Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83586 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83586 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Yes, sir!” I hung out of the car again and yelled for a second time. Wind rushed around me, the smell of home and Sutton in the air, both completely familiar to me. When I got back in and clicked my seat belt into place, he smiled, and I could tell he felt a whole lot better than when I first saw him earlier in the kitchen.
Fuck, I loved my life. I didn’t ever want it to change.
CHAPTER THREE
Sutton
We made a quick stop at the store to grab a few things we needed, then made the hour drive to our favorite camping spot. It was always quiet there, the swimming hole too small for most and the amenities almost nonexistent, unlike the grounds ten minutes up the road. That’s why we liked it so much—we didn’t have to worry about being crowded out by people, and we could just do our own thing.
My gaze kept flickering over to Jasper. He had his window down, arm out of it, curving up and down like a wave.
“What?” I asked.
“What, what?”
“You’re smilin’.”
“Just happy, is all. Fuck, life is good, ya know? Got my house, my business, family, friends, you.”
My heart skipped a few beats, stuttered like it might die, then picked up again. “Yeah?”
“Of course. Don’t know how I got so damned lucky. I want it to stay like this…like the perfect fuckin’ summer or…a music video for a feel-good song where everything is just right. Hell, I’m ramblin’. I just… Promise me it won’t change.”
My chest was heavy, like there was suddenly an invisible weight holding me down. “Things will change one day, Jasp. It can’t be like this forever.”
He closed his eyes, then turned his head toward the window and opened them, watching his own arm as it swam through the air. “Well, lie to me and tell me it will be.”
I swallowed around the knot that had formed in my throat. “It’ll be like this forever. Of course it will.” I wished it could be too, but I wasn’t as optimistic as Jasper.
He turned my way and winked. “Thank you.”
I wanted to ask him why. What was so special about now? About us? Why didn’t he want to grow up and find someone he loved, get married, and start a family? But his answer scared me. Or maybe I scared myself, with that quiet thought that had been in the back of my head for as long as I could remember. The one I buried as deep as I could, lies and reality on top of it. The one that said Jasper was more to me than he was supposed to be, more than I’d ever have, because he would never want the same thing, no matter what he said.
“Remember the first time we went camping by ourselves?” Jasper asked. “I don’t mean sleepin’ in one of our backyards, but drivin’ out here alone. I was scared as shit we were gonna get murdered by some mountain man.”
I laughed. I remembered. We’d been sixteen and went to the same place we were going today. “Yep. I woke up with you snuggled into me.”
“I was hopin’ you’d protect me from the killer mountain man,” Jasper teased, then cleared his throat. “I wasn’t snuggling with you.”
“I didn’t mean…not like that.”
“I know.” He gave me his crooked grin. “You meet Kendra last night?”
“Nah, just stayed at Paula’s. It wasn’t the best night to meet someone new.”
“You’re okay, though? Today?” He reached over and put a hand on my arm. “I want you to have a good day.”
My stomach twisted up, all tangled and knotted, that truth trying to unbury itself. “Yep. I’m good. I think this is gonna be exactly what I needed.”
“Perfect.”
We didn’t talk about much of anything the rest of the drive. We parked, then grabbed everything out of the truck and put it on our rolling camping cart. It was about a half hour walk to our camping spot. It was already close to five, so even though we were both looking forward to this night, it would be a short trip where we didn’t have time to do a whole lot.
“I love how quiet it is out here,” I said as we walked. We were surrounded by lush trees, nature, and fresh air that felt infinite.
“Yeah, it’s nice, that’s for sure. Don’t know how everyone doesn’t want to live in the country. I couldn’t imagine spendin’ my life anywhere but here.”
“What about the train?” It had been a long time since we’d talked about that. “All the places we said we’d go?”
Jasper hesitated a beat. “Not sure. In a lot of ways, it was just fun to dream with you. Talk about all this shit we would do that we both knew we never would. Like we were writin’ our own story or somethin’. But I don’t have all those dreams, not really. I like what I got right here just fine. That’s why I didn’t go to Raleigh for college. Do you really want it?”