Page 79 of Touchdown, Tennessee

I was starting to think my body was somehow uniquely attuned to his.

No matter how much he bothered me, annoyed me, made me fuckingpanicabout ten times a day, when we were close like this there was nothing else in the world that mattered.

Weird.

Weird good.

Physically, it almost felt like we were made for each other.

And right now I didn’t want to focus on anything else.

“Fuck,” he whispered as he pushed hard into my mouth, the ridge of his tip sliding hard on my tongue. He came, gripping his hand on the back of my head, giving me everything I’d been wanting.

I swallowed around him.

My heart was beating hard.

I like you. And I don’t want to. But I’m not going to be afraid of the truth.

I stood up. I wiped at my mouth with the back of my hand, giving him a nod.

“I meant what I said. And I’ll always mean it,” I told him.

I couldn’t read his expression.

He didn’t respond either way.

He gathered his things, tugged his pants back on.

And then he left without a word.

CHAPTER 12

GRAY

I picked up the splitting axe and raised it up, taking a heavy swing down onto the log in front of me.

A satisfyingcracksounded out through the backyard.

Another hard swing downward split the log in two, revealing the fresh wood inside.

“Perfect for firewood,” my grandmother said. She was standing over near the door that led inside, surveying the backyard as I started in on the first batch of firewood this year.

“Going to take a while to go through the whole pile,” I told her.

She nodded. Her silver hair was cropped short, and when she narrowed her eyes at the pile of wood, she almost looked like a park ranger, surveying her land. She was wearing blue flannel, which definitely added to the effect.

“But you like doing it, don’t you?” she asked.

She didn’t smile, but I could tell she was amused.

“You think I like doing anything with an axe, don’t you?”

“I think so,” she said. “I’m out of here. Marty is picking me up.”

“Going to see a movie?”

“He’s taking me to watch some new flick where the people have super powers or some crap like that.”