Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 129881 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 649(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129881 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 649(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
But, like, what would I eat down there.
I bang my head on the steering wheel one last time just for the hell of it before finally climbing out of my car.
It’s just after ten o’clock, and the sky is black and starless. Crickets sing in the fields all around me.
They’re the only ones who ever welcome me home.
The motion sensor above the porch detects my movement, and the floodlight comes on, lighting the dirt path as I walk up to the house.
I’m almost at the porch steps when gravel crunches and pops in the distance. It’s an unexpected sound that halts my progress.
I have the only house around for miles and the only driveway to make that noise loud enough for me to hear it, and I drove home fast enough that no one should’ve been able to follow me.
I turn halfway and watch the headlights as they move closer.
I’m straining to make out the vehicle and who it could be—it’s too dark out for me to tell, and the headlights nearly blind me—until the car turns where the driveway opens up and parks behind my car, and then I give serious thought to running in any direction. It wouldn’t matter. Just away. Far, far away.
“No,” I whisper when my fear is fully confirmed, and Jake steps out of the car.
I stare at him as he walks toward me.
“But I drove really fast,” I say when he’s close enough. Too fast. How did he follow me?
“So did I,” he returns coolly. He looks over my head. “Doesn’t look like your house is getting flea bombed.”
“How did you—”
“I lost you at one point, but there’s no one else around here, so I just guessed this was you.”
“Oh.”
Jake stops right in front of me. “Nice house.”
“Thanks.”
We stare at each other, and I fidget and wait for him to bring up what I said back in the parking lot and question me until I’m too embarrassed to live, or for him to at least ask me why I left him back there and why I obviously lied about needing to cancel our plans, but Jake doesn’t say any of that.
He’s not looking at me like I’ve completely lost my mind by planning our future together either.
Is he really just going to act like that conversation never happened? No way am I that lucky.
“Do you want me to leave?” he asks.
I’m not expecting that question. “What?”
“Do you want me to leave?” He tugs his keys out again. “I know you didn’t want me to follow you, but I thought you’d be okay once I got here. If you don’t want me here, I’ll go.”
“No, I want you here,” I quickly say. “I do, I just—” I rub a hand down my face. Might as well confirm what I’m sure he already suspects. “I was embarrassed. Back there. Like, straight up mortified, for reasons I really don’t want to talk about. Ever. And I don’t want to feel that way in front of you. I’m worried I will now.”
“Am I making you feel that way right now?”
I take a moment to really think about how I’m feeling.
Am I nervous about Jake being here after what just happened? Yes.
Five minutes ago, did I give serious consideration to never seeing him again? Oh yeah.
But do I really want him to leave now that he’s finally here?
If Jake was doing any of the things I thought he’d be doing once we saw each other again, I would be just as embarrassed now as I was back at the parking lot.
But I don’t even think I’m blushing right now.
He’s not bringing it up or asking me questions about Charlie and Cassie or digging for more deep-secret details.
Jake isn’t making this a thing at all. He’s acting like it never happened.
Fuck. How cool is he?
“No,” I finally answer. “I don’t feel that way. I did, but I’m okay now. You don’t need to go. Please don’t.”
“I won’t.”
I smile so big then. I can’t help it. “Well, welcome to my house.”
Jake tucks his keys away again, and we walk side by side up the steps. I slide closer until our arms touch.
“Your house isn’t what I pictured,” he says.
“What did you picture?”
“Not some old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.” He watches me unlock the door. “Do you grow your own food, Farmer Felix?”
“Yeah.” I laugh. “Tons of it. I got my own cows and shit too.”
I push the door open and step inside the house, flipping on the lights. The wood floors creak underneath my weight.
Jake follows me in.
“Actually, there used to be a bunch of animals here when my mom was little. Horses. Pigs. Sheep.” I toss my keys onto the table and point at the counter. “Now it’s just me and Bella the Bitch.”
“What?” Jake steps around me to peer into the kitchen. “Oh. You have a cat.”