Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 57897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
He looked so sexy and cool, leaning against the truck with one leg bent and the foot pushing against the grill. As I stepped down the stairs, he looked up from his phone and stuffed it into his back pocket, a wide smile crossing his face. His eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and I felt my cheeks flush.
“Well, how was it?” he asked as I got close enough to the truck to turn around and face the trailer, standing beside him.
“It’s okay, I guess,” I said. “Cluttered for sure. Going to be making a lot of use of that dumpster.”
“I figured,” he said, and when I cocked an eyebrow at him, he motioned to the yard. “On account of the stuff out here.”
“Ahh, yeah,” I said. “Yeah. I think… I think I might be okay.”
“Well, if that’s it, then,” he said, pushing off the truck. “You know, if you need anything, you should call me. I won’t be too far from here and can come up if there’s something you need.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly flustered. “Sure.”
“Do you want my number?”
“Absolutely,” I said, then pursed my lips together hard. “I mean, yes. That would be lovely.”
I pulled out my phone and studied the screen extremely hard, trying to not let my gaze go back to his eyes and let him know that I knew that he knew how awkward that response was. He rattled off his number, and I saved it into my contacts.
“All set,” I said, waving the phone and putting it in my pocket.
He grinned and went to the door of his truck, swinging it open and hopping inside. Looking out at me through the passenger’s window, he smirked and looked back at the trailer and then me.
“Hey, are you doing anything for dinner?”
“No,” I said, thoroughly flustered now.
“Cool. Can I pick you up at eight?” he asked.
For a moment, my jaw moved, but no words came out. I felt like my skin was on fire. My cheeks hurt from how hard my mouth was stretching into a smile, and I felt like my eyes were so wide I had to look like a crazy person.
“No, thank you,” I said. “Maybe tomorrow.”
Why did I say that? Because his stupid smile and giant muscles made my brain go dumb, apparently. I completely lost control of my own speech.
He laughed.
“Alright then,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With that, he backed up his truck enough to swing it around and then drove off, heading back down the path. As I watched the dust settle, I wondered exactly what I had gotten myself into.
8
JASON
I drove away trying to figure out if the words that I thought came out of my mouth actually had. I asked her out. Just like that. Granted, she didn’t say yes, per se, but she didn’t outright blow me off either. She said to try again tomorrow, so I was going to take that for what it sounded like and run like hell with it. Even if she did sound like a walking magic eight ball.
Not a bad first day in Ashford.
As I got to the end of the long driveway that led from the access road to her trailer, I plugged in Carter and Lauren’s address into the GPS on my phone. It was about a half hour away, but surprisingly, I was actually in Ashford proper already. I would have sworn that being this high on the north mountain would put me in a different county, but Ashford, for having such a low population, seemed to have a rather large area it claimed out of the mountains of Tennessee.
This poor girl had no idea what she was getting into. That long trek of a driveway alone was going to be hell to get out of when snow came, and in Ashford, snow came a lot. Getting from her trailer to the access road was going to be hard enough, but then she was going to need to get down the mountain. It made me wonder how the lady who lived there before did it. She must have had people she called on regularly to help her. There was no way she survived months at a time up there without anything going in or out.
Even with help, living up there in that tiny trailer couldn’t be easy. I didn’t see a fireplace in the unit, so it must have been heated with propane. If she ran out in bad weather, she was up a creek for sure. It was enough to make me wonder if maybe I should offer to come check on her myself. She was going to need help, especially the first winter she had up there. I could probably head up there and make sure she was safe and warm, even if things didn’t go like I was secretly hoping they would.