“I dropped it, and it rolled off.” I let the pieces fall back onto the grass, frowning. “It's definitely not repairable.”
“That blows,” he says. “Do you collect snow globes?”
“It was my mom's. That room was hers and it still has all of her stuff in it.”
He looks up at the open balcony doors, then back at me. His eyes are green. “So this is your grandparent's house?” he asks. I nod. “I don't think I've seen you around here.”
“I'm just visiting for the summer,” I say. “The whole summer,” I add with a groan.
“The whole summer in this hick town? Welcome to my nightmare.” We laugh, and he has no idea how much his presence is going to make my summer a whole lot better.
“There's really nothing to do here,” I say. “What are your plans for tonight?”
He shrugs. “I'm just going to watch HBO.”
“I love HBO, but my grandparents don't have cable,” I say. I've never actually watched HBO, but I bet I would like it. Especially with Jace.
He chews on his lip, deciding I guess, if he should take my bait or not. He takes it. “Want to come watch it?”
Instead of showing how excited I am, I shrug. “Sure.”
His house looks just like my grandparent's house on the inside. Oldish and full of knick-knacks, including a stuffed deer head mounted on top of the fireplace. He catches me looking around the living room and probably notices the cringe on my face.
“Yeah, umm I didn't decorate the place,” he says, motioning to the stuffed quail on the mantle. He opens the fridge and takes out a Coke. “You want a drink? I've got Coke, Mountain Dew, sweet tea…”
“Coke is cool, thanks.” He tosses a cold can to me. I wait a second to open it so it won't explode. “So if you didn't decorate the place, who did?”
“My grandfather.” He plops into the recliner and I sit on the black leather couch closest to him.
“Do you live with him?” Judging from the Grandpa/Cop talk earlier, Jace's grandfather is dead. But I'm not about to act like I already know that. He shakes his head, looking uncomfortable when he says, “He died a few years ago, cancer. Left me the whole house and everything he owned.” He opens his arms wide, gesturing to the house around us.
“I'm sorry for your loss,” I say.
He shrugs. “Eh, I never really knew him that well. Him and my dad had a falling out and they never spoke, so I dunno.”
“Wow, he left everything to you and you didn't even know him?”
“Well he had no one else in his life,” Jace says.
“And you just live here without changing anything?” I pop open my Coke. He's drinking from his can and his eyes dart over to me while the can is still to his mouth. It's cute.
“Nah, I live in California. I just came here for the summer. Take inventory of what is now mine and all…” he trails off and I decide to drop it. Besides, I don't want to know about his dead grandfather anyway. I want to know about him. The living, breathing, super sexy guy sitting across from me.
“So you're from the West Coast and you like dirt bikes.” I smile. I try to make it a coy, sexy smile but I don't know if it works or not.
“It's a little more than like, girl. It's my entire life.” He sounds way too serious to be joking, but sports can't be people's entire lives, can they?
“What do you mean?”
He flips through the channel guide on the TV. “This movie is hilarious, wanna watch?”
I nod. I'm always down for a funny movie. “So what do you mean?” I ask again. He looks at me in this weird way, like he doesn't trust me. And it's kind of insulting because I'm in his house, I should be the untrusting one here, not the tall muscley guy. The silence gets long and awkward. “Okay fine, don't tell me.” I look at the TV and not at him.
He leans forward in his chair, clasping his hands together. “Sorry, I know that's rude of me but I'm not in the habit of telling people about my career right now.”
“Career? Yeah you should definitely tell me,” I say with a smile and a lighthearted laugh hoping it will make him tell me his deep dark secret. “You can’t possibly be old enough to have a career.”
He makes this what-the-hell face and spills, “I race motocross for a living. You can go pro at eighteen. It's my first year of being a pro. You know, getting paid to ride.”
