Home > Jilted Jock(53)

Jilted Jock(53)
Author: Rebecca Jenshak

He chuckled and shook his head from side to side slowly. “Even crazier, sweetheart. I bought the whole damn house.”

My mouth dropped open and an onslaught of emotions slammed into me. Happiness won out and my eyes pricked as tears formed. “But your apartment in LA?”

Since I’d moved back, we’d been living together at his place. I’d gone back to work for Harry, with a hefty raise and an agreement that I’d only be part time until I finished school and got my CPA license. The drive back and forth didn’t bother me. And though we’d discussed maybe buying a house in Hermosa Beach someday, logistically it didn’t make sense when Finn had to be near the training center for practice and games.

“We’ll keep the apartment for now, but Hermosa Beach is where I want our home to be. Me, you, a couple of babies.” He winked.

“Don’t forget Marshmallow.” The image of that small house holding four people and a wild cat made me smile. It’d be chaos for sure.

“Never.”

“I love it. Thank you.”

He picked up my present and gave it a little shake with a grin.

“It’s not a house or a car, I’m afraid.” Nerves made my stomach twist into knots. My gift felt so small after his.

Lifting the packet of papers from the box, Finn’s eyes crinkled in confusion and then widened. “Are these…” He looked up; hope tinged with disbelief in his blue eyes. Hyper blue.

I nodded as he began silently reading the top page. “I never sent them, but I responded to every email you wrote. Fear and guilt wouldn’t allow me to complicate things, but those months apart… I never stopped thinking about you. You were always there. In my thoughts and in my heart. The item on my gratitude list that I wouldn’t allow myself to write and the draft emails I wasn’t brave enough to send.”

“God, I love you,” he said, voice thick with emotion. “Thank you. This is the best gift you could have given me.”

He laid back with the papers and continued reading, and I joined him. Lying beside my husband, head resting on his chest, I closed my eyes and let his voice soothe me. They were pieces of a love story in its most painful, hopeless stage. Not perfect or convenient, but it was ours. It was passion and adventure and most importantly, it ended happily ever after.

 

THE END

 

 

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Preview of The Assist

 


Interested in more jocks? Continue reading for a free sample of book one in the Smart Jocks series, The Assist.

***

You know those stories where the smart girl tutors the dumb jock? This isn’t it.

 

Blair

What’s the probability of insulting the one guy on campus I need to help me pass statistics? If I knew, I wouldn’t be standing in front of Wes Reynolds begging him to tutor me.

Basketball player, sexy, arrogant, always sleeping through class… these are the things I knew about him. What I didn’t know is that he is a seriously smart jock.

 

Wes

What’s the best way to get rid of the peppy and unrelenting girl that keeps asking me to tutor her? If I knew, I wouldn’t be staring at her tan legs and attempting to teach her statistics.

Sorority girl, fine as f**k, determined, ball buster… these are the things I knew about her. What I didn’t know is that she is all the things I didn’t realize I wanted or needed.

Or that one semester with her would change everything.

 

 

Prologue


Blair

Three Years Ago

“Who run the world?” Gabby and I scream the lyrics at the top of our lungs. Top down on her cherry-red convertible, music blaring, hair blowing across our faces, we pull out of the high school parking lot with the first day of classes behind us.

“One more year, Blair. One more freaking year, and we’re out of this place,” she says when Beyoncé stops singing.

“You don’t think you’ll miss it? Even a little bit?”

She shoots me a look that questions my sanity. “No. We’re going to Valley U, we’re going to study hard, party our asses off, and then, when we graduate, we’re going to start some fabulous female only business and end up on the cover of Forbes or Vanity Fair. You and I are meant for more than Suck Hill.”

Her enthusiasm is contagious. I want all those things, truly, but it’s Gabby who is counting down the days until we can leave our small town of Succulent Hill, which Gabs lovingly renamed Suck Hill. I’ve always liked the community and friendliness of living in our hometown. Not Gabby. She’s been dreaming of moving to Valley and attending the university there since we were in middle school.

Bringing the car to a halt at the four-way stop just outside of our neighborhood, she turns the radio down. There aren’t any other cars as far as the eye can see, but we continue to idle in place. I meet her serious gaze. “What’s wrong? Are we out of gas again or something?”

“Promise me we’re getting out of this town.”

I laugh off her words. “I promise.”

She grabs my wrist and pulls on the friendship bracelet I made in eighth grade. The ratty thing made of purple thread from my mother’s sewing kit still hangs on my arm. A matching one dons her wrist. It’s become a symbol of our relationship and the promises we’ve made. “I mean it, Blair. You and I are getting out of this place. We’re going to make something of ourselves. Run companies, have someone fetch us coffee, live in fabulous downtown apartments, and have brunch dates after Pilates on the weekends.”

“I know. We’ve only been talking about it forever.”

I don’t understand the sudden urgency of her words. We should be enjoying our last year and planning what we’ll wear to prom or what we’ll put in the senior time capsule. College is a year away and there’s so much to do before then.

“Swear it. Swear you’re going to do it with me.”

Gabby’s perfectly styled blonde hair blows in the breeze like a commercial for Vidal Sassoon. It’s easy for people to laugh off her ambitions as the rambling of a pretty girl whose been handed everything her entire life. She is beautiful, and she has been handed her share of privilege, but only I know how strong her desire to rule the world is. I don’t believe in my own dreams nearly as much as I believe in hers.

I nudge her with my elbow. “I swear, Gabs.”

My faith in myself is shaky, but I believe in Gabby, and with her by my side, I know we’re capable of anything.

Dark clouds off in the distance warn of a monsoon storm rolling in just as Gabby parks in front of her house and closes the convertible top. “Sure you don’t want to come with me tonight? Rachel’s back to school pool party is going to be epic.”

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