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)
“Your kisses are super distracting …”
I run my lips over one of his nipples. “If that big world outside descended on us …”
“We just had a … a taste of that in my backyard last summer.” He squirms under the touch of my tongue on his skin. “This male beauty pageant thing that sorta went off the … the rails.” He can barely keep his breath with what I’m doing to his sensitive nipple. “We seemed to handle our own, despite the … influx of visitors …”
I lift my face back to his, kiss his lips, then smile. “Your town sounds mighty resilient, then.”
“Mighty,” he agrees, out of breath.
“So maybe it’s not so bad.” I pull away from him to get a look in his eyes. “Y’know. If your mom finds out about me. Won’t you need to tell her before the Fourth anyway?”
He lifts his eyebrows. “Are you sure about that?”
“I’ll tell you what I’m sure about. You. Your happiness. Being the stick that yanks you outta the quicksand—yep, I’m still keepin’ up with that metaphor—and I’m sure about keepin’ you free from feelin’ trapped. I refuse to be just another cage you’re kept in.”
My words hit him like a surprise.
His eyes drop to my chest in thought.
“It’s up to you,” I tell him, “and I mean it. You’ve got the key to your life. You always did. And any moment you want, you can just turn it in that lock and let yourself out. I’ll be there with you.”
I guess he decides not to do anything with the key or the cage just yet, because before I know it, he’s back on my lips, and then his office becomes the next victim to our seriously out-of-check sexual drive.
It’s that evening that Cissy, as if reading our minds somehow, gives us an unexpected scolding after dinner. “You two cannot be cooped up in here for all eternity. TJ, why don’t you take Austin into town tonight? Show him around a little bit! Oh, but watch out for deer on the road,” she quickly adds. “I heard Cassie nearly ran herself into the ditch last week, poor thing.”
I guess that’s how TJ and I end up in his car driving into town, departing his house for the first time in however many days.
I’ve already been here twice, of course, but driving in with TJ this evening feels like the first time all over again. The way he tells me about the town, you’d think it was the center of the universe. Every other storefront we pass has a big story attached to it. Each corner, some memory he half-tells me before getting distracted by the next thing. The car is parked and forgotten about, and on foot we explore the town. “That’s Biggie’s Bites,” TJ tells me, “owned by my boss’s parents. They’re super nice. Just don’t try the Tackle Burger unless you want to blow up the toilet at midnight. Hot as sin. Should be illegal.” Like I said, a story attached to everything. “And right there used to be the Cold Spoon, an ice cream place run by the Strongs until T&S’s opened up and ran it out of business. Don’t worry, there’s no bad blood about it … I think.”
Then we’re at T&S’s, and his boss—Billy, I learn—leans over the counter with a smirk. “About time you showed up, stranger,” he teases to TJ, then eyes me. “Hey, I recognize you.” I about shit a brick before he finishes with: “Didn’t TJ take an impromptu hour-long break to bandage up your head after you walked into a pole?”
My lips twist up. “Guilty.”
“Don’t feel bad. I’ve done much worse. Good to see you back.” His eyes dance back and forth between me and TJ. I’m feeling a lot more’s happening in his head than he’s letting on. “Want a couple freebie treats? For your new friend,” he adds to TJ, winking.
TJ, whose face I’m impressed to say flushes from one end to the other in just two and a half seconds, says, “Uh, trying to watch my figure, sorry, and my mom’s been home a lot more than usual, stuffing us silly with all kinds of baked nonsense, and—”
“You’re staying in town?” Billy presses on, turning to me with surprise. “Explains what’s been keepin’ TJ occupied lately.”
If he only knew how TJ’s being kept occupied … “Just for another week or so,” I answer, saving a flush-faced TJ from answering any more questions, “but I don’t think it’s off the table for us to drop in every now and then for a sweet treat. I did hear about a Football Special that’s sure to knock my teeth off?”
“Literally,” Billy promises dryly, then adds, “Football Sundae Special—like, with an ‘e’, sundae, corny pun intended.”
“Call me a sucker for corny puns you can eat,” I mutter back.