Mark rolls his eyes. “I’ll go talk to him.”
“Wait.” I grab his arm and pull him back. “What’s going on? You hated that we were talking. You never wanted to see me again.”
“It’s going to be weird at first,” he shrugs, “but I don’t know… I wouldn’t want someone holding me back from somebody I was willing to trade my most valued possession for. Just don’t tell me all the weird details… okay?”
My cheeks turn pink, and my stomach tightens. “Yeah. Of course. I wouldn’t.”
He nods and wraps me in his arms before whispering, “Also, I think we have to set Bo up with someone. He just had a thirty-minute conversation with me about cutting down the whole forest around his home to keep busy. I think he’s losing his mind.”
I smile and hold Mark tight. “We’ll have to brainstorm who we can send his way.”
He squeezes my hand and I watch as he walks toward Huck who’s talking to Maddox.
As much as I want to be a fly on the wall for his conversation, I don’t have it in me. My head is spinning about how I’ll get Huck’s truck back for him. Then, there’s the truth that Mark being okay with this doesn’t change how weird this whole situation is. Maybe Huck has realized that too. Maybe this isn’t the beginning of something great. Maybe this is the end of something that never was.
Chapter Ten
Huck
I tap three heavy knocks on Janie’s hotel room door. There’s a lump in my throat and my stomach is tied like a honda knot, but I have to see her. I have to know if she feels the same way for me, if she sees this as something she wants forever.
The door opens slowly. “Huck?How’d you get my room number?”
I grin the second I see her in the tight red dress. Her breasts round, her nipples hard. “I know the woman at the front desk well. I told her I had a gift for you.” I pull a small box from behind my back and hand it toward Janie. “I could’ve mailed it, but I figured it would be better to give you in person.”
She looks up at me with wide blue eyes then sits back on the queen-sized bed that’s draped in a white and red quilt. “You didn’t need to get me anything, Huck. I know you sold your truck for me. You need to get it back from Bo. I can give you the money. I—”
“No.” I sit beside her, holding her shoulders in my palms. “Mark told you, didn’t he?”
She nods and stares down at the green velvet box before looking back up at me. “Why did you do that? You love that truck. And you—”
“I love you, Janie. It took our time together this week for me to realize I’ve loved you for years. I’ve loved you from afar, over countless sleepless nights, and I love you more now. That truck is a piece of metal. Your virginity is something you can never get back. I couldn’t let you give it away like that.”
“But you could’ve talked to me. I don’t need your money, Huck.”
My hand goes to her face. “I want you to have the money for school.”
“I don’t need thirty thousand dollars for school, Huck. I have loans to cover the rest.”
“And you’ll pay off the loans.” My hand slowly combs the hair on her shoulder. “You don’t owe anyone your virginity for the hard work you’ve done, Janie. You’re beautiful. You should give yourself to the right person when it’s time.”
“I can’t take it,” she says. “You have to get your truck back. It’s too much.”
My hands wrap around hers, the velvet box still in her palms. “Open your gift. I want you to see something.”
She looks down at the box and pulls at a bright red string, then lifts the top slowly, her eyes brightening when she sees the bracelet that she’d lost that day we were putting in the seats.
“Where did you find this?” Janie gasps, tears welling in her eyes as she looks toward me. “I thought it was gone forever.”
“I was cleaning out the truck for the sale, and I lifted the passenger side rail where the seats connect. It was hooked on the bar. That’s why we couldn’t find it.” I squeeze her hand. “It was the sign I needed to know I was doing the right thing, honey. I can’t quit you. I won’t. I knew it the second I touched your skin last night.”
She slides the bracelet onto her wrist and twists toward me with more pause in her throat than I’d prefer.
“What’s wrong, honey?”
Tears drip from her cheeks. “Everything. I mean, Mark is okay with this now, but what happens when he’s not? What happens when reality sets in and we’re living together and we think everything is good, then all of the sudden, he realizes how weird this whole thing is.Then what?Do we stay together? Do we separate? Because I can’t hurt him, Huck. The past few days have been hell.”
Seeing Janie in pain is like sticking knives in my eyes, but I don’t know what to say.
