Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Author’s Note

Find Stephanie Street

Also by Stephanie Street

Chapter One
Mallory
Tears filledmy eyes as I stared at the message on my phone screen. My heart ached
while my brain struggled to come up with an explanation for what I saw—a photo of
my boyfriend kissing my best friend—an explanation other than the obvious.

My boyfriend had cheated on me with my best friend.

It was a mistake. It had to be! Matt wouldn’t do this to me. We were M and M, Matt
and Mallory. Meant to be. And what about Livvy? We’d been best friends since
kindergarten. Why was she kissing my boyfriend?

I’d only been gone five days. Five days ago, Matt kissed me. Just before I left for my
last trip to Nationals with the Future Business Leaders of America. I hadn’t even
planned on attending this year since it took place after graduation. I’d been twice
before, each of the summers after my sophomore and junior years. But Mr. Richards,
the club sponsor, talked me into it.

Right now, I wished Mr. Richards was around so I could give him a piece of my mind
because it looked like my five days of taking economics tests and presenting
marketing plans had cost me a boyfriend!

I couldn’t do that, however, because Mr. Richards had already left for the airport.
Along with the rest of the students from my high school.

I should have been with them, but instead of going home, I would be spending the
next two weeks with my sister Jenny, a student at the University of Utah. We were
supposed to be exploring my college options while my parents were on a cruise.

But Jenny was stuck in traffic on her way to pick me up at the hotel. Mr. Richards had
been beside himself, pacing and glancing at his watch as we waited for my sister to
arrive to pick me up. He wasn’t supposed to leave me at the hotel by myself. But he
and the other students were going to miss their plane home to Indianapolis if they
didn’t catch the shuttle to the airport. I reassured him Jenny was on her way. I was
eighteen, after all, and perfectly capable of sitting in a hotel lobby for half an hour by
myself. He finally relented—it was that, or everyone would miss their flight—leaving
me with strict instructions to text him as soon as my sister arrived.

But that was before the text.

Screw visiting colleges. I couldn’t stay in Salt Lake now.

I had to find out what exactly was going on between my two-timing boyfriend and my
back-stabbing best friend. And since neither of them would respond to my text
messages or answer my calls, I knew I had to get home.

But how?

It was too late to fly with the rest of my group. I could call a taxi or wait for another
shuttle to the airport. I didn’t really have enough money to pay for a ticket, especially
not a last-minute ticket.

I’d just pulled up an internet browser on my phone to explore my options when I saw
him.

Grant Baker.

Probably the biggest nerd in our graduating class. What in the world was he still doing
at the hotel? Why hadn’t he gone to the airport with everyone else? How was he
getting back home? And more importantly, did I have the guts to go and ask him?

I shook my head. No way!

Glancing over again, I bit my lip.

Seriously? Grant Baker? It couldn’t have been someone else? Anyone else.

In the thirteen years I’d known Grant, we’d maybe spoken a handful of times. We had
classes together, FBLA and Science Club. Otherwise, I didn’t know anything about
him, except he’d graduated Valedictorian of our class. Although, he’d declined to
make the customary speech at the actual event. To be honest, he was intimidating. I
didn’t know anyone else as smart as him. He seemed to know everything about
everything.

While I sat debating whether or not to follow him, Grant turned his head and our eyes
met. I wish I could say something magical happened, and he swooped in like a knight
in shining armor to rescue me. But instead, his brow creased, his steps stuttering
before changing direction almost as though his feet moved against his will as they
brought him toward me.

“Mallory?” His deep voice carried across the hotel lobby where I’d taken up
residence.
I smiled as though we were best friends. We weren’t. We didn’t have any friends in
common. In fact, I couldn’t think of a single person at our high school Grant
associated with at all while I had been friends with everyone. Everyone except Grant.

“Grant, what are you still doing here?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady, in
control. A plan was forming, but first, I had to find out what was up with Grant, and
then decide just how badly I wanted to get home so I could confront my BF and my
BFF.

“I drove,” he answered simply.

My mouth dropped open. What were the chances? “You did? But why?”

The furrow between his brows deepened. “I just did. What about you? Why didn’t you
leave with the others?” He glanced at the watch on his wrist. “You’ll miss the plane.”

He drove. He had a car. He could take me home.

It would be tricky, pulling off the idea swirling through my mind, but it just might
work. If I could talk Grant into going along with it.

Then, there was Jenny. I’d have to tell her the truth. I’d send her a text with that photo
of the lying cheaters and explain that I needed to get home. Our parents still had a
week left of their cruise. I’d be home, safe and sound, before they even knew what
was going on. I’d just tell them I flew back with Mr. Richards and the others and hope
they didn’t ask too many questions. Jenny would cover for me, I knew she would.

First? Grant.

I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. But what other choice did I have? Grant
was my only hope.

“I need a favor.”

Grant’s lips twisted. “What?”

Scrambling to my feet, I did something that shocked us both, I took one of his hands
in both of mine and begged.

“I need a favor. I need a ride home.”

Grant
Say what now?

I must be befuddled. That was it. The sight of my unrequited crush sitting primly all
by herself in the hotel lobby had scrambled my brains. There was no other explanation
because Mallory Knight asking me—I didn’t even know she knew my name—to drive
her to Indianapolis, did not just happen. My dreams never came true. Ever.

Therefore, I needed some other explanation. Why was Mallory holding my hand, her
wide blue eyes staring into mine with an emotion that looked an awful lot like
desperation?

“I’m sorry. What did you say?” I just barely held myself back from working my ear
over with my index finger. Dense wouldn’t be the first word someone used to describe
me, but right then, I’d regressed to caveman status.

“I don’t have time to explain.” She wrung her hands which in turn wrung mine. “I
just—please? I need to get home as soon as possible.”

I tried to process what she’d said. “Why didn’t you go with everyone else?” Nothing
made sense.

Mallory’s eyes, which come to think of it, had been suspiciously red since I’d spotted
her just a few moments earlier, welled with tears.

Oh, no.

“What are you doing?” I asked, panicking. “Why are you crying?” I didn’t know what
to do. She still held my hand, but she looked like she might need a hug. Should I hug
her? Before I could do anything foolish, she wiped her nose with the back of her hand,
the one not still holding onto mine, and let out a watery kind of laugh. If it were
anyone else, I might have been disgusted, but Mallory could make anything look
adorable.

“Grant, if you do this for me, I’ll explain everything. But my sister is on her way here
to pick me up. I need to call and tell her what’s going on, but I can’t do that until you
agree to let me ride with you back to Indianapolis.”

When she phrased it that way, the reality of what she asked hit me like an atomic
bomb. Ride in my car for twenty-four hours with Mallory Knight? Two days and a
night if we didn’t drive straight through? Potentially thirty-six hours with the object of
my every fantasy sitting less than two feet away?
Yes, please.

Then again, what about my own plans? Ten minutes ago, I had every intention of
taking a week to drive home. Dealing with my parents right now being at the bottom
of the list of things I wanted to do.

I took another look at Mallory and knew I was going to cave. What difference would
it make? Two days? Three? Or four? I still had to face them at some point. At least
this way, I’d have two days in a car with Mallory freaking Knight to show for it—a
memory to look back on when my parents disowned me for turning down scholarships
to stay home and help them.

“Sure. You can ride with me.”

Fascinated, I watched as her expression brighten like I’d told her she won the lottery.
Riding in the car with me couldn’t possibly compare to winning millions of dollars,
but Mallory’s face said it just might.

Then she threw her arms around me, and I felt like I’d won a million dollars.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She jumped up and down. Our bodies rubbed
together in a way that made me want to pull her closer. Thankfully, she pulled away
before I could.

I had a feeling the next two days would be filled with me trying not to make a fool of
myself.

“Let me call my sister,” she said, putting her cell to her ear.

Standing rooted to the tiled floor of the hotel lobby, I waited while Mallory paced a
few feet away. Almost immediately, she began whispering furiously into the phone. I
couldn’t hear everything, but a few choice words reached my ear, mostly because
Mallory’s voice raised a bit when she said them.

“Get home…Matt.” Ugh, Matt Jensen, her jerk boyfriend. “Text…please …don’t tell
Mom and Dad.”

I heard my name, followed by a surreptitious glance over her shoulder. Mallory gave
me a small smile before focusing on her phone call with more whispering.

“Grant Baker…you know him.” And then the words I knew everyone used to describe
me. Smart. Nerd.
Right.

Unwanted feelings of inadequacy flooded me. I should have just let her find her own
way home. She was supposed to stay with her sister, which meant she already had a
ticket for a later date. I should tell her no. This was a bad idea. Graduation was almost
three weeks ago and I promised myself I’d never set foot in my high school again.

And I’d never, ever subject myself to the jerks I went to school with. For a fleeting
moment I thought Mallory might be different. I guess I was wrong. Or maybe, I’d
been right all along.

Finally, Mallory straightened. “I’ll text you. Yes.” She rolled her pretty eyes. “I
promise. I have to go.” She disconnected the call and turned toward me again.

“Let’s get out of here.”

I was stuck.

Chapter Two
Mallory

“You drove here in that?”This was a mistake. A huge giant mistake. Not only did I
barely know Grant Baker—contrary to what I’d told my sister—he’d driven to Salt
Lake in…that!

Grant’s brow pulled low over his eyes as he scanned the vehicle. “What’s wrong with
my truck?”

Placing my hand on my cocked hip, I shot him a look. “Is that what you’re calling this
thing? A truck? Because ‘truck’ seems rather generous, don’t you think?”

Grant frowned as he walked to the bed of the rusted out farm truck and tossed his
duffle bag in the back beside another larger bag and a red cooler.

“I didn’t bring a tarp. If it rains, your stuff is going to get wet. I wouldn’t leave any
electronics in there.” He ignored the insults I’d slung at his truck as he walked back to
where I stood and reached for the handle on my suitcase.

“I can do it,” I insisted, but he didn’t pay attention to that, either. Instead, he easily
lifted my heavy suitcase and set it down beside his bag in the bed of the truck. I
glanced into the cab. Definitely not enough room for us and our stuff. I had my phone
in my pocket, but my tablet was in my backpack, which also wouldn’t fit in the cab. I
dug my tablet out before slinging the bag into the bed of the truck beside my suitcase.

Without another word, Grant opened the driver’s side door with a loud screech. He
paused just before lifting his leg onto the floorboard, his deep brown eyes meeting
mine over the hood.

“You coming or not?” he asked.

The time had come to commit to this crazy idea of mine or back out. I could still
change my mind, call Jenny, and deal with Matt and Livvy in two weeks.

The image of my boyfriend embracing my best friend screamed across my mind. How
could they do that to me? It was the question I kept asking myself over and over. I’d
sent texts to both of them, begging for answers, for them to tell me it was all a big
mistake.

I hadn’t heard from either of them.

I had to get home.

Decision made, I marched to the passenger door of Grant’s ancient truck and
marveled once again that he’d been brave enough to drive the thing all this way.
Didn’t he worry about it breaking down?

Grant slid the rest of the way into his seat as I reached for the handle and pulled.

Nothing.

I pulled again.

“Sorry,” Grant mouthed as he reached across the seat to open the door from the inside.
“I forgot. I never use that door. It only opens from the inside.”

“No problem,” I said even though it was a huge problem. The truck was a huge
problem. I’d never seen so much rust on one vehicle in all my life. The faded blue
paint had faded until the color was barely distinguishable. The rust-speckled, off-
white stripe wasn’t much better.

I climbed through the open door, my heart sinking even further. The interior wasn’t an
improvement over the exterior at all. The bench seat had been covered with a blanket
woven with geometric shapes. The floorboard had been worn almost clean through to
the point I worried if I put all my weight on it, my feet would hit the road beneath us.
Under the antique radio, a long chromed stick shift jutted out. A stick shift! Who
knew how to drive one of those anymore?

Apparently, Grant did.

From the corner of my eye, I watched as Grant’s long fingers turned the key in the
ignition behind the largest steering wheel I’d ever seen. The truck rumbled to life
before he moved to the gearshift, deftly shifting into reverse. If the truck hadn’t been
surprising enough, I was more shocked than I should have been by how tan and
rugged his hands appeared. If I’d ever thought about it at all, I would have imagined
Grant with pasty white hands, callused only on the fingertips from all the typing he
did, because whenever I saw him—he was always at his computer.

These hands looked like they spent a lot of time working outside.

“What?” His deep voice pulled me out of my stupid thoughts about his hands.
Seriously, who sat and stared at a person’s hands? Me. Because I was a weirdo.

“What?” I pulled my gaze away from his mysterious hands to peer into his face.
Another surprise. Had I ever really looked at Grant before? Because I could almost
swear, this was my first time seeing him.

He had an expressive brow. I noticed that in the hotel lobby. Maybe I’d seen it before
then. His eyebrows were thick, not overly, just full. They pulled together when he
concentrated. They’d formed a thick knot earlier when he stared at me as though I
presented him with an unsolvable puzzle—me.

What did I really know about Grant? Next to nothing. I had no idea he drove a beat-up
old farm truck and had hands that looked as though they knew a thing or two about
hard work. I knew he was wicked smart, and for some reason, his parents let him
drive almost fifteen hundred miles by himself in a vehicle better suited for a junkyard.

“You’re sitting over there all, I don’t know, scared. Judgy.” He waited to back out of
the parking space, watching me.

My cheeks warmed. I decided to be honest. We’d be riding together in the small cab
of this truck for the next day or so. Maybe if we talked a bit, I wouldn’t feel so
nervous about it.

“I was just thinking I don’t know you very well, and now we’re kind of stuck with
each other.”
His brows pulled together again. I had an inexplicable urge to smooth them out.
Didn’t he get a headache from carrying all that broodiness above his eyes?

“And you’re just now thinking of that?” he sputtered. “You were the one begging me
to drive you back to Indiana.”

“I know, I just—” Wait. What? “Begging? I don’t think I begged.”

Grant snorted. “You cried. I’m a guy. Crying is the equivalent of begging to us.”

“It’s been a rough morning, I’m sorry if my emotions bother you.”

His lashes fluttered toward the sagging ceiling. “I didn’t say they bothered me. I’m
just saying you wanted to come with me. Now you’re acting all worried.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s not like I get into cars with strangers on a regular basis, you
know.”

Not the correct thing to say.

Grant’s brows immediately smoothed, his expression going flat. “We’ve known each
other since kindergarten.” His jaw ticked just the slightest bit as he glanced in his
rearview mirror then over both shoulders before finally backing out of the parking
space.

My cheeks burned again. What he said was true. Technically. However, I could name
all the things I knew about Grant Baker on one hand, and most of them I’d learned
just in the last ten minutes.

The first being his deep voice made my stomach quiver. Second, his hands kind of
made me want to reach out and touch them. Again. I hadn’t adequately focused on the
experience when I held one earlier. Then, there was the brow thing.

“I know. It’s just—never mind.” I folded my arms across my chest and stared out the
windshield. He could be offended all he wanted, that didn’t invalidate my feelings of
insecurity. His reaction wasn’t helping.

From the corner of my eye, I could see him roll his eyes a little, but then his shoulders
fell.

He sighed. “Listen, you’re right. Just because we’ve gone to the same school our
entire lives doesn’t mean we know each other.” The way he said it made it seem like
we should. “And even though you brought out the tears to get me to let you ride home
with me, I’ll be the bigger person here and reassure you that you are safe with me. I
promise not to murder you in a gas station restroom—” my mouth dropped open.

“Come onto you,” he continued.

My entire body flushed with unexpected heat. From mortification, I swear.

“Or tell anyone you lowered yourself to sharing the same air you breathe with me. I’ll
even let you DJ.” Reaching over, Grant turned a silver knob and the cab of the truck
filled with static. His defiant brown eyes met mine again. “But I’m warning you, it
only gets AM.” He gestured for me to go ahead and tune the radio, then he hit the gas.

I’d promised to explain my situation to him, tell him why I suddenly needed to get
home. But his surly expression had me thinking I’d be better off not speaking to him
at all for the next two days and then never again for the rest of my life.

What a jerk!

Without tuning the radio to something with less static, I turned up the volume as loud
as I could handle it, then folded arms across my stomach and stared out the window.

Grant

I was such a jerk.Mallory had every right to be nervous about riding in a car with
someone she barely knew. And it was my own fault we’d been going to the same
school all our lives and hadn’t spoken more than a handful of times. I’d hardly spoken
to anyone more than a handful of times. Including my teachers. What did they have to
say to the kid who knew their subjects better than they did? Nothing.

Releasing my death grip on the steering wheel, I rubbed my hand over my face. What
was wrong with me? This was my chance, my one opportunity to spend time with
Mallory, the most beautiful girl I’d ever known. She was smart, popular, funny, and
so incredibly out of my league.

And that was the problem, wasn’t it?

I’d gotten angry because for the last, I don’t know, six years, I’d been fantasizing
about a girl who barely even knew my name. For someone so smart, I sure was a
dummy.

Not Mallory, though. Who would have thought she’d crank up static? My lip curled as
I turned the radio off.
We’d been driving for about fifteen minutes and were almost to the edge of the city.
Mallory had barely moved, but she started to stir now, shifting uncomfortably on the
bench seat.

I wanted to apologize for being such a creep. Who promised not to murder someone?
She was obviously nervous. But I was still feeling raw. High school hadn’t been a
good experience for me. I’d wanted to test out of my classes and begin online college
courses, but my parents wanted me to get the whole social experience of attending
school like a normal kid. I wasn’t a normal kid. And I’d enrolled in the college
courses anyway, taking them on top of the classes I needed to graduate.

It wasn’t like I was outright bullied, but I certainly never fit in. Not that I’d made
much of an effort. The differences between myself and my peers had been more
pronounced when we were all in elementary school. I could have tried harder as I got
older, but didn’t see the point. Studying and working on my own projects, as well as
my responsibilities at home, had filled my time almost more than I could handle.

Still, there were times I regretted my decision to hold myself back from everyone at
school, times I wished I had friends—I glanced at Mallory again—a girlfriend. I just
figured I’d reinvent myself when I went off to college. If I went off to college. I didn’t
need it. I had a photographic memory. Anything I learned, I remembered. If there was
one thing I’d learned in high school, sitting in a classroom was a waste of time for me.
Still, maybe my parents were right, and I needed the socialization because I had no
idea how to make things right with Mallory.

Either way, I decided to wait until we got out of the city to say anything to her. Traffic
in Salt Lake was something else like everyone had gone to a secret school that taught
aggressive driving and how to cut people off with only inches to spare. I parked
myself in the right lane and prayed until we hit the canyon.

“It’s so hot in here!” The sound of her voice jolted me out of my thoughts. Not that I
hadn’t been completely aware of her sitting eighteen inches away. In fact, it had taken
quite a lot of my concentration not to stare at her bare legs exposed below the hem of
her jean shorts.

“Sorry, no A/C.” I’d driven the entire way here with both windows down, sweating
buckets, and drinking ice water from my cooler by the gallon. It sucked, but no way
would I let on to Mallory I was bothered in the least. She’d done nothing but bag on
my truck since the moment she got in it. Like it wasn’t good enough to haul her
beautiful behind back to Indiana.
She could find another way home for all I cared. She should have just stuck to her
plan to hang out with her sister if I was her only option to get home because I loved
this truck. I’d spent hours working on it to keep it running. She may not look like
much on the outside, but inside, she was a beast.

Mallory didn’t say anything for a few minutes, but then she went back to complaining.

“I’m thirsty. Do you have any water? I swear this heat is zapping all the hydration
from my body.” She pulled at the front of her tight t-shirt to create a small breeze
between the fabric and her skin.

“The cooler’s in the back. I’ll stop in a few minutes.” I stubbornly refused to pull over
on the side of the interstate. One, it wasn’t safe. Two, she’d hurt my pride. Dissing on
my truck. Complaining about things I couldn’t fix. She asked me for a favor. Not the
other way around.

In a hundred years, I’d never admit I was thirsty, too. How could I have forgotten to
put some water in the cab of the truck? I’d been distracted by Mallory. Goodness, she
was pretty.

There was a rest area right at the state line between Utah and Wyoming. We’d stop
there. It wasn’t much further, thank goodness.

“How much longer? Can’t you just pull over.” She fidgeted on the seat beside me.

It was going to be a long two days.

Chapter Three
Mallory

The further wedrove away from Salt Lake, the more it sank in I was stuck in this death
trap for the foreseeable future. If I’d known Grant drove an ancient, hotter than Hades
itself, no radio, broken door, sketchy floorboard—I shifted my butt in search of a soft
spot on the worn cushion of the bench seat—un-freaking-comfortable truck, I might
have rethought my plans.

It was too late for regrets now.

And besides, Matt and Livvy still hadn’t responded to any of the text messages I’d
sent. It would be driving me crazy to still be in Salt Lake. I had to do something!
Every mile we traveled brought me closer to answers I desperately needed.
It was so hot inside Grant’s truck. He had his window all the way down, but I’d only
rolled mine down halfway because of the wind. Leaning forward, I let the warm
breeze blow over my damp back. Who didn’t have air conditioning, for heaven’s
sake?

“It’s so hot,” I mumbled to myself, reaching for the scrunchie on my wrist. How was
it possible he’d made this trip once? I wondered as I wound my hair into a bun to
keep it off my sweaty neck. I would never in a hundred years subject myself to this
twice. If it were me, I would have dumped this truck at the nearest junkyard and flown
home. If I had the money. Was that why Grant drove? It didn’t make sense that
driving would be cheaper than flying, especially not in this thing. It had to be a gas
guzzler, right? What a colossal waste of fossil fuels.

Grant didn’t react to my whining except for a slight twitch below his eye.

I couldn’t take it anymore. “Please, can we please stop and get the water?” The cooler
sat in the bed of the truck near the tailgate. I was tempted to crawl out my window
traveling seventy miles an hour on the interstate, I was that desperate.

Grant’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “There’s a rest area in about thirty
minutes. Can you wait that long? I don’t want to stop on the side unless it’s an
emergency. People drive crazy around here.”

Groaning, I let my head fall to my knees. “How can you stand it? It’s so hot. And
there’s no radio. This bench is so hard my butt’s falling asleep.” Turning my head, I
got a good look at his legs beside me. Once again, I was thrown off by his body. Grant
wore shorts and Vans with no socks. His legs, corded with unexpected muscles,
glowed a warm golden tan with a dusting of sun-bleached hair. Something about them
made me feel a shot of attraction.

I sat up quickly. I did not need to be having any kind of thoughts about Grant’s legs.
Or his hands for that matter. I had a relationship to save. Didn’t I?

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I checked my text messages...again. Still nothing

from Matt or Livvy, but I had three or four from Jenny asking how things were going.

No way would I tell her about the moving death machine taking me across country.
Instead, I would lie through my teeth and tell her everything was just fine.

Grant watched me from the corner of his eye.

“It’s my sister, okay? She’s worried about me.” I had no idea why I felt the need to
defend myself. I had every right to text every person I’d ever met without him saying
a word about it.

“I didn’t say anything.” He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had. Nothing
about this day made any sense. I should be at my sister’s apartment, laughing and
joking and talking about boys, not sweating to the point of dehydration in Grant
Baker’s truck while my best friend kissed my boyfriend behind my back fifteen
hundred miles away.

“You didn’t have to say anything. Your judgment is written all over your face. I
promise I’m not posting on social media about what a jerk you’re being.” That wasn’t
nice, but I wasn’t feeling friendly. I was feeling mad! Stupid boys. Stupid friends.
Stupid, hot, uncomfortable truck! And stupid Grant!

“Yeah, I’m such a jerk I let you ride home with me. I could have just left you there.
You didn’t even tell me why. For all I know, I’m going to get in trouble for doing this.
Do your parents know where you are? Coming with me and not staying in Salt Lake
with your sister?” He punched on the breaks, slowing the truck way down as he
veered toward an exit to the right.

“I’m not a child. I don’t need my parent’s permission. In case you missed it, I was at
graduation with you. I can do whatever I want.” I’d half turned in my seat to yell at
him.

Grant pulled his truck up in front of a rest area. There were no other cars in the
parking lot. Without saying another word, he ripped the keys from the ignition and
stormed out of the truck. Instead of heading into the building, he took off toward a
small monument with a plaque, his fists clenched at his sides, his brow brooding more
than ever.

Fine. If that was how he wanted to be, fine. But I needed to use the restroom. And dig
through his cooler for some water. Opening the door to his truck, I glanced back at the
seat where my tablet sat on the woven blanket. Not wanting to leave it where anyone
could take it, I put it under the seat and then reached over to lock Grant’s door before
getting out. I probably didn’t have to worry about locking mine since it had to be
opened from the inside, but I did it anyway.

Grant stood still, his body as stony as the monument before him. We could use some
space. I didn’t understand what was happening. I hadn’t meant to make him angry or
take out my frustrations on him. He hadn’t done anything wrong.
Shame filled me when I thought about how I’d been behaving since I’d gotten into
Grant’s truck, before then, even. It wasn’t his fault his truck didn’t measure up to my
lofty standards. All he’d done since finding me in the hotel lobby was be kind to me.
And how had I repaid him? By being a spoiled brat. Well, I thought as I opened the
door to the rest area, only I had control over how I treated Grant. And I promised
myself from that point on, I’d just be grateful for the favor he was doing me and not
complain.

Even though it was hot.

And there was no radio.

At least we had cold water. And I could listen to music on my phone.

After finishing in the bathroom, I walked out into the common area between the
men’s and women’s restrooms, determined to talk to Grant and apologize. Hopefully,
the rest of our trip back to Indiana wouldn’t be so awkward.

“Hey, pretty girl. Got any spare change?”

Grant

I watchedfrom the corner of my eye as Mallory made her way into the building at the
rest stop, thankful for a few minutes to myself. Solitude. If anyone ever made a
monument to me, the title would say, Grant Baker, a portrait in isolation.

It wasn’t that I liked being alone. It was just easier. Case in point, Mallory. An hour
and a half in the cab of my truck and already she hated me. My computer never hated
me. Games didn’t hate me. People were a mystery. And girls especially. I didn’t have
any siblings, just a whole bunch of cousins. But I was hardly ever forced to spend
time with them. My parents had given up on forcing me to endure family functions
beyond the occasional meal.

Maybe I was destined to be alone, never forming any lasting relationships. What a
depressing thought.

I stayed by the monument until my nerves had somewhat calmed before heading back
to my truck. I should probably use the restroom, and we definitely needed some water
in the cab of the truck. Too bad the cooler was too big to fit in the space between
Mallory and me on the seat.
Back near the truck, I was surprised to see Mallory was still in the building. I’d been
at the monument for some time. Definitely long enough for her to use the bathroom
and come back out.

A shiver of alarm snaked down my spine. What if something happened to her? I

quickened my step to a jog while glancing around the parking lot. My truck was still
the only vehicle in front of the building. However, I’d missed a mountain bike,
heavily loaded with fraying bags, leaning up against a brick ledge.

“Mallory!” I called out, my heart in my throat. What if something happened to her?

Sprinting now, I reached for the door and wrenched it open. “Mallory!”

“Grant!” Her voice was muffled, coming from behind a divider filled with brochures
and maps in one corner of the space between restrooms. I raced toward the sound,
rounding the divider, stopping short at the sight of her.

A man held her from behind with his dirty hand over her mouth, contrasting starkly
against her fresh skin. Mallory gripped his arm with both of her hands, trying to pull it
away. His other arm wrapped around her waist, trapping her against his body.

“Just turn around and go away,” the man said, exposing his teeth amid a mass of hair
and debris. He was so dirty. And he had his hands on Mallory!

I shook my head slowly while searching him for any visible weapons. As far as I
could tell, he didn’t have anything other than his self with which to harm her.

It was enough.

“Not going to happen, man. Let her go.” I finally let myself meet Mallory’s terror-
filled eyes. She couldn’t speak, but I felt her beseeching me to do something. I was
not going to let this guy hurt her. Hopefully, she could see that in my eyes.

The man grinned, laughing maniacally. Many of his teeth were missing. Those he had
were brown and rotting. It made me sick he had his hands on Mallory. So, what could
I do?

“Let her go,” I said again, but he just gripped her tighter, pulling her to one side.
Bingo. I didn’t have a lot of physical skills, but years and years of bucking hay bales
had made me strong. There was only one way to get Mallory away from her assailant.
I lowered my shoulder and charged.
What happened next was a blur. My shoulder rammed into the man forcing him to
lose his hold on Mallory. He was thin and wiry and no match for my strength. With
Mallory out of the way, I pushed him into the wall and punched him square in the
nose. His head hit the wall, his eyes rolling back before he slid to the floor,
unconscious.

For a split second, I just stared, shocked that it had been so easy, but then my brain
kicked in.

Mallory.

“Let’s get out of here.” I had to get her out of there. Her body trembled as I wrapped
my arm around her shoulders, herding her out of the rest area as fast as I could. Just as
we broke through the doors, I turned back to see Mallory’s attacker stirring on the
floor. “Go!”

While we ran, I fished the keys out of my pocket.

“I—I locked the doors,” her voice shook.

Unwilling to let her go or to take the time to mess with the broken passenger side
door, I pulled her with me toward the driver’s side and shoved the key into the lock. I
yanked on the handle as soon as it turned.

Mallory scramble into the cab of the truck. I jumped in behind her before she even
made it to the other side. Just as I turned the key in the ignition, the door to the rest
area burst open. The man stumbled out, his beard slick with blood. He tottered down
the sidewalk, screaming obscenities.

Mallory gripped my arm. “Hurry!”

“I am!”

The truck’s engine roared as I popped the clutch and punched down on the gas,
shifting into reverse. Mallory crashed into my side as the truck spun out of the parking
space as fast as I could make it go. My whole body went into action as my legs
worked the clutch and gas, and my arms steered and shifted. The tires left a layer of
rubber on the asphalt as we hightailed it out of the rest area parking lot. I didn’t even
pause at the stop sign to turn toward the interstate. We hit the on-ramp going thirty
miles over the speed limit.
“Put your seatbelt on.” Mallory sat sprawled across the bench, tears rolling down her
cheeks. “Mallory!” I shouted when she didn’t respond, my heart pounding in my
chest. She needed a seatbelt.

Finally, she nodded, but instead of moving to the passenger seat, she reached behind
her for the lap belt and strapped herself in the middle.

My hand still clutched the gear shift. Once her seatbelt was secured, Mallory wrapped
both her arms around mine and sobbed into my shoulder.

Chapter Four
Mallory

Grant didn’t pushme away. I’d never been so thankful to have someone at my side
then right at that moment. Unable to contain my emotions, I cried into the back of his
shoulder, hugging his arm to my chest. The stench of the drifter who’d attacked me at
the rest area clung to my nose. The spicy scent of Grant’s deodorant smelled so good
in contrast, I found myself turning my face into his t-shirt to get a better breath of it.

I wanted a shower. I wanted to sanitize my whole body. I could still feel the grime
from his hand on my cheeks and lips. The thought of it made me cry even harder.

“Shhh. It’s okay. We’re okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Shhh,” he
crooned. He drove one-handed. His other hand wrapped around my thigh since I had a
death grip on his arm. He kept glancing away from the road to look at my face. His
brows lowered with worry over his eyes. He must have noticed me wiping my mouth
on his t-shirt because he reached over to the glove compartment and pulled out a
packet of wet wipes.

“Here. Use these.”

Fresh tears coursed down my cheeks as I opened the package and pulled out several
wipes to clean every inch of my exposed skin. I vowed to change my clothes as soon
as we stopped somewhere. The container was nearly empty by the time I finished. I’d
wiped my mouth and face so many times, I could taste the solution the wipes soaked
in. A white pile sat on the bench beside me.

“I’ll pull over at the next exit,” Grant said, his hand squeezing my knee. “I want to
call the police so they can try and find that guy.”
Done with the wipes, I wrapped my arms back around his, certain I’d be mortified
later, when I wasn’t so scared, that I’d latched onto him, but I didn’t care. I needed
someone. I needed Grant.

He’d saved me.

“Grant,” I said his name, the first word I’d uttered since we’d gotten back in the truck.

He turned his head toward me just slightly while keeping his eyes on the road.
“Yeah?”

A new lump formed in my throat, but I forced the words past it. “Thank you. Thank
you for coming for me.”

Grant’s lips pulled into a frown. His hand squeezed my leg again, making me almost
unbearably aware of his skin on mine. He didn’t reply, just held onto me.

For a long time, Grant drove. Neither of us moved. At one point, I laid my head on his
shoulder and fell asleep.

A while later, I had no idea how much time had passed, the truck began to slow, the
change in speed waking me. Slowly, I became aware of Grant’s solid shoulder under
my cheek, his muscular arm still tucked between mine, and his hand resting gently on
my knee.

He must have sensed I was awake. “I need my arm,” he said softly, disentangling
himself just enough to use the gearshift.

The sign at the beginning of the off-ramp read ‘Rawlins’. I picked up my phone from
the empty seat beside me and checked the time. We’d been driving for at least three
hours since stopping at the rest area. It was just past noon.

The muscles in Grant’s arms flexed and contracted as he worked the gearshift. It
occurred to me that I should probably move back to my own seat, but I still felt jittery.
His solid body next to mine too reassuring to give it up just yet. Even if it made me
seem needy and desperate. I figured after what happened, I got a pass. Just this once.

“We, uh, need gas. And I thought we should probably eat, too.” He sounded so unsure
and awkwardness set in between us. I hated it.

Grant pulled into a gas station and turned off the truck. Neither of us moved at first.
Then I realized I still had a hold on his arm.
“Sorry,” I squeaked, releasing him.

He opened his door and got out, stretching his arms high above his head, framed in the
open doorway. I felt gravitated toward him in a way I’d never experienced toward
another human being before. My eyes drank him in. My arms twitched to reach out
and grab him. I wanted to pull him back into the truck, back by my side.

I watched as he lowered his arms allowing myself to really check him out. Holy
guacamole! Grant Baker was ripped! I’d felt it in his arms earlier, seen it in his hands
and his legs. But he was lean everywhere, his shoulders broad, his waist tapered.

My gaze traveled over his face. I was stunned by how handsome he looked. How had
I never noticed before? Grant was a nerd. He always had his head bent low over his
computer screen or a book. He never participated in school activities, except FBLA,
for some reason. But I’d never once seen him at a sporting event. Where did all that
bulk come from? Did he lift weights? He didn’t strike me as the athletic type at all.

Just who exactly was Grant Baker?

I thought back to those seconds in the rest area. Not the part with the creepy guy, but
the part with Grant. I’d been so scared and so incredibly relieved to see him come
around the edge of that divider. Immediately, I knew he’d take care of everything. The
look in his eye screamed, ‘trust me’. And I did.

Then he tackled that guy like a professional football player and punched him as
though he got into fistfights on the daily.

The pump turned off. Grant replaced the nozzle before securing the gas cap and facing
me again. His piercing gaze met mine.

“Come on. Let’s go in. We need a break.” He held out his hand. I took it, latching
onto him like he was my anchor.

As we walked hand in hand into the gas station, my heart rate began to accelerate. In
my head, I knew what happened at the rest area wasn’t normal. I didn’t have to be
afraid of every place we stopped, but that didn’t keep me from trembling.

Grant squeezed my hand in his. “It’s okay. We’ll stick together.

Grant
It was my fault.All of it. I should never have left Mallory alone at the rest area. What
a jerk! As she slept on my shoulder, holding my arm so tightly I lost feeling in my
hand, it hit me. The moment Mallory set foot in my truck, she became my
responsibility. It was my job to make sure she made it home safe and sound, and I’d
almost failed entirely in the first hour and a half.

I wasn’t about to let her down again.

Using my headphones, I’d made a hands free call to the police while she slept and let
them know about the incident. They wanted us to come in and file a report, but I told
them our situation that we were traveling and had left the area. The lady on the phone
took down all the information I had and let me know they might be calling us back to
ask more questions later. I assured her I would be available and Mallory, too. They
told me an officer would go to the rest area and check to see if the guy was still
around. I hoped they found him and kept him from doing anything like that again.

Holding her hand, I led her into the gas station and back to the dingy hallway where
the restrooms were located. Without saying a word, I looked into her wide eyes,
hoping she could read my apology in them.

One corner of her mouth lifted. “I need to go, too. Wait for me here?”

I nodded, watching until the bathroom door closed all the way behind her before
racing into the men’s room to take care of business as quickly as possible, even going
so far as wiping my wet hands on my shirt after washing them rather than waiting for
the hand dryer to do the job.

The hall was empty when I stepped back out. I knew a moment of fear as I considered
Mallory finishing before me, standing alone as she waited. What if something
happened to her? Again? I experienced a jolt of panicked indecision. Should I look for
her in the main part of the gas station? But I told her I’d wait here. What if—

Before I could finish the thought, the door to the women’s restroom opened, and
Mallory walked out. I breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, we were both still
traumatized from the experience at the rest area.

“Hungry?” I asked, reaching for her hand again like I’d been doing it forever. Her
fingers curled around mine. Something inside me clicked into place.

It wasn’t smart, these thoughts I’d been having for the last three hours while she slept
on my shoulder, the scent of her shampoo filling my senses. As far as I knew, Mallory
had a boyfriend. The only reason she stayed so close was that she was scared, I
reminded myself. Not that I blamed her. In fact, I only blamed myself.

“I could eat,” she replied with a small smile.

The gas station had a fast food joint attached to it. We made our way to the counter
and ordered. I pulled out my debit card before Mallory could protest.

“I’ll get it next time,” she murmured as we moved to the side to wait on our food. I
filled my cup with a caffeinated soda, but she’d ordered an iced coffee.

After a few minutes, they called out our order number. I went to grab the tray then
followed Mallory to a table for two in the back corner away from anyone else.

I’d almost eaten all of my sandwich, and half of my fries before either of us said
anything.

“I’m sorry,” Mallory blurted. I glanced up, my eyes wide.

What?

Before I could reassure her she had absolutely nothing to be sorry about, she
continued.

“I’m sorry for being such a spoiled brat earlier. You didn’t have to let me hitch a ride
with you. You were doing me a favor and all I did was complain. I’m sorry.”

I started shaking my head as soon as she started talking. “No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t
have stormed off like that. I should have gone with you into the rest area. It’s my fault
that guy grabbed you.” He probably wouldn’t have had the guts if she hadn’t been
alone.

Now Mallory was the one shaking her head. “Don’t say that. It was his fault. Not
mine. Not yours. His.”

I opened my mouth to respond to that, but she cut me off.

“No, I mean it. We didn’t do anything wrong. I walked into a public place and was
jumped by a homeless man. Maybe we could have been more careful and stuck
together, but it was still him. He did it. And you saved me. I’m so, so glad you came
in when you did.”
Reaching out, I covered her hand with mine, amazed by how easily I’d fallen into the
habit of touching her in small ways. “I am, too. That scared me to death. I was
freaking out that I wouldn’t be able to get you away from him.”

Mallory smiled. “You tackled him like a pro. You should have played football.”

I snorted as I released her hand to pick up the rest of my sandwich. “Yeah, right. Like
I had time for football.”

She watched while I took a big bite, leaving just enough for another. “Did you want to
play?”

I shrugged as I chewed. “I guess, maybe. It wasn’t really an option. Football season is

the same as harvest season,” I answered once I swallowed.

She thought about that for a second. “Harvest season?”

I smirked. “You know when the tractors go into the fields and take out all the corn and
beans.” We lived on the outskirts of Indianapolis. Mallory lived in a more suburban
area, I couldn’t remember how I knew that, but I lived out in the county on my
parent’s farm.

She gave me a look. “I know what harvest season is, smarty pants. I just don’t know
what it has to do with you.”

It struck me that while I knew stuff about Mallory, she didn’t know much about me. It
was kind of depressing to realize I was a stalker. “I live on a farm. I work six hours a
day after school for most of September and October. Doesn’t leave much time for
sports.”

Not that I would have played anyway. Until I hit a growth spurt over the last two
years, I was too scrawny to play football. I would have gotten my butt kicked.

“Wow. I had no idea.”

I glanced up to find her studying me. “Why would you?”

That made her frown. “As you pointed out earlier, we’ve known each other since
kindergarten.”

“Yeah, well, we hardly hang with the same crowds.”

Her frown deepened, but she didn’t reply. We finished our food in silence, then took
our wrappers and containers to the garbage.

“You need anything before we get back on the road?” I asked before opening the door
for her.

Mallory shook her head.

Back at the truck, I dug through the cooler for two water bottles. They were still cold
from the ice from the machines at the hotel. Mallory got in on my side and slid over
into the passenger seat, answering my question if she was feeling any better. I thought
it was a good sign she wasn’t as attached to my hip as she had been.

Although, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I missed her pressed close to my side.

Chapter Five
Mallory

After the gas station,we got back on the road. Wyoming had a lot of brown mountains.
After Rawlins, we passed Laramie and then Cheyenne. At around three or so, we
crossed the state line into Nebraska.

It had been tempting to keep sitting in the seat right next to Grant, I missed his solid
strength beside me, but then I remembered Matt, my supposed boyfriend, the whole
reason I was even in this truck with Grant.

I still hadn’t heard anything from Matt or Livvy. Which was weird in and of itself.
Livvy and I texted or talked constantly throughout the day, and I hadn’t heard
anything from her for over thirty-six hours. Matt had texted me the night before I left
the hotel. We hadn’t said much, just kind of touching base like we sometimes did, but
that was it, the last time I’d heard from him.

And something had happened between Grant and me in the last few hours. We hadn’t
talked much, but going through something traumatic together had forged some kind of
connection, and that connection felt good. In fact, it felt amazing. And now—much as
I’d begun this trip, my head filled with thoughts of Matt and Livvy—all I could think
about was Grant.

“How far are we going to drive today?” I asked. It also occurred to me I had no idea
what the plan was for the day. Where were we stopping? Were we going to get a hotel
room? Did he plan to drive straight through? “I’d offer to help drive, but I can’t drive
a stick.” I gestured to the long chrome gearshift between us a little ruefully.

“That’s okay. I don’t mind driving.” He shifted in his seat a bit and cleared his throat.
“Actually, I guess we need to talk about that. On the way out, I stopped and just slept
in the back.”

My eyes widened. He’d slept in the back of the truck? Overnight? Wasn’t that
dangerous?

He quickly glanced at me before returning his eyes to the road. “I stayed at a

campground. I have a sleeping bag and stuff back there. But we don’t have to do that
if you don’t want to,” he hurried to say.

I looked over my shoulder to the bed of the truck. That explained what was in the
other bag. It was big and stuffed full. It must have Grant’s sleeping gear in it. I took a
second to study the bed of the truck, imagining what it would be like for both of us to
sleep back there. There was plenty of room, but we’d be close to each other.

My stomach fluttered.

“What else would we do?”

“Well, I guess we could try to find a hotel. It would probably be pretty expensive
without a reservation. But we could put it on my credit card.” His brow pulled low
over his eyes. He didn’t want to spring for a hotel. He would, for me, but he didn’t
want to.

I glanced into the bed of the truck again and made a decision. “It’s okay. We can
camp in the truck. Do you have an extra sleeping bag?”

He shot me a side-eyed look. “We’ll make it work. It’s another four hours to the place
I stayed. I think we should try and make it there. It’s almost exactly halfway between
Salt Lake and Indy. That way, we’ll make it home tomorrow before it gets too late.
Does that work for you?”

I thought about everything he said before nodding, realizing I trusted Grant. If he

thought the plan was a good one, then so did I. “Sounds good to me.”

I stared out the window for a few minutes, but then I dared to ask the question I’d
been curious about since I’d seen Grant that morning.
“What made you decide to drive all this way instead of flying with everyone else?” It
didn’t make any sense. No way driving could be any cheaper than flying, and it took
so much longer.

Grant shifted again, but this time I got the impression the question made him more
uncomfortable than his seat. “I’m afraid of flying.”

“What? No way. I don’t believe you.” He’d been too quick to throw out that
explanation for me to take him at his word. Grant was a science nerd. Surely, he knew
too much about aeronautics to be afraid of flying. Even I knew it was safer to fly than
to drive, statistically speaking.

He chewed on his lower lip, drawing my attention to it. Grant’s lower lip was just a
bit fuller than the top. It looked soft. The craziest thought I’d had in a long time ran
through my mind. What would it be like to kiss Grant Baker?

No!

There would be no thinking about kissing Grant.

“It’s true,” Grant replied, tugging my thoughts back to our conversation. “My uncle
died in a crop dusting accident when I was a little kid. I was there. Saw the whole
thing.”

“Grant, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. How old were you?”

“Six. I’ve refused to get on a plane since then. I turned nineteen last week. My parents
signed a waiver with the school so I could drive myself.”

I mulled that over for the next few minutes, my thoughts turning to what I could
remember about Grant from school. Obviously, he’d participated in FBLA, but didn’t
do any sports. Had he been in any other clubs? Who were his friends? Did he have a
girlfriend?

That last one had me studying his profile. Suddenly, I wanted to know everything
there was to know about Grant.

“What?” he asked, probably wondering why I was acting so weird, staring at the side
of his face.

“I was just thinking I don’t know much about you. I never knew you were a farm kid.
I know you’re super smart and in FBLA. But not much more than that.”
Grant didn’t say anything for a moment. “That’s about it. Not much else to know,” he
replied, sort of self-deprecatingly.

“I don’t believe that. I bet there is lots to know.” Warming to my topic, I turned a
little, bending my knee onto the seat between us. “Like, what’s your favorite color?”

Grant slanted me a look. “Really? What’s my favorite color?”

I had to giggle at the expression on his face. “Yes, tell me.”

He sighed, but he had a small crease between his brows that told me he’d play along.
“Red.”

Red? I hadn’t expected that. I thought for sure he’d say blue or green. “Why red?”

He sputtered next to me. “I’m a Hoosier, aren’t I? Loyal to the Cream and Crimson.”

He was a Hoosier fan? “Seriously? I thought for sure, being a farm kid, you’d be a
Purdue fan.” Purdue was known more for its agricultural degrees. A lot of the students
who graduated from our high school went to Purdue.

“My dad went to Indiana University. I grew up rooting for IU.” He glanced at me.
“What about you? Are you a Hoosier or a Boilermaker?”

“Actually, I’m a Bulldog,” I admitted, naming the mascot for Butler University, my
own parent’s alma mater.

Grant scoffed. “A Bulldog?”

“Hey, don’t knock it. Butler’s had a great basketball team for the last few years. Way
better than Indiana.”

“That’s true,” he conceded.

“Okay. So, your favorite color is red. And your favorite team is IU. What else?” I
tapped my chin, trying to decide which of the million questions I wanted to ask him I
should try next.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” I figured why not cut to the chase.

Grant

I coughed in surprise. “Do I what?”

Mallory rolled her eyes and leaned forward, bringing her knee within a centimeter of
my thigh.

“You heard me. Does Grant Baker have a girlfriend?” she asked in an interviewer’s
voice.

That was the last thing I expected her to ask, especially when she started out with
something lame like, what’s your favorite color? Shouldn’t she have eased into a
question like that by covering all the bases? For instance, my favorite food or movie?

Not that I cared. I’d tell her whatever she wanted to know.

“No. I don’t have a girlfriend.” I would have asked her a similar question, but I
already knew the answer. Mallory dated Matt Jensen, one of the most popular guys at
our high school. They’d been dating since Homecoming last fall and had been voted
the couple most likely to get married to each other in the yearbook. I didn’t see it,
though.

Mallory was one of the sweetest girls I knew. Maybe no one noticed me, but that
didn’t mean I didn’t see them. Mallory was smart, funny, popular—everyone loved
her. It had been a bit of a shock when she started dating Matt. At least, to me. Because
Matt Jensen was a player. I didn’t think his player tendencies had stopped when he
began dating Mallory. In fact, I knew they hadn’t. Not being seen by anyone meant
they’d say just about anything in front of you. I’d heard more horror stories about high
school parties than I ever wanted. Matt wasn’t even discreet. Mallory just believed in
him.

“Why not?” she asked, tiny creases forming on her forehead.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Not many girls interested in the class nerd.” That wasn’t
entirely true. A lot of us in the nerd set dated each other. There were a lot of nerd girls
at school who hooked up and dated the nerdy guys. I knew of a few girls who’d liked
me over the years, especially once I kind of grew into my body. But I hadn’t been
interested in dating any of them. I’d been too busy dreaming about Mallory.

And working on my projects.

Mallory frowned. “I’m sure that’s not true. I bet you could have dated a lot of girls if
you’d wanted.”

I shrugged again, not really wanting to continue talking about my lack of dating
experience. “I don’t know about that. I haven’t really had time for dating anyway.”
“Hmmm. What is it you’re always working on? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you away
from your computer for more than a few minutes at a time. Even in the cafeteria you
have your laptop open in front of you. Are you just studying?”

Should I tell her? No one, besides my parents, really knew about my hobby. What
could it hurt? After I dropped her off at her house tomorrow, I’d probably never see
Mallory Knight again. And I’d talk about anything to get off the topic of my non-
existent love life.

“Um, I design video games,” I replied somewhat nervously.

“Video games?” She didn’t sound surprised, just curious. “Like what kind?”

“For mobile devices.”

“Any I would know?” she asked.

“Probably not.” I shot her a glance, trying to gauge her reaction to my confession.

“What kind of games?”

“RPG,” I replied, wondering if she knew what that even meant.

Mallory frowned. “What’s RPG?”

I grinned. Mallory didn’t strike me as the video game type, and she definitely didn’t
seem like she’d be into role-playing games. “Role-playing games.”

“You mean like Dungeons and Dragons?” Her lip curled a little.

“D and D is just one example. There are a lot of other role-playing games out there
and video games with the same elements. A character who goes on a quest and the
player gets to control aspects of the game.”

“So, you created a game, and what? Can I buy it on my phone?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m still developing it. It takes a lot of time and until a couple
of weeks ago, we were still in school. Plus, I’m in a few college courses.” I didn’t tell
her, hadn’t told anyone, not even my parents, that my game was in beta testing with a
major video game company.

Mallory pulled her head back in surprise. “You are? I didn’t know that. What kind of
classes are you taking?”
“Mostly computer classes. A few design courses.” I planned to test out of most of the
prerequisite classes and focus on the ones I really needed. Although, really, I just
needed the piece of paper.

“Wow. That’s really cool. I had no idea.”

“What about you? What are you doing this fall? Going to school?” I asked.

Mallory fidgeted with the hem of her shorts. “I don’t know. My sister really wants me
to go to school with her in Utah, but I’m not sure I want to be so far away from
home.”

“What do you want to study?” Something about the way Mallory reacted had me
observing her carefully, or as carefully as I could while still driving.

“I don’t really know. I’m not like you. I’m not passionate about anything like you
seem to be about video games.”

I snorted. “I don’t know how passionate I am about video games.” I just wasn’t
passionate about farming. I’d watched my parents struggle my whole life to keep the
farm running and didn’t want to follow in their footsteps. “I’m just good at it.”

“Well, still. I just don’t know if I want to go to Utah. I don’t even know if I want to go
to school. I hate the idea of going and not knowing what I want to major in. And the
thought of living so far away from my parents gives me anxiety.”

“It didn’t bother you to be away on this trip?” I asked, kind of surprised by what she’d
admitted. What kid didn’t want to move away from home after graduation? I couldn’t
wait to get out from under my parent’s judgmental eye. No matter what I did, I was a
constant source of disappointment for them.

Mallory shook her head. “No. Small trips are fine. And it’s not like I’m never away. I
just, I don’t know. I like being near family. I like our small town. And I love Indiana.
Why does everyone think I have to leave to grow up?”

“I don’t think that,” I hurried to say and not just to reassure her. I believed it.
“Everyone has their own speed they travel through life. No one ever said you had to
keep up with the wolf pack to survive. I hate how society thinks it’s okay to force
people to hit certain milestones, or they’re considered failures. It’s so unrealistic.
We’re all different. Maybe I’ll be more successful in my video game design business
and make a bunch of money. But I probably won’t get married forever, if at all. Other
people never reach financial success in their work, but they have incredible marriages
and families in their twenties. Who did it right and who did it wrong? And who has
the right to judge?”

The whole thing made me angry. All the pressure. Like I should have to make all the
most significant decisions in my life when I have the least amount of wisdom. How
dumb is that? Choose a career, a spouse, get into a bunch of debt to own a car, a
home, get an education. Right, why don’t I begin my life under the absolute worst set
of circumstances? That sounds like a good plan.

“I never thought about it like that before. But you’re right. I mean, it’s kind of scary,
isn’t it? You graduate high school, turn eighteen, and suddenly everyone expects you
to have your act together. I don’t feel any different now than I did six months ago only
now I’m an adult. I think when kids turn eighteen, they should be able to go to this
place where there’s all this knowledge, and they hook you up to a machine and
download it to your brain. It would be so much easier.”

That made me laugh. “They do have that. It’s called college. You just have to work
for it instead of acquiring it easily.”

Mallory grinned. “Yeah, but college can’t teach you everything. I want to know what
choices to make, so I don’t screw everything up for the rest of my life.”

I scoffed but made sure she could tell I was teasing because I got it. I really did. “You
don’t learn anything if you don’t screw up once in a while. Our mistakes refine us,
make us better.” I’d learned that over the last couple of years, Mostly as it pertained to
my game, but the principle was the same. Each version turned out better than the
previous one. I liked to think people were the same. Each time we failed or made a
mistake or did something wrong, we learned how to do it better the next time.

“Wow. I didn’t know you were such a philosopher,” Mallory teased, pushing lightly at
my shoulder.

My lips twisted. “Not a philosopher, just a kid who has screwed up enough to learn a
few things.”

Chapter Six
Mallory

Talkingto Grant was surprisingly easy. I’d tried explaining my insecurities about
growing up to Matt, and he’d brushed me off. Come to think of it, he brushed me off
anytime I tried to talk about anything more profound than surface level. I didn’t have
a problem with having fun, but there were times I needed someone to talk to. I wanted
that someone to be my boyfriend.

Maybe that was part of the problem.

Things had been off between Matt and me lately. I didn’t want to admit it to myself or
anyone else, but as much as it hurt to see Matt cheating on me, a part of me wasn’t all
that surprised. What hurt the most was Livvy. My best friend. Or who I thought was
my best friend.

Graduating high school was scary. I didn’t feel ready for adulting at all. For the last
semester of school, I’d been clinging to what I knew, what was familiar. Matt. Livvy.
School activities. It was how I’d been so easily persuaded to come on the FBLA trip
in the first place. I’d looked at it as an opportunity to put off making any decisions
about my future. Why couldn’t things just stay the same?

As the sun lowered in the sky behind us, Grant started looking for a place to stop and
pick up something for dinner. We’d had burgers and fries for lunch. Hopefully, we
could find something a bit healthier for dinner.

“Subs?” he asked as we approached a sign on the side of the road that pictured the
available services at the next exit.

“Better than burgers.”

Grant pulled to the right and exited the interstate. The sub shop wasn’t far from the
exit—another restaurant attached to a gas station, so Grant pulled up to the pump first.
While he pumped the gas, I sat sideways with my feet dangling out his open door. I
still didn’t want to be very far away from him. The feeling of the homeless man’s
hand over my mouth hadn’t faded from my memory. If Grant wandered too far from
me when we stopped for gas and snacks, anxiety welled up, causing me to hurry back
to his side. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind. He’d been adorably sweet, not
complaining when I held onto his arm or hand. I hated feeling so vulnerable, but
couldn’t help it.

“I can pay this time.” I’d offered every time we stopped, but he just brushed me off.

“I already told you. It’s not like having you sit next to me is costing me extra. I
already budgeted for this trip. I have plenty of money.”

He left the nozzle to fill the tank and came to stand in front of me, the soft fabric of
his t-shirt almost touching my knees. “Hand me the trash?”
Trying to ignore the flutters in my stomach from his closeness, I leaned back to collect
the wrappers and empty water bottles from the cab of the truck.

Losing my balance, I yelped as I almost rolled onto the floor of the truck. Grant’s
hands, warm and callused, caught me by my thighs, giving me the leverage I needed
to sit back up.

Our eyes met. Butterflies in my stomach took flight for other parts of my body. When
was the last time I felt something like that? I couldn’t remember.

“Thanks.” Feeling a little breathless, I held out a paper bag from one of our stops I’d
filled with trash.

Grant’s hands slid from my legs slower than necessary before he took the bag and
walked over to the trash can.

Releasing a long breath, I considered how much I enjoyed the feel of Grant. I liked
holding his hand. I shouldn’t, but I loved it when my body brushed against his as we
walked side by side. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how much I loved the
way he smelled when I sat beside him earlier or how solid and comforting his
shoulder felt beneath my cheek. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt that way
with Matt.

So much had changed in the last eight hours, I wasn’t sure I could keep up. I realized I
didn’t know what I wanted anymore.

The idea of not seeing Grant again after he dropped me off tomorrow made my heart
hurt.

“Come on. I’m hungry.” I looked over to see he’d finished pumping the gas. His
chocolate brown eyes found mine. He held out his hand.

Determined not to squander any opportunity to be close to him over the next twenty-
four hours, I wrapped my fingers around his.

Maybe I’d been wrong about my relationship with Matt. Maybe dating Matt had been
one of those mistakes Grant talked about, the kind that help us learn. Hanging out
with Grant made me realize how inconsiderate Matt could be, how selfish. It wasn’t
really fair to compare the two, but I couldn’t seem to help it.

And the truth was Matt didn’t measure up. At least, he didn’t measure up to Grant.
Once inside, we ordered together like we’d been doing all day. Grant finally let me
pitch in for something and pay for our dinner. We ate quickly because Grant wanted
to stop before dark. Before leaving the gas station, we stocked up on more snacks and
Grant bought more water bottles.

“What’s with you and locking the doors?” he asked after we’d stowed the water in the
cooler.

“You don’t usually lock them?” Not like I hadn’t noticed. I’d been locking the doors
all day.

He shook his head and stuck the key in the lock. “Never,” he said, holding the door
open for me.

I slid across the seat. “Really? Aren’t you worried about someone stealing
something?”

Grant glanced around the interior of the truck. “Like what? I’d have to pay someone
to take this thing off my hands.”

Reaching around, I clicked my seatbelt into place. “You don’t ever leave anything
valuable in here?”

He shook his head. “Not really.”

“That’s so weird. My dad’s kind of a freak about locking doors. He always waits up
for me to come home if I’ve been out because he’s worried I’ll forget to lock the
doors. I’m a little compulsive about it now. It feels funny not to lock them.”

“My parents are the exact opposite. I don’t think they even know where the key to our
house is.” It struck me again, the muscles of his forearms as he worked the gearshift,
reversing out of the gas station parking lot. How could I have ever thought Grant was
nothing more than a nerd?

Then, it registered what he said. My eyes widened. “Are you kidding? They just leave
it unlocked all the time?”

“Yep. But we live out in the middle of nowhere. It’s not like we get a lot of traffic out
by our house.”

“I guess, but still.” I couldn’t imagine it. Anybody could wander up to the house and
just get in? I’d never feel safe.
Grant drove out of the gas station and headed toward the interstate again. We were in
Nebraska, which was a really, really wide state. I’d been ignoring my phone except to
send Jenny updates on where we were. She’d asked me a little while ago where we
were going to stay for the night. I’d toyed with the idea of lying, telling her we’d stay
in a hotel. In the end, I figured she’d have less of a problem with us camping than
staying in a hotel room together. Not that she was in charge of me, but the last thing I
wanted was for her to rat me out to our parents. I had a feeling they wouldn’t be okay
with me sleeping in the bed of Grant’s truck tonight. With him. Something I’d been
trying not to think about too hard myself.

My feelings about Grant had been wonky since the rest area. As much I didn’t want
to, I couldn’t help feeling attracted to him. Like I’d been wearing blinders, and they’d
been lifted, allowing me to see the real Grant. I liked the real Grant…a lot. He was
cute. Hot. Looking at him made me feel things. Fluttery things. Warm things.

What about Matt?

Matt kissed my best friend!

But he was familiar, and everything was changing. Wasn’t that why I’d stayed with
him in the first place?

Grant

We drovefor another three hours until we reached the little town with the campground
where I’d stayed on the way out to Utah. I’d done my research and tried to find a
family-friendly campground that had bathrooms and showers. After twelve hours
without air conditioning, a shower sounded like heaven. Mallory probably thought so,
too.

I pulled up in front of the little cabin where the camp host stayed and reached for my
wallet. “I’ll be right back,” I told Mallory, but then stopped. “Unless you want to
come in?”

She shook her head. “I’m good. I can wait here.” She could see me through the sliding
glass doors leading into the cabin. I knew I’d be able to see her as well.

“Okay. It should only take a second.” I jogged up the steps and opened the glass door.
The lady behind the counter wasn’t the same one who’d checked me in last week.

“Can I get a tent site for the night, please?” I asked as I dug through my wallet for a
ten-dollar bill.
The lady typed something on her computer. “That’ll be ten dollars.” She held out her
hand for the money. In exchange, she gave me a little slip of paper to clip to a pole at
the tent site. “You’ll be at number six. Here’s a map.” She circled the cabin in red ink,
then drew a line to site number six toward the backside of the campground. The sites
were organized in a big oval. In the center were a playground and a building with
bathrooms and showers. She turned the paper over. “These are camp rules. Just clean
up after yourself and keep quiet after ten, and we won’t have any problems.”

“You got it. Thanks a lot.” Drawing attention to myself was the last thing I wanted.
After this morning, I figured flying under the radar was the best bet for keeping
Mallory safe until I could get her home. The thought of anything else happening to her
made my stomach twist into knots.

Catching sight of Mallory through the windshield as I left the cabin, I wanted to throw
myself at her feet and confess my feelings, feelings I’d had for a long time. For most
of the day, she’d stayed close to me, held my hand, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t
getting to me. The superficial attraction I’d felt for years had turned into something
more. I’d longed to be the guy who held Mallory’s attention for as long as I could
remember, but now? The desire was almost painful. I had no idea how I would get
over these hours with her. Part of me realized I wouldn’t. I’d probably always wonder
what might have been.

“Did you get it?” she asked as I slid back behind the wheel.

“Yep.” I held up an index card with my last name and the number of the site.

Mallory swiped her hands down her legs nervously. Maybe I should have sprung for a
hotel room, but that would have been even more awkward. Sleeping outside, I could
try to pretend we were kids camping out in my backyard.

I snorted to myself.

Yeah, right.

“What?” Mallory asked, hearing the noise.

“Nothing. Just— nothing.” Talking about it would only add to the awkwardness.
Instead, I drove around to the tent site and backed my truck into the spot.

Now what?

“Do you want to—” I started to say.

“I’m dying for a shower,” she said at the same time.

“Oh, sure,” I agreed.

“Do I want to what?” she asked. We talked over each other again, making me grin.

“You go first,” Mallory said with a laugh.

I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. Let’s go shower.” My cheeks burned. Crap! What
did I just say?

Mallory’s eyes widened comically, but I couldn’t even appreciate how funny she
looked because what did I just say?

“Separately!” I shouted. “Let’s go shower, separately.” Lava poured from my sweat

glands. “I mean, of course, we won’t shower together.” Babbling. I’d been reduced to
babbling. “We’ll walk together.”

Hell.

I dropped my head into my hands to the sound of Mallory’s belly laugh, my

humiliation complete.

“I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t be allowed in public,” I said, not daring to look up.

Mallory laughed harder. “Are you kidding? Then, who would I laugh at?” She pushed
at my hunched shoulder. “Come on. I’m dying for a cool shower. I wish this place had
a pool.”

Lifting my head, I grinned, my faux pas partially forgotten. “How about a lake?”

Mallory’s lips curved into a slow smile. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. I didn’t swim the first time I was here, but I hiked around a bit. There’s a lake
just through the trees. But we’ll have to hurry. There’s only another hour or so of
daylight.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go swimming!” She pushed at my shoulder
again.

“Alright, alright!” I laughed. “You know, that door does work if you open it from the
inside.”
Mallory ducked her head, a pretty blush staining her cheeks. “I know. I just like
getting out on this side.”

I liked it, too. So dumb. But also...not. With a force of will I barely knew I possessed,
I refrained from reaching for her and got out of the truck. Mallory scooted along the
bench seat following me. We both dug through our bags until we came up with
swimsuits. Fifteen minutes later, we’d changed, locked up our stuff in the truck, and
hiked to the lake.

Mallory nudged my elbow with hers. “Last one in is a rotten egg!” Before I knew it,
she ran out in front of me, long legs eating up the distance between us and the end of
the wooden dock, her hair flowing in ripples behind her.

“Cheater!” I cried, kicking off my tennis shoes before racing after her.

Once she reached the end of the dock, Mallory shot me a glance over her shoulder, her
gorgeous eyes full of mischief and fun. She took my breath away. Running the last
two steps, she leaped off the end of the dock, tucking her legs into her chest in a
cannonball.

Not to be outdone, I didn’t hesitate following her into the water with a fantastic
splash.

“It’s so cold!” she called out as soon as my head broke the surface.

“It feels amazing,” I answered, swimming the short distance between us. The water
was deep enough I hadn’t touched the bottom as I swam toward the surface. Once I
reached Mallory, we treaded water, staring at each other with huge smiles.

“You’re truck needs air conditioning. How can you live in Indiana with no air
conditioner?” She leaned back, dipping her hair into the water up to her forehead, just
leaving her face exposed.

Using the flat of my hand, I splashed her. She came up sputtering but still smiling. “I
don’t live in my truck.”

Grinning, she splashed me back using both hands. “I hope not, because it’s super
uncomfortable. I don’t think my butt will ever recover.”

“That’s it!” I shouted. “I’ll show you what happens to girls who hate on my truck.”
Chapter Seven
Mallory

Feeling giddy and flirtatious,I watched Grant dive under the dark lake water, grabbing
for my ankle. Shrieking, I swam away just as his fingers brushed my skin, but he was
fast. His strong arms cut through the water, and he reached for me again. This time,
his hand closed around my ankle and yanked. Lake water closed around my scream.
Grant let go as soon as he pulled me under and I kicked toward the surface again.

His dark hair spiked with moisture, his brown eyes sparkled with fun. So, I did the
only thing I could, I hopped onto his shoulders and tried to push him under the water.

“You think you can dunk me?” he gasped, his hand circling my waist behind his head.

“Yes!” If I could just get enough leverage. Grant’s shoulders were broad and
muscular. I’d only gotten a glimpse of them when he stripped off his t-shirt just before
jumping in the water. But now my hands gripped his bare skin. Part of me wanted to
stop messing around and explore his chest with my fingertips. I felt as though I’d won
the lottery. Or found a secret treasure. If the girls at our high school had only known!
How had we all missed the hottie that was Grant Baker for all these years? And it
wasn’t just his hot body or his handsome face, he was funny and sweet, and he’d
come to my rescue earlier that day without hesitation. For the last several hours, all I
could think about was how glad I was he was with me and not someone else.

Struggling to remain playful and not drag his lips toward mine, I pushed with all my
might at Grant’s shoulder. He went down easily, too easily, and before I knew what
was happening, he’d switched our positions, grabbing me around my waist as he
broke the surface of the water again. Lightly using his superior body weight, he took
me under the water with him this time. But even then, he cradled me against his body,
pulling me up as he kicked to the surface. Before I knew what was happening, he’d
used the upward momentum he’d built and tossed me into the air. Half screeching,
half laughing, I smacked the water’s surface. Grant’s hands were there, immediately
pulling me back up.

“No fair. You’re so much stronger than me,” I pouted playfully.

“Totally fair. I work hard for these muscles.” Grant tipped to float on his back.

I fell back beside him. “Lifting weights?”

He scoffed. “No. I actually do work. Bucking bales. Unloading feed bags. Hauling
stuff around for my mom.”

I still couldn’t wrap my head around the image his words conjured. The Grant I knew
from school didn’t strike me as the type to be able to toss around heavy bales of hay.
He seemed more likely to spend all his time in his room or a dark basement playing
video games.

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked. I couldn’t remember ever hearing
about him having a sibling. Apparently, I’d been wrong about a lot of things where
Grant was concerned, so maybe I’d been wrong about that, too.

He shook his head. “Nope. I was a one and done. Something happened, and Mom
couldn’t have any more kids.”

I frowned, not at all knowing how to respond to that. “I’m sorry.”

Grant sighed. “Yeah, me too.” We floated in silence for a few moments. “What about
you? Just sister Jenny?”

“Yup. Just us.” I was the baby. Jenny said I was spoiled. Probably true. I didn’t know,
had nothing to compare my life to. I just knew my parents loved me, tried to provide
all they could, and we were happy. Safe.

Pushing myself up in the water, I faced Grant. He had a heck of a farmer’s tan, his
skin white where his t-shirt usually hung from his body, leaving the exposed parts of
his arms and neck a deep brown. I poked his side with my finger. He jolted up from
floating and faced me.

“What are you doing this fall? Going to school?” I asked, still wanting to know
everything about him.

His brow wrinkled as he studied me, not answering my question.

“Sorry, I didn’t know that would be such a deep topic,” I tried to tease him.

One corner of his mouth quirked, acknowledging my attempt to be funny, but it

quickly lowered again. “I have scholarship offers from three Ivy League schools.”

My eyes widened. “Wow. That’s—that’s incredible. Congratulations.” I didn’t know

what else to say. “Where are you going to go?”

He shook his head. “Nowhere. Purdue.”

I frowned. Purdue was a really great school, but it wasn’t Ivy League. “Purdue isn’t
Ivy League, Grant.”

“I know. But they’ll still give me a full-ride academic scholarship. I can live at home
and keep helping my parents on the farm.” He gave me a look. “I have a scholarship
to IU, too, if I want it, but Bloomington’s too far away from my parents.”

He was giving up a scholarship to an Ivy League school to go to Purdue so he could

stay home and help out his parents?

My legs were getting tired of treading water. Without really thinking about it, I put
my hand on his shoulder and took a break.

Grant reached for my other arm and looped it around his neck, so I floated behind
him, piggy-back style as he swam toward shore.

“Is that what they want you to do?” I asked. “Did they ask you to stay?”

Grant

No.They would never do that. In fact, my decision to stay and go to school in Indiana
had been a source of conflict between my parents and me for the last eighteen months.
Why would I go to Purdue when I could go to Harvard, Yale, or Dartmouth? I’d even
been courted by MIT, which held a lot more appeal than the other three prestigious
institutions hoping to add me to their illustrious alumni. Not many people get perfect
scores on both the ACT and SAT. I was one of them.

We’d almost reached the shore. My feet hit the rocky bottom before Mallory’s.
Instead of moving further into shallow water, I stopped and turned to face her. Her
arms still twined around my neck, her face only inches from mine. In the last twelve
hours, my crush had turned into head over heels. It was tempting, the desire to lean
forward, press my lips to hers, almost overwhelming.

We’d talked about a lot of things during our day together. However, she still hadn’t
told me why she needed to get back home so badly she’d taken a ride with a near-
perfect stranger over hanging out with her sister for a couple of weeks. We hadn’t
talked about Matt, her boyfriend, but she’d flirted with me a little, held onto my hand
a lot. And right at that exact moment, I could have sworn she wanted me to kiss her as
much as I wanted to kiss her.

“No,” I said. She pulled back, a furrow forming between her brows. “My parents
didn’t ask me to stay in Indiana. That’s my choice.”
Her shoulders relaxed a little. “Why?”

“They were older when they had me. My dad’s not as young as he used to be. He likes
to pretend, but the work on the farm is too much for him by himself. He’s too
stubborn to ask for help or hire it. Besides, it’s just a piece of paper. I can get one
from anywhere. It won’t change what I know in the end.” I’d slogged my way through
half of a bachelor’s degree already with online courses and the dual enrollment
program at our high school.

Mallory’s eyes widened. “Just a piece of paper? But what about job applications?
Won’t it look better if you have a piece of paper from Harvard as opposed to Purdue?”

I shook my head. “Not the end goal for me to work for someone else.” I thought about
it for a minute. Should I tell her? No. I didn’t want her to look at me differently.
Because the truth was, I didn’t really even need a degree to be successful at what I
was already doing. Going to school had more to do with my parents, their
expectations, than what I wanted or even needed. I’d do it, finish my degree in the
next two years. Then, I’d just keep doing what I was already doing. Working on the
farm. Developing my own games. Working on my own projects. And hopefully,
selling them for small fortunes when they were ready.

Something else I’d kept from my parents. I’d tell them soon when I had enough to
actually be of help to them. Right now, I had the money to pay for a car if I wanted
one, but not quite enough to pay the mortgage on the farm.

Soon.

“I don’t understand.” Mallory watched me, her pretty blue eyes full of curiosity, and
what? I couldn’t tell, but whatever it was, it made my stomach feel a bit jittery.

I began making slow progress to the edge of the lake until Mallory’s feet touched the
bottom.

“I told you about my video game, right? That didn’t require a degree.”

She frowned. “But that’s just for fun, isn’t it? It’s not a real job?”

Gritting my teeth, I had to remind myself she didn’t know what she was talking about.
Writing and developing my own video game was fun, but it wasn’t just fun. I had
every intention of selling the game to a larger gaming company. As well as the others
I had on storyboards saved to my computer. It was only a matter of time.
“Come on. We better get back. I kind of still want a shower.” I held out my hand and
Mallory took it. We made our way to the sandy shore and collected our shoes and my
t-shirt.

“Yeah, I feel like I smell like fishy water.”

Bending over her head, I take a big sniff. “Ew. You totally do.”

She pushed at my shoulder again, but only half-heartedly. “I feel like I said something
wrong,” she said as we walked back toward my truck.

“Why would you feel like that?” And why would you care? I wanted to ask but didn’t.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. You seem kind of sad or something. Did I offend you?”

“No,” I reassured her. “We’re good. I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.”

She let out a small giggle. “You can say that again. I feel like I’ve been run over by a
truck, and I didn’t even do any of the driving.”

Back at my truck, we both dug through our bags again, this time for fresh clothes and
toiletries. The walk to the showers didn’t take long. Mallory hesitated before going
into the women’s showers.

“What can I do?” I asked, desperate to fix her fear.

Mallory shook her head. “I’m fine. Just being silly.”

“It’s not silly.” Reaching out, I rubbed my hands up and down her arms. “I’ll be fast.
I’ll wait right here for you so we can walk back together. Okay?”

Mallory nodded. “Thanks, Grant.”

“It’s not a big deal—”

Her lips touched my cheek, cutting off my words. My breath. The blood flowing
through my veins.

Stepping back, her blue eyes stared straight into mine. “It’s a big deal to me. I’ll be
quick.” And then she disappeared into the restroom.

As much as I wanted to linger in the cinderblock shower and wash off the day and the
lake, I hurried to lather up and rinse off and get out. Visions of Mallory waiting
outside, some random dude’s hand on her mouth, had me running out and shouting
her name into the women’s restroom. Just in case she got done before me and had
been abducted.

“Almost done!” she shouted back.

“Okay,” I whispered to myself, falling back against the side of the building, ordering
my heart to calm the heck down.

It was twilight now. The sun had disappeared behind the horizon, and the orange and
red of dusk had faded to lavender and black. Fireflies twinkled in the dense forest at
the edge of the campground. Fires burning in pits flamed at campsites, and the distinct
smell of roasting hot dogs made my mouth water.

“Grant.” Her voice was soft and low near my ear.

Reaching out, I wrapped my arm around her waist and dipped my nose into her hair,
desperate for some kind of reassurance that she was really okay. She put her arm
around my waist.

This wasn’t normal, I told myself. The way I felt, her response to me, it was all
because we’d been through something together. It wasn’t real. Tomorrow night I’d
drop her off at her house, and I’d probably never see her again.

Except maybe at our ten-year reunion.

Who was I kidding?

Like I’d show up to a high school reunion.

Chapter Eight
Mallory

Tucked under Grant’s arm,I let him lead me back to his truck. The evening had gotten
dark. Campfires lit our way. I tried to remember the last time I’d sat around one.

“I wish we could have a fire,” I said before thinking.

“We can. We just have to look around for some firewood. Actually,” he said, glancing
around our campsite. “Sometimes, people leave some. I didn’t notice earlier, but I
wasn’t looking, either.”
“Do you have matches?” I asked him.

“No, but I have a lighter. Hang on a second.” He let go of me long enough to dig
around in the bag he’d left in the bed of his truck. A few seconds later he held up a
flashlight. “Let’s see if there’s any here. If not, we can go looking around. We don’t
need much.”

He swept the area around our campsite with his flashlight. There was plenty of wood
lying around for a small fire, so we began collecting it into a pile near the fire pit.
Once we had enough for a nice sized fire, Grant dug around again in his truck and
emerged with a bunch of papers I recognized as the program from Nationals. He tore
out several sheets and wadded them up, placing them in the bottom of the fire pit.
Then, he carefully built a small log cabin looking thing with various sizes of sticks
and twigs before setting a couple of larger logs on the top. Lastly, he took more paper
from the program and rolled them together, lighting the end then used it to light the
papers under the sticks and twigs.

Soon, we had a crackling fire going.

“I didn’t bring any chairs,” he said but lifted the latch to let down the tailgate. Then he
turned to me with a flourish. “Best seat in the house.”

With a little giggle, I turned my back to the tailgate, bracing my arms on the edge,
ready to boost myself up. But before I could, Grant’s hands settled firmly on my hips.

“Jump.”

I did, and he lifted, setting me gently onto the tailgate.

“Thanks,” I said, my hands resting on his shoulders, hoping he didn’t notice how
breathless I sounded.

Grant didn’t move from where he stood between my knees. For what felt like the
millionth time that day, I got the feeling a kiss hovered between us, only a breath
away. But that was wrong. I’d sent a text to Matt not twenty minutes ago before
exiting the bathroom after my shower. I’d been blunt, upfront about why I contacted
him. I sent the photo Bria forwarded to me, again, and asked him what was going on.
And, still nothing.

At this point, after today with Grant, I didn’t know if I wanted to even work things out
with Matt anymore. Not that I was assuming Grant liked me or would even want to be
with me like that. But the way he’d been affecting me for the last ten or so hours had
me reevaluating my relationship with Matt. It had put into stark perspective the
difference between a guy who made me feel safe and good about myself and wanted
as opposed to a guy who always made me wonder where I fit in his life.

Why had I been holding on to Matt so tight?

Of course, neither of us actually made a move. Grant stepped away and hopped onto
the tailgate beside me. For a while, neither of us spoke.

“What is it about sitting around a fire?” I asked. “It’s just so, I don’t know, I love it,
though.” The sound. The heat. The flames. It was all mesmerizing.

“I’m not sure. But I like it, too. I wish we’d picked up some marshmallows at our last
stop. I should have thought of that.”

I nudged his shoulder with mine. “You can’t think of everything.”

“Guess not,” he conceded, one side of his mouth lifting. We both fell silent again, but
it wasn’t an awkward silence. That was something I’d grown to appreciate about
Grant. Sure, we’d talked a lot today as he drove, but there had been long lulls in our
conversations, too. Comfortable silences that felt natural. Easy.

“You never told me what your plans are for the fall.”

I’d been kind of dreading that question. People had begun asking it my junior
year. So, what are your plans for after graduation? Like it was so easy. Like everyone
knew exactly what they wanted to do. I had no idea. And the thought of leaving home,
being somewhere new and unfamiliar, gave me anxiety. But no one understood that.
They all thought I should be rip-roaring ready to leave home and set out on my own.

“I’ve been accepted to Indiana and Purdue and the University of Utah.”

Grant shifted on the tailgate, lifting his knee between us as he turned to face me.
“Where are you going?”

I shrugged. “I’ll probably just stay home and go to Purdue. My sister really wants me
to go to the U of U with her. That’s why I was going to stay with her. She wanted to
convince me to go to school there. She couldn’t wait to move away from home and
picked a university far away. But I’m not like her. I like being close to home. ”

Grant frowned. “So, you’re going to Purdue, too?”

“Yeah. I think.” I’d enrolled. Signed up for classes. But I’d done the same for IU and
the U of U. Just in case I changed my mind.

“You think? Do you want to go there? Or do you want to move to Utah? Salt Lake’s a
cool city.”

My neck was getting a crick from turning so I could talk to him. I shifted on the
tailgate until my back rested against the side of the truck. I tucked my knees into my
chest, wrapping my arms around them.

“I don’t know. I feel like I should want to go somewhere. Isn’t that what everyone
keeps saying.” I made my voice high. “Oh, my gosh, I can’t wait to move out!” I
rolled my eyes. “That’s what all my friends have been saying for months.”

Grant’s brow lowered as he puzzled over me. “But not you?”

My cheeks warmed, making me glad the only light came from the fire. I didn’t want
him to know how much of a coward I’d become.

“I’ll probably live in the dorms, so I’ll still get the whole experience. I just like the
idea of being able to go home if I feel like it. Jenny only comes home at Christmas.
She doesn’t even come back for summers anymore. I can’t imagine doing that.”

“It’s okay that you don’t want to leave home, Mal. Not everyone experiences life
exactly the same.” He’d repositioned himself to sit across from me.

I plucked at my shoelaces. “I know. And it’s not like I want to live with my parents
forever or anything. I just like our hometown. I like being close to them. I don’t have
this burning desire to be away.” I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m sure I’ll just go to
Purdue. It’s an amazing school and—”

“And I’ll be there,” he smiled, pushing at my foot with his.

I grinned back. “Bonus!”

We talked a little while longer, watching the fire die down. At around ten, Grant
jumped from the bed of the truck to pour water from the melted ice in his cooler over
the dying embers. I hated for the evening to end, but it had been a long day, and I
knew he had to be tired.

Once the ashes stopped hissing when he poured more water on them, Grant turned to
me.
“I guess we should get ready for bed.”

Grant

Mallory’swide eyes followed me as I moved to the bed of the truck just behind the
rear window. When I decided to sleep in the back of the truck, I’d tried to bring what I
could to make myself comfortable, digging around in the barn for a sheet of plywood
that would fit between the wheel wells so I wouldn’t feel the ridges in the bottom of
the truck through the mats I’d rolled up and stuffed into my bag. I hadn’t, however,
anticipated company.

Beautiful company.

Gorgeous.

Sweet.

And so different from what I thought she’d be.

How many times that day had I almost leaned forward to capture her lips with mine?
Was it my imagination, or had she been the one to provide the opportunities? Had I
been too chicken to take her up on it?

I didn’t know the answer. I’d been dying to ask her more about Matt. Her boyfriend.
I’d seen her texting all day, but it seemed all the texts were outgoing, except for the
ones from her sister. Which she’d relayed to me with a laugh since they mostly
revolved around checking to make sure I hadn’t suddenly turned into a serial killer.

Now I had to sleep beside her. In a space smaller than a queen-sized bed.

Before getting out my sleeping gear, I moved Mallory’s suitcase and the cooler into
the front seat of the truck and locked the doors. Then I moved to unzip the large bag
filled with sleeping bags and mats.

“What can I do to help?” she asked at my elbow, almost making me jump out of my
skin.

“Oh. Um, here. You can unroll the sleeping bags.” Thank goodness I’d had the
foresight to pack two. I only had one pillow but figured I’d let Mallory use it while I
made one with my backpack and a sweatshirt.

Mallory accepted the two sleeping bags and unfurled them, one in each hand, while I
dug around for the memory foam pad I’d packed. It was the kind that vacuum-packed
super small, but when you let the air back in was really comfortable. It was just big
enough to cover the bed of the truck.

Once I had the pad in place, I took one of the sleeping bags from Mallory. I spread it
out on one side, tossing my pillow at the head of it before taking the other one and
doing the same thing minus the pillow.

I yanked my backpack to where my head would lay and took my sweatshirt out of it,
spreading it over the top.

Suddenly, I was out of things to do. All that was left was to climb into the sleeping
bags. Was I really going to sleep next to Mallory Knight?

Thankfully, Mallory didn’t seem to be struggling with the same nerves I was and
climbed up onto the tailgate, where she began removing her shoes. Once they were
off, she stowed them in the empty space near the wheel well and headed for the side
with my makeshift backpack pillow.

“No, you can have the pillow,” I hurried to say as I stepped onto the back tire and
lifted myself into the bed of the truck.

Mallory frowned. “You don’t have to give up your pillow. It’s my fault I don’t have
one. You weren’t expecting company. I’m just glad you brought two sleeping bags.
And this mat is really comfortable.”

I shook my head. We were both sitting on the sleeping bag without the pillow at this
point. “No way. You can use my pillow. I don’t care. I sleep on my stomach most of
the time, anyway, and don’t even use a pillow.” Not necessarily true. But enough, I
hoped it would pacify her, and she’d move over to the other sleeping bag.

She watched me without moving as I removed my own shoes and tucked them to the
side of our bed—

Holy crap!

My heart was about to beat out of my chest. Not our bed. The bed. I moved around,
taking up as much space as I could on my sleeping bag until Mallory was forced to
scoot over to the other one.

“I don’t want to take your pillow away from you. You were nice enough to let me tag
along without chipping in for gas. You’ve paid for half of my snacks and all the water.
And for the campground.”
I’d unzipped my sleeping bag and situated myself inside it without covering myself
back up. The night was still warm and the humidity higher than it had been in Utah
and Wyoming. Add to that the hot girl sitting beside me, and I felt like a blazing
inferno.

“It’s fine. All of it. Don’t worry.” I probably sounded short. I didn’t mean to, but jeez!
Talk about an infusion of hormones. That wasn’t Mallory’s fault. It was mine. I just
needed a second to get myself under control.

This wasn’t a normal situation for me. I’d never had a girlfriend. I hadn’t even kissed
a girl. And now here I was with one about to sleep mere inches away. And not just
anyone, Mallory, a girl I’d been secretly crushing on for years.

What a loser, right?

I fell back onto my sleeping bag with a sigh.

Chapter Nine
Mallory

For practically thefirst time that day, I felt awkward with Grant. Of course, he’d laid
back like it was no big deal we were smashed like sardines in the back of his truck. It
was kind of a big deal. Or it was to me.

Because my heart raced to have him so close.

And because of how vulnerable a person became when they slept. Allowing myself to
sleep beside Grant meant I trusted him completely. Did I trust Grant that way?

I thought maybe I did.

Trying to make myself as small as possible, I slunk down into my sleeping bag. It
smelled like a garage and faintly of Grant’s cologne. Laying fully back, my head hit
his pillow, and suddenly I was surrounded by his scent. It wasn’t unpleasant. At all. In
fact, I could get used to sleeping like this.

Grant had been somewhat short when I brought up how much he’d done for me that
day, and I hadn’t even mentioned punching out a homeless man who’d attacked me.

“Your boyfriend isn’t going to, you know, come after me for this, is he?” Grant asked
out of the blue.
Gaping, I jerked my head his direction. “What? Why would you think that?”

Grant rolled his eyes a little before they landed on me. “Are you kidding? We’ve been
alone all day, and now we’re sleeping in the back of my truck together.” He winced.
“I mean, next to each other. Not together. You know what I mean.”

I giggled even though I knew he was perfectly serious. I sobered quickly, however,
when I thought about Matt. I still hadn’t told Grant why I’d needed a ride home. In
some ways, at this point, I didn’t even care about Matt and Livvy, and that kind of
scared me.

It took me a minute to form a reply, and when I did, it came out prefaced by a snort. “I
don’t think he’ll care one bit.”

Grant rolled onto his elbow, his gaze intense. “Why do you say that? If you were my
girlfriend, I wouldn’t be happy about you spending the night next to some other guy.”

If you were my girlfriend.

My brain got caught up thinking about that and couldn’t move past it. Maybe I didn’t
know Grant well enough to know if I wanted to be his girlfriend. But I’d learned
enough I knew I wouldn’t mind exploring the idea. I’d had more fun with him in one
day than I’d had with Matt in months.

Matt.

Glancing up through my lashes, I found Grant still watching me, his head propped in
his hand as he laid on his side.

“I got a text this morning.” Digging in the blankets, my hand closed around my phone.
I pulled up the picture of Matt and Livvy, holding it out for him to see.

“Whoa.” Grant frowned at the screen, its light illuminating his face. With a quick look
at me, he took the phone from my hand and sat up to get a better look. “Is that—”

“My best friend? Yeah.”

“And the guy—”

“Matt. My jerk of a boyfriend. Or maybe he’s my ex now.”

Grant sputtered. “Maybe? I’d say it’s kind of clear, right here.” He held the picture out
for me to see again, but I didn’t want to. I’d seen it enough.
I took the phone, clicking it off as I fell back onto Grant’s pillow.

“I’m sorry,” Grant said, putting a hand on my arm. “That wasn’t especially tactful of
me. I’m sure there’s some explanation.”

I barked out a laugh. “You mean something other than my boyfriend cheated on me
with my best friend?”

Grant winced as he pulled his hand back again. “Maybe...” he floundered. “Maybe…
actually, I got nothing. Seriously, what were they thinking?”

I’d asked myself that a million times since I’d seen the picture. “Why couldn’t they
have just said something to me if that was how they felt? Why did they let me find out
through a text from Bria? Neither of them has said a word even though I’ve probably
sent a hundred texts today.”

“Man, what a jerk!” Grant rolled onto his back. For a moment, we both stared at the
stars.

I couldn’t think of a time when I’d slept under the stars like this. Maybe once when
Livvy and I were little, we slept out on the trampoline in her backyard.

“So, is that why you wanted a ride back home? Because of that text?” Grant asked, his
voice soft in the night air.

“Yeah. I didn’t feel much like hanging out with my sister after that. Especially since
she’d use it to influence me to go to school in Utah.” I turned my head to face him. “I
just want to know what’s going on. Neither of them will answer my texts or calls.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“What are you going to do?” His brown eyes met mine in the darkness.

“I don’t know. I guess I just want to talk to them. Find out why they did it. I mean,
other than the obvious reasons. But why didn’t they just tell me?”

“Probably because Matt Jensen’s a douche canoe,” Grant said, so matter of factly, a
giggle burst from my lips before I could stop it.

“A—a what?” I laughed.

Grant gave me a look that said he wouldn’t be repeating himself.

“Okay, but why do you say that?” Once the humor wore off, I had a feeling I wouldn’t
be all that happy about Grant’s assessment of my choice in boyfriends. Not because
he would be wrong (apparently) but because I cared what he thought about me. And
my choice in boyfriends was a direct reflection.

Grant rolled to his side again, propping his head in his hand as his eyes met mine. “Do
you really not know? Other than that,” he pointed toward my phone and the offending
photo. “You don’t know what I mean?”

Did I? I knew Matt could be a jerk sometimes. Not all the time, but I’d seen him be
mean. He’d always play it off as a joke, but sometimes, most of the time, it wasn’t
funny. He wasn’t funny.

With Grant right in front of me, I had to wonder if Matt had been mean to him? Did
Grant have first-hand knowledge of Matt being a, what had Grant called him, a
douche canoe? The thought of it made me feel sick.

“Was he a jerk to you?” I had to know.

Grant scoffed. “Are you kidding? Matt knows better than to mess with someone
smarter than he is. Plus, we’ve had a few gym classes together. He knows I’m no
weakling. He might have said stuff behind my back, but that’s it.”

I heard what he didn’t say, that Grant had probably stood up for himself, and perhaps
other people Matt deemed deserving of his jokes.

Was I just as bad as Matt for overlooking this flaw in him? I felt like I was. That
brought me back around to the fact that the person who’d really broken my heart was
Livvy. My so-called best friend.

My eyes stung. I turned away before Grant could see the tears welling in my eyes.

“Hey,” Grant said, his brows pulled low over his eyes as he rolled onto his stomach,
his face hovering in the darkness over mine. “It’s okay. You aren’t responsible for
Matt’s actions. He is.”

“I know that.” Gosh, my voice sounded thin and watery.

“Are you crying? Mal—” Grant’s arm snaked around my waist. “Don’t cry.” His
voice had dropped to barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry. I’m the jerk. I shouldn’t
have said anything.” His eyes searched mine.

“You aren’t a jerk. There’s no way you are the jerk in this scenario.”

Grant

I wouldn’t be sosure about that, I thought but didn’t say. Here I was laying down
beside some other dude’s girlfriend— Was she still his girlfriend? I was a little hazy
on that one— hovering above her with my arm around her waist while she cried.

I didn’t want to move away from her, either. Not for my own sake or hers. Mallory
needed comfort, but that would be all I offered. Part of me knew it would be so easy
to take advantage of this situation. Matt was a jerk. No question. But Mallory
obviously still had mixed feelings about him and what he and Livvy had done. She
deserved the time to figure it all out without me pressing her for what I wanted.

Her. I wanted her.

I rolled onto my back, pulling her with me and cradling her head against my chest.
She didn’t resist. Instead, she threw her arm over my stomach and soaked the front of
my t-shirt with her tears. That was okay. All that mattered was being there for her.
The rest would work itself out.

We laid there together for what felt like hours and mere seconds at the same time.
Eventually, Mallory’s hiccuped breathing evened out, and I knew she’d fallen asleep.
I should probably have shifted her over to her side of the truck bed, but I didn’t. If this
was all I ever had of Mallory, I didn’t want to miss a second of it.

I had no idea what time it was when I finally drifted off, but when I did, it was with
the hope that I could convince Mallory she deserved better than Matt Jensen. I didn’t
know if that meant me, but a guy could dream.

Chapter Ten
Mallory

I slept like the dead.I didn’t even wake up once during the night.

I turned my head and figured I knew why.

Vaguely, I remembered Grant pulling me into his chest while I cried on his shirt, but I
must have fallen asleep. Now, instead of his chest, my cheek lay against his bicep. His
arm covered mine, our hands linked on top of the blankets. Grant must have gotten
cold in the night and finally gotten into his sleeping bag. That was probably how I’d
ended up against his shoulder instead of under it.

Either way, I didn’t want to move. The sun hadn’t quite cleared the horizon, but birds
sang, and noises coming from other campers rustling around their own sites reached
my ears. Grant’s shoulder felt solid and warm, the cadence of his even breathing,
soothing.

Suddenly, he shifted, his arms coming around me. Soon, I was looking into his serious
face.

“I’m sorry about last night,” he said, his voice low and rumbly.

“F—for what?” I asked, having to clear my throat to get the words out. He was so
close. His stubbly chin and cheeks so appealing in the early morning light. I imagined
hearing his voice every day for….well, forever.

“I shouldn’t have said anything about Matt.” His deep chocolate eyes brimmed with
concern and regret.

I shook my head a little. “No. Don’t be sorry about that. I’m not upset about it.”

His brow furrowed more. “You were crying.”

So true. Ducking my head to avoid his gaze, I wondered how to respond. I desperately
wanted to talk to Matt. And Livvy. But I just as desperately didn’t want to work things
out with Matt. I knew after yesterday, after last night, I’d never be satisfied in that
relationship again. Not when I knew guys like Grant were out there. Not when I knew
Grant was out there.

“I know. But I think it’s more because I realize I’ve been blind.” I still couldn’t meet
his gaze, but he wasn’t having it. Grant used his knuckle to gently lift my chin.

“I’m sorry, Mal,” he said in the sweetest, softest voice I’d ever heard. “I’m sorry they
did that to you.”

“It’s okay. I mean, it isn’t. But it’s not your fault.” Goodness, he was handsome in the
morning. Giving in to the temptation, I touched my fingertips to his cheek. Our eyes
held as I explored his face. A feeling I didn’t know or recognize filled me from the
tips of my toes all the way to my heart beating so hard and fast, I didn’t know how my
ribs contained it.

I wasn’t the only one affected. Grant’s eyes burned with emotion as his breathing
shallowed out. But now wasn’t the time. I owed it to myself, and to Grant, to finish
things with Matt.

Still…

Before I could lose my nerve, I leaned forward and brushed my lips across Grant’s
cheek. “Thank you.”

As fast as I could, I climbed out of my sleeping bag, out of the truck, grabbing my
shoes on the way. “I need to use the restroom,” I said as I slipped my shoes on my
feet.

Grant sat up slowly, his gaze never wavering. “Hang on a sec. I’ll walk with you.”

Once I had my shoes on, I turned my back to him, needing a moment to compose
myself. I heard him shuffle around and then climb over the side of the truck. Within
seconds, he stood beside me, his hair sticking up, his clothes rumpled.

It only made him more attractive. I shook my head at the thought. Grant Baker
attractive? But he was. Devastatingly so.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yeah. Let’s go. We should probably get on the road soon, huh?” I knew we still had
twelve hours of driving ahead of us. Only twelve more hours.

Grant nodded.

The walk to the bathrooms didn’t take long. We didn’t speak on the way there or back
to the truck.

I probably shouldn’t have kissed Grant, even if it was just his cheek, but I didn’t
regret it. In fact, I wished I could kiss him for real.

We worked together to pack up the sleeping bags and the mat. Grant stuffed it all back
into the big bag he’d brought them in while I struggled to get the suitcase and cooler
out of the seats. I almost dumped the cooler onto the ground before Grant rescued me,
setting it in the back like it weighed nothing.
“Okay, I think we’re set.”

We took one last look around our campsite before driving away. Grant stopped at a
dumpster near the entrance to get rid of our accumulated garbage.

“I think the camp store has donuts. Or do you want to wait a little while?” Grant asked
before pulling away from the campground completely.

“I can wait. I’m not that hungry yet.”

“Alright. Let’s get some miles behind us before it gets too hot out.”

“Yes. Let’s,” I agreed, remembering the day before and how hot the cab of Grant’s
truck could get.

“I do feel bad there isn’t any air conditioning. I’m just used to, so it doesn’t bother me
as much.” He flipped on the turn signal to turn out onto the interstate.

I shook my head. “You don’t have to apologize to me. I’m the one who asked you for
a ride, not the other way around.”

“Still, I know this thing’s a piece of junk.”

I felt terrible for being so mean about his truck. It was a big hunk of junk, but this big
hunk of junk ran without a hitch all day. Who was I to complain?

“Oh, I don’t know. Seems to me she gets the job done.” With that, I secured my hair
in a ponytail and rolled down my window. There was something kind of freeing about
driving with the window down and the breeze blowing. I even leaned over and
cranked up a classic rock station.

I could get used to this.

Grant

Something had happened.Invasion of the body snatchers, or maybe we’d been

dropped into an alternate reality. One where Mallory liked my truck and listened to
staticky classic rock with the windows down and a small smile curving her lips.

But I wasn’t going to complain.

Nope. I wouldn’t complain, because about forty-five minutes ago, Mallory had been
in my arms and she kissed my cheek. I could tell she wanted to aim for a different
target, but she didn’t. I had to respect that, and I did. But she still kissed me.

The wind through our windows and the radio turned up loud made it difficult to talk,
so we were each left to our own thoughts as we cruised down the interstate. After a
couple of hours, we crossed the Nebraska state line into Iowa. Soon, yellow grasses
gave way to rolling fields of green corn. It was beginning to look a little more like
home.

“Are we gonna stop soon?” Mallory asked. “I need to use the restroom. And I could
eat, too.”

“Okay. We’ll look for the next exit with something to eat.” It wouldn’t take as long
this far east. Traveling in the west, you had to be more aware of your gas levels and
how much food and drink you packed because towns were few and far between.

About ten minutes later, we reached a little town with a couple of gas stations to
choose from and a McDonald’s. I filled up on gas while Mallory sat sideways, her feet
dangling out the driver’s side until I finished. At McDonald’s, we got out to stretch
our legs and use the restroom before ordering breakfast sandwiches and drinks. I gave
Mallory a side-eye when she ordered a large iced coffee and told myself we’d be
stopping again real soon to look for a bathroom.

And I was right. Twenty minutes on the road and Mallory had her hands wrapped
around her waist, her heel tapping on the floorboard.

“I’m sorry,” she groaned, glancing at the empty coffee cup with disgust. “I shouldn’t
have ordered that.”

“Ordering it was fine. Drinking the whole thing in one giant slurp maybe wasn’t such
a good idea.” Teasing her was fun, but having to tell her I’d just passed a sign that
said no services for the next fifty miles was no joke.

“I have to go,” she reminded me as if I couldn’t already tell by the way her whole
body jiggled as she tried to hold it.

“How do you feel about wilder-peeing?” I asked, having a feeling I already knew the
answer.

“Wilder-peeing?” she repeated, anxiously.

“Yes. The fine art of peeing in the wilderness. Or, in this case, on the side of the
road.”

Her eyes widened. “There is no way I’m peeing on the side of the interstate!”

“No. Not the interstate. But Mal, there aren’t any public bathrooms between here and
fifty miles.”

“Fifty miles!” she moaned, clutching her stomach even more.

“Yeah, that’s almost an hour.” I shot her a glance. “I don’t think you’re going to make
it five minutes let alone an hour.”

“No. I’m okay. Just keep going.”

And so that’s what I did. For the next fifteen minutes, Mallory bit her lip and gripped
the edge of her seat in attempt to not have an accident in my truck. Every now and
then, she’d groan, sucking in a fortifying breath. She wasn’t going to make it. There
was no way. So I kept an eye out for a likely spot to pull over and let her pee.

About five minutes later, the perfect place presented itself. Flipping on the turn signal,
I worked my way onto the off-ramp and headed toward a large stand of trees. The
whole area was deserted. Not a car in sight. I followed a small turnoff and edged as
close as I could to the forest before coming to a stop.

“What are we doing?” she asked as though just noticing we pulled off the interstate.

“Peeing.” Without further ado, I reached across to the glove box, pulled out a couple
of fast-food napkins and handed them to her.

Her mouth pulled down into a frown and her eyes filled. “This is so embarrassing.”

“Not as embarrassing as it will be if you pee on my truck seat.” Wrenching my door

open, I got out and waited for her to do the same. “I’ll wait on the other side with my
back turned.”

I didn’t wait for her to respond as I marched to the other side of the truck. After a
moment, I finally heard the door close and evidence of her taking care of business.

“Okay. I’m done.”

I counted to ten before turning around. Her face was red. She wouldn’t meet my gaze,
but her relief was also evident.
“That’s the last large iced coffee I ever order again. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be silly—” I started to say as I moved to join her on the other side of the truck,
but she stopped me with a horrified groan.

“Please, please, please tell me you have a hide-a-key somewhere!” she cried, yanking
on the door handle.

It didn’t open.

My eyes slid closed. “You locked the door?”

“Why didn’t you take the keys?” she shouted.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere!” I shouted back, but then I felt terrible because she
really did start crying then.

“You always take the keys! I didn’t even think about it. I just slid out and pushed
down on the lock. Don’t you have a spare?”

Sure, I did. At home. Hanging by the back door. Fat lot of good it did me there.

Damn!

Why didn’t I think to bring a spare?

Probably because I’ve never, ever, not even once, locked my door.

My eyes met hers over the hood of the truck. Her teeth worried at her lip.

“You don’t have a spare key, do you?”

I shook my head causing a fresh river of tears to flow down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have just stayed in Salt Lake.” She started pacing on
her side of the truck, her hands tugging on her long ponytail. “I’ve ruined this whole
trip for you.” She stopped and faced me, her expression miserable. “I’m so sorry.”

So was I. Not that she’d come with me. That was the best thing ever. But I had to
admit, I was sorry she’d locked my keys in my truck because I had a feeling the only
way to get into it was to break a window.

“What are we going to do?”

Chapter Eleven
Mallory

I was such an idiot!Why did I do that? I didn’t even think about it. I just slid across
the seat and automatically pressed down on the old silver lock.

And now we were locked out of Grant’s truck on the side of the road somewhere in
Iowa. I couldn’t see a single building from where we were. Not one car had passed us
since we stopped. Which I’d been eternally grateful for while I peed beside the back
tire. But right now, I’d give anything for a friendly policeman with one of those things
to unlock the car.

“What about calling a locksmith?” I asked.

Grant shook his head. “My phone is in there.”

Feeling a surge of hope, I patted the pockets of my shorts. Nope. I put my hands
around my eyes and peered into the driver’s side window. Both of our phones rested
on the seat, and the keys dangled from the ignition.

“I’m going to have to break a window.”

“Oh, no. No.” I shook my head, my stomach sinking like a stone. “There isn’t
anything else we can do?”

Grant shook his head. “I’m smart about a lot of things, but apparently, I’m too dumb
to remember to pack a spare key. And I don’t have the tools to unlock the door.”

“What about the other door? I know you said it won’t open but is there any way—”

Grant shook his head again, this time with more vehemence. “The handle is broken. It
hasn’t opened since I inherited it from my grandpa. I’ve looked around at junkyards
for a new door that would fit, but I’ve never found one.”

“I’m so sorry.” Goodness, I felt so bad. “Maybe we can wait until someone comes by
that can help us?”

Grant shook his head at everything I suggested. I knew he wasn’t trying to be mean,
just honest. “Who knows how long that will take. We can’t just sit here forever. Plus,
these locks aren’t that easy. This truck is so old. We’d need someone with the right
tools. A locksmith. And I’ve had to call a locksmith before. It costs over a hundred
dollars to have them come out. I bet they’d charge more for having to come all the
way out here.”

That made me feel even worse. Hot tears coursed down my cheeks. I wanted to stop
them. My tears seemed to affect Grant, and I wasn’t looking for him to let me off the
hook. I’d done this.

“I’ll pay for it. I’m the one who locked the door.”

Grant ran his fingers through his hair as he exhaled loudly, his gaze sizing up the
window on the passenger’s side. “Mallory. It’s okay. This isn’t the end of the world.
I’ll just bust out this window and look harder when we get home for a new door. I
need one anyway.”

“I’ll help you. I bet we can find one online.”

He glanced up from inspecting the door and grinned. It was the kind of grin that
said yeah, right, but you’re sweet for saying so. He had no idea how determined I
could be when I wanted. And I felt pretty determined right then to find a new door for
Grant’s ugly blue truck, even if he didn’t have to break a window for us to drive
home.

Which he did.

“Come on, beautiful. Let’s find something to bust this window.” He held out his hand,
but I just stared at him. Did he just call me beautiful? How could he even say that
after all the trouble I’d caused him?

Grant widened his eyes playfully. He was trying to make me feel better. “You want to
get home sometime tonight, don’t you?”

I nodded, even though at this point, I kind of wanted to stay right there with him
forever.

“Then, let’s go.” He thrust his hand out again. This time I took it.

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked as he led me into the trees.

“To find something with which to break the window,” he murmured as he scanned the
forest floor.

“Are you sure you didn’t bring me in here because you wanted to kill me for locking
your keys in the truck.”
Grant’s eyes flashed with amusement, but then he stopped, pulling me up in front of
him. With his hands on my shoulders, he looked me right in the eye.

“I’m not mad at you for locking the door, Mal. Not even a little bit. It’s frustrating,
but it could happen to anyone. It was an accident.”

Inexplicably, my eyes filled with tears again. “I still feel bad.”

“Well, stop it,” he demanded, pulling me into his arms and pressing my face into his
chest. “It’s fine. I promise. And I’d be more likely to pull you into the deep, dark
woods to do something way more fun than murder you. So, don’t worry about it.”

Grant

Holy.Crap.

What did I just say?

I’d crossed the line from joking into flirting, and I hadn’t meant to do that at all. Even
though it was true. I could think of several fun things to do with Mallory.

Neither of us said anything while I held her against my pounding heart. I couldn’t be
so close. I’d lose my self-control and give in to the impulse to kiss her. I’d told myself
I wouldn’t do that, not when she was so conflicted over the situation with Matt. So I
released her completely.

“I think I see something over there.” I began to walk away, and just as she’d been
doing since the rest area yesterday, Mallory slipped her hand into mine.

I squeezed her fingers and hoped she was able to read all the messages I’d been
sending her. The ones that said, if she wanted, I’d be hers.

After she dealt with Matt.

It didn’t take long to reach the short log I’d spotted laying in a pile of rotted leaves. It
was long enough I wouldn’t risk cutting myself on the broken glass and stout enough
to do the job.

“This one should work.” I picked it up by a smaller limb jutting out and headed back
toward the truck.

Mallory’s hand worried in mine. “I really wish you didn’t have to break the window.
Are you sure there isn’t another way?”
“Stop worrying about it.”

Once we reached the truck, I asked Mallory to stand near the tailgate. My work gloves
were locked inside the truck, so I got an old t-shirt out of my bag in the back,
wrapping it around my hand before gripping the log. At least I had my sunglasses
perched on my head. They would work better than nothing to protect my eyes. Once
I’d readjusted them, I turned to Mallory.

“Ready?” I asked her. More for my own sake than anything. I didn’t really want to do
this and hoped like heck I didn’t end up cutting myself because that would be a
disaster. But we had to get home, and not a single car had passed us by.

Mallory nodded. “Be careful.”

Right.

Lifting the log, I brought it back and punched it into the truck window. The glass
splintered but didn’t break all the way through. Perfect. The next hit didn’t require as
much force, and with it, the rest of the glass fell onto the seat.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said more to myself than Mallory, although she’d moved and
now stood at my elbow peering down at the broken glass.

Reaching through the window, I opened the door and bent forward to retrieve the
keys. “We’ll have to shake out the glass and maybe sit on one of the sleeping bags just
in case.”

And that’s just what we did. Once I opened the door, I brushed all the glass out of the
window frame so no one, especially Mallory, would get cut. I took out the old blanket
I used to cover the worn upholstery into the bushes and shook out as much of the glass
as I could. After folding it, I stowed it in the bed of the truck while Mallory dug out
one of the sleeping bags. The slippery fabric wouldn’t be as comfortable, but it was
better than sitting on shards of glass. I took a few minutes to brush the floorboards
with my t-shirt and commented to Mallory that she probably would need to leave her
shoes on the rest of the way.

And then I prayed it wouldn’t rain.

I should have known better.

Chapter Twelve
Mallory

Back on the road,I realized our little pit stop had cost us more than an hour. All
because of a large iced coffee. I caught myself glaring at the empty cup, wishing I
lacked the moral compass that kept me from tossing the thing out the window. But
that would just mean having to ask Grant to turn the truck around so I could find it
and throw it away properly.

“Are those storm clouds?” I gave up cursing coffee to focus on the landscape only to
find thick black storm clouds following close behind. Grant’s jaw clenched. “Do you
have anything in the back that absolutely can’t get wet?”

I shook my and then realized he probably couldn’t tell because his eyes were trained
so intently on the road in front of him.

“No. It’s not ideal, but nothing that won’t survive or can’t be replaced.”

The wind picked up. The air blowing through the windows turned cool and carried the
scent of rain.

His eyes flicked toward me. “I should have broken my window.”

If I hadn’t locked the keys in the truck, the storm would never have caught up to us.
Even if it had, it wouldn’t have mattered because Grant wouldn’t have had to break
the window.

Sprinkles dotted the windshield.

“Move to the middle seat,” Grant ordered. I didn’t hesitate to do as he said.

Quickly undoing my seatbelt, I slid into the seat beside him just as the rain began to
fall in sheets.

“Buckle your seatbelt,” he shouted over the noise made by the rain hitting the
windshield.

I worked on securing my seatbelt as Grant cranked his window up. Rain poured into
the passenger seat. I yanked the edge of the sleeping bag over my lap to keep it from
getting soaked. Goosebumps erupted on every inch of my skin. The hairs on Grant’s
arms stood on end as he squinted into the windshield. All around us, cars slowed,
hazard lights blinking.

“Do you have your lights on?” It had grown dark as night, even though it was only
early afternoon.

“Yeah. This is crazy. I can barely see.”

Grant drove in the right lane, but cars and semis were everywhere. Each time a semi
passed us on the left, the truck swerved just a little while Grant’s knuckles grew
whiter and whiter.

“Do you think we should pull over?” I asked, longing to wrap my arms around his,
desperate to draw comfort from his strength. His tense muscles testified that now was
not the time.

“Maybe—” he broke off what he’d been about to say with an unexpected expletive.

“What? What happened?”

Grant’s jaw tightened until I thought he might crack a tooth. His hands held onto the
steering wheel for dear life, and still, the truck veered erratically.

“What’s wrong?” I shouted.

Still, Grant didn’t answer as he struggled to keep the truck in line. Finally, he wrested
the vehicle to the shoulder. Cars and trucks sped past as rain continued to pelt the
windshield and drip in through the broken window. Inside the truck, neither of us
moved.

“Grant.” I still had no idea what was happening.

Beside me, he sucked in deep breaths, and I realized just how freaked out he was.

I put my hand on his arm. “Grant.”

“We have a flat tire.”

Finger by finger, he pried his hands from the steering wheel and rubbed them over his
face, which had drained of all color.

A flat tire?
“Probably from the glass,” he said.

My heart sank.

The glass from the broken window because I’d locked the key in the truck.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Grant’s jaw twitched. “I told you, it’s not your fault.”

But it was. It absolutely was my fault.

The rain fell in relentless waves. I could tell now we’d stopped that the left front tire
was indeed flat. With the wind and the position of the truck, there was no escaping the
rain unless I climbed onto Grant’s lap.

The idea had its appeal.

“I’ll help you change it. Or should we wait until the storm passes?”

“The storm’s headed the same direction we are. Even if we wait, we’ll only drive right
back into it.”

I stared out the window. The rain hadn’t let up even a little. Thunder echoed directly
overhead while lightning lit the sky. Changing the tire now would surely be
dangerous.

“If we hurry and change the tire, we can try to outrun it.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, finally turning to face him.

Grant’s brown eyes met mine. I read the worry in them, the concern. “We can’t just sit
here,” he murmured.

I could easily stare into those eyes for the rest of my life. I couldn’t let him go out in
that rain. We needed to sit tight and wait for the rain to let up. Otherwise, he’d be
soaking wet for the rest of the drive home.

“We don’t have to hurry,” I said, reaching out to touch his face with my hands. “We
don’t have to hurry.”

“Mal,” his voice was strained.

How had I missed this boy? This man? He’d been right in front of me for years, and I
never knew it. I never saw him.

But not anymore.

Right then.

Right now.

He was all I could see.

Grant

What wasshe doing to me? I couldn’t hold back anymore. Not with her looking at me
that way.

Her mouth was mere inches from mine. Her eyes flicked to my lips. Once. Twice.

I shouldn’t do it. I should wait until she’d worked out whatever she was going to do
about Matt. But I couldn’t even think about that.

I had to kiss her.

Slow enough she had time to push me away if she wanted, I leaned forward, stopping
just a breath from her lips. I’d never done this before. For some reason, I wasn’t
afraid. In my heart, I knew I was born for this. For her. Kissing Mallory would come
as easily as breathing.

Needing to feel her closer, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her in.
Goosebumps raised on her arms, but she was all heat. Mallory dropped her hold on
the sleeping bag, her hands finding their way to my chest, my shoulders, until they
settled with her fingers tangled in my hair.

My lips brushed hers.

Once. Twice.

Three times. The fourth time, she leaned forward, just enough our connection held.
My heart raced as my brain registered each sense affected by her touch. Her scent.
Her fingers twisting locks of my hair. Her curves pressed to my body. The sound of
her breath, fast and shallow.

Her taste.
Everything inside my truck slid into slow motion. Part of me recognized we kissed for
a long time while the rest of me knew it would never be long enough.

My confidence grew. Our kisses deepened. It occurred to me this had turned into one
heck of a long first kiss. Not just a first kiss with Mallory, but my first kiss ever.

Because who wanted to kiss the biggest nerd in school?

Something wasn’t right, though. Through the hormone-induced haze, I remembered

the truth. Everything she’d revealed to me the night before about her relationship with
Matt, the reason she sat beside me in the first place.

“Mal,” I murmured between kisses. I was an idiot. I should just keep kissing her.
What red-blooded male in my position wouldn’t?

One that cared about her. One that might even love her.

“Mal,” I said again, this time with more force. Aimed at myself, not her.

With the back of her head cradled in the palms of my hands, I met her gaze.

She was so beautiful. With her flushed cheeks and lips swollen from our kisses, she’d
never been more lovely. Or more desirable.

But still not mine. Not completely.

Not wanting to, but knowing it was right, I put some space between our bodies.

Mallory’s forehead creased. “What? What is it?”

Mouth suddenly dry, I swallowed hard. “Mallory, you have to know—” I shook my
head, not knowing what to say, hating myself for ruining this moment between us.

She searched my face, her expression clouding over as dark as the storm raging a few
miles ahead of us now.

She pulled out of my arms completely.

That wasn’t what I wanted. Not at all.

“No,” I reached for her again, but she hunched her shoulder, shying away. “Mallory,
please—”
“I get it, Grant. I do.” Her voice cold after all that heat.

“No, I don’t think you do—”

Her gaze focused out the windshield. “It looks like the rain let up.”

For a long moment, I let myself study her. Was this it? A few minutes in the front seat
of my truck, and that was all? I didn’t want a stolen moment. I wanted all the
moments. But she’d completely closed herself off from me. I could see it in the way
she held her shoulders, her eyes averted.

She was right, though. The rain had let up. And my tire was still flat.

Without another word, I opened my door and got to work.

Chapter Thirteen
Mallory

How embarrassing!The last twenty-four hours, so full of ups and downs, had me all
confused.

Sweet mercy! I’d kissed Grant Baker!

And the boy could kiss. No. Not a boy, a man. A good one. I didn’t deserve him.
Wasn’t I on my way home to confront my boyfriend?

Shame turned my cheeks pink as I watched Grant in the rearview mirror. It was true. I
didn’t deserve him. And we both knew it. That’s why he pulled away. He was right.
Emotions had been running high since I first stepped foot into Grant’s beat-up old
farm truck. That’s all this was— a reaction to stress.

Stress caused by me.

I’d been selfish. If I hadn’t dragged Grant into this, he wouldn’t be standing out there
in the rain, changing a tire. His window wouldn’t be broken. He wouldn’t have spent
the last—how long had it been? Good heavens! Thirty minutes making out with a girl
who still had a boyfriend.

I wasn’t any better than Matt.

A few seconds later, Grant emerged from behind the truck, his biceps bulging as he
carried a spare tire in one hand and a jack in the other. The truck bounced as he leaned
the spare against the side. Without hesitating, he laid down on the wet ground to
position the jack under the truck.

I should get out and help him.

Sliding out the driver’s side door, I remembered the lock. I’d made so many mistakes
in the last twenty-four hours. Heck, the last year. If I’d had the guts, the confidence,
I’d have dumped Matt a long time ago. I’d have decided where I wanted to go to
school. I’d have stood up to my sister and told her how I really feel, that I loved our
hometown and I loved Indiana. I didn’t have to move to Utah or anywhere else if I
didn’t want to.

If I’d done those things, I would never have gotten that text from Bria. I would have
stayed in Utah with Jenny. I would have never seen the real Grant Baker, and the
thought of that shattered my heart. How could I have fallen so hard, so fast?

I had no idea.

All I knew, I wished I’d realized what kind of person Grant was a long time ago. I
wished he’d been my boyfriend all along and that we’d taken this trip together
because we wanted to and not because, well, because my life sucked and my
boyfriend and my best friend betrayed me.

But didn’t that mean Matt and I were broken up? To me, it did. Now, it did. Even if
Matt apologized up and down, this way and that, and back again, I still wouldn’t want
to be with him.

“Can I help?” I asked once I finally got out of the truck.

Grant bent low over the flat tire. He’d already jacked up the truck. His muscles
tightened as he worked to loosen the lug nuts. I’d never had to change a tire before,
but my dad made sure I knew how. Still, I wouldn’t be much help to Grant, who was
completely capable.

“Here.” He held out his hand. I reached out, and he dropped a few of the lug nuts into
it.

As he worked, I started to say a million different things but stopped myself. In the
end, it didn’t matter. Settling things with Matt had to come first. Anything else
wouldn’t be fair to Grant.
It didn’t take long for Grant to exchange the flat tire for the spare. Soon we were back
on the road again, damp from the rain still sprinkling outside. The passenger’s seat
had been soaked by the storm, but I planned to sit there anyway. Before I could scoot
all the way across, Grant caught my arm.

“Don’t. It’s okay. Just sit by me.” He sounded defeated, and more than anything, I
wanted to reach out and touch him, but I didn’t.

I could only hope that when it was all said and done, he’d let me tell him how much I
cared, how much I wanted him and only him.

We drove for fifteen minutes before Grant veered off the interstate and pulled into a
gas station. After pumping gas into the tank, we both went inside to use the restroom.
Grant waited in the short hallway outside the bathrooms for me to exit before heading
toward the convenience items. He picked up a sheet of plastic, a roll of silver duct
tape, and a large blanket with a picture of a wolf on it. Before going to pay at the
register, he grabbed a bag of chips, two sodas from the coolers, and a packet of
Sixlets. My favorite.

The man behind the counter rung up the items while Grant tapped his debit card on
the cracked surface. Guilt ate at me as the total went up and up. A gas station
convenience store was not the cheapest option.

“Let me pay this time.” He’d paid for almost everything, and he wouldn’t have to get
this stuff at all if it wasn’t for me.

Grant held out his card to the attendant without even a twitch in my direction.

“Wait,” I said to the guy. “I’ll pay.” I dug in my pocket for my own card. The total
showing on the cash register display would about wipe out my checking account, but
that was okay.

“She’s not paying.” Grant’s jaw ticked.

The guy behind the counter glanced between us before taking Grant’s card and
swiping it fast.

“Grant, you’ve paid for everything—” I started to say, but he cut me off. He told the
guy thank you before collecting his purchases and stalking resolutely toward the door.

I hurried to keep up.

“Why are you acting like this? It’s my fault you have to buy that stuff. If I hadn’t
locked the keys in the truck, you wouldn’t have had to break the window, and it
wouldn’t be soaking wet right now.”

Grant still didn’t say anything. Reaching through the open, broken window, he set our
snacks on the dash and the bag with the blanket onto the ground. It only sprinkled
now, but the shelter above the gas pumps kept us dry.

Grant

I was acting like a jerk,and I knew it. I just couldn’t seem to stop myself. Being near
Mallory, especially after kissing her and knowing she still had a boyfriend, was killing
me. I didn’t want to be short with her. I wanted to fall to my knees in front of her and
beg her to give me a chance.

Maybe I would still do that. But not yet.

First, I had to get her home in one piece.

Wishing there was something I could do to cover the window and still see well
enough to drive, I ripped the soaked sleeping bag off the seat and tossed it into the bed
of the truck.

I began spreading the plastic sheet over the wet upholstery. Seeing what I was doing,
Mallory helped hold the plastic so I could tape it into place. Hopefully, it would stay
until we made it home. I’d deal with the rest of this mess there. Next, we spread the
dry blanket over the plastic.

“Okay. Let’s get going.”

Mallory stayed in the passenger seat on the far side of the truck. I hated the distance
even though I couldn’t have been more than a foot between us. I wished she’d let me
explain. I wanted to do the right thing. She had no idea how I felt about her, no clue
I’d been crushing on her for years. She had no idea the knowledge that we’d not only
kissed but spent the better part of a half an hour making out in the cab of my truck
made my heart beat so hard I thought it might burst from my chest.

Who did I think I was, anyway? Grant Baker. Nerd. That’s who I was, who I’d always
been. What made me believe a girl like Mallory would look at me twice. Sure, she’d
kissed me, but I couldn’t help wondering if she regretted it. And that more than
anything kept me from saying what I was thinking.
We drove for hours without talking. Each mile marker we passed, my heart fell a little
further. The figurative distance between us widened while she sat so close I could
have easily reached out and grabbed her, pulled her close, told her exactly what I
wanted. Her.

Instead, gas and restroom breaks were quick, as though we were both determined to
get home as quickly as possible.

Iowa gave way to Illinois.

And before I knew it, we’d crossed the border into Indiana.

There were a few times I thought she might say something. She kept huffing and
shifting and glancing in my direction with expressions I lacked the social skills to
interpret. Was she mad? Should I apologize? Was I reading this whole thing all
wrong?

Maybe she’d liked kissing me, and once she settled things with Matt, we had a real
chance to become something incredible.

That one was killing me a slow and torturous death.

When we were only ten minutes from her house, Mallory’s phone dinged. Her sister
had been texting her since yesterday morning, but none of her sister’s texts had made
her face drain of all color.

“What? What’s wrong?” My voice felt rusty from not using it, but she had me
worried. Had something happened to her sister? Her parents? What could make her
face look like that?

“It’s Matt. He responded. And he’s at my house right now.”

Chapter Fourteen
Mallory

Matt responded now?After all the texts and phone calls? He texted me back now?

I read the text. He didn’t even address the issue of the picture. Just typed four little
words.

I’m at your house.

I didn’t want him at my house. I honestly never wanted to see him again. Or Livvy,
either, for that matter. Where was she? Would she be waiting for me, too, when Grant
dropped me off?

My stomach rolled. How could I face either of them like this? My hair hung in
clumpy strands down my back and around my shoulders, tangled from the wind and
rain. I didn’t have a brush of makeup on my face, not even lip gloss! My clothes were
damp and wrinkled. I was sure I smelled a little like wet dog. Gosh, I hoped that was
because of Grant’s gross upholstery and not because of me.

“I can’t do it,” I muttered to myself, but Grant spoke up anyway...after ignoring me

for hours.

“Can’t do what?” he kept glancing at me nervously as though he thought I might lose

it any second.

I just might.

“He’s at my house!” I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t want to see him like this! I
thought I’d have time to shower. Sleep. At least brush my hair!”

“Mal, the dude cheated on you. What do you care what he thinks? He’s a freaking jerk
who doesn’t deserve you.”

I turned to him with my mouth gaping open.

“What?” he asked, his brows dipping low.

“What? What!” That was it. I’d had enough. Boys were stupid. That’s right! Grant
had been demoted from man to boy! “Stop the truck.”

His foot stuttered on the gas. The truck jerked with his indecision. “What? No!”

I unbuckled my seatbelt. We were only a few blocks from my house, anyway. The
walk would do me good. I needed to clear my head of dumb guys.

“What are you doing?” Grant slowed the truck despite himself, I was sure. Idiot.

“I’m getting out.” I reached for the handle. His eyes widened with alarm. Good.
Maybe he wouldn’t make me jump from a moving vehicle. Even if he had slowed to a
crawl by then.
“Mallory. Stop! You’re acting crazy.” Still, he pulled to the side of the road and put
the truck into park.

Thank goodness!

Yanking on the handle, I got out of the truck from the passenger’s side for the first
time since the rest area then slammed the stupid, broken door shut with a
resounding bang!

Grant’s door slammed just after mine. His footsteps followed me on the sidewalk.
“Mallory. Get back in the truck. I have all your stuff. I’ll have to go to your house
anyway. I’m sorry you’re mad at me. I shouldn’t have kissed you. It was probably
horrible, anyway, since it was my first time—” he cut himself off before saying
anything more.

That brought me up short.

I whirled to face him. For the first time since I’d seen him yesterday morning in the
hotel lobby, Grant seemed unsure.

“That was your first kiss?” Was he joking? Lying? Why would he do that?

He blushed and reached a hand to the back of his neck.

It was true, and he hadn’t meant to admit it to me.

But why? How?

How was it possible that had been his first kiss?

A delicious warmth spread through my entire body. He was a natural. It was the only
explanation. I’d never been kissed so thoroughly, so perfectly.

Grant ran a hand through his hair.

“I—” but that was it. He closed his mouth and didn’t say another word.

I took a step toward him. “What is going on here? I don’t understand.”

“You didn’t let me explain, Mallory. Earlier. In the truck.” His ears turned red.

“You mean when you pushed me away after the most amazing kisses of my life? Is
that what you’re talking about?” I shouted at him.
Grant froze, and I realized what I’d just said. What I admitted.

Spinning on my heel, I left him standing there, gaping. It didn’t take him long to pull
himself together and come after me.

“Mallory, wait!” His footsteps pounded behind me. His hand closed around my arm,
pulling me to a stop. But I refused to face him.

Grant stepped in front of me, holding my arms in his hands. “I didn’t push you
away—”

“Yes, you did!”

“No, I promise, I didn’t. I pulled back, yes. But not because I didn’t want to keep
kissing you for the next forever because I did,” his voice softened. His hands moved
from my arms to my face. “Mallory, kissing you—I don’t—I can’t,” he sighed, his
breath kissing my cheek as he turned his head away. “I can’t explain how long I’ve
wanted to kiss you. I can’t remember not wanting to kiss you.”

His brown eyes met mine.

My brain fought to process what he was telling me.

“You wanted to kiss me? When? Why?” It didn’t make any sense. I didn’t understand.

Grant sputtered out a laugh before his expression sobered. “Are you kidding? Why
wouldn’t I want to kiss you? Look at you. You’re beautiful.” His thumb brushed my
cheek as his eyes took in every inch of my face. “You’re smart. You’re nice to
everyone. You’re funny. And when I’m around you—” He grabbed my hand and
rested it against his heart. Under my fingertips, it pounded. “Do you feel that, Mal?
Do you feel what it does to me when you’re near?”

I felt it. And I understood it because my heart beat to the same rhythm. “Then, why
did you pull away?”

“Because I respect you. Because you have unfinished business. And I respect myself.
This thing—this feeling—I can’t do anything about it, I won’t, until you figure out
what’s going on with you and Matt.”

Tears filled my eyes. I didn’t deserve Grant. He was too good. But I wanted him. If
somehow, I could have him for my very own, I’d do whatever it took to have that
chance. I’d become someone worthy of a love like him.
“I’m sorry. I should have listened to you earlier. I just—” I bit my lip. Grant’s thumb
moved from my cheek to my lip where my teeth held it in place. With a gentle tug, he
pulled it free.

“You just what?” he asked.

“I didn’t expect to feel this way.” Grant’s eyes darkened. “Grant, I don’t want to fix
things with Matt.” I’d wanted to stay with him for all the wrong reasons, anyway.
Familiarity. Fear of things changing too much, too fast.

I’d learned over the last two days there was so much more out there. Maybe I was
jumping the gun. Maybe none of this with Grant was even real. But I knew more than
anything, I wanted to find out for myself. I wanted to know everything there was to
know about Grant. Somehow, I knew it would be worth the effort.

Grant

As much asI wanted to hear those words, I knew Mallory needed time. We’d had an
emotional thirty-six hours together. I didn’t want her to do anything rash. My heart
couldn’t take it if she changed her mind because we’d rushed into things. She needed
to be sure of what she wanted.

“Let me take you home. Take some time to work things through with Matt and Livvy.
I’ll be here, Mal. I’m not going anywhere.” And just because I had to do it, I leaned
forward and kissed her. More than a brush of lips, but not the deeper connection I
longed for. Not yet.

“Do you promise?” she asked, her arms hugging me tight around my waist.

“I promise,” I replied, holding her with the same desperation. Was I making a
mistake? How could I let her go back to Matt? What if he begged her forgiveness?
What if she gave him another chance? Then I would have lost my own.

It was the only way.

“Will you take me home?” she asked.

Taking her hand in mine, I led her back to my truck to the driver’s side. She grinned
before sliding across to sit in the middle seat.

We held hands, both her arms wrapped around mine, until I pulled up in front of her
house.
Matt’s fancy sports car parked haphazardly in the drive. Once he realized it was
Mallory in the truck, he stood up from where he’d been sitting on the front porch and
charged toward us.

My stomach twisted. Mallory hugged my arm as she buried her face in the back of my
shoulder. Through the windshield, Matt watched us, his expression darkening. My
heart tore in two. As much as I knew Mallory needed to talk with Matt, I longed to
throw the truck into drive and take her far away to a place we could be together.

“I better go talk to him,” she whispered.

Without a word, I opened my door. Mallory released her hold on my arm and hand. I
knew a moment of panic. Was this it? The end? I hoped not.

Mallory slid out of the seat behind me.

“Mallory, what’s going on? What are you doing with this guy?” Matt rushed to her
side and wrapped a possessive arm around her waist.

I clenched my teeth to keep from saying anything that would make this situation more
difficult for Mallory.

“Like you have any right to ask me that!” She shrugged him off and marched to the
back of the truck. Matt stared after her, stunned.

I hurried to help lift her suitcase over the side of the truck bed.

“Are you going to be okay?” I murmured under my breath, a little worried about
leaving her here with Matt. Her parents weren’t home. If I left, she’d be alone with
him.

She offered me a soft smile. “It’s okay. I won’t let him inside.”

“What’s he doing here?” Matt asked again, grabbing Mallory’s arm. She shook him
off, but I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Stop grabbing her like that,” I said through clenched teeth, my hands fisted at my
side, ready to teach this guy a lesson.

Matt postured in front of me. “What are you gonna do about it? Huh?”

I started to tell him, but Mallory wormed her way between us.
“That’s enough!” She faced me. “Grant, go.” Her eyes beseeched me. I didn’t want to
leave her alone with him.

“Mal—” I shook my head.

“Please.”

“Yeah,” Matt parroted. “Leave.”

I had no intention of listening to him. But I knew I would do whatever Mallory asked
of me. If she wanted me to leave her here to deal with Matt, I would. He might be a
jerk, but I didn’t believe he would hurt her. At least, not physically.

Mallory whirled around. “You don’t get to talk to him like that.”

“Don’t be like that,” Matt cajoled, reaching for her arms again. But Mallory wrenched
away from him.

“Don’t be like what, Matt? Don’t be angry about my so-called boyfriend kissing my
best friend!”

“Come on. Let’s talk about this—”

“I can’t believe you! I can’t believe you would do that to me!” Mallory yelled. I had
the feeling she’d forgotten my presence behind her until she turned around. “Grant,
please.” Tears filled her eyes, and I knew what she wanted. This was something she
had to do on her own.

I nodded. As much as I wanted to remain by her side, that wasn’t the answer.

There were so many things I wanted to say, but she’d already turned her attention
back to Matt. There was nothing left for me to do but go to my truck and leave. So
that’s exactly what I did.

Chapter Fifteen
Three months later

Grant

I knew where she lived,but didn’t have her phone number. I could have stopped by. I
could have sent her a message on social media. But I didn’t.
Had she changed her mind?

It tore me apart, not knowing. But at least in the not knowing there was still a chance,
right?

Either way, I looked over my shoulder, searched every crowd, hoping I’d run into
Mallory.

I never did.

Fall came, and I enrolled in classes at Purdue. Most of them were online, so I could
help with the harvest, but I had one that required me to attend on campus. It was
stupid, really. I should have just told my parents I didn’t want to go, but they insisted I
needed to finish my degree. Maybe when I told them my news, they’d back off a little.
Or maybe they were right, and I should complete my education. Even though I already
knew more than my professors. Wisdom, my dad had said. I needed to learn wisdom.

Well, he might be onto something.

It was my day to be on campus. It was the fourth week of school. I’d begun to lose
hope of ever running into Mallory on campus. Because I was pathetic, I stayed all day,
hanging out where I normally wouldn’t, like the student union and the open grassy
quad, thinking my chances of spotting her in one of those places might be higher than
in the computer labs. So far, it hadn’t paid off, and all I’d managed to accomplish was
a depleted checking account from buying too many smoothies and a sunburn from
falling asleep outside.

I’d almost talked myself out of tacos at the food court when it happened.

She looked different.

And the same.

Beautiful. Happy. Surrounded by friends.

Every part of me wanted to go to her, talk to her. But I couldn’t. My feet were stuck to
the floor. And instead of doing anything, I just drank her in.

I had no idea how long I stood there like an idiot, holding a tray of tacos, but she must
have felt my eyes because she turned and looked right at me.

Neither of us moved for what seemed an eternity. Then, she ran.

Right into my arms. I barely had time to set down the tray.

“Grant,” she murmured my name over and over as I buried my face in her hair.

Her lips found my neck, my jaw, my chin.

“I didn’t have your number. No one has your number.” She stopped kissing me to take
my face in her hands. “I have no idea where you live. I’ve been looking for you
everywhere.”

Everything that had been wrong clicked into place with her in my arms. “Mallory.”
Framing her face with my hands, I did the only thing I could. I kissed her.

We kissed right there in the food court.

“You promised,” she said against my lips.

“I know. I’m sorry.” I kissed her again. Everything else forgotten.

“I’ve been crazy without you.” Her hands clawed at my shoulders, drawing me closer.

“Not as crazy as I’ve been without you.” Bending my knees, I picked her up around
her waist and started walking.

Her lips, still touching mine, curved into a smile. “You forgot your food.”

“What food?” I stopped to kiss her again and again. I might have kept kissing her,
except the people in the food court had had enough. Hoots and catcalls filled the
room, echoing off the walls.

“Get a room!” someone shouted.

“Let’s get out of here.” Still holding her around her waist, I walked out of the food
court. Wild applause followed us. Mallory’s cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink.

“I can’t believe it’s you. I was beginning to think I’d never find you.” She kissed me
again, quick and fast while I found a quiet corner with a sofa and chairs. “You don’t
even have Facebook or Instagram.”

I did, just not under my real name. I would explain all of that later. First, this.
Sitting on the sofa, I pulled her into my lap, not quite believing she was in my arms or
that she wanted to be. I’d almost convinced myself she didn’t want me, that I’d been
right, and our trip had only been a break from reality.

We needed to talk, but I needed to kiss her, hold her. And if the way she kept
attacking me with her lips was any indication, she needed that too.

“We need to talk,” she said a few minutes later.

“I know.” My heart was about to explode out of my chest. Was this really happening?

“Grant,” she tried to sound firm, but then she moaned. “It’s just like I remember.
Being with you, it’s just like I knew it would be.”

She had no idea how happy I was to hear that.

“I broke up with Matt.”

Eh.

Mallory giggled. “You should see the look on your face.”

“I don’t need to. I can feel it. Talk about killing the mood.” With my arms wrapped
around her waist and her still on my lap, I leaned back against the sofa and told myself
to calm down.

Her fingers played with the zipper on my hoodie sweatshirt. “I thought you’d be
happy.”

“Oh, I am. Absolutely.” And I knew we needed to talk about it, I just didn’t want to.

“That night. I broke up with him that night.”

Resigning myself to this conversation, I tried to focus on her words. “I’m sorry?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not. But I do feel bad you had to deal with him. Want to tell me about it?” I
wasn’t sure how much I wanted to hear, but I’d listen if she needed to tell me.

“Not really. It all boils down to Matt being a skeeze. He’d been trying to hook up with
Livvy most of the time we were dating. He kept telling her he didn’t want to break up
with me because he didn’t want to hurt my feelings. She’d been putting him off, but
apparently, she had a massive crush on him long before I ever started dating him. But
she’d never told me about it. That photo was evidence of her giving in.”

“I’m sorry, Mal.”

She shrugged, shaking it all off. “I’m not. If it wasn’t for them betraying me like they
did, I would have never found you. Everything they might have put me through was
worth it if I get you in the end.”

I held her cheeks in the palms of my hands. Hoping, but not really believing what she
said, I had to ask. “Is that what you want? Me, in the end?”

She nodded, her eyes filling with moisture. “Yes, Grant. I want you.”

My heart settled into its new rhythm. Maybe not new, because it felt familiar. It had
just been missing for a long time. Three months to be exact. “Good, because I want
you, too.”

I kissed her lips gently. “And Livvy?”

Mallory sighed. “I don’t hate her. But I realized after everything with Matt that I’d
been holding onto relationships that aren’t good for me for the sake of familiarity and
fear of change. Livvy was one of those. I took some time to look back and realize she
hasn’t been my friend for a long time. Not really. I’ve spent some time talking to my
parents. They convinced me to go talk to someone about healthy friendships and
relationships and how to cope with change. It’s been good for me. It helped me come
to terms with what happened with Livvy and Matt. It wasn’t my fault they betrayed
me, but it is my fault that I didn’t recognize what was really going on in my
relationships with them. Talking to someone about it, I’ve learned to look for signs so
I’ll be able to recognize a toxic relationship or just when I need to stand up for
myself.”

“I’m so glad to hear that.” Maybe it was a good thing we took a while to find each
other again.

But I wasn’t leaving her again. At least, not without getting her phone number.

Chapter Sixteen
Mallory
We’d become nearly inseparable.From the moment I laid eyes on Grant in the food
court, I didn’t want to spend a single moment without him. I did my homework in his
basement apartment at his parent’s farmhouse while he did whatever it was he did on
his computer. He walked me to my classes on his days on campus, hanging around
longer than necessary just to be with me.

We ate dinner with my parents. We watched movies on the television in my bedroom.

And I’d never been happier.

I’d decided to stay home for another year instead of moving into the dorms so I could
save money. I was glad I did. My parents offered to help me buy a car instead, and I
felt good about giving myself more time to figure things out. I appreciated my
parent’s patience with me and their understanding that not everyone was ready as
soon as they turned eighteen to make every life decision.

Each day I felt better prepared to leave the nest. My relationship with Grant helped.

Speaking of Grant, he’d be by any moment to pick me up for our date.

“Is Grant on his way, honey?” my mom asked from the open doorway to my room.

Spinning around, I gave her my biggest, happiest smile. “He’ll be here any minute.”

Mom smiled softly, watching me. “You really like him.”

“I think I love him, Mom. He’s so amazing.” Maybe everyone wouldn’t think so, but I
did. Grant was perfect for me. I was so giddy, so excited, I wasn’t even embarrassed
to admit something like that to her.

“I’m happy for you,” she said, giving me a big hug just as the doorbell rang.

“That’s him!” I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and raced down the stairs. After
throwing open the door, I threw myself into his arms.

“Hey,” he grunted with a smile.

“I missed you,” I said, kissing him quickly.

Grant laughed. “It’s only been a couple of hours since I dropped you off.”

“A couple of hours too long if you ask me. Let’s go.”

Grant smiled over my shoulder. “Hi, Mrs. Knight. Have a nice evening!” he had to
yell that last part because I’d begun pulling him toward his truck. “Hey! You’re
mom’s going to think I’m rude.”

“No, she’s going to think I’m rude. She loves you,” I told him as he opened the
passenger side door of his truck from the outside, thanks to me scouring the internet
for hours and hours to find one.

“Oh, she does, does she?” With his hands on my hips, Grant lifted me up to the newly
upholstered seat, the soft leather smooth against my the backs of my thighs. “What
about you? Do you love me?” His voice had deepened in this sexy way he had that
made me melt.

“Yes.” I pressed my lips to his, unable to resist him. “Now, where are we going?” He
hadn’t told me anything earlier. Just to be ready, and he’d pick me up at seven.

“It’s a secret.” He pressed his own quick kiss to my lips before closing the door and
hurrying into the driver’s seat. The truck rumbled to life. I was glad I talked him into
keeping it rather than looking for something newer. I’d really fallen in love with this
truck. Almost as much as I’d fallen in love with Grant while riding in it.

“You know I don’t like secrets.”

Tugging my hand, he pulled me into the middle seat close to his side before shifting
into reverse and backing out of my parent’s driveway.

“I think you secretly love secrets,” he teased as he pulled away from my house.

Maybe I did.

We made small talk as he drove. It didn’t take long to realize we were heading to the
farm, but instead of driving up to the house, Grant took a road leading out into the
fields. He’d been working for his dad—in addition to spending time with me and
doing school work—but not as much as he used to. Somehow, they’d been able to hire
someone to help, freeing up some of Grant’s time.

His relationship with his parents had been on steadier ground since he’d decided to
continue his education at Purdue. They supported his passion for designing video
games but wanted him to get his degree.

“What are we doing out here?” The evening was already growing dark. The air held a
crisp bite that had me pulling my sweatshirt tight around my body.
“You’ll see,” he said as he steered the truck to the far side of a yellow field of dried
out corn stalks almost ready for harvest. A stand of trees lined the field on one side
with a small dirt road running between. Finally, Grant pulled the truck to a stop and
cut the ignition.

“Here?” I asked, my brows raised.

“Come on.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me through his open door. “Hop in,” he
demanded playfully, gesturing to the bed of the truck.

“What in the world is this?” I cried. And how had I missed it? I must have been really
distracted. Glancing at Grant’s handsome face, I knew that had been the case.

“It’s a picnic. Now, get in.”

The bed of Grant’s truck had been transformed with the same gear we’d used the
night we camped in it, complete with the foam mat, sleeping bags, and pillows. The
only difference was this time, a picnic basket sat among the blankets.

I stepped up on the tire and felt Grant’s hands settle on my hips, stabilizing me. He
followed close behind once I’d climbed into the bed, nimbly jumping over the side.
How had I ever thought he was a nerd? There was nothing nerdy about Grant.

Intelligent.

Witty.

Gorgeous.

Those words were more accurate descriptors.

And I loved him. I loved everything about him. Even his flaws.

We sat criss-cross-applesauce, our knees touching, and Grant reached for my hands.

“Mal, I have something to tell you.”

He looked serious, more so than usual. A rush of anxious adrenaline pumped through
my body.

“What is it? Is something wrong?”

Grant smiled a nervous smile that did nothing to set my mind at ease. What was going
on?

“I didn’t think this would be so hard,” he murmured almost to himself. My emotions

soared from anxious straight to fear.

“Grant, you’re scaring me.”

He glanced up, alarmed. “Scared? What do you mean?”

Every insecurity I’d ever had came roaring to the forefront of my mind. Sometimes,
what I felt growing with Grant seemed too good to be true. Maybe he was too
intelligent, too witty, too gorgeous for me.

“Mal,” he let go of my hands to reach for my face. His eyes searched mine, and in
them, I saw every emotion I knew reflected in mine. “I love you, Mallory Knight. You
have nothing to fear as far as I’m concerned. As far as we’re concerned. You,
beautiful girl, are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Relief flooded the fear and anxiety away. I threw my arms around his neck. “I love
you, too, Grant. So much!”

My lips found his. We shared a sweet kiss, full of promise and beautiful things to
come for us.

“Mal,” he said as our lips parted, his palm cupping my cheek. “What did I ever do to
deserve you?”

I shook my head, knowing full well for someone so smart, he had it all wrong. Before
I could protest, he kissed me again, a sweet and passionate distraction from everything
around us.

“Are you hungry?” he asked a while later. We’d snuggled into the sleeping bags. The
sun had long since set, and Grant turned on a camping lantern so we could see what
he’d brought in the basket.

“What did you bring?”

He grinned before flipping open the basket to show me.

“Oh, wow,” I giggled as I saw every kind of junk food we’d purchased on our way
from Salt Lake to Indianapolis over the summer. “Is there anything healthy in there?”
Grant dug around and pulled out two cheese sticks. I shook my head but couldn’t stop
my smile. “You nerd,” I teased.

He pulled his lips into a fake frown. “Hey!”

“You know I love you,” I reminded him, happy we’d shared the words. I didn’t have
to hold them back. I was free to say them whenever I wanted, and I knew when I did,
Grant would answer them back.

Grant huffed as he unloaded our sugar-filled feast. He turned off the lantern, and we
ate and talked by moonlight. The night grew cold. We huddled under the sleeping
bags.

“Mal,” he whispered against my hair as I lay cuddled against his chest.

“Yeah.”

“I sold my game.”

Wait.

What?

Raising onto one elbow, I shifted so I could see into his face. “You did what?”

He sat up, too, and even in the dim light, I saw he was nervous. “I sold my game.”

“How? To whom?” Of course, I knew he worked on his game almost non-stop when
he wasn’t doing other things. I’d fallen asleep, more than once, on the sofa in the
basement only to wake up in the middle of the night to find him still at it, bleary-eyed
and half-dead with exhaustion, but too determined to finish to take a break.

He told me the name of the company who’d purchased the rights to his game. I
recognized it immediately as one of the biggest names in the business.

“Are you kidding? I didn’t even know you were talking to them.”

“I know. I didn’t want to tell you until I knew it was really happening. All the beta
testing went through their teams. I’ve been fixing bugs. Making the changes they
wanted since we got back from Salt Lake.” He reached for my hands. “Before I came
to get you, I had a meeting. I signed a contract. A contract for a whole lot of money.”
My eyes widened. I didn’t know what to say. What was he saying? What did all this
mean for him? For us?

“It’s crazy. I know it is. Who gives a nineteen-year-old kid that kind of money? But
they did, Mal. They did, and they offered me a job as a developer.”

“A job,” I breathed. Oh, no. I mean, of course, good for him. But where was the job?
Would he move? Leave?

“I don’t have to go anywhere.” He kept talking, answering my question, but new ones
filled the empty space. “I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing from here. With the
money they gave me, I can pay the mortgage on the farm and pay off Dad’s debt. I
can even afford to pay for more help. Mom and Dad can retire and still keep the farm
running.”

My head spun. It was too much to take in. He must be talking a lot of money if he
could do all that. He’d told me how his parents had to borrow over the years to keep
up with new technology and replace aging equipment.

“Grant—I don’t—wow. I don’t even know what to say. Congratulations.” He must

have heard the hesitation in my voice because he scrambled to kneel before me, his
face inches from mine.

“Mal, why do you look like that? Don’t look like that. This is an amazing opportunity.
I’m still going to finish my degree. I have three more semesters after this one. Hiring
help for the farm means I’ll have time to work on my next project while still going to
school. I have a whole portfolio of game ideas and they love all of them. But none of
that means anything without you.” He reached out to frame my face with his hands.
“Me and you, Mal. I love you.”

“I don’t want to hold you back, Grant. I’m so proud of you.” Tears filled my eyes. I
heard what he said. But this was big. Bigger than me.

Grant shook his head.

“No. No.” Launching himself at me, he pushed me back into the sleeping bags,
covering my body with his. “No, I don’t want this without you. All of it. Everything.
It’s us.” His lips crashed into mine, devouring more than kissing, communicating
exactly how he felt, exactly what he wanted.

“Us,” I said when he finally took a breath.

“Us. For as long as you’ll have me, Mal. It’s us.” He kissed me again and again.

There, where it all began, in Grant’s truck, our hearts connected, intertwined in such a
way they could never be pulled apart. For as long as I would have him?

Last summer, I took a road trip with a nerd, and that nerd became my life. I was never
letting him go.

The End.

Author’s Note
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Grant and Mallory’s story. I had a lot
of fun with this one! I’ve made the trip from Salt Lake to Indianapolis more times
than I want to count and now that I live in Wyoming I still make the trip once every
couple of years to see family. It’s a long drive with a bunch of kids!

Until next time,

Stephanie

Wanna keep in touch? Subscribe to my newsletter and get a free gift.

Find Stephanie Street

Stephanie Street - Author Instagram Feed

Stephanie Street - Facebook Page

Email Address:

stephaniestreetauthor@gmail.com

Website -

www.stephaniestreetauthor.com

Join my Street Team on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Authorstephaniestreetscreamteam/
Also by Stephanie Street

Young Adult Novels

The Perks of Dating You (Perks Book 1)

The Perks of Hating You (Perks Book 2)

The Perks of Kissing You (Perks Book 3

The Perks of Waiting for You (Perks Book 4)

Dating: One on One (Eastridge Heights Basketball 1)

Dating: On the Rebound (Eastridge Heights Basketball 2)

Dating: For the Block (Eastridge Heights Basketball 3)

Dating: For the Assist (Eastridge Heights Basketball Book 4)

Save Me

Us at the Beach

Playing to Win (Trouble with Tomboys Book 2)

Clean Billionaire Romance

Marrying the Football Billionaire

Humbling the Spoiled Billionaire

Contemporary Romance

Chasing Paris