AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Just as long as she’s mine and I’m hers. I’ll risk everything…even seeing her stupid sister again as long as she’s standing by my side.
ChapterFour
JOY
The cab of the truck is quiet, heavy with tension. Jackson barely glanced at me when I climbed up into the cab of his truck, even when he slipped his hands up underneath my backside and shoved me up.
Now, we’re on the road and I keep sneaking little glances at his hard profile. He looks so much like the boy I grew up with and yet not. His lean cheeks are cut from granite. His jaw is hard and firm. His lips are full and soft. Still so damn kissable that my belly jerks.
Why do I have to be attracted to this one man? Why haven’t I been able to forget about him in all this time? God knows, my sister had no problem moving on. She was dating within the first week after he left.
When I asked her about it, she shrugged and grinned. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, little sis.” That seemed like a shitty response to your boyfriend being sent off to dangerous places and saying he’d wait for you.
And as soon as she met Harris, that was it. “Hell no, I’m not waiting for Jackson! Do you know how much money Harris’s family has? I have no intention of passing up a guy who can keep me in the style I should have always been in.”
Yeah, she likes the finer things in life. A rich man’s better than a poor man in her eyes. I could care less. I just want someone to love me. Which sounds pretty damn pathetic.
I sigh and lean into the cool window of the door. My eyes close. I’m so damn tired. It’s been nothing but stress since I got home. My mother won’t give me a minute’s peace. Her head is so swelled up from Jessie’s ‘win’ in the relationship sweepstakes that she’s looking for her next win. That’s my mom. Never one to let a daughter sit by herself for too long. Unfortunately the man I want, she’d rather see him burn in hell than give him another daughter.
I don’t really know why she thinks that their breakup was his fault. He went off to serve our country. But he also turned down a scholarship to play football as an Aggie. That might be the part that chaps at her.
A soldier versus a football hero that might go on to play in the NFL. Yeah, that’s gotta burn.
“You awake over there?” His deep rumble pulls me out of my musings.
“Yeah, just thinking.”
“About what?”
“I’m not sure you want me to answer that.” I sink further down in the seat, crossing my arms around myself and leaning into the door so I can turn and look at his hard profile in the dashboard lights.
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.” His bright eyes flick over to me.
I sigh. “I was just wondering why you didn’t go ahead and go to college to play football. It would have been a helluva lot safer. And you could have gone on to play professionally. Made a lot more money. Been successful. Rich. Good-looking. You could have had it all.”
Now his head turns to mine and I see that smirk tug at his firm lips. “You think I’m good-looking?”
I roll my eyes and huff. “Really? That’s what you pick up on?”
“That’s the most important part of what you said, yeah. But to answer your question, there’s more to life than being rich. I wanted some purpose to my life. Something to make me feel good. Something to make me feel like I’m useful. Not just as some pretty decoration for a girl to haul around. Or as part of a football team that only knows winning on a football field. I needed to know that my life meant something more than a game. Now perhaps you could answer my question?”
“I don’t remember a question.” I look away and try to avoid him. It’s a small cab. I don’t think that’s gonna work long.
“Yes, you do. Don’t play games with me, Joy. Do you think I’m good-looking?”
“You know that you are!” I mutter. “But that doesn’t matter. You’re off-limits. My mother hates your guts and I think she’d run you over with her car before she let me date you.”
“What the hell is she mad at me for? Her daughter broke it off with me in the middle of a war zone. How the hell is that my fault?” The shock in his voice almost makes me giggle. Almost, since it’s really not funny.
“She really wanted that ‘my son-in-law is a professional football player’ moment. You didn’t listen to her when she tried to talk you into taking that scholarship. She’ll never forgive that.”
“Well, I don’t really give a good god-damn what she thinks about me. All I care about is what you think about me.”
I run my hands through my hair and growl. “Yeah, that’s easy to say. She’s not your mother. She’s been busily trying to fix me up since I got home.”
“What! Why the hell is she doing that? Do you want her to?”
“No,” I whisper softly, almost holding my breath as I say the words I shouldn’t say out loud. “I only want one man. But I shouldn’t want him. His heart belongs to someone else.”
