A Bad Boy's Worst Nightmare (Book 1)

16. Rain

Back to Ryder's P.O.V.

I tapped my fingers impatiently as I waited for Corey. Come on, come on, where are you? It's about to start raining. Get your butt in the car. Finally, he opened the door to the car. "What took you so long? That was like four hours to get from your house to the car."

He raised an eyebrow. "It was less than two minutes, Ryder. Why are you so freaked out?"

Because I'm afraid of thunder and lightning you dipshit. "I'm not. Just drive me home. I'll be fine once I'm there."

Corey hesitated as he turned the key, then turned his dark green eyes on me. "It...isn't because of my family, is it? My sisters and parents didn't upset you, did they? Are you just making me drive you home so that you can start ignoring me?"

Wow. Is that how this was coming off to him? "No," I said, using my that-is-the-stupidest-thing-I've-ever-heard tone. In truth, his family was great.

His father had a sort of country accent, but it was fairly faint. He had grey hair and brown eyes, and there were laugh lines all over his face. I thought he seemed like a pretty happy man. Then there was his mother; she was...a bit much. But in a very good way. She was loud, sure, and kinda...well, insanely perky for a woman in her thirties or forties, but he was kind and looked a lot like Corey did. Emily looked exactly like the both of them with her black hair and green eyes; she had really long lashes and a cutely shaped face. She was going to be really beautiful some day. Then there were the twins. They spoke almost in unison, and when they weren't doing that, they were finishing each other's sentences. Seeing as how I had seen every horror movie invented, they creeped me out; but just a little bit. The twins took after their father, with brown hair and eyes. Both of them were pretty, but I didn't trust twins based solely upon the fact that they were in The Shining.

I loved his family.

"Are you sure?" he asked slowly. "I mean...I thought that...maybe you wouldn't want to see a family like ours because of...well, you know."

Instead of snorting like I wanted to, I smiled. "I love seeing families like yours, Corey. I mean, yeah, it makes me a little sad that I never got to have a family like that, but seeing a family that works so well makes me happy. It was really a nice sight. They were all very nice, and I really liked Emily. I'd like to babysit her sometime if you guys ever want help looking after her. Actually, I was surprised that your family was like that."

"Why?"

"You're so...different, from them."

"I wasn't raised by them."

I blinked, startled. "What?"

"My mom was seventeen when she had me. She didn't want to raise a kid. So I went and lived with my grandparents until I was fifteen. Then I met my twelve year old sisters and three year old sister. I guess she kind of forgot about me." He shrugged. "Anyway. My grandparents ended up dying, so I went back to living with my parents and sisters. They're weird, and the twins don't like me very much from what I can tell, but I love them I guess."

I threw my arms around his neck, hugging him from my awkward position in the passenger seat.

He stiffened in surprise, but relaxed a little after that and hugged me back to the best of his ability. "Why are you hugging me?" Corey sounded surprised, but not like he was objecting to the contact.

"Because I thought you were someone that grew up really easily with a perfect family. And I feel bad about assuming that."

I felt him smile against my hair. "It's alright, Ryder."