Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
I gravitated even closer, murmuring far too close to her mouth. “Why do I have the feeling you’re going to do far more than just put me out?”
Apprehension vibrated from her, and she worried her bottom lip.
So fuckin’ cute and shy the way she used to be. But there was a boldness there that she hadn’t quite possessed before. Something that had been getting ready to bloom before our lives had gone to shit.
My Little Wallflower.
She lifted a brave, daring chin. “Because I’m going to ask something of you that I have no right to.”
I braced myself for it, only she pushed me back by the chest.
A thunderbolt of heat blasted through my body.
I didn’t know how I was still standing as she wound out from under me, the woman peeking back as she inched toward the main part of the house. “After I take that hot shower you offered. That river is freezing. I’m not sure I’m cut out for living off the land. Guess it’s a good thing you found me.”
I found her?
The real question was how the fuck she found me and what the hell compelled her to do it.
SIX
CASH
SIXTEEN YEARS OLD
“Go long,” Cash shouted, cocking the football back before he sent it sailing for his brother, Matthew, who was thirty yards farther down the road from him.
Matthew turned around. Surprise filled his expression as he tipped his head toward the blue sky and saw the trajectory of the ball, which sent him running backward a few yards.
He caught it with an oomph.
“Holy shit, bro, that was nearly half a football field. My baby brother has quarterback written all over him. Just like his big brother.”
“Doubtful,” Cash mumbled, doing his best to tone down the grin that wanted to pull to his face at his older brother’s belief.
His dad told him pride would take him down faster than any two-hundred-pound defensive end, so he knew better than letting a good throw go to his head. Because every throw could always be a little bit better, and he worked on that every chance he got.
He’d be a sophomore this coming school year, though he’d been brought up to the varsity team halfway though his freshman season. There’d been some rumblings by the coaches that he had potential to play in college, which to him only meant he had a ton of hard work out ahead of him.
He wasn’t about to get cocky doing it.
His brother on the other hand…
Matthew ran out ahead of him, throwing the ball long and hard. Hard enough that Cash had to turn on his heel and go sprinting across the street.
He jumped, just barely snatching it out of the air before he tumbled onto the ground, taking two somersaults along the pavement of the pitted road.
“What the hell, man?” Cash complained as he climbed back to his feet.
Matthew howled with laughter. “Have to keep you on your toes. Wouldn’t want you thinking you can show up your brother.”
Like that was going to happen.
Cash would never admit it aloud, but he pretty much idolized Matthew. His brother would be a senior this coming year and was the star quarterback. Cash could only hope to keep up with him. To be as good as him.
“You didn’t have to take me out doing it,” he grunted as he punted the ball in Matthew’s direction.
Matthew reached out and caught it easily. “Just making you tough because in this world that’s what you gotta be.”
Matthew grinned, the afternoon sunlight pelting down from above, the air stagnant and hot with humidity.
“Going to be the strongest man alive if you have anything to say about it,” Cash grumbled, though he wasn’t really mad. It was just Matthew’s way. Pushing him hard and making sure he was prepared. Cash only admired him for it.
Cash jogged to catch up to him.
Matthew glanced at him, and his hazel eyes that were the same color as Cash’s shifted into excitement. “You want to come out with me tonight? Rager at the old Crager farm.”
Surprise jetted out of Cash. “You want me to go to a party with you?”
Matthew grinned and slung an arm around his shoulder. “Hell, yeah. My brother’s going to be a star, and it’s my duty as big brother to make sure that happens. Want to introduce you to everyone.”
“That’d be cool, I guess.”
Okay, it fuckin’ rocked, but he figured he shouldn’t go and do some kind of celebration in front of his brother.
They continued walking down the road toward their house. It was in a modest neighborhood in a small town in West Virginia. The houses weren’t big. A few were two stories, but most were single. Each surrounded by trees and fronted by green lawns, some overgrown but, for the most part, people took care of them.
Worked hard to keep their families housed and fed and clothed.