Second Chance Summer (Chance #1)(56)
Author: Emma Hart

Hana glares at him, not saying a thing. I nudge Adam.

“You can let me go now. I’m unstable, remember? I’m not expected to act rationally.” I grin at him.

He returns my smile, his eyes twinkling playfully. “Well okay, if you insist. Just, for f**k sake, Kia, try and keep the biting to a minimum. I’m running out of excuses to give people, and your strait jacket is still in the laundry basket from your outbreak last time.”

I salute him playfully and walk over to Reese. He’s looking at me with an amused smile on his face, and Hana throws her arms in the air.

“Fine. Fine. You stay together, but you’ll never be anythin’. You could have had it all with me, Reese, but you’re choosin’ her instead. Fine,” she spits.

“I’m sorry… What college are you planning on goin’ to when you graduate from high school?” I ask innocently, tilting my head to the side.

“Community, not that it’s any of your business.”

“Oh that’s a shame, because Miss Nobody here is in New York.” I shrug. “But I guess some of us are happy to live off our parents and have a misguided sense of entitlement because of Daddy’s money. In the meantime, the rest of us get off our pretty, spoilt little asses and work hard to achieve the kind of happiness that money can’t buy.” I smile sweetly, and she stares at me in shock for a second before turning on the balls of her feet and storming to a pretty little convertible that looks so out of place in the Grove.

I look up at Reese as she tears away. “What? I’m not going to bite.” I keep my grin in place.

He scratches the side of his nose and wraps an arm around my waist. His face dips into mine. “You can if you want. I’m just sayin’.”

I kiss him quickly, then pull back and raise an eyebrow at him. “And you have some explainin’ to do. That’s what you thought could replace me? Really?”

“She got a point,” Adam mutters.

“Aren’t you on break?” I throw at him, smirking.

“Smart ass.” He saunters into the back room, chuckling, and I turn back to Reese. My arms hook around his neck.

“Never replace. I thought she could distract me from you, but she could never replace you. No one could.” His nose brushes mine. “But, hell, she really does have a screw loose, doesn’t she?”

I stand on my tiptoes, pushing my body against his, and smile. “I’m pretty sure she’s got more loose screws than all your toolboxes put together.”

“You could be right,” he murmurs against my lips.

“Just as well you’re used to crazy, right?”

“Hey, I meant that.”

“That I’m a little crazy?”

“Yep – but I really do love the shit out of your crazy.”

~

“Not happenin’, Denny. I told you that.” I grit my teeth together.

“What, you wanna send her in a cab?”

“Send her in a f**king horse and carriage if you want to. I’m not drivin’ out to the bar to pick her up. I told you before I’m not doin’ it anymore. I’m not her keeper.”

“What happened to the Kia I knew? She was real nice.”

My lip curls. “Nice little Kia got so much shit off people like you she grew up and told them all to f**k themselves. Put my mom in a cab and send her home, otherwise keep her there. Goodbye.”

I switch my phone to silent and put it face down. Under my pillow. Just in case.

“That who I think it was?” Reese asks, walking into my room. I nod, letting him fold me into his embrace.

“I told him no.”

“I think you told him more than no, baby.” He chuckles.

“Yeah, well.” I laugh a little. “I’m not doin’ it anymore. Besides, I won’t be here to do it in a couple days.”

He twitches. “You all packed?”

I nod. “Just last minute things to put in, but I can’t do that until Friday morning.”

“So you’re free now?” He runs his nose along my cheek, his lips whispering across my skin after it.

“Mhmm.” I nod.

“Good.” His hands slide from my back to my hips and pull them into him. “Because I want you all to myself tonight. You can sleep all day tomorrow if you really want to, but tonight, you’re mine.”

CHAPTER 19

I haul my suitcase into the trunk of my car and slam the top down. My heart sits heavily in my chest, and I glance at my cell to see the time for what feels like the hundredth time since I woke up this morning. My flight isn’t until tonight, but the drive to the airport will take most of the day.

I know I have to go. It’s inevitable – after all, New York is where my education is. It’s where my future and my dreams lie. It’s the only place that can give me them.

Not even love can fulfil my dreams.

And, I reason with myself, Dad is waiting. We have a lot to talk about and work through – something that can’t be done anywhere other than New York City. Because he was right. Harlan Grove isn’t the place for us to work out whatever is hanging between us and whatever is stretched in front of us. There’s too many memories and emotional ties in this small town for anything to be thought through clearly.

My eyes fall to the screen of my cell again. Where’s Reese? He said he would be here, and he has to come. Just the thought of leaving without saying goodbye again threatens to tear me apart.

But there’s no threat, just a promise. The heartbreak that will follow is a certainty.

My hand hovers above the door handle for a moment before I let my fingers curl around it. I take a deep breath, ready to open it, when I hear the rumble of a truck. A truck I know. Hope blossoms inside me and I look up.

His red truck skids to a stop on the street and he jumps out without shutting the door behind him. I barely see him before I’m pulled into his embrace.

“You’re still here,” he breathes into my hair.

I nod against his neck. “I was about to leave. I thought you weren’t coming.”

“I was always comin’,” he replies in a gravelly tone. “Like I’d let you leave without saying goodbye, Kia. Not this time. Not ever again.”

“I don’t want to go,” I whisper. Tears sting at the back of my eyes. “I don’t want to leave you again.” The hot liquid escapes despite my best efforts, and my shoulders shudder as reality hits me.

I’m really leaving him again. I’m really going… And I have no idea if we’ll even see each other before Christmas. Even Thanksgiving isn’t definite, but it’s too far away. Hell, tomorrow is too far away.