Long Gone Girl by Amy Rose Bennett Read Free Book Online

still had a lot of lost ground to
make up. The look of sad skepticism in her eyes pierced his heart
to the very core. Marshaling his courage, he drew in a steadying
breath and continued. “Anyway, later that day, at football
practice, Frank joked that there was no way on God’s green earth
that even the ‘Great Jett Kelly’—his words, not mine I might
add—could get you, the straightest girl in school, to agree to a
kiss, even if you were sweet on me. He suggested a bet of ten
dollars. With God as my witness, I told him to go jump.”
    Ginny’s brow lowered into a deep frown.
“You’re saying you never made the bet? But he said, he owed
you.”
    Jett at last gave into the need to have
physical contact with her and grasped her hand, praying she
wouldn’t pull away. She had to believe him. “I never agreed to it,
Ginny. I wouldn’t do something so cruel. As I said, it was his idea
of a joke. It wasn’t mine.”
    Ginny’s gaze dropped to their hands on the
table but she made no move to withdraw. Jett released the breath he
hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
    “I want to believe you, Jett, I really do
but…then there was Loretta. She accused you of cheating on her. But
you’d told me you’d broken up.” Ginny sighed heavily then met his
gaze again. “I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t.”
    “I don’t blame you, Ginny. The truth is, I
had started to grow tired of Loretta’s demanding behavior and
waspish attitude some weeks beforehand. In fact, I had already
contemplated breaking off with her a few times leading up to Prom.
But then at the Prom, when she made a totally uncalled for snipe
about you, I told her I’d had enough of her judgmental ways. It was
the prod I needed to break up with her, so I could pursue you.” He
squeezed Ginny’s hand. “It was only then that I asked you to
dance.”
    “So her accusation of two-timing was
false.”
    Jett shrugged and gave a rueful smile. “I
guess she just didn’t want to believe it was over. But believe me,
it was definitely over.” He decided to push his luck a little
further and ran his thumb up and down Ginny’s wrist. He smiled when
he saw he’d raised goose-bumps along her fine, smoother than cream
skin. “As I said before, I honestly had a crush on you too, Ginny.
For months. But I was too spineless to do anything about it.” He
caught her gaze and risked throwing her a deliberately flirtatious
smile. “Do you know how Goddamned gorgeous you were in school?”
    Ginny rolled her eyes, but a deep blush to
the very roots of her hair betrayed that she was affected on some
level by his compliment. “I didn’t think they let visually impaired
or delusional people into the military, let alone become a
pilot.”
    Jett’s smile widened. He loved her
razor-sharp quips. And the fact that she didn’t seem to have a vain
bone in her entire beautiful body. “I swear most of the guys in our
school year thought you were the prettiest girl there. But you were
so smart and seemed so...contained and aloof. Unattainable even.
Everyone was intimidated by you. Including me.”
    Ginny let out a huff of incredulous
laughter. “You must be kidding.”
    “No. I’m not. I was so nervous when I asked
you to dance…you have no idea,” he continued in a low voice,
holding her gaze. “And when you said yes, I was over the moon with
happiness. When I took you out into the corridor, and kissed you,
it was all real, Ginny. It wasn’t a joke. And it certainly wasn’t
because of a bet.”
    The breeze had blown a wisp of Ginny’s
red-gold hair across her cheek. His heart pounding with nerves and
desire, Jett leaned forward and gently tucked it behind her
shell-like ear. “One of my biggest regrets about that night is that
I was so caught up in needing to hear you say you had feelings for
me, I never told you how I felt in return.”
    Ginny’s gaze instantly narrowed with
suspicion, and she withdrew her hand from his grasp. Damn . She doesn’t believe