Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 92(@200wpm)___ 74(@250wpm)___ 61(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 92(@200wpm)___ 74(@250wpm)___ 61(@300wpm)
He squeezes my breast and then slides his hands down and grabs my ass. This is bad. We’re less than twenty feet away from Rob, barely hidden from sight by the corner of the wall, and I’m getting all flustered and turned on.
I swat his wrists and take a step back. “You’re right,” I tell him, talking to myself as well. “I should go put my shorts on before things get…out of hand.”
Liam grins and nods. “Yes. Yes, that’s the best idea. For both of us. I’ll have breakfast ready when you get back. I hope you like bacon.”
“Love bacon,” I tell him.
Fizzing with delight, I skip back down the hallway to the bedroom and dive onto the bed. I slide back into my shorts and bite my lower lip as I smile and think about just how amazing the last half a day has been since I encountered Liam.
Who would ever think that running out of gas would end up being a wonderful turn of events?
I stand up and realize that I haven’t once even thought about checking my phone. Now that’s something new for me. Like most people these days, I’m checking it pretty frequently. I give it a glance now, not expecting to see much given the lack of cell reception, but I see many missed calls from my dad. He must be pretty worried, so I try to call back without much hope.
The first call doesn’t even ring, but the second one connects, and my dad answers on the first ring. The quality is horrendous though.
“J-Jess?!” I can barely make him out over the static.
“Dad!? Can you hear me?”
“Yes!” He’s shouting. “Where are you, honey?”
“My car broke down! I ran out of gas!” Now I’m the one practically shouting. “This great guy helped me out, and I’m staying at his house.”
I can practically picture the look on my dad’s face hearing that one. “At whose house?!” he shouts back. “What?”
“Relax, Dad! It’s okay! I’m coming home soon, okay?”
“W-what…you say?”
“I said I’ll be home soon!”
The call ends on its own. I try calling back twice, but it’s no use. The signal out here is just too bad. I can only hope he heard me and isn’t freaking out too bad.
When I get back into the living room, Rob is gone, and it’s just Liam setting out our plates at a cute little table in the kitchen area. I take a seat beside him, and he pours me some orange juice.
“This is really sweet,” I tell him. “I’ve never had a guy make breakfast for me before.”
“I’d hope not.” He winks.
I look around as we eat at Liam’s modest but cozy home and realize just how badly I don’t want to leave him. And then a thought comes to me.
“I was able to reach my dad with a call earlier,” I tell him. His eyebrows perk up.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “I told him I’d be coming home later. He sounded worried.”
“Makes sense,” he replies. I can see it in his expression; he doesn’t want me leaving either.
“Why don’t you come with me?” I ask. “You know, for emotional support. So I can have you there when I break the news to my dad that I don’t want to go to college?”
Liam takes a bite out of his bacon strip and ponders this. For a moment, I’m afraid he’s going to say no for some reason. But then his lips twist into a smile. “Okay. I can do that.”
My insides light up like a fireworks display. I lean across the table and take his big, callused hand and squeeze it hard.
“You’re amazing.”
I’m already nervous as I make the drive back home, but when Liam and I pull into the driveway, I see something that causes my whole body to tense up and my stomach to do a backflip.
An entire line of cars are parked out front, meaning Dad is having some kind of meeting inside with the guys from his firm. The house is going to be crawling with men in suits—attorneys, accountants, interns. I couldn’t have picked a worse time to return home.
I’m practically shaking out of my shoes as I walk up to the front door, but Liam holding on to my hand is helping a lot.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I tell him.
Just then, the front door bursts open, and my mom and sister come racing out. My mom immediately throws her arms around my neck and hugs me so tightly I feel like I’m about to be choked to death.
“Oh my God, Jess, where have you been!?” she gasps. I can already hear her getting ready to cry. “We were so worried about you!”
“Sorry, my car broke down, and I had no service. I barely got through to Dad this morning.”
“He said he heard from you,” she sputters. “But that it was mostly static.”