Page 12 of Make Her Mine

CHAPTER 4

HARLOW

Jefferson Riley is the most aggravating person I know.

This has been true for a very long time.

And last night was not the first night that I’ve had a hard time falling asleep because I’m replaying something he did or said.

He’s such an ass. He always thinks he’s right. And he’s great at everything. And everyone likes him.

But he’s so fucking…optimistic. It’s like he thinks the world is actually a happy place and everything always works out for everyone if they just believe hard enough and work hard enough and have a positive mental attitude.

God, that’s annoying.

How the man doesn’t understand that there are people all around him who are dealing with a lot of hard shit and that just thinking and hoping isn’t the way to solve problems makes me nuts.

I pull in a deep breath.

Okay, that’s not entirely fair. I know that he knows there are people who have it tough.

He’s smart. I know this. But he sure doesn’t act like it sometimes.

Like with this whole thing about Zach.

He thinks Zach wants me back. So what? What business is that of his? And he doesn’t need to protect me from Zach. I want nothing to do with Dr. Nelson. Ever. I’ve been over him for almost a decade. And I’m thoroughly offended that Jefferson Fucking Riley doesn’t believe that.

But he wants to make Zach sad.

Yeah, well, I get that. But he didn’t need to pull me into his little revenge plot or whatever this is.

Jefferson and Zach have always had such a weird relationship. They were magic together on the football field. Even as someone who completely resents the sport and my small town’s obsession with it, I knew that. I didn’t hate it as much back when Jefferson and Zach were the town’s golden boys. Hell, for almost a year I was in love with one of them—not Jefferson. Never Jefferson—and I showed up to every damned game just like everyone else.

Over the course of three seasons, one Friday night at a time, on various fields all over the middle of Nebraska, the Sapphire Falls Miners won one game after another until they’d given our town one near-perfect, and two perfectly perfect seasons and two State Championships.

And it was mostly due to the Dynamic Duo of quarterback Jefferson Riley and wide receiver Zachary Nelson.

Jefferson and Zach’s sophomore through senior years were the best football seasons Sapphire Falls has ever had.

To hear people talk about it, even now ten years later, you’d think they’d cured cancer or landed on Jupiter.

I’m so caught up in my internal rant that I don’t see him until his hands wrap around my upper arms and he brings me to a stop with a chuckle.

“Hey, there. I was looking for you.”

And while I don’t want to see either of the Wonder Twins, this one is the one I most don’t want to see.

“Oh, hi, Zach.”

“I understand you have the week off,” Zach says, still hanging onto my arms.

I step back, shrugging out of his grasp. I start to ask how he knows that, but then realize it doesn’t matter. This is Sapphire Falls. He could’ve asked pretty much anyone he knows who knows me. Which is everyone.

“I do. Festival week. Plus the big wedding next weekend.”

He grins. “Perfect time to come back. Lots of great memories of the festival.”

I am not taking his bait. Of course, there are lots of good memories of the festival. For every single person in this town. Every festival. I am not going to let him think that the festival before his senior year when he first, finally paid attention to me was somehow special to me.

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