lips to my cheek. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly against my ear, and I nodded. “How about a walk?” he asked me, and I opened my mouth to tell him that I was going to go hang out with Mary, but she shook her head at me and took the bag of chips from my arms.

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” Mary said with a smile and wandered through the house.

“Sorry, I interrupted your…whatever that was…” Ryan said.

“It was nothing,” I said, turning out of his arms and wiggling my fingers at him to take. Without pause, he intertwined our hands and led us from the back of the house down to the beach. Everything had quieted down outside, and the bonfire was crackling into the dark sky, which was the only light source next to the moon. “Thank you for standing up for me,” I said as he settled next to me in the sand.

“I’d do anything for you, Rae,” He responded with conviction, “However, when it comes to them, promise you’ll never listen to a word they say. It all comes from jealousy and malice, none of it is true.”

I turned to look at him and found his brows tight with worry, his green eyes watching me carefully, almost as if he expected me to doubt him.

“I know,” I said to him and squeezed my hand around his tighter. There was not a shred of doubt to be found as we sat under the stars with the heat from the fire licking at our cold skin.