“Those are all potato fields behind our house and to the side.”
“What’s your dad doing with potato fields?”
“He sold the dairy cows and didn’t need as much hay, so he rented some of his land to McMillian Farms to plant potatoes,” I said.
“Those punks knew there was no way for us to go behind the house.”
“Yup.” I motioned to the fruit trees. “What do you think?”
She tightened her hold on my hand. “Sure.”
I took a deep breath and braced myself to begin running again. “Try to keep up, Robbins.”
She looked over at me. “You want to race?”
“No. Please don’t go very fast.”
Her soft laughter draped over me like a blanket fresh out of the dryer. I swallowed. We began running again, one of our hands clasped together and holding up our pants with the other. The hand-holding thing was unnecessary. Even Jake would understand. It seemed dumb to do it while running, but I wouldn’t be the first to pull away. It was too dark to find a rock to hold. Besides, once you started holding hands with someone, it got awkward to stop. It was easier to keep doing it. To keep torturing yourself.
Crap.
We ran toward the trees, getting into a habit of dropping to an army crawl every time a spotlight flashed our way. I thought we had been caught a hundred times, but no ruckus was ever made about two fugitives running in the dark. The spotlights were swinging back the way they came about every fifteen seconds. We’d run, then we’d drop.
We were back to running again. Tessa stumbled, and my hand gripped hers tightly until she righted herself, then we were back at it. See? That was why we were holding hands. Too dangerous out here not to.
“I should probably warn you about the mouse holes in this field,” I said.
“Can it, Marten.”
I ran with a stupid smile on my face for a good thirty seconds before catching myself.
I remembered a time as a teenager when my older sister was on some new diet and kept repeating the phrase, “A little tastes the same as a lot,” every time she ate anything unhealthy. The phrase had stuck with me for some reason, and now, with every step I took, the words repeated itself.
All lies.
I thought a lot would taste MUCH better than a little.
“Get down.” Tessa pulled my hand, and we dropped onto our stomachs as the spotlight swept the area.
We were fifty yards from the trees now, the moonlight illuminating our pathway. The four-wheelers came together and the riders began conversing, leaving a dark gap in the trees. For a dark, shining moment, our pathway was clear.
“Let’s go.” We pulled each other up, a bit clumsily, and took off again, our pants dragging in the dirt.
“It’s probably a good thing you’re not running behind me. You’d enjoy this view too much.”It was a dumb thing to say. I was surprised she laughed at it. She was definitely getting sick of me bringing up anything from our past, but when her embarrassed smile lit her face, I may as well have won the lottery.
I hadn’t planned on kissing Tessa tonight. I mean, sure, I’dthoughtabout it, but I thought I had talked myself out of it. When Jake said there had to be a kiss this summer, I had intended on something quick and sweet—a proper ending for a fun summer with a friend. Then, I’d go on my merry way. That kiss hadnotbeen a proper ending with a friend.Now,it would be an awkward middle with an…unclassified blonde female.
But I hadn’t wanted to stop.
For the first time in a long while, I found myself beginning tocareabout something. Someone. I’d been going out of my mind at the bonfire before she arrived because I had needed to see her. Only her. I wanted her eyes to light up when I teased her and to hear whatever zinger she’d respond with.
In just a few short weeks, she had taken a needle and begun popping all of the bubble wrap I had so carefully wound around my heart. It happened so subtly at first. One or two pops. Seeing her again, the bet, the teasing back and forth…it was right up my alley. Pop. Pop. Then, I was hanging out on her porch, watching her blush, eating her food. A comfortable easiness between us. Pop. Pop. Then, it was the date in Salmon. The grocery store. The way her arm clung to my waist, depending on me to keep her upright. The soft lilt of her voice when she told me about Tyler. Her vulnerability. The way I wished I could let myself do the same. The way I had wanted to kiss her right then. Not for a bet. For me.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
The front porch. Her sun-tanned legs and teasing smile. And then, tonight at the bonfire. Where there had been too much and not enough space between us. Where I made up stupid things to tell her so I could lean close and whisper in her ear. Where everything collided with a kiss and a woman that was unlike any other for me. Years of layers and resistance were threatening to collapse. I had worked so hard to keep myself guarded. To shut people out. Rejecting them first to keep myself safe.
But Tessa Robbins was a hard one to resist.
