Page 28 of Make Her Mine

“I don’t think we’d need that long to decide on the kiss or kill thing.”

“How long do you think it would take?”

She actually looks me up and down. Our mothers can’t see the way her gaze tracks over me from the position we’re in, but I do. Definitely.

“Probably about forty-eight hours. Some of it would depend on how good a cook you are.” Then she turns away from me with her coffee and our scones and starts toward the door. “See you later,” she says to our moms.

And I’m left frothing my milk and wondering if it’s possible to decide in one day which of those things I’d rather do to her.

Or if it’s possible to want to do both equally.

CHAPTER 7

HARLOW

I step outside and take a deep breath.

I don’t know what just happened, but standing close to Jefferson just now made my heart start beating faster.

He smells really good. And noticing that over all the amazing scents in our moms’ bakery is saying something.

Maybe I’ll just chalk it up to that.

But he sure seems comfortable getting into my personal space.

Starting with when he slid into the booth at the diner, right up against me, and put his arm around me. Or when he backed me up against the gazebo. And when he crowded in next to me at the bakery.

He doesn't seem to care who’s around either.

Sure, in the diner it was for Zach’s benefit. And I suppose at the gazebo, anyone could’ve been walking or driving by and he needed to look like we were friendly. Okay, more than friendly.

But at the bakery, the audience was made up of only our moms. We just told them the whole thing was fake. Still, he crowded right in next to me and stretched his big, long muscular body out, looking down at me as if in challenge.

No, I wasn’t going to let him know it affected me.

I’m barely willing to admit that to myself.

But I can’t escape replaying all these words from him and my mom. They’re both right that it wouldn’t take long for us to decide to be serious if this was real. It makes complete sense.

If, in some alternate universe, we did decide to date we wouldn’t need anything near thirty days to know if it was going to work. We’ve known each other too long and too well. It would be clear quickly if we were in or out.

But not in this universe. The real one. The one we are currently living in.

He’s number two on my shit list right after Zach.

I’m not going to forget that he encouraged Ginny to leave Sapphire Falls. I don’t care if she’s his sister. She’s my friend. She’s from here. Her friends and family and home are here.

He also encouraged my brother to leave. Austin almost never comes home to visit since he moved to Indianapolis and fell in love. My mom misses him so much. I miss him so much.

Jefferson Riley has been encouraging people to leave Sapphire Falls ever since he came back. His own bitterness over being stuck here bleeds over to all the people he “cares about” and he pushes them out as quickly as he can.

So he’s the guidance counselor for the high school. He got to influence my brother that way since Austin was a junior when Jefferson took the job. But he wasn’t Ginny’s high school counselor. Or Graham’s. He was just their meddling brother.

I won’t forgive him for sending Graham to Colorado and breaking us up. Or for the things he said to Graham about me holding him back, about how much better off he’d be without me.

Graham and I have stayed in touch, of course. We’re still friends. But things between us have not been the same since Jefferson messed up the most important relationship in my life.

And then last fall he encouraged Alex Fallon, someone Jefferson and I literally lost sleep over together, to go to school in another state after he graduated. And, of course, Alex listened. Everyone always fucking listens to Jefferson.

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