Reaction by Jessica Roberts Read Free Book Online Page A

trait?”
    His arms went around her waist. “Why do you ask?”
    Hearing his sarcasm, she laughed and moaned at the same time. “I try,” she insisted. “I do. But I think I’m—”
    Deftly, she was circled into him and silenced with a kiss to her black smudged nose.
    After kissing a few other smudgy spots, he turned her back to the car and while leaning over her to tighten the last connection, whispered in her ear, “You’re exactly what I want.”

    I was in the middle of this thought when my phone rang.
    “Hello?” I said absently.
    Just as I was about to repeat myself, a deep voice said from the other end, “Hey.”
    “Hey,” I repeated unthinkingly. My brain forgot to update itself and I half expected him to mention something about the oil I’d spilled, or tell me I wasn’t exactly what he wanted after all.
    “Meet me at the park tomorrow?” he startled me by saying.
    “Um, yeah. Sure.” I caught my breath. “Is everything okay?”
    “Just wanna talk for a sec.”
    I hung up with the largest gasp in recorded history. We were finally going to talk. At last, what I’d been waiting for.

Chapter 3
    Before I arrived at the park I gave myself a pep talk: Don’t talk about her , check. Keep the conversation casual and cavalier, check. And DO NOT lose your cool, check. It had been a week since I’d gone to his aunt and uncle’s to see him, and, I wasn’t proud to admit, I’d considered every possible angle regarding their relationship. The favored one was that I misunderstood him; maybe things weren’t as serious between them. That was the angle I wished for, but not the most likely. Still, I was keeping my fingers crossed.
    When I walked around a bend and saw the black monster car, my heart fluttered and my thoughts went haywire.
    I wondered what we’d talk about, and if my responses would please or displease him. I wondered if we’d go right back to where we left off, or if our exchanges would be tight and uncomfortable. In the end, I would walk away from the park today feeling either delighted or discouraged. The possibilities made my heart beat so fast I couldn’t feel the breaks between the beats.
    As I walked closer, he came into view. He was resting against the black monster car, lazily studying people as they passed. My eyes took him in.
    And when today’s liaison is over, will I feel as excited then as I do right now as I watch you over there? Will that irresistible self-possession of yours cast its spell on me once again? And will my eyes ever behold anything more appealing than that distractingly drop-dead gorgeous face of yours and the sexy way your simple long sleeve shirt and jeans hug just enough to hint at the remarkable body hiding underneath? Will I ever get used to the crushing desire I feel for you as I stare at you helplessly? As I watch your head tilt down, then turn toward me, and your eyebrow arch dubiously.
    Magnificent, complicated creature.
    “New car?” I asked as I walked up to him, trying to shift my abandoned thoughts to more levelheaded ones, like how filthy the black monster was. Dried up dirt was splattered all along the sides, and the wheels were caked with light brown guck. It looked as if he’d given it a mud bath.
    He pushed off the car and turned toward the park. “Yeah,” he responded. “Like it?” Since he knew full well I wasn’t the flashy type and wouldn’t be impressed in the least, I took the question as a taunt.
    Carefully suppressing my adrenalin, I answered, “I don’t know since I can’t see most of it.”
    He peered sideways at me, sharing the beginnings of a sly grin.
    I wondered where he’d gotten the money to buy such a nice ride. His family was extremely wealthy but conservative spenders. I figured he’d dipped into the money he’d earned over the years working at his dad’s body shop. I’d once heard his mom say the earnings had turned into a substantial amount.
    We walked in silence until finding some shade under a cluster