‘Say howdy to Jake.’
‘I will. Call Mrs Oakley if you need anything. I’ll see you later.’
I kiss him on the cheek, grab my bag and leather jacket and head out the door. When I made it home, I changed into a floral skirt, a lightweight tee and a pair of brown and black cowgirl boots.
Inside the cab, Jake smells freshly showered, his hair still damp after his training session. He leans over and I kiss him enthusiastically on the lips.
‘How you feelin’?’ he asks, when I pull back, not wishing to get carried away, though it’s hard when he smells this good.
I bite my lip. ‘Honestly? I’m a little nervous.’
‘Dalton will be with you the whole time. And I’ll be close by. I won’t let anything happen to you, I swear it.’
I smile at him. ‘Do you know where we’re going?’
He looks at the sat nav screen. ‘Already put in the address. Dalton sent me a map pin that’s one block away.’
I nod. ‘Then let’s do this.’
He starts the engine. In the shadows, he smirks at me. ‘Hey, guess what? Hudson was an hour late for training today. Coach tore strips off o’ him but he still had a huge grin on his face.’
My eyes widen. When Hudson left his brother’s house last night, he definitely wasn’t smiling.
‘You think…? Did you ask?’
Jake pulls away from my house. ‘I asked. He definitely wasn’t talking. But he looked pretty darned pleased with himself.’
‘Oh my god. Do you think they…?’
‘He looked pretty pissed at her when we left. I don’t know what went down after that but today he looked like he’d literally had no sleep. Like he was drunk on something.’
I sink my teeth into my bottom lip, reach across and take his hand, which is resting on the wheel. ‘Maybe if it comes out that we’re not the only ones…’ I say hopefully, and he squeezes my fingers tight, ‘they might drop the clause from our contract?’
He presses his lips to the back of my hand while keeping his eyes on the road. ‘We can’t hide it forever. Besides, I wanna take you out. Have the whole world see that Lemon Conway and I are mostdefinitelynot an item. And that I’m in love with the most beautiful girl in the whole of Canyon.’
The curve of my ear touches the headrest. ‘Shut up, I am not,’ I argue softly.
‘That’s a matter of opinion, and respectfully, I disagree.’
I watch the road for a second, the familiar streets of Temptation Heights passing us by. I want what he wants. I want to be out in the open, not sneaking around after dark. And I find myself wondering if maybe I’m willing to give up the thing that I thought I wanted most in the world, just to say that I’m his. Because there’s an indescribable force that pulls me to him, and there has been for weeks now.
‘I need to tell Jewel before anybody else finds out,’ I tell him. ‘I owe her that.’
He nods. ‘I get it. Look, I know I said we can’t hide it forever. But it’s complicated. So, for now, like I said the other night, we keep it on the DL, until we work all this out.’
I study his face. ‘You’re gonna hate me for saying this, but you really are the fabled golden boy, you know that? You have the biggest heart of any guy I ever met.’
He looks pleased with himself. ‘We’re all like this where I come from.’
‘Well, even so, your momma raised you right.’
‘Speaking of my momma. I’d like to introduce you one day.’
I nod my head. ‘I’d like that.’
‘I should warn you, she can be a little… like, she has a very specific type of girl in mind for me.’
I raise my brow. ‘Lemme guess, if I switched out taking off my clothes for a college education, she might give me the time of day?’
