Chapter 2

I tried to think of a reply to give me more time to sort this whole thing out. Luckily, a quick glance back at the now full food table and dinner being called saved my ass.

“Hey ... uh, Lindsay, is it? Why don’t we talk after dinner? I’m starving from the drive here,” I said as I inched my way towards the growing line.

“Oh sure, that sounds good. I’m hungry, too.” She sounded just as uncomfortable as I did, and we quickly returned to our respective families.

It was a nightmare scenario, and I had nowhere to hide. Ideally, if I was back at school, I would have just avoided her at all costs, but I didn’t think that plan would work here. It was worth a shot, I suppose, if she tried to do the same thing. Maybe we could each stay out of each other’s way until the end of the weekend. Let the past be the past and forget anything that happened that night.

As the line inched closer, plate in hand, I still thought about my newly discovered cousin. It was lucky that nothing had happened, but what if we had done something? Then, a new fear crept over me. She was still in high school or had just finished it. How old was she? None of this was good, as my brain went into overdrive. I almost had sex with my underage cousin while she was drunk. How many laws could I have broken in one night?

Food was the answer to my problems, or at least a diversion from them. I loaded my plate with roasted potatoes, carrots, suckling pig, slaw, and boiled corn. I grabbed a beer on my way past a large cooler and sat down at an empty table. I was soon joined by my parents and several other relatives, which filled the table before Lindsay and her parents finished getting their food.

I thought myself safe for a while and started to eat, chowing down hard on what I’d taken. When I lifted my head from my plate to take a swig of beer, I looked up to see Lindsay at the next table facing towards me. She looked right at me. Her eyes felt like lasers burning through the back of my skull. At that moment, I knew my plan to play it cool and avoid her was doomed to fail. I could already tell she wanted to confront things and talk about it.

I tried to ignore her as I looked back down at my plate before I stole another glance at her. She continued to watch me intently, as if she was enjoying my torment. Even worse for me, she still looked very sexy. She wore a red spaghetti strap top that accentuated her breasts and a pair of short black shorts that showed off her soft thighs. I caught myself wondering if she still had a thick bush or if she shaved it for the summertime before I snapped back to reality.

Every time I’d look up, I caught her looking at me. I could feel myself start to sweat as the food on my plate disappeared into my mouth. It wasn’t the summer heat or a case of meat sweats, just the slow building stress of a conversation I just didn’t want to have that day.

“Are you feeling ok, Logan?” Mom asked as she noticed my sweaty complexion. Dad and the rest of the table looked at me too, which just made me feel more like I was under a microscope. I felt that at any minute, someone would figure out what I’d nearly done, and I’d be ostracized from the family.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just warm. I’m gonna grab another beer,” I said as I picked up my plate and headed back to the table of food for seconds. I put more on my plate, still hoping to delay things as long as possible. I was just about to add another scoop of potatoes when I heard her voice behind me.

“Just relax, ok? Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. I’ll protect you this time, frat boy,” she said softly as she put some salad on her plate and picked up a couple of beers. “ ... for my dad,” she said with that wicked smile, “ ... well, one of them is,” and then she walked back to her table.

I caught myself watching her ass as she walked away, feet rooted in place until I realized what I was doing and turned back. I forgot about more food and just grabbed another beer and whatever I’d already gathered on my plate and sat back down.

Be cool, I told myself. She told me everything would be fine, but I didn’t fully believe it. I was always so calm and collected with girls. Years of triumphs and rejections had hardened me into a stone-cold implement of chillness with the opposite sex. For whatever reason, that girl had shattered that armored exterior and turned me back into the nervous mess I was when I started middle school.

“That Lindsay Yost is a pretty girl, don’t you think Logan?” Dad said out of the blue.

“What? I don’t know, I guess,” I muttered before I took a long swig of beer.

“Her mom was runner up for Miss Teen Indiana; quite a looker in her day,” Dad continued until he got a hard whack from mom on the back of his head.

“Watch yourself, Mitchell,” Mom scolded him.

“Sorry, dear,” Dad replied in a tone he’d likely practiced the twenty-two years they’d been married. He looked at me and rolled his eyes when mom wasn’t looking. I couldn’t help but laugh. My parents were always such children.

I looked over at Aunt Marnee, Lindsay’s mom, and I could see the resemblance. She was similarly on the shorter side, with what was likely a thin body at one point. I’d guess that age and having had a kid had added some weight to her body. But in her face, I could see similar cute “girl next door” features that Lindsay had acquired. I guess the apple didn’t fall that far from the tree.

Despite my best efforts, dinner didn’t last too much longer. I couldn’t eat another bite, and someone walked around and collected my empty plate. A band walked onto a small stage and started playing, and people got up to mingle around. I felt a hand grab mine, and I was pulled away from the party tent and out towards one of the fields as the orange glow of the sun set on the horizon.

“I didn’t know either,” Lindsay said as we walked through a harvested hayfield. Round bales of hay occasionally dotted the landscape as we walked away from the main festivities.

“ ... that we were cousins? That’s good,” I replied, as I looked on at the setting sun. The sky was alight with oranges, reds, purples, and blues as the sun was half hidden by the open horizon.

“I’m serious, I was just upset, and you seemed nice enough.”

“Wait, wait, wait, let’s go back to the start. What were you even doing at Adams to begin with, and how old are you?” I asked as I stopped and leaned against a haybale. I didn’t know exactly where we were or how to get back in the dark, so I didn’t want to get too far away from the sound of the tent.

“Ok, for my eighteenth birthday, Dad and Mom sprung for my friends and I to tour a couple of colleges we were interested in. They paid for hotels near Adams College and Port Chester University, two schools I couldn’t decide between. We’d hit up PCU a couple of days before and then visited Adams.” She stopped and looked at me, making sure I was following along.

“Well, while touring campus, I found a flyer for your party and thought it sounded fun. I mean, a real college frat party? What better way to learn about the true campus experience than that? My friends warned me not to go, but I ditched them and went anyway. That’s when I met you and you know the rest.”

When she stopped talking, we looked at each other in the fading light. The warm hues from the fading sun lit up her face and highlighted her cute features. But as I looked closer, I also saw something else, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. My attention to detail was also diverted by her story, which seemed off.

There was something about the story she told that didn’t quite fit with what I saw that night. We had plenty of girls at our parties, and I’ve attended several others. In that time, I’ve met and hooked up with quite a few girls, and none seemed to act the way she did. She was like a predator stalking its prey while pretending to be wounded. It was such a strange dynamic. She seemed to be on a mission that night, but I didn’t know for what purpose.

“Why’d you become interested in me?” I asked, trying to sort out the finer details and quell the questions swirling in my brain.