After the movie is over, I offer to give her a grand tour of the house. She says yes, which surprises me in a good way. I’d kind of feared she’d immediately go home. I show her around, pointing out weird things I’ve noticed in the time I’ve been here. Like how my grandfather kept every National Geographic magazine for the last twenty years.
When we get to my room, her eyes go wide and she stares at my bed as if she’s never seen something so amazing before.
“Jace, I know we don’t know each other very well, but do you think I could please,pleaseborrow your phone to call my friend real fast?” she says, her knees bending as she pleads with me.
Kind of weird, but whatever. “Sure,” I say. “Knock yourself out.”
She practically dives toward my phone and begins punching in a number. “Thank you so much. I’ll only be a second. It’s that my phone…broke…and I haven’t been able to call my best friend for days.”
I smile and wave away her excuses. It’s really not a big deal. “Yeah, it’s cool. I’ll just be in the living room when you’re done.”
“Thanks,” she says again. She grins at me and puts the phone to her ear.
I venture back out into the living room, but a few minutes later I hear her gasp as if she’s really upset. I can’t help myself. I walk back to my room and lean against the door. She spins around when she hears me approach. Anger is etched across her face, my iPhone clenched tightly in her hand.
“Something wrong?” I ask.
She looks me dead in the eyes, and she lies to me. “Nope.”
Chapter 7
It was hard to sleep last night. It’s been hard to sleep a lot of nights lately, but this time the thing keeping me awake wasn’t my jail time, The Ex, or my failing motocross career.
It was a girl.
The smart part of my brain is fucking pissed at me for letting one visit with a girl I just met screw me up like this. I know I should be focusing on my bike, my training. Anything but girls. But the stupid part of my brain can’t stop thinking about her. It was only one visit, one night, one movie on my couch. I didn’t even make a move on her like I would have in the old days back in California. All we did was hang out, and she left rather abruptly after having a phone call.
I’m a little ashamed to admit, but I Googled the phone number she called after she left. Nothing came up, so I guess it was just the cell phone of a friend or something. She’d seemed pretty upset so I can’t help wondering if she was talking to a guy. I also can’t help but think that if a girl like Bayleigh weremygirl, I’d never say anything to make her seem so upset on the phone.
But I can’t think like that, so I go outside and get ready to ride, only I’m not really feeling it today. I put on my gear and roll my bike out of the shed, then set it on the stand. One of the side panels is a little scuffed up, so I grab a screwdriver and take it off. I don’t really know why, because it’s not a big deal. I just need something to do with my hands. After it’s off, I sit on the porch and stare at the bike, trying to will myself to get on it and ride. For some reason, I’m just not in the mood.
The reason is a girl. And that girl just walked into my back yard. “Hey you,” she says.
“Morning,” I say, leaning in closer to my bike so I can pretend I’m working on the stupid fender. I have to look at the bike, otherwise I’ll see those tight leggings she’s wearing and my mind will wander places. Okay, well that didn’t work, because it’s already wandering to those very places it’s not supposed to go.
“I brought you some brownies,” she says, holding out a plastic tub.
I grab one and take a bite. The thing is good so I stuff it in my mouth and get back to staring intently at my bike.
“Wow, fatass, you want another one?” she says with this little sarcasm in her tone.
I can’t help but smile. I like a girl who can talk shit. “Watch it, girl,” I say, taking another brownie from the tub. She laughs and sits next to me, her hand reaching out for the screws from my fender.
“Don’t lose those,” I tell her. The Ex used to play with stuff when I was working on my bike and she’d always forget where she put it.
“So what are your plans for the day?” Bayleigh asks while she plays with the screws in her palm.
“No one ever has plans in this damn town,” I say. “There’s nothing you could possibly do here that doesn’t involve having a plane ticket to somewhere else.” I reach over and take one of the screws from her hand and replace the fender back on the bike.
“I don’t have plans either,” she says. She stands up and dusts off her ass, which only makes me look at her ass, which is a very bad thing for me. “I brought a stack of DVDs from home, so I’ll probably just watch movies all afternoon.”
She gives me this little smile and then starts to leave and I know she needs to go and get out of my life and stop tripping me up, but my dumbass starts talking so she won’t go. “What kind of movies?”
“About a hundred of them actually.” She’s grinning sheepishly and I think I love this grin of hers more than the rest of them.
I nod. “I think you should go get that shit immediately,” I say. “I’ll order us a pizza and we can veg out all night.”
Her eyes crinkle at the corners and I can tell I’ve made her day. She heads home and as much as I want to watch her ass walk away, I slip back inside and brush my teeth real quick, then give my hair a look over in the mirror. Luckily, I haven’t been on the bike all day, so I’m not covered in sweat. I look up the number to a pizza place and then call it.
