Bullshit.
Kameron had made it just fine at that age.It was time for Jacob to do the same.
But that was the same old script.Kameron just couldn’t do it today.“You know anything about the Kasperski property on old Tyler Road?I heard it’s going for sale soon…”
Time to talk about the things that made his dad happy to hear.His dad was proud of him.And that was what his dad would want to hear about.
Kameron just kept talking.
23
Kameron was there again.Great.He’d half been expecting this.Since he’d gotten into it with that Clary bitch in town, then that blondwitchat the diner had yelled at him and her asshole father had banned him from ever stepping foot on Talley premises again.They’d all been watching.Even that little schoolteacher he’d thought was so cute before.She’d looked at him like he was trash.She’d never looked at him like that before.
He grabbed the bologna out of the fridge.It was about all that was left now.And since he’d lost his best gigs, he’d have to not be stupid with the money until he replaced them.That meant fried bologna again.Shit.He hated that.
Jacob didn’t want a fucking fried bologna sandwich.He was so sick of bologna, in every way that mattered.
Kameron was there to fight.Probably about those girls.Well, fuck that.Jacob had his own problems with Mr.Fancy here.He was so fucking prissy.It was a wonder he ever got a girl to look at him at all.Then again, maybe he didn’t—maybe that was why he was just making eyes at that girl who was so pathetic in high school, and nothing was coming from it.
“I saw you.The other day.”He looked at his brother.Kameron was such a damned pansy-ass.Sopretty.He’d heard some of those Talley girls saying that in the diner today.Before all that shit at the diner with Marin Talley.Saying howprettyCalloway Grady and Kameron Neilson were.
They didn’t look at Jacob that way.He and Kameron both had their father’s brown hair and blue eyes.They were the same fucking height, though Kameron weighed less than Jacob’s two-seventy.Kameronwas always running, keeping himself in shape.Kameron had run his way through college, being some big track star.He still coached the junior high cross country and track and field teams at the school.Gee, how did he find the time?
Kameron did this, Kameron did that, Kameron deserved what he got.
Jacob had always hated competition days.His dad would yank his ass out of bed at four or five in the morning and make him go watch his brotheraccomplishhis dreams.
He’d been eleven and Kameron a senior in high schoolbefore Jacob had found a way to make it stop.A little of his dad’s prescription laxative in Kameron’s protein shake had been all it would take.His brother had gotten sick each and every time.And eventually, Kameron’s mother took him to the doctor.Who said it was just anxiety, and maybe he should take a break from running.
Jacob had always laughed about that.
His brother had stopped running that year but had taken it back up in college after he’d been ‘miracle cured’.
He still slipped his brother a little something now and then whenever he could.Just for old time’s sake.Sometimes it was that same laxative.Other times he’d slipped him a bit of his father’s pain killers.They always knocked the old man out.
He’d used those pain killers before.Very accurately.
In a cup of coffee at Monroe Tyler’s fucking mechanic shop, waiting on his dad to get off work, most recently.That had been satisfying.No denying that.
Maybe he’d slip Tish a small dose, if he could get her to go out with him.Just enough to make her drowsy and cuddly.He’d get laid—and Kameron would get nothing.
Exactly what his brother deserved.
He was thinking about that when he left, and drove toward the highway.He’d get Tish into bed, fuck her brains out, and forget his brother even existed.
He was planning exactly what he would do to her when the stupidly expensive truck came around the curve.Jacob recognized it,Grady Groupon the side was distinctive.And then he did something totally stupid.
He would never forget what happened next.
24
Last night had beenone of the best nights of his life as a grown man.He’d spent hours with the beautiful, maddening, amazing, fascinating woman that he wanted.
He had dutifully dropped his woman off at her ranch, spoken to all of her sisters who were still awake and ready to give him the third degree—Jules wanted to know on a scale of one to ten howromanticAuggie thought her date had been, for one thing—he had netted a solid eight-point-five, Auggie had assured her.While smirking at him.Making him want to kiss the hell out of her again.
He had gotten the opportunity to kiss her, though.He’d pulled over on the shoulder after turning into her driveway.They’d sat for an hour, doing things that would make a man like Cal blush—with their clothes on, anyway.That woman burned him.No denying that.And now, she knew exactly what he wanted from her.
Mostly.He’d told her the truth.Cal was done with anything that wasn’t serious—he was too old to mess around.
