Immature?
She hadn’t even seen immature, but I was tired that afternoon. I was tired of being told what to do, how to act, what to be. I couldn’t even think of the last time I made a choice that was mine and mine alone.
Yet she had the nerve to call me immature.
So, that’s exactly what I became.
“Excuse me, excuse me,” I said, hurrying to the stage where a band was playing. I cut right in. “Sorry, Josh, I’ll get the microphone back to you in just a second,” I said, using my deep Southern belle charm voice as I grabbed the microphone from the stand. “It’s just that I wanted to clear up some of the rumors circulating around town lately about Finley’s and my relationship.”
“Gracelyn Mae, get off that stage right now!” Mama barked from the wing of the stage.
I gestured toward her. “If y’all didn’t notice, the Queen of Chester showed up tonight. Let’s give my mama, Loretta Harris, a big round of applause. Isn’t she a beauty?” Everyone started clapping for Mama, and she gave her big Southern fake smile and waved.
Then she hissed toward me, and said, “Give me the microphone.”
“Sorry, Queen,” I stated, slightly bowing toward her. “You can have the microphone in a second, but first Princess Grace is going to say a few words if that’s okay.” I turned back to the group of individuals staring my way, and I took a deep breath. “First and foremost, it feels good to be back in Chester. This place is the best home I’ve ever had and—”
Before I could finish speaking, the microphone went out, and I turned to see Mama holding the unplugged cord in her hand. She looked pleased that she cut me off, and that only made me angrier.
I dropped the mic. “It seems we are having some technical difficulties, so I’m just going to need y’all to stay really quiet for a second as I give you all the great news! It turns out that we’re expecting a child!” I exclaimed, and I listened to the gasps in the area, and my eyes zoomed in on Finn. “But by ‘we’ I don’t mean Finley and me. That’s not the ‘we’ he has anymore. His ‘we’ is now him and Autumn Langston, my best friend. You all know her. Bible study teaching Autumn, the woman who’s been screwing my husband for the past few months.” When I spotted Autumn in the crowd, she was frozen. “They are expecting their first child, so if we could all just give them a big round of applause.” The space stayed quiet, and I began slow clapping. I was the only one clapping at all. I then stared straight into Finn’s eyes and took a deep breath. “Congratulations on the pregnancy, Finley James.” I blinked once and fought the tears that were trying to come. “I know it’s what you always wanted.”
With that, I stormed off the stage, and Mama had a horrified look in her eyes. “Grace…I didn’t know…” she told me, but I didn’t care.
“Don’t you have a son you should be consoling during this hard time?” I asked her. “I’m sure Finn could truly use your support.”
I brushed past her, and past everyone who was now whispering about me and the nightmare that was my life. I just kept walking faster and faster until I found myself standing in front of Jackson’s cabin door, banging on it repeatedly. I had finally done something outside of my good girl nature. I hadn’t done the right thing, Lord knows I was wrong, but still, somehow it felt oh-so-good.
18
Jackson
Grace was out of breath as I opened my front door. She’d been pounding on the wood like a madwoman, and when caught sight of her, she even looked the part.
“Hi,” she said, her breaths heaving in and out.
“Hi,” I replied.
“Can I come in?”
I stepped to the side, allowing her access.
She began to pace the living room, and I could almost feel how crazed her mind had to be. Her steps were quick and erratic, her mind spinning fast.
“What is it?” I asked her.
“I need you to sleep with me,” she blurted out.
“What?”
“I said I need you to—”
“No, I heard you.”
“Then why did you say what?”
“Because even though I heard you, it just seemed so damn ridiculous.” I raised an eyebrow. “Are you drunk?”
“Nope, and I’m thinking straight for the first time in a while.”
“And thinking straight means wanting to sleep with me?”
“Yes.”
I kept my eyebrow raised. “Are you drunk?” I repeated, and she began to blush.
“No, Jackson. Come on, I’m serious.”
I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms. “Who pissed you off?”
She kept pacing. “It doesn’t matter. All I need to know is if you’ll have sex with me or not.”
“Princess—”
“I’m not a princess!” she snapped, pausing her steps. She looked my way, and her stare was heavy as she released a weighted sigh. “I’m tired of this. I’m tired of being the princess, the good girl, the girl next door. I’ve been that all my life, and it’s gotten me nowhere. It’s gotten me nothing.”
“So the next step, obviously, is sleeping with me,” I joked. She walked over and stood in front of me.
“Yes.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because you’re the exact opposite of good.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
A smirked lifted the corner of her mouth. “I knew you would.”
“Grace, you don’t want to do this…” I warned as she moved closer.
“Yes, I do.”
“People in town say I’m dangerous, and they aren’t wrong. I’m unstable sometimes, lashing out without warning.”
“That doesn’t scare me. Besides…” Her steps moved her closer until we were standing inches apart. My back was still resting against the wall, and her breaths were coming faster and faster with each second. “Maybe I need a little danger in my life.”
Her hand brushed against my neck, and I closed my eyes as the feel of her fingertips danced across my skin.
“You’ll regret it,” I promised her.
She lightly snickered in disbelief. “Do you ever regret sex?”
I opened my eyes and burned my stare into her blues.
She heard my reply without me speaking a word. Hesitation hit her for a moment as confusion swarm in her stare.
“I use it to forget,” I confessed.
“To forget what?”
“Everything.”
She nodded slowly. “I want to forget, too.”
“Forget what?”
“Everything.”
Two people who wanted to forget everything together…there were only a million ways that could go wrong.
“This is a bad idea,” I warned.
“Yes,” she agreed. “But still, I want it.”
I grimaced. “You’re sad.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “You’re sadder.”
Yes.
Her hands landed on my chest, and she looked up into my eyes. “You don’t scare me, Jackson Emery.”
“I should.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because sometimes I scare myself.”
She still stayed so close. Her body pressed against mine, and dammit if I didn’t pull her closer—how could I not? Gracelyn Mae invoked that odd sense of familiarity I hadn’t ever felt before.
Even when you didn’t want her near you, you somehow found yourself moving closer.
My hands against her lower back as her hips made contact with mine. What was it about her that forced my body to go against my mind?
“I’ve read about boys like you in books, ya know,” she whispered, her fingers slowly spinning spirals on my chest.
“Oh, yeah? What did those books teach you about boys like me?”
“Well…” She bit her bottom lip, and with a small inhalation, she whispered, “They taught me to stay away.”
“Then why are you so close?”
She tilted her head up, looking me straight in the eyes. “Because in those stories, the heroine never ever listens.”
“And then there’s trouble?” I asked.
“Yes, and then there’s trouble.”
From the way she said those words, I knew trouble was exactly what she was in search of. We were the classic cliché. She was the good girl next door, I the monster from around the block. We were perfect opposites for the perfect storm, and she was asking me to be her next flaw, her greatest mistake.
And, well, who was I not to live up to her request?
“I could destroy you,” I warned.
“Or save me.”