Page 35 of The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad

“The fact that you can read,” I said sweetly.

“Nice,” he said, though I couldn’t tell if he was offended or amused. “Now, let’s get serious. Your list. Are you ready to start?”

“Sure.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “For your first task, I’m going to need you to grab my stick.”

My eyes went saucer-wide. Did he really just say… “Wh-what?”

“Damn.” Colton laughed quietly. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Sadie.”

As I spluttered, he pulled the paper back out of his pocket and flipped to the second page which was a printed a copy of my list. I noticed that the one about my first kiss (#14) had been crossed off. Also, right under “Carpe Diem List,” Colton had written “S’s Naughty List.” I bet he’d gotten a real kick out of that.

“Right there,” he said, pointing about a third of the way down the page, “number 10, learn to drive a stick shift. It’s not that hard. Just grab on, and I’ll show you how to handle a stick.”

His eyes were laughing at me as I placed my hand on the gear shift and muttered under my breath.

I had a feeling it was going to be a long 30 days.

“Just so you know, Colt said you’re banned from ever driving his car again.” Kyle looked far too happy about this as we walked to lunch together. In fact, he was practically skipping. “Good going, Sadie. I think you permanently scarred him with your non-existent driving skills.”

“Hey,” I said, “I’m an awesome driver. You know I always go the speed limit and stop on yellows.”

“Yeah, it’s incredibly annoying,” Kyle said.

I bumped him with my shoulder.

“Colt said he was in fear for his life.”

“Yeah well, he distracted me,” I muttered.

“How’d he do that?”

Oh, I don’t know, I thought.It could’ve been how he just had to comment on every single thing I did. Or how he kept jumping, grabbing the sides of his seat when I shifted to another gear. Or how he kept staring at me with this look of horror on his face.I mean, yes, it had taken me a little while to get used to it (I’d never fully gotten the hang of the whole clutch-shift-then-gas-as-you-come-off-the-clutch rhythm), but by the end, I was able to drive around the block three times with only a few minor hiccups.

“He was being so dramatic,” I said. “Like we were going to die every time I had to shift, or we stalled out. It wasn’t like I was going off the road or anything. We were totally safe.”

“I heard you got pulled over,” he said back.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, because I didn’t have my lights on, and it was after seven. The officer let us off with a warning.”Because I’d cried like a baby, I mentally added. I’d never gotten pulled over before, and I hoped it would never happen again. “It wasn’t too bad.”

“I heard you cried a lot.”

Of course, Colton had to tell him that.

“Yeah, it was definitely an ugly cry moment,” I said. “But it could’ve been worse.”

“Did my brother act like a jerk?” Kyle asked.

I shook my head, remembering how Colton had pulled a clean rag out of his center console and offered it to me without saying a word. He’d let me cry for a good five minutes until I was ready to drive again. He hadn’t even said anything when I’d almost taken out one of the mailboxes on the street.

“Colton was…surprisingly decent,” I admitted. “He didn’t make fun of me—which was weird but in a good way.”

“Yeah, Colt’s a good guy even if he tries to bury it sometimes.” Kyle smiled. “So, I assume you got that one marked off the list?”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling back. “I’ll never buy a car like that, but at least now I know how to drive stick.”

A chuckle came from behind us as Colton stepped up to my side.

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