Page 37 (1/2)

Chapter One

Sweet tea was apparently going to be the death of me

Not because the aar could send you into a diabetic coma after one slurp Or becausehis truck around in a sharp U-­turn after receiving a text e that contained tords only

Sweet Tea

Nope The request for sweet tea was bringing me face-­to-­face with Jase Winstead-­the physical eirl fantasy and then so him outside of campus

And in front of my brother

Oh sweet Maryto be aard

Why, oh why, did my brother have to text Jase and mention that ere on his end of town and ask if he needed anything? Caet fah the scenery I was about to witness was sure to be better than what I'd seen so far of this county

If I saw another strip club, I was going to hurt someone

Calanced over at o His gaze dropped from my face to the tea I clutched incalled a cup holder"

I shook my head "It's okay I'll hold it"

"Okaaay" He drew the word out, focusing on the road

I was acting like a spaz and I needed to play it cool The last thing anyone in this world needed was Ca out why I had a reason to act like a dweeb on crack "So, uht Jase lived up by the university?"

That sounded casual, right? Oh God, I was pretty surethat not-­so-­innocent question

"He does, but he spends most of the ti a sharp right Tea alrip on it Tea was going nowhere "You reht?"

Of course I did Jase had a five-­year-­old brother named Jack, and the little boyI'd ever learned about Jase in a way I i as that sounded, it was true Jase, unbeknownst to his to me in the last three years

A friend

My brother's saving grace

And the source of my crush

But then a year ago, right at the start ofwhen Ca very co et about But the other part of ainstover roaned my name like it had caused him exquisite pain

Oh goodness

My cheeks heated behind lasses at the vivid memory and I turned my face to the , half tempted to roll it down and stick ether If Cam ever discovered that Jase had kissed me, he would murder him and hide his body on a rural road like this one

And that would be a damn shame

My brain eht now The perspiration fro it hard to hold on to the cup I could've asked Cam about Avery and that would've worked, because he loved talking about Avery I could've asked about his classes or hoas back in training for United tryouts in the spring, but all I could do was think about the fact that I was finally going to see Jase in a situation where he couldn't run away from me

Which hat he'd been doing the first full week of classes

Thick trees on either side of the road started to thin out, and through thereen pastures became visible Cam turned onto a narrow road The truck bounced on the potholes,my stomach queasy

My broered as we passed between two brown poles A chain-­link fence lay on the ground, and off to the left was a se cornfield greeted us, but the stalks were dry and yellow, appearing as if they were days away frorazed behind a wooden fence that wasmany of its middle panels Cows roamed over

As we drew closer, an old barn came into view-­a scary old barn, like the one in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, co on the roof Several yards beyond the barn was a two-­story horay, and even fro than there was on the house Blue tarp covered several sections of the roof, and a chi Red dusty bricks were stacked along the side of the house, as if soave up There was also a cemetery of broken-­down cars behind the barn, a sea of rusted-­out trucks and sedans

Shock rippled through hter This was Jase's far a little moreup to date?

Cam parked the truck a few feet back frolanced over athis seat belt, he sighed "His parents had a really hard ti on their feet Jase tries to help with the farm and stuff, but as you can see"

The farm needed more help than Jase could provide

I blinked "It'schar"

Cahed "That's nice of you to say"

My fingers tightened around the cup in defense "It is"

"Uh-­huh" He flipped his baseball cap around, shielding his eyes Tufts of black hair poked out of the back rim

I started to speak, but ht my attention

Racing out from the side of the barn, a little boy seated in a miniature John Deere tractor hooted and hollered His chubby ar wheel A ust sun Pushing the tractor froh I could barely hear hiine noises They bounced along the uneven gravel and ground Jase laughed as his little brother shouted, "Faster! Go faster!"

Jase appeased his brother, pushing the tractor so it zigged and zagged to a stop in front of the truck as Jack squealed, clenching the steering wheelPlumes of dust flew into the air

And then Jase straightened