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Mom nodded. “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
Mrs. Reed shook her head, her perfectly styled hair swaying over her shoulders. “Of course not. Jack, why don’t you and Hampton go upstairs and play video games with Lawson?”
Jack’s arms were crossed over his chest. “I’m not going in his room! He’s a…a…jerk!”
“Jack!” my mother scolded.
I felt Hampton shift his weight and I turned my eyes to meet his. His young face was lined with worry, his eyes searching mine. “You okay?” he whispered.
I wasn’t sure if I was okay, but I didn’t like seeing him scared, so I nodded. “You can put me down if I’m too heavy,” I whispered back through tears.
He gave a sharp shake of his head and flexed his arms. “I’m fine.”
“Piper, can you walk, honey?” Mom asked me.
I pressed my lips together to stop them from trembling before I answered. “Yes, ma’am.”
Her warm eyes shifted away from my face. “Okay, Hampton, you can put her down.”
He gave a stiff shake of his head. “I’m going too. I’ll carry her to the car.”
My mom tried to protest, but Hampton was already carrying me through the front door and down the front steps. With little choice but to follow, she hurried after us, pulling the front door closed behind her.
Hampton gently placed me in the back seat and buckled me in before surprising me and scrambling around the back of the car to climb in beside me. He never wasted an opportunity to sit up front, and my stomach felt funny when I realized he didn’t want to be too far away from me.
I leaned my head on Hampton’s shoulder and closed my eyes.
It was when he laced his fingers through mine and started humming “You are my sunshine”, my favorite song, that I fell in love with Hampton James Reed.
2
Piper
Four years later
“Get your ass in the car!” Lawson shouted, his face a shade of red I’d never seen before.
Ignoring the command, I glanced back at Hampton just in time to see him dodge Jude Brown’s fist. I looked at Lawson and lifted a shoulder before racing over to where Hampton and Jude were fighting.
“Dammit, Piper!” Lawson yelled, his voice right behind me. I didn’t spare a second to look back and figure out why he was so close. Instead, when the moment was right, I threw myself on Jude’s back, wrapping my arm around his neck and squeezing, the way Ham and Jack had shown me.
Jude’s body bucked, but I held tight, refusing to be thrown.
We’d been to the fair a few weeks earlier where I’d ridden the mechanical bull for the first time. I’d surprised everyone, myself included, when I’d managed to hold on for a full ten seconds. It hadn’t mattered the ride operator hadn’t turned the ride up as fast as it would go, I’d still told anyone who would listen that I’d beaten the boys.
Being on Jude’s back was the same as that ride had been, exhilarating and scary all at once. But I was just as determined this time as I was then, and I wasn’t going to be thrown.
“Are you crazy?” Hampton shouted, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. He threw another punch, landing in the belly of his opponent, and I grinned.
Jude let out a whoosh of air when Hampton’s fist connected, but he recovered quickly and threw a punch of his own. His fist grazed Hampton’s face and when I saw his lip split wide, my grin died.
Fury coursing through my veins, I flexed my arm, putting even more pressure on his throat, and wrapped my legs around his waist.
Jude had finally had enough of a twelve-year-old girl on his back and threw himself to the ground, all his weight landing squarely on me.
My own breath left me in a rush and I tried to scream, but before I could get a single sound out, Hampton was there, pulling the weight off me.
“Are you okay, Pip?” he panted, blood trickling down his handsome face.
