Chapter 6
It's Not That I'm Immature...It's Just That You Started It!
You know those awkward car rides where only one person is usually talking? Usually that person is trying to get the other people in said car to talk or at least comment on what he or she is saying. Just to get a word out of them is the goal.
Well, that's what Max was doing as we drove home later that night.
But it totally wasn't working.
With Ben and Drew sitting in the back, Sophie squished in between them. She didn't look too excited about it either. They were looking at her like she was going to jump up and attack someone like she was a wild animal. In turn, she was looking at the two of them like they were the Plague.
And I wasn't trying very hard to try and hide my smile at her discomfort.
"It's just crazy to think about your dad being the one finding all of this out," Max said, obviously to Sophie, even though we were all listening, too. "And to know that you knew about it and didn't even mention it when we..."
"I couldn't," Sophie said from the back. "It was a matter of international security."
"But still. We deal with things pertaining to international security all the time."
"And we break into places," Ben said.
"And you can't forget running from crazy people with guns either," Drew pointed out.
I smirked, rolling my eyes as I looked over at Max. Even though he was supposed to be focusing on driving, especially since it had started snowing again, it looked like he was a million miles away. I couldn't tell just where that little world of his was, but it definitely wasn't here.
I turned my head slightly so that I could look back at Sophie out of the corner of my eye. Her eyes were focused directly on me, like they had been for most of the night. Sure, when she'd been speaking to someone else directly, she would have been looking at them. But otherwise, it was always me.
If you asked me, it was kind of creepy.
She could have been plotting a way to kill me or something.
That, or she was just curious.
About what, though, I had no clue. I mean, I wasn't that interesting.
"So you two have a house together?" Sophie asked. She obviously was talking to Max and I. I didn't say anything and just let Max continue doing the talking like he's been for the past few minutes that we'd been driving.
"Yes," Max said, looking back at her in the rearview mirror. "We've only been in it for about a month now since it was finished, but it's like we've been there for years."
Ben snorted back. "That's because everything in it is centuries old."
"I noticed that with your parents' house, Callie," Sophie said to me. "Were all of the artifacts in there found by you on your expeditions?"
Oh, God. She was talking directly to me. I actually think that it was the first time all night that she was. Mostly she'd just looked at me, but now it was actually words she was throwing at me.
At least it wasn't daggers.
Or bullets. Bullets would probably hurt worse.
"Um," I said, glancing back at her just to show her that I was acknowledging her. I didn't want her thinking that I was going to be immature and not be the bigger woman. The current girlfriend could be civil with the ex-girlfriend, right? And without any hair pulling?
Well, maybe.
"Not all of them," I said finally. "But most are things we'd found and they let us keep. A lot of the other things, like the artwork, we bought. It's the same with our house. Dad and Brielle let us pick some of the stuff from theirs to have in ours."
I put as much emphasis on our as I possibly could. Again, immature? Well, maybe. But I had a good reason for point out that very important point.
"Well, I can't wait to see it then. Your parents' house is spectacular," she said, sounding genuine.
And I hated it. I mean, how could you still not like the ex-girlfriend when she was being nice.
But, oh, did I have my ways...
I sighed almost silently. Max still heard it, though. My eyes turned toward him and I saw his little smile as he looked over at me. His hand moved over my knee and grasped onto mine. He threaded his fingers through mine and lifted my hand to kiss the back of it. I couldn't help my smile that creeped onto my lips. Max kissed my hand again, looking back at me, and then nuzzled my hand with his cheek.
"Keep your eyes on the road," I said, laughing slightly.
Max shook his head, looking at me again. "Nope."
He kept nuzzling my hand until he brought it back to his lips and kissed it once.
And then he licked it. Like complete tongue action with the back of my hand.
"Ugh," I squealed, yanking my hand from his. "You're disgusting."
I wiped the back of my hand on my jeans, shaking my head while he just sat there and laughed. Ben and Drew were laughing from the back, too.
"How would you like it if I licked you?" I asked, hitting his arm.
He looked over at me, wiggling his eyebrows. "Is that an invitation? Because it's one I'll gladly except," he said.
I shook my head, hitting his arm again. "Perv," I said, rolling my eyes.
Ben and Drew were groaning in the backseat.
"Alright, Soph, just ignore them," Drew said.
"Because it's going to happen at least ten times a day. Like yesterday, we walked in on them in the middle of a food fight," Ben said.
"Well, it was the end of it actually," Drew said, and made a gagging sound. "We walked in in the middle of the make out session that was apparently called as the truce."
Instantly, my cheeks flamed. "Shut up, you two!"
But did they shut up? No, they just started laughing.
I hit Max again when he did, too. He just grinned and caught my hand again. This time, though, he just left it in my lap. Despite the grossness that he just decided to do, I couldn't resist that cute, innocent little smile on his face and he peeked over at me from time to time as he continued to drive to the house. I just rolled my eyes and leaned my head back against the headrest as he pulled into our driveway.
The outside lights were on, including the ones over the garage. Max pulled the Audi into its spot and turned off the engine. I got out and walked around to the back, opening the door to get everything out. Sophie appeared next to me with Max at her side. Ben and Drew were yelling about finding the TV remote and heading inside by the sound of the door slamming open.
"Here, let me help," Max said, reaching over the two of us to grab the handle of Sophie's suitcase and her duffle bag.
He just kept hold of the suitcase and handed her the duffle since she insisted that she could carry something. Again, he was just being the gentleman he always was. He did grab three of the other bags with the presents in it to help me. He didn't even let me take them when I tried to grab at least one.
"It's alright," he said, leaning down to kiss my forehead. "I've got them."
I smiled, nodding, as he led the way into the house.
Sophie followed behind me, shutting the door behind her when we got inside.
"Do you mind if you just show me where my room is?" Sophie asked, looking between me and Max as we neared the back stairs near the kitchen. "I've got horrible jet lag and just want to go to bed."
Max nodded and answered before I even could. "Of course," he said. "Come on and I'll show you where you can sleep."
She nodded as he started up the stairs with her suitcase in hand. After he disappeared at the top, Sophie turned to me and her hand tightened on the strap of her duffle bag.
"Thank you for letting me stay," she said, shifting awkwardly like she did before when she first appeared on the doorstep of Dad's house. "I know it's probably kind of awkward and everything, but still. Thank you."
I nodded. "Sure, it's totally fine."
"And everything else in the book that we didn't talk about earlier," she said. "I'll show you everything in it tomorrow, including the clue. Maybe you'll have more luck with it than my father has in the last few years."
"Hopefully," I said, smiling slightly. Well, more nervously. Nervous, Callie? Really? "I've had some experience with that kind of thing."
She laughed, pointedly looking at the collection of pictures on the wall beside us. They were of all of us after we found Blackbeard's treasure and the Nazi treasure.
"I would say you have," she said with one last smile before she started up the stairs and disappeared in the direction Max had.
I walked into the living room where Ben and Drew had plopped down on the couch and were watching something on the flat screen. When I walked in and sat right in between the two of them, they both started grinning and moved closer to me, each taking my hand in theirs.
"Don't worry about Sophie," Ben said.
"Yeah, we'll ditch her as soon as we can. Once she gives us the first clue, we'll steal that book of hers, knock her out, pack up, and head off before she even wakes up," Drew said.
I started laughing just as he finished. It sounded like they had about the same plan as I did with it came to her. But after her niceness just now, I was kind of regretting not liking her when I obviously didn't know her at all.
But you can never be off your guard completely.
"That sounds like a plan to me," I said, laughing. "But let's wait on that until she does something bad."
"Until," Ben said. "Sounds like you're anticipating something to happen."
All I did was shrug.
"Alright, guys," I said, slapping them both on the knee as I stood up. "I'm going up to bed. Don't eat everything in my kitchen and we'll still be on good terms in the morning."
"How could we be hungry after all of that delectable food we had earlier?" Ben asked, rubbing his stomach, which I noticed was protruding just a little more than it had before.
I just shook my head. "I'll see you two in the morning."
When I got upstairs, I looked down the hallway at the room Max was going to let Sophie use. By the light on coming from the open door, I saw he had put her in one of the rooms across the guys'.
I just needed to calm down. Nothing was going to happen and I trusted Max enough to know that he wouldn't let anything happen.
And if something did, I would totally take up Ben and Drew on their offer.
I think I'd even help.
I closed the door when I got into mine and Max's room, leaving it open just a crack. Walking to the closet, I grabbed a pair of pajamas and walked back out to lay them on the bed. I stripped down to my underwear, throwing everything into a pile over my shoulder. But when I took off my bra and threw it over my shoulder, I didn't hear the slight noise of it hitting the floor like everything else had.
"Well, are you letting me take up on that offer that you made in the car?" Max said, chuckling softly from behind me.
My heart started beating faster as I quickly slipped into my t-shirt before turning around to face him. I grabbed my pajama pants then and pulled them on as I glared at him.
"You're such a perv, just like I said before," I said.
Max just grinned as he cocked an eyebrow and started swinging my bra around on his finger in front of him. He closed and locked the door behind him and then his hand hit the light switch, plunging us into complete darkness.
I just stood there as I heard him rustling around in the room. It was like he was in one place and then another in the next second. But when the light on the table beside the bed turned on, I looked over to see him walking slowly toward me with that same grin on his face. He was only dressed in his pajama pants then and he was heading straight for me.
He caught me up before I could open my mouth to ask him what he was doing, making me wrap my legs around his waist and arms around his neck so I wouldn't fall. We were airborne then and I squealed and laughed when we landed on the bed.
"What was that for?" I asked, unwrapping my legs from around his waist and settling them on the covers
He wasn't moving, though, and just settled himself on top of me. He wasn't exactly crushing me, but his body was a comfortable weight on top of me. He just looked down at me for a few seconds before he smiled and answered. "I don't know. I'm just loving on the best girlfriend in the world," he said, shrugging.
My eyes narrowed at him in the slightest, but he seemed to noticed.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his smile turning down.
I shook my head, moving my gaze down to his chin so he wouldn't be able to read my answer in my eyes. I didn't need to let him know. "It's nothing. Just..."
"Sophie?"
Dang it. I just needed to learn not to speak because now he was learning how to get my answers from my tone of voice.
"Maybe," I said, still looking at his chin.
His lips turned up again as I saw him lean down to press a kiss to the corner of my mouth.
"You know you have nothing to worry about," he said.
It was kind of hard to keep looking at his chin when his face was just a few inches away from mine.
I sighed, reaching up to stroke a finger down his cheek. "I know. It's just weird having her here, in our house, and more than likely going on this expedition with us. I mean, she kind of has to since she's the one with all of the information."
"It's not like she's going to withhold anything from us. She's not like that at all."
I nodded. "I know, but I'm just worried about..." Yeah, I couldn't finish that sentence because I knew that he was going to think that I was completely insane.
"You're worried that she's going to do something, like try and steal me away from you," Max finished for me.
Again, I really needed to learn not to talk.
But like everyone knew, that was practically an impossible feat for me.
"That's not going to happen, Callie," Max continued. "Sophie and I...yes, we have a past. But that was a long time again. You, though." He smiled, shaking his head in what looked like amazement. "You are my past, present, and future. Never forget that. It will practically be impossible because I plan on reminding you every day."
"Well, that's good to know," I said. "But if anything happens, I'm going to take up Ben and Drew on their offer."
Max's eyes darkened. "And what offer would that be?"
I just grinned and patted his cheek lightly. "Wouldn't you like to know."
***Well, hello again! It's been a little while, huh? But totally well worth the wait, huh? :)
Soooo, you guys are sure hatin' on Sophie, aren't you? And she hasn't even done anything...yet! >:D
I'm hopefully going to have the next chapter up sometime soon, so be on the lookout!
30 votes and 12 comments before I upload, please?
Comment, Vote, and Like!!!1***