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Chapter One
Ben
It’s going to be weird not being here.
That’s all I can think of standing on the front porch of my family’s cattle ranch, looking out at our expansive land. This town, this land, this home are all I’ve known my entire life. Eighteen years of memories, good and bad. From racing my brothers home at dusk after a filled day of exploration, to my mom dying.
I’m excited to attend Clemson. But the elation is tempered by fear and worry because I’m leaving behind everybody I love.
I sigh.
The screen door slams shut on the wood frame.
“Jesus, are you really sulking that you leave tomorrow? Do you know how much pussy you’re gonna pull at Clemson?”
I roll my eyes at my youngest brother, Emmett. He’s fifteen and ruled by hormones.
“You wouldn’t get it.”
“What’s to be sad about? You got a full ride to play football which makes you a hero in this town. And bonus, you’re getting the hell outta Dodge. What’s the downside?”
“Gillian—”
“Will be a distant memory once you get to South Carolina and meet all the fresh meat.”
He’s shot up in the last couple of months, almost meeting my six foot two inches now. Though at two hundred pounds, I have him out-muscled.
“You talk about girls like they’re one of our heifers and you’re the bull.”
He shrugs. “Sorry, I don’t put them on a pedestal like you do with Gillian.”
“Keep Gillian out of it.” My words hold a bite I don’t intend. The last thing I want is to get into it with my brother, but today is my last day with Gillian before I leave, and I want every minute to be memorable.
Almost everyone else attending college, still has weeks before they have to leave, but football starts early for workouts and practice.
Emmett raises his hands. His classic move after he’s the cause of my annoyance from his oversharing mouth. “You’ll see soon enough.”
“Where’s Jude?” I ask.
My older brother, Jude is one year older than me but acts a decade older. Responsible, reliable, and grumpy are the three adjectives to describe him. It wasn’t always that way though. Before my mom died, he was more carefree and wilder. Maybe he was always going to be the most responsible one of us three. Hard to say since we were only five and six when she died.
“Heard him tell Dad he was heading out to check a fence on the north end of the ranch.”
A sharp familiar pain pinches my chest.
Guilt.
I’m leaving to play football and Jude’s stuck here helping my dad run the ranch.
“What are you up to today?” Emmett jumps up on the porch railing.
“Picking up Gillian to swim at the old quarry and then coming back here.”
Emmett’s eyes light up. “Can I come?”
“Hell no.”
My brother is the town’s biggest flirt and the last thing me or Gillian want is to spend our last day together with my little brother in tow picking up girls. It’s the reason I didn’t invite my friends. I’ll see everyone tonight at our annual Fourth of July pig roast, but this morning is just for us.
