First Degree Burns Read online

  Nicole shook her head. She needed them to see how great Danny was, because she truly believed they’d love Danny if they took the time to get to know her and accept her. She imagined all the great trips and good times they could have, if only her cousins saw how good Danny was.

  “That’s not the point. The point is she’s probably as clueless as the last two idiots you brought with you,” Spider said.

  “She’s not totally clueless and, unlike those people, she’s willing to learn if you give her an opportunity to do so.” Nicole scowled. “So, how about, instead of judging her, especially based on evidence from other people, you give her a chance? You never know, you might like her.”

  “Give her a chance? What? So, she can set fire to the camp like the last asshole you brought around?” Junior huffed, scrunching up his face a bit.

  Nicole flinched and stepped back. “Uh…” She was at a loss for words briefly, because that seemed like an attack on her and, despite not liking her past partners, her cousins had never attacked her over it. “You know what, I’ll keep her away from you guys. I hope you enjoy the trip.” Nicole turned to walk away. She wasn’t going to put up with shit from them on Danny’s first camping trip. She’d make sure Danny had a good time, so they could do this again with just the two of them.

  “Nikki,” Junior sighed, reaching out and taking her by the wrist. Even though she halted, he still held her securely, but in a gentle manner, as if that were his apology. “Don’t be like this. We want to have a fun trip and it’s usually best when it’s just us here. You’re not the only one who’s brought around party poopers. I’m not saying it’s your fault or anything.”

  She turned to face them again and frowned slightly. “No, you’re saying you don’t like Danny because I brought her and that means she’s more than likely an asshole. But, you don’t know her and you don’t care to know her. That’s your right, but I’m not going to let you ruin her first camping experience by being an ass to her.”

  “We’re not going to be asses to her,” Junior replied.

  “She’ll handle that,” Spider mumbled, earning a heated glare from Nicole.

  “You two may not get this, but I love her. Okay? I fucking love her and I’m not going to let you treat her any way you feel. So, if you’re not respectful to her, then keep your distance. Understood?” She narrowed her eyes and scowled at them, wishing her stare alone could hurt them enough for them to understand.

  “We got it.” The brothers sighed.

  From the way they glanced at each other, she wasn’t inclined to believe them. She’d jump down their throats, if necessary, if they did anything to Danny. She decided to talk to Danny to make sure she knew she didn’t need to take the abuse.

  She was tired of Danny putting up with open scorn, ridicule, harsh words, and even worse treatment because of her. She’s not always going to put up with being degraded and she shouldn’t have to. But, what if she blames me? Nicole managed to shake that thought away. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself she was secure in their relationship. She and Danny were doing well, and she wanted things to go smoothly. She wanted their relationship to last forever.

  She just wanted Danny to be happy, and she’d allow Danny to find that path, however she believed was right, as long as it didn’t involve excessive drugs or alcohol. As soon as she was done with her tasks, she made her way over to her beloved, who had made herself comfortable on a rock a few feet from everyone else. She seemed to be watching them and purposely staying out of the way, which made Nicole frown. I hope they haven’t ruined this for her already.

  “Baby, don’t worry about them, okay? They’re being mean-spirited right now. It has nothing to do with you.” Nicole rested her hand on Danny’s knee. She softly caressed the area.

  “But, they’re your family,” Danny replied. “You like them, so I want to like them, and I want them to like me.”

  “It’s all right. If you’ve taught me anything it’s that sometimes, no matter what you do, people won’t acknowledge how good you are. You’re perfectly fine and if they can’t see that, it’s their loss. I want you to have a good time while you’re here and if that means I have to steal you away and we do things on our own, then so be it.” Nicole moved closer to Danny. She put her free hand on Danny’s other knee. She was careful since that was Danny’s bad leg.

  Danny’s smile bordered on perverse, but Nicole decided against scolding her. Danny's day had been rough, so her mind could take a trip to the gutter if it wanted. Of course, whatever she was thinking would stay in her mind until they got home. I guess if things are really bad, I can at least spend some time at home making it up to her.

  “You won’t get more than a kiss out in these woods, Big Dog,” Nicole said.

  “I’ll take what I can get,” Danny replied, still smiling. She opened her legs a little, giving Nicole room to step in between them if she wanted to do so. Nicole held off, thinking that might be too much. Danny didn’t appear bothered by the decision. “I’ll do my best to have a good time, but like I said, I wanted your family to like me. I didn’t think I’d be judged as soon as they saw me.” She sighed and ran her bronze hand through her hair.

  “I didn’t think they’d do that either. I was sure they’d like you. I mean, you’re not very different from them. They work hard, just like you, enjoy the outdoors, and even like dogs. I still think they will like you once they see you’re nothing like the people I used to date. I think that’s the real problem anyway.” Nicole closed the space between them and put her arms around Danny. She pulled her lover into a warm hug.

  “So, it’s not really me?”

  Nicole shook her head. “Well, I hope it’s not. I mean, if it is, then that means they can judge someone two seconds into knowing them and be dead wrong. They’re not the people I thought they were if they do that.”

  Danny was silent, and Nicole decided to enjoy the press of their bodies together. Placing a gentle kiss to Danny’s forehead, Nicole pulled away. She looked down at Danny for a moment before Danny nodded toward the rest of the camp, quietly urging Nicole to join her family. She gave Danny one more kiss before leaving, thinking Danny might want to be alone for a moment. Besides, she might need to get enough family time in before she’d have to step away from her cousins. If they really didn’t like Danny, well, this was the end. She wouldn’t give Danny up because they were jerks.

  ***

  Dane watched as Nicole joined her cousins and they laughed over something. She was glad Nicole was enjoying herself. Now, she needed to figure out a way to enjoy things, without somehow ruining the trip for Nicole. She figured she had to do something that at least wouldn’t make the family dislike her even more.

  She had her guitar next to her, so she wasted no time picking it up. She was about to play when Lillian suddenly sat down next to her. To say she was surprised by the company didn’t begin to cover it, but she made sure not to show it. While Nicole seemed fine with the idea of her avoiding the family, she doubted her girlfriend was all right with her insulting them, even if it was with a simple facial expression. She also doubted it’d endear her to these people if she gave as good as she got.

  ‘These people’? Dane echoed in her head. She realized she had already set herself apart from them, mentally, in the same way they seemed to dismiss her as ‘the other.’ She’d have to stop doing that if she wanted to become an insider. I never thought of Kathleen’s family as these people. Weird.

  “Not going to join the festivities?” Lillian arched an eyebrow and nodded toward her family. There was a strange glint in her eyes that Dane decided to chalk up to a trick of the twilight.

  “Eventually,” Dane replied. It’s not like I can sit away from camp for the whole three days.

  “What’s the problem? I mean I’m sure you know how to camp and everything. It’s not like this is your first time out, right? I mean that’s one of the main problems with the other people Nikki brought. They never knew what the hell they were doi
ng and always messed stuff up. I doubt she’d ever bring another novice out here, knowing how much everyone hates that. So, you should be fine.”

  Dane shrugged. “Yeah, I should be fine.” Nicole had prepped her for the trip as far as the motions of camping, and she had plenty of experience in living outdoors. Of course, that didn’t translate into camping experience, so she was still very much the novice and probably going to make some mistakes. Great, I can see this is going to be much like the story of my life–it gets worse before it gets better.

  “Yeah, you’re nothing like the other people Nikki’s brought around. I mean, you don’t even look like them. She always showed up with some business-looking asshole, even when she was in college. They were always dressed in these designer clothes, wearing big-name brands, even in the woods. One girl she brought out here had brand new expensive boots, and she got uppity and belligerent when mud got on them, like it was our fault. I mean, come on, duh. It’s camping, in the woods, of course there’s going to be mud.”

  No one could accuse Dane of wearing designer clothes. Some of her gear was name brand, but mostly because Nicole bought it and it was better made than the things Dane dug up at secondhand stores. She’d never complain about mud or really anything from nature. People are the assholes, not nature. But, what she really wondered was where Lillian was going with this little discussion, if it could even count as a discussion.

  “You know, you’re probably more Nikki’s speed, anyway. I’ve met some of her other lovers, beyond the ones she’s brought on the camping trip. You’re nothing like them.” Lillian nodded to herself. “I mean, they didn’t know Nikki very well. They were always shocked by stuff she did.”

  “Shocked, huh?” She guessed they were shocked to find out that a prim and proper woman like Nicole would, or could, enjoy camping.

  “Oh, yeah. They couldn’t do much with Nikki…in bed. You know.” Lillian wiggled her eyebrows.

  No, I don’t know. What the fuck is this girl talking about? Are we supposed to be bonding or something? Dane ran her hand through her hair, trying to figure out what was going on. Whatever it was, she didn’t like it.

  “I don’t really want to hear about Nick in bed with anyone else,” Dane replied honestly. If she wanted to know about Nicole’s sex life before her, she’d go to the source. She hadn’t done that because she damn sure didn’t want to know.

  Lillian’s eyes went wide, as if she were the one surprised. “Oh. I figured you’d have already heard all the stories. I guess Nikki doesn’t talk about that stuff, huh? Well, not with you, anyway.”

  “No,” she stated as bluntly as possible. She tensed and squared her shoulders, glancing around. She attempted to mark out an escape route.

  “She used to talk to me about stuff like that, when we talked more often, before we both got really busy. She was wild. I figured…well, that she was with you to feed her wild side.” Lillian gave Dane a strange, sidelong glance with a bit of a smirk.

  Again, Dane wondered what the girl was babbling about. She felt insulted, but she couldn’t entirely figure out why. It seemed like Lillian judged her based on her appearance, but she couldn’t pin down what exactly Lillian judged her about. There also seemed to be something weird about the way she spoke about Nicole. It wasn’t what Dane expected, but then again, she really didn’t know what to expect. Something was off, though.

  “Nick has a wild side?” Dane couldn’t help sounding skeptical. While she imagined Nicole had been quite the tomboy from the way Junior and Spider treated her like one of them, she couldn’t see Nicole having an adult wild side. Hell, she couldn’t even see Nicole having a teenage wild side, beyond being a tomboy.

  “Oh, yeah. Well, she used to. Maybe she grew out of it. She used to tell me some crazy things she did with her boyfriends. Oh, and girlfriends. Crazy things. I guess, I thought that…never mind.” Lillian shook her head and waved the whole thing off with one hand.

  A frown worked its way onto Dane’s face and she couldn’t do anything to hide it. The hairs on her body prickled a little each time Lillian open her mouth. Lillian bothered her in some way she couldn’t put her finger on yet. I'm not sure I want to find out, either. This was the woman Nicole considered her little sister.

  “I don’t know about feeding her wild side. I guess she just wanted a change,” Dane answered with a slight shrug. She was certain one of the reasons Nicole loved her was because she was incredibly different from any lover she’d had in the past.

  Lillian looked her up and down. There were hints of a smirk on her face. For a moment, Dane considered Lillian was hitting on her, but she was certain that wasn’t it. There was something about Lillian, and now it was creeping into Dane, crawling slowly through her. She was unable to suppress a shudder, feeling invaded.

  “You certainly are different. No suit, no pretentious vocabulary, and your nose isn’t stuck in the air. Completely different,” Lillian said, and Dane wondered if that was supposed to be a compliment.

  “Yeah, well, just trying to make Nick happy,” Dane replied.

  “Well, I’m sure if you’re just, you know…” Lillian wiggled her eyebrows again and Dane wanted to punch her in the face. “All that in the sack, then you’re probably keeping her really happy.”

  Dane decided she didn’t like Lillian, and she was thankful when Lillian walked away. She wasn’t sure what to make of that conversation and she was almost certain she didn’t want to know what it was all about. Putting it out of her head, she picked up her guitar, planning to work on her music. She didn’t get the chance. Beth wandered over, standing right in the spot Lillian had vacated.

  “Hey, I want to know if it’s cool with you that I took this picture.” Beth held up her camera. She showed the most recent photo to Dane, which happened to be her as she was reaching for her guitar.

  “You’re good at capturing an image,” Dane said. The lighting in the back with the fading sunlight breaking through the trees made it seem like some mystical moment.

  Beth chuckled. “I need to be if I want to feed myself.”

  “You know, you should show it to Nick. She likes hanging your prints up and she might like the picture.”

  Beth nodded. “All right. I owe her some prints. I haven’t sent her a picture in months. You okay?”

  Sighing, Dane looked around. “Yeah, I’m good.”

  Beth nodded toward the others. “Then rejoin the group. We’re about to start cooking and hopefully we’ll be done before it gets dark. We’re going to tell ghost stories once the sun goes down.”

  Chuckling, Dane nodded. “Now, that sounds like something right out of a TV show.”

  Beth laughed again. “You’re right, but it’s something our fathers started when we were younger. They used to scare the crap out of us. Imagine a tent full of kids jumping at every sound in the woods, swearing a ghost bear was going to come eat them.”

  Dane smiled a bit, picturing a tiny Nicole huddled together with her cousins, flashlights on, unintentionally encouraging each other to be afraid of the dark. The very thought made her feel light inside, and she’d love to experience things like that. Beth tapped her on the shoulder, jabbing her thumb toward everyone else. She walked off, in case Dane didn’t get the message.

  “I like that one a lot more,” Dane decided as she hopped off the rock. She rubbed her knee a bit and strapped her guitar around her shoulder. She was hungry enough to endure whatever the hell they wanted to put her through, and she wanted camping memories with Nicole just like everyone else had. Sure, they might not involve huddling together, thinking they were going to be eaten by a ghost bear, but she’d take anything.

  Nicole glided over to her and wrapped her arm around Dane’s. “I’m glad you decided to join us. I was about to come kidnap you to eat.” She smiled.

  “You don’t have to do that. I’m pretty interested in food,” Dane replied with a grin.

  “Good because we’re about to make some campfire chili dogs,” Raymond declared.
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  “Chili dogs?” Dane was very interested now. She wondered how they were going to do that. She’d never seen cooking done over a campfire.

  “Too rich for your blood?” Spider sneered at her.

  Dane chuckled. They acted as if she were pretentious; when she was certain she was the only one among them who knew hunger pains; knew what it was like to go for days without food; and knew what it was like to sleep on the cold ground, because there were no other viable options. Of course, she didn’t suffer much considering she starved on days she was high.

  “Considering how many chili dogs Danny wolfed down at her first baseball game, I think we might have to feed her last,” Raymond said, and winked at her.

  “That wasn’t a pleasant night, I will tell you that,” Nicole added, shaking her head. “She complained about her stomach for the rest of the night.”

  “Considering they were baseball dogs, I think you got off lightly with her just complaining. Eyes bigger than your stomach that time, eh?” Raymond threw her a teasing smile.

  With a half smirk, Dane held her head high. “It was still better than watching baseball.”

  There were collective gasps. Clearly, the national pastime was the family pastime. Well, that wouldn’t make Dane learn to like the sport, or any sport, really, that didn’t involve partially clothed ladies. The only reason she watched football now was because Nicole’s grandfather pretty much forced her to.

  “You don’t like baseball?” Junior shook his head and glared at her.

  Richard did the same. “That’s a damn shame. Not that I expect anything less from someone Nikki brought.” He muttered that under his breath, but it seemed clear enough for others to hear since Dane did. She didn’t like that statement and was about to say something, but the air was filled before she could open her mouth.

  “How can you not like baseball? You might as well say you don’t like Nikki while you’re at it,” Spider declared, throwing his hands up.