Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 117415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
It’s like he can’t help touching me.
And my heart hasn’t had a chance to relax because of it.
“Yeah,” I lie, not seeing the duck.
“I claim that feathery little guy. His name’s Ausie Junior, and he’s officially my second Spruce friend.”
“Second? Oh.” It hits me a touch late. I fight off a smile, trying to play it off.
He peers at me. “You’re cute, y’know that?”
God, his face is so close. And what it does to me. Kiss-close. His eyes that already know everything about me, disallowing me to keep a single wall up. Even the curl of his lips, how I’m instantly wrecked just looking at them.
Wait. Did he just call me cute?
My brain overloads. And reboots. I can’t handle a second more of staring into his face, so I throw my gaze back out at the pond. “Why Ausie Junior?” I ask.
“Ausie. Short for Austin. And Junior ‘cause it’s cute.”
I frown. What I need in my life isn’t another AJ. “How about just Little A?”
He chuckles, the little breathy noises tickling my ear in such a delightfully intimate way, like we’re not crouched by a pond, but lying next to each other in a bed, sheets twisted around our legs on a lazy Sunday. “You gotta take care of Little A for me after I head out. Wanna see him happier each time I drop into town.”
Each time I drop into town … He already plans to come back? “I’ll make sure I always have bread on me, then.” I turn partway, eyes on the pond, still not daring to look at him while he’s so close. “He will be the happiest little duck in Spruce.”
Then my eyes betray me and dance over to his.
His gaze captures mine instantly, locking me right there.
I’m hopeless to break away.
And his lips spread into a smile of appreciation, as if I needed any other reason to be held captive, and he says, “I think today’s the first one in a long while where I’ve actually felt free.”
I stare back into his eyes, ruined by those words.
Free? … Because of me?
“Me too,” I let out without meaning to, then look away for my own safety. Just then, as if understanding us, Little A turns our way. I’d swear he’s glaring at us, if ducks could glare. Then he lets out a honk. I guess Austin is looking out at the pond, too, because he laughs at that. Then I laugh. And our shoulders press together.
As nice and tension-breaking as laughter can be, it doesn’t do a thing to settle this terrifying joy in my chest.
I don’t have a clue what’s happening between us.
Only that I don’t want it to stop.
Chapter 8.
Chase
The sun is almost gone by the time I’m back on the road.
Singing to myself in an empty car, only the highway and the sprawling fields of nothing-at-all and the air in my lungs.
And that lingering look in his eyes.
And a general feeling of … what the hell just happened?
I could have easily lost days with him. Weeks. Months. I could have forgotten who I am, abandoned my life, made a little home in his heart, moved right in, and refused to ever leave.
It’s thoughts like those that tell me one thing:
I gotta chill the hell out.
But the moment I try, I’m walking alongside him in his town, watching his eyes light up every time he’s got something to say. I’m back at that duck pond, so close I feel his breaths on my arm. I’m noticing the way he’s looking at me, with such attention, such curiosity—and occasionally unfiltered sass—I can’t remember the last time someone actually saw me not as an idol.
But as a real person.
Someone who can be annoying. And too much. And funny.
And whatever it is Timothy sees in me.
Whatever it is you see in me …
I pull over suddenly, struck. I don’t have my notebook, so I get my phone out and start thumb-tapping the lyrics before they flee my head. It’s a battle every day … just to get out of my own way … I nip the end of my finger, closing my eyes, and see Timothy in front of me, smiling. His smile makes me smile. You’d think I’d have learned by now … but I’m too smart to outsmart myself … I chuckle as I tap out the words, then lean back in my seat, playing my finger over my lips, hearing the melody. Like a pleasure that’s always denied … tastes sweeter when it finally comes …
Happiness is just as easily found … in the stars as it is between legs.
But the stars are so far away …
And you’re right here.
I close my phone and lean forward on the steering wheel, eyes wild with inspiration. The sun is dipping itself in the wavy, wheat-filled sauce of the horizon, fizzling out, just as I’m starting to burn up, starting to smile, completely out of control.