Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“I trust you, Jesse. You know that.” I did. Without fail.
“Has something happened?” His voice was tinged with worry. “Junebug?”
“No, honestly. This,” I said, gesturing to the house, the party, “it’s just not my thing, baby. But you should stay. Enjoy your night, your win.”
“I’m not staying without you,” he said empathically.
“I’m going home to bed,” I said. “We both are.” I pointed to Sydney. “You should stay. Bond with your team. It’s a big day for y’all.”
I could read the conflict on Jesse’s face. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” I kissed him again.
Jesse tried to search my face. He knew I was holding something back, but I would not spoil this for him. “You sure?” he asked, just as Sheridan called his name from the door.
“Don’t drink too much,” I said, and that same wash of fear I tried to keep down deep inside rose to the surface.
“I haven’t touched a drop,” Jesse said, a soft smile on his face. “I just hold the beer and drink water when no one is looking.”
“You’d better go,” I said when I saw Sheridan was still waiting.
Jesse hesitated, then said, “Good night, Junebug.”
I fought back tears, as I said, “Sleep tight.”
Sydney linked her arm in mine and led me back to the dorm.
Jesse and I would get through this; I knew we would. We were meant to be, soulmates. I just had to ignore that fissure of doubt that had appeared in my heart—and the internal scars those girls’ word had caused.
CHAPTER 19
Jesse
Jesse and June’s Happily Ever After
One thing was clear: June was avoiding me.
One week. It had been a week since the party, and I knew something happened that night. I hadn’t been able to find out what, but that was because June was avoiding me. My stomach turned.
The truth was, I was petrified. I no longer knew who I was without her in my life. She was my everything. I was killing it in football. Henderson, the senior QB, was still out, along with most of his backups, and Coach had been giving me more and more playing time in practice. I was playing the kind of football I had always dreamed of, having an unbelievable freshman year.
But that no longer seemed to matter in the way it always had.
June had come to the last game but made an excuse to not hang out afterward. Things seemed strained, and I had no idea why.
I had to leave for an away game tomorrow morning, and I knew June was at her creative writing club tonight. I needed to see her and try to mend this chasm between us.
The only reason I knew she still cared for me was due to the chapter she had published about us—the story of us that had our treatments failing…the one that gutted me.
But even though she was writing us trying to find our way through an impossible situation and the love we shared, hell, it felled me. And those kinds of emotions only came from one place—her heart. Her heart that I knew still wanted us, wanted this.
And if she couldn’t see that, then I had to convince her.
Entering the coffee shop, I searched the packed place until I found a cluster of students at the back. A few people stared at me. It was amazing that since getting game time and helping my team get a W, I had become a kind of campus celebrity.
A journalist had heard about my story, of surviving terminal cancer by being in a clinical trial for a new form of monoclonal antibody, and it had gone viral overnight. People seemed to see me as some kind of reborn athlete.
I didn’t care for any of it. All I wanted was my girlfriend back. A week was too long to go without her.
I pushed past people who were muttering in low tones about my presence in the shop and stopped right at the cluster of tables that housed the writing group. I found Junebug in seconds. Dressed in jeans and a pink shirt, hair in a messy bun on the top of her head, June was engrossed in what somebody was saying, brown eyes bright and showing her interest.
Some guy I didn’t know, one who was sitting far too close to my girl, looked up and saw me standing here. I could tell by his raised eyebrows that he knew who I was. “Er, hi. Can we help you?”
The person who was reading their work paused, and June looked over to see who the guy beside her was talking to. She shifted on her seat the minute she saw me. Her cheeks paled, and I wanted nothing more than to reach across the table to kiss her and remind her that she was my girl and I was her guy, that we were Jesse and his June.