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)
“Jesse,” June murmured, looking nervously around the table. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see my girlfriend before I leave for Clemson tomorrow,” I said. I made sure I had her undivided attention when I said, “I missed you, Junebug.” I heard the strain in my own voice, the one that told her just how much of what I was saying was true.
The guy beside June turned to her. “You’re dating Jesse Taylor?”
The guy’s attitude was shitty, but I ignored him, still too busy holding my breath waiting for June’s response.
“I am,” she said to him, then got to her feet. She gathered her things and came to where I stood. “Let’s go outside,” she said.
I followed her out. Hell, I’d have followed this girl to the ends of the earth. As soon as we got outside, June turned to me. She had her satchel crossed over her chest like a shield, her stance was defensive, and she could barely look at me.
“Junebug?” I whispered. “What’s happening?”
She stared off into the distance. When she faced me again, her expression was lost, her big, brown eyes sad. “I think…” she said, shaking her head. “I feel we’re just going in two very different directions, Jesse.”
I felt my heart shatter into a thousand broken pieces, slowly, one excruciating smash at a time.
“What?” I rasped out desperately. “What do you mean?”
Tears filled June’s eyes. “You have football. You have your dream, Jesse. And I’m so happy for you. But I clearly don’t belong in that world.” She pointed at the coffee shop behind her. “I have my writing group and Sydney and my online story. I stay at home and read books for fun. You play in front of tens of thousands of people in stadiums and have parties thrown in your honor.”
“So?” I said quickly. “That’s all just white noise. I only care about you and me.”
“You care about football too, Jesse. And you should. It’s all you’ve ever wanted. You’re doing it, what we prayed we would be able to do when we didn’t think we had a future.”
“You’re my future, June!” I anxiously ran my hand through my hair. “What’s really happening?” I asked. “You don’t have to come to the parties. I won’t go if that’s what you want.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you, Jesse. Don’t you see?” Tears fell down her cheeks. “You deserve all the acclaim, all the attention that’s coming your way. But I can’t handle it… I can’t take the attention.”
“What attention in particular?” I asked, completely confused.
June suddenly quieted and completely shut down, her expression shuttering.
“Junebug, please,” I said, and stepped closer to her. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, but she looked broken-spirited and frail. “Did something happen? Last week at the frat house, something happened, didn’t it? That’s when you began pulling away.”
June was silent for so long, I didn’t think she was ever going to speak, but finally, she said quietly, “They were making fun of me.”
I froze, and my hands started to shake.
“A group of girls who were all trying to get your attention.”
My blood went ice-cold and turned sluggish in my veins. Her haunted gaze met mine.
“They were mocking my limp, Jesse, my hair…” Her words may as well have been razor blades to my heart. “They couldn’t understand why you are with me and said it was only because we fought cancer together, that you felt obligated to be with me now.”
“But that’s not true,” I said. Gone was the coldness. Anger, hot and potent, built within me so much I felt like I was made of fire. I stepped closer to June and put my hands gently on her arms. “Baby, you must know that.” The tears falling down her cheeks were twin rivers that I needed to stop.
“It’s stupid. I shouldn’t care what people like that think, especially cruel people who want nothing more than to rip others down. But it just made me feel so damn inferior, Jesse.”
“You’re not,” I said through clenched teeth. “Never think that, Junebug. You’re beautiful, amazing. God, June, you’re the reason I’m alive right now, the reason I have this. Without you by my side, I don’t care about football.”
June stared at the ground. My heart joined that stare. She was done—I could see it in her defeated stance. “I don’t have a thick skin, Jesse. And maybe they’re right, maybe we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the ranch. Maybe we held on to each other through the cancer and just didn’t know when to walk away.”
She could have shot me, and it would have hurt less. “You don’t mean that,” I said, voice shaking with fear. She had me terrified right now. June didn’t say anything in response. I stepped back. “So, what? You’re walking away from this, from us? After everything?”