AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh my God . . .” I rubbed my hand over my hot cheek. “Okay. Back to the proposal. When did he tell you?”
“About a month ago. Want to smack me again? You could try my ass. I’ll probably like that.”
I stared at him.
He chuckled. “I went with him to pick out the ring. I’m pretty sure the jeweler thought we were getting married.”
“You could’ve told me.” I huffed.
“Hey, he asked me to keep it a secret. He doesn’t want Avery to find out.” When I opened my mouth to argue, he folded his arms. “It’s like when I took you to the doc, Tess. You didn’t want him to know . . .”
I nodded. “You got me.”
“I know.”
Too happy over the recent development to be any bit irritated, I broke out in a huge grin. “I’m so thrilled for them. They really are perfect for each other. You know, like once-in-a-life kind of thing. I know you think that’s pretty stupid, but I believe it.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid at all. I know . . . exactly what you mean.” He unfolded his arms.
His words were laced with a heavy meaning, but my attention was snagged by something else. Since his hands had been mostly occupied during lunch, I hadn’t noticed them until then. The flesh around his knuckles was an angry red, the skin roughed up and swollen. I frowned as I took his hand carefully in one of mine. “What happened to your knuckles?”
He pulled his hand free, glancing down at them with a frown. “I don’t know. Must’ve scraped them on something at the farm.”
“You don’t know?”
Jase shook his head. “Let’s get your pretty butt to class. Come on, hopalong.”
Though a teasing grin had appeared, a dark look had crossed his face. I glanced at his knuckles again, and for some reason, I thought of Cam’s hands after he’d confronted Jeremy. I pushed that thought away because that was . . . that was too weird. Jase said he scraped them at the farm and that’s what had to have happened because there was no other reason to how it could have happened.
None whatsoever.
Eighteen
Late morning on the first day of fall break, I stood in front of Lightning, gripping my crutches until my knuckles ached. “No.”
“You promised,” Jase reminded me gently, as if he was speaking to Jack.
“I don’t care.”
“That’s wrong.”
I glared at Jase, and he grinned. “I can’t get up there with my knee.”
“I’ll make sure you get up there just fine.”
My lower lip jutted out in a way that would’ve made Jack proud, who was currently quarantined to his bedroom and had thrown a Godzilla-sized fit when Jase said he couldn’t come out with us. Jase’s mom was in the shower when we showed up and his dad was somewhere on the farm. I wasn’t sure if he was going to make good on his promise to introduce me as his girlfriend today, but I was nervous for some reason. Maybe it was because that was such a huge step.
But I still felt bad for the little dude. “Can we see Jack before we leave?” I asked.
Jase blinked once and then twice. “Yeah.”
“I feel bad for him,” I explained, shifting my weight on the crutches. “He really wanted to come outside.”
A soft look crept into his eyes. “We can most definitely see him before we leave. He’d like that.” He leaned in, brushing his nose across mine. “I’d like that.”
I smiled.
“But changing the subject isn’t going to distract me. You’re getting up on this horse. End of discussion.”
