Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Maisie whinnied.
I felt like there was a lead weight on my heart for the rest of the ride, as I guided Maisie back toward the stables.
I listened to the birds, chattering throughout the trees as if they were trying to one-up the cicadas. It had been a long time since I’d had a true, ugly cry about Dad, but tears stung at the corners of my eyes now, the sunlight coming through them.
I kept thinking of how much Jesse would have liked him.
And, fuck, how much Dad would have liked Jesse, too. I was sure Dad would have something to say about hockey, some perspective on how it was just like horseback riding, that wouldn’t have made sense until he explained it.
He would have known what I should do.
And probably would have called me silly for ever questioning myself at all.
I brought Maisie back in and refreshed her water and food. I visited with all the other horses before heading back to the house, which was yet another beautiful thing about this property that would never feel the same again.
I showered off, tossed on some jeans and a fresh shirt and flannel, and headed back down, just as the golden afternoon sunlight looked best through the tall windows.
When I was heading down the stairs, I saw the car coming up the driveway. The sleek black little sedan pulled up into the curved drive in front of the house, and I had to do a triple take just to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.
Jesse was here.
It only took seeing Jesse for about two seconds to realize why I’d been avoiding calling or texting.
I’d been trying to make that tug inside me go away.
And it hadn’t worked. If anything, the tug was doubled now as I spotted him through my front windows and made my way over to the front door, pulling on a pair of boots before walking out.
My shoes crunched on the gravel. Jesse rolled down the window on the driver’s side of his car as I stepped out into the front.
“Get in,” he said, looking up at me.
Forget a tug. It was like an industrial-strength magnet was pulling me toward him as I looked in his eyes again, those goddamn beautiful jewels of green eyes.
“Am I being kidnapped?” I asked. “How often do guys just come over and demand that I get in their cars?”
“Hey, I’ve already had to do it to you once in the past,” he said. “I know you’ll do it, so do it again.”
It felt like my heart was thawing from the slow freeze it had been in for the last ten days.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere in Tennessee.”
I shifted on my feet. “Need a little more detail than that.”
Jesse lifted his eyebrows. “You got other plans for tonight, Mason?”
I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or fight back.
I didn’t have other plans. And maybe I should have resented the way he asked it, like he was already damn sure I was going to get in the car with him.
“I know of at least three different parties or get-togethers my friends are having tonight that I could go to,” I said.
I loved the little smile that appeared on the corner of his mouth.
How could he smile at me?
How could he be so patient with me, even still?
“I know. We all know you have a very active social calendar, and that you fill your days with it. But tonight, I want to be with you.”
My heart kicked in my chest. Jesse couldn’t possibly have a clue how much it meant to me to hear that. Six simple words that felt like so much more, when it was coming from him. I want to be with you.
Doubt had been ruling my thoughts, but when somebody point-blank tells you that they want you around? Not even my bone-deep uncertainty could argue with that.
Jesse nodded toward the passenger side door, beckoning me to get in again.
That falling feeling was back. All year, I’d been searching—but on that search, I was the one making decisions. Even if deep down, I knew I might never find what I was looking for, I was in control.
But with Jesse, the searching turned into falling, and I wasn’t in control at all.
I squinted into the sun.
“Well, only because you asked so nicely,” I said.
I rounded the car and swung open the passenger side door, sliding in.
The car smelled like him. He must have just finished a practice, because he was freshly showered too, his hair still drying off. He was in a TNU hockey T-shirt, heather grey with the green TNU logo on the front. After I shut the door and put on my seatbelt, Jesse drove off back down the driveway.
“We’re going to the Hard Spot,” he said.
I frowned at him. “Wait. No we aren’t. Stop the car.”