Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
And I’d roped the poor guy into a road trip.
Even when he agreed to it, he’d made sure to draw the line between us, to remind me what we were and what we weren’t. He was telling me in every way possible that this was just him being a friend.
Still, if he didn’t want to be here, he wouldn’t be. He could have easily laughed me off and said no. I could still be loafing on my brother’s couch and burritoing up in my sads.
Instead, I was in the car with Jaxson Brittain.
And maybe it was stupid, maybe I was reading into things…
But I swore he wanted to kiss me — just as badly as I wanted to kiss him.
Of course, right now he looked more like he wanted to strangle me. I guessed my little joke wasn’t too funny to him, either.
“I’m in Kentucky,” I said, not bothering to lie when I didn’t need to. My family was used to my nomadic behavior, so me being in the middle of nowhere USA wouldn’t be weird at all to them. “But don’t worry, I’ll be at your tournament tomorrow. Meeting Mom and Dad there.”
“Good. You can watch me dominate in the name of charity.”
“I see your modesty is even stronger in the off-season.”
“Just confident, sis,” he corrected. “Maven and I are packing now, flying into St. Louis tonight.” There was a stretch of quiet before he asked, “You doing okay?”
“Oh, you know me. Sad for about twenty-four hours and then that shit is behind me.”
“That’s my sis. Don’t give that loser any energy he doesn’t deserve.”
I smiled, but didn’t miss how Jaxson subtly shook his head like he hated that answer. I thought about what he said to me at the creek yesterday.
“I hate when you do that — act like you’re not allowed to feel anything but happy, like being sad or angry or disappointed makes you a bad person.”
I swallowed.
Why did I feel like that?
When did being anything but happy start to make me feel like a burden?
“Well, I won’t keep you. Just wanted to—”
“Hi, Gracie!”
It was Maven who interrupted him, and I smiled wide. “Hey, Mave.”
“Can’t wait to see you tomorrow! Livia is coming with us, too. So, while the boys hit balls with sticks, the girls can get drunk and pay a hot caddie to drive us around in a golf cart.”
“Any caddie who values his life would know better than to come anywhere near my girl,” Vince growled, and I rolled my eyes.
“Calm down, psycho. It’ll be me the caddie rails at the end of the night.”
I grinned proudly at the joke, which made Maven laugh and Vince ramble on about how he’d go to jail. I was laughing to myself when I glanced over at Jaxson.
But he looked just as murderous as my brother.
I narrowed my gaze at him, smiling even bigger at the thought that my little joke might have made him jealous.
I wanted him to be jealous. I wanted him to throw me over his shoulder caveman style again and tell me he’d be the only man touching me from here on out.
God, what was wrong with me?
“I’m going to go toss your brother in the pool before he overheats,” Maven said over Vince still warning me to stay away from every man at the tournament. “Love you, see you tomorrow.”
“See ya,” I said on a laugh, and then ended the call, and “Hot Stuff” picked up right where it had left off.
An awkward tension settled over the car, and I was all too aware of how hard Jaxson gripped the wheel. Then, he reached forward and turned the music down.
“We need a game plan for tomorrow.”
My chest squeezed at the insinuation, at the fact that while I’d been on the phone, he’d likely been freaking the fuck out realizing we were all going to be in the same place tomorrow. I didn’t know why, but a small part of me thought maybe he’d just tell Vince that we’d been together. It wasn’t like we’d done anything wrong. We were just two friends on a road trip.
Even as I thought it, I knew it was ridiculous.
Vince would never be okay with that, and we both knew it.
I didn’t know which emotion I felt stronger — hurt that Jaxson wanted to keep me a secret, or elated that he was willing to risk what we both knew would be an unforgivable offense against my brother, all in the name of making me happy.
I couldn’t remember anyone, ever, prioritizing me and my joy like that.
My chest squeezed again, but this time, it was less painful and more like hope — which I needed to squash down with a heavy boot.
“Don’t worry,” I told him, propping my feet up on the dash. “I’ve already got it covered.”