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His choice of activity for tonight also surprises me. When he said date night, I assumed a restaurant, maybe a movie. “Not that I don't love it,” I start as I sit cross-legged in the bed of the truck, accepting the blanket Jackson tosses at me. “But why'd you bring me here?”
“It's my favorite place on the ranch,” he explains simply. “The girls don't come up here because the drive is shit. It's kind of the only place that feels like mine, you know?”
I don't know because I don't think I have a place like that but I nod anyways.
“I used to come up here when it all got too much and I just needed a break from everyone.”
My heart cracks a little imagining a younger Jackson trekking up here all on his own just to get a little peace. Looking out over the expanse of green, I rest my head on his shoulder. “I love it.”
Lips brush my temple. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I swear to God, the entire world freezes.
I didn’t mean to say it. It just… slipped out. Naturally. Comfortably. So quietly that for a second, I’m not sure Jackson heard. I'm not sure it actually came out. For the longest moment of my life, he doesn't react, further reaffirming my suspicions that I said those three little words in my head. That I said them and meant them for the very first time and it didn’t actually happen.
But then he breaks out into a smile that rivals the view and before I know it, I’m in his lap and he’s kissing the life out of me, hard and claiming, leaving me gasping for air when he pulls away. “Took you long enough to figure it out.”
36
LUNA
It'slike I blink and sophomore year is over.
It's been a chaotic semester, to say the least. With everything that happened with Amelia and Cass and Dylan and the accident... Yeah, it's safe to say that we're all glad that summer has finally rolled around.
I've got grand plans to spend the entire thing at Serenity Ranch. I was a little hesitant at first when the opportunity was first presented—I usually spend half of summer break working and the rest of it in New York—but Ma and Jackson joined forces and insisted.
And because Ma's paintings have been selling pretty steadily lately so money isn't as much of an issue, and because I'm physically incapable of saying no to my boyfriend, I relented. I'm glad I did because God, am I excited. Jackson is too, as is at least one of his sisters; I've been getting ecstatic messages from Eliza for weeks.
I've been back to the ranch a few times with Jackson over the last few months. My visits are frequent enough that the kitchen cupboards now have a designated tea section and everyone has started referring to Clyde as my horse. I even managed to earn myself a pair of cowboy boots. It makes me all fuzzy and tingly just thinking about it. It feels like I've been accepted into a club, indoctrinated into the tight-knit Jackson family and I fucking love it.
A knock on the door distracts me from my daydreams about summer. An excited squeal escapes me as I rip the front door open and reveal my mom on the other side. She squeals back, embracing me in a solid hug, squealing again when I slap her on the arm. “I was supposed to get you from the airport!”
“My flight landed early and I knew you wouldn't be ready.” Ma eyes my robe and slippers combo pointedly. In my defense, her flight wasn't supposed to land for another half an hour. And I was only going to leave another fifteen minutes after that because God knows she likes to dawdle.
Regardless of her spending a needless, extortionate amount of money on a taxi, I'm happy to see her. By some grace of God, our schedules finally aligned and a free weekend opened up for both of us so, at long last, Ma used the tickets Jackson got her for Christmas. The sneaky bastard bumped her up to first-class too without either of our knowledge, which probably explains why Ma looks all refreshed and glowy and not at all like she's just spent half her day traveling.
“Where's the boy?” Ma asks as she sets her bag down, peering around the tiny apartment like Jackson might be hiding in some nook or cranny.
“At the stadium. He's got a game tonight.” The game might be hours away but Jackson's pre-game ritual starts early. Like Cass does that weird hand signal thing with Amelia, Jackson has his own routine. I'm not exactly a fan of spending practically an entire day apart, but who am I to mess with his mojo?
Eager blue eyes dart to me. “Are we going?”
“Obviously.” I've yet to miss one; if Jackson's at that stadium, chances are I am too. The games are long and boring and the weather is inexplicably always either freezing cold or boiling hot, no in between, but I still go.
The incentive lies somewhere in those tight pants and flexed muscles, and in the afterparty—win or lose, I always get well and truly fucked. In the locker room, under the bleachers, in the parking lot. You name it, I've probably been railed there. Something about the game just gets the boy pumped, and I am more than willing to be the thing on which he takes his energy out on.
Banishing any and all thoughts of those particular extracurricular activities, I rush to exchange my robe for jeans and one of Jackson’s Sun Valley Rays hoodies. Shoving my feet into shoes, I grab my keys and purse off the kitchen counter. “So I was thinking lunch and then a walk around campus before the game?”
“Sounds good.” Ma links her arm through mine. “Can we go to that Green place?”
I internally roll my eyes.Greenies. “Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” She whines. “I wanna see where you work.”
I take a moment to imagine my poor mother being subjected to the greasy cesspool of disease and drunk college students that is Greenies. Tugging her out the door, I pat her arm pacifyingly. “No, Ma. You really don't.”
