Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 85157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
There would never be anyone in the world I was more proud of than Kenny.
“And do you like this girl?” I asked him. “It’s okay if you do, Kenny.”
“I think so,” he replied. “She’s real pretty. She has red hair and freckles. And the other day I was thinking about her and I wasn’t paying attention, so I ran into a pole…so I thought maybe you were thinking about a boy you liked too.”
Goose bumps pebbled down my skin. I remembered what it had felt like when Ash’s lips pressed down against mine—as if the whole world had suddenly made sense. Like I’d been living in the dark and didn’t know why, and Ash had turned on the light. Not because he was Ash. I’d probably crushed on him, and had definitely thought he was hot, but it was more because he was a man.
I couldn’t bring myself to admit it, though…that it had been more than sexual awakening, because he was Ash and I’d hated him. How could I like him if I’d hated him? And I certainly didn’t want to admit to thinking about him, because it meant conceding to the allure of Ashton Carmichael.
Still, I’d been telling the truth when I said I didn’t lie to Kenny, so I answered as carefully as possible. “It’s normal to think about someone you’re attracted to or have a crush on. I’ve done it plenty of times. I’ve even tripped and ran into a pole while thinking about them too.”
“Really?” Kenny’s light-brown eyes glowed.
“Yep, seriously.” I squeezed his shoulder and kissed his forehead. “Now, are you going to tell me about this girl, or what?” I asked him.
We sat down right there in the middle of the grass, and Kenny did just that.
CHAPTER THREE
Ashton
Playboy quarterback Ashton “Love ’em and leave ’em” Carmichael forced into early retirement!
I closed my Internet browser, exiting out of the shitty news source that didn’t know crap about anything. No one had forced me out of anything. And Ashton Love ’em and leave ’em? How did they come by these corny names, anyway?
Because everyone thought I’d left Bridget after the foursome…that I’d had my way with her and her friends before finding someone else. I’d gotten what I’d wanted. That’s what they all said.
Groaning, I shoved out of the desk chair and walked over to the window. The back lawn was lush, and behind it, a mass of trees that looked like they went on for eternity. I’d forgotten how green it was at home. Even in less urban areas of LA, the green was never that vivid. But then here, all I had to do was drive fifteen minutes into the city, and there would be the hustle and bustle, shopping, bars, restaurants. Fever Falls was the best of both worlds that way, and it had grown a lot over the years. What had once been a place we all wanted to escape was now a city people flocked to.
I’d been back in Fever Falls for two weeks, after spending time hiding out in LA, licking my wounds, ignoring the feeling of failure when my teammates went back to training camp. Now I was in the home I’d grown up in, with memories of my parents, of my childhood around every corner. Christ, they had a lot of photos of me…of us—swimming, hiking, laughing…loving.
My chest ached. I rubbed my hand over it as though I could massage the pain out. It had been eight years since I lost them in a car accident, the people who had chosen me as their child, who had loved me for me when others had given me away, and I hadn’t slowed down enough to let myself realize I’d missed them. Hell, I hadn’t even been back in the house until now. Eight years I’d stayed away. What had I been thinking? I paid for a cleaning service to come over and keep it clean, utilities to stay on, but I hadn’t come back.
There was another squeeze in my chest, which wasn’t pleasant at all, so I pretended it wasn’t there. Masochist that I was, I almost went back to the computer to Google myself, to see what else was being said about me—comments on social media posts and memes that I sort of hated for being funny. It would have been a riot had they been about someone else.
Don’t do it, Ash, don’t Google yourself.
So instead I took a shower, considered jacking off but didn’t. I’d spent two weeks alone; no one even knew I was back in town, which I’d liked. But I also needed to get the fuck out of the house. It was lonely as shit pouting for two weeks.
Maybe I also needed the feeling that came with being the hometown hero. I’d made it from Fever Falls to professional football, and that mattered here more than all the drama that had followed me the last few years…at least I thought it did. Please, fucking let me be right about that.