Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“He said you’ve been wanting to add one to your collection to match your poncho.”
I lower my head to hide my smile before agreeing with Jasmine’s assumption. “There’s something about the scent of a well-worn article of clothing.”
She groans like she fully understands what I mean before repeating her first question, “Mama’s?”
“I’d love to, but…” I stray my eyes to Benji and my mom on the other side of the court. “I really should spend some time with them since they drove all the way here.”
“Okay.” Jasmine hugs me goodbye before galloping down the stairs, bypassing Cash on her way.
After she whispers something in his ear, he locks his eyes with me and waves. It is the same wave he’s given me every game the past four weeks, but it feels different tonight. Somewhat personal.
Or maybe that’s my hope speaking again.
I snap my eyes to my side when a familiar voice asks, “Are you not going out with your friends?”
I greet my mother with a hug before messing up Benji’s hair. “That would be a little rude, wouldn’t it?” Benji shrugs like he’d diss his family for his friends any day of the week. “And then I’d lose the opportunity of asking you how you made a basketball sail through the air remotely.”
“It was easy…” While shadowing my walk down the bleachers, he gives me every detail of the plan he devised and implemented with less than twenty-four hours’ notice.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay? Eden has a new boyfriend, so she’s rarely in.”
My mother speaks through the window Benji rolled down when he farewelled me with a raspberry face. “We have a new herd of heifers arriving tomorrow morning. Since it was my idea to get back into ranching, I should help your father get them settled.”
“You bought more cattle?”
She smiles like I told her I’m graduating early before dipping her chin. “We don’t want your diploma going to waste.” After taking a moment to absorb the absolute joy in my eyes, she nudges her head to my dorm. “Go on. We’ll have three hundred head waiting for you by summer break. You need your rest.”
I gulp before waving her off.
A reason for her leaving me unattended outside my dorm is exposed when I break through the shadows of a big old oak tree far enough to spot someone sitting on the stoop of the stairs.
The fluttering of my pulse is heard in my greeting. “Hey.”
Cash’s beanie sits high on his head when his cheeks incline in response to my nonchalant greeting. “Hey.” He stands, being extra cautious not to topple over the pizza box in his hand. “Can I come in?”
I nod before skirting past him and inputting the pin code. “Eden has a new—”
“Boyfriend. I heard.”
His grin enlarges when I peer back at him and arch a brow. “Why do I feel like I’m the last one to find out everything?”
I’m not anticipating a response, but I get one. “Because you don’t take hints, and you grew up on a ranch surrounded by your cousins not deep enough in the South.”
He coughs when I sock him in the stomach before he shadows my walk to my room. Because of the Hawks’ win and it being the weekend, the dormitory is extra quiet.
After entering my room and closing the door behind him, Cash removes his beanie, then asks, “Have you eaten?”
He looks disappointed when I nod, so I say, “But I could eat again.”
When I gesture my hand to a portion of carpet under my bed, I plonk my backside on the far corner before accepting the pizza box from Cash’s grasp.
My brows pull together when the unevenness of the box’s contents almost has the pizza flopping onto the floor. Either Cash ate most of the pizza, or there are only a handful of triangular slabs of cheese in this box.
It dawns on me that Cash pays more attention than he lets on when he murmurs, “You said you’re not a fan of pizza, so I got you something else.” I smile like an idiot when he flips open the pizza box to expose a big creamy plop of pasta in the middle of the box. “Mama’s doesn’t usually do takeout pasta, so I had to compromise.” He drinks in my smile long enough for me to be conscious of how big it is before asking, “Do you have forks?”
His smile matches mine when I answer, “I do, but do we need them? Sometimes messy chaos can be beautiful too.”
His eyes flick to my closet for a nanosecond before he joins me on the floor.
The pasta is stone-cold, proving Cash purchased it long before I arrived home, but I eat it as if my stomach is not about to burst out of my linen pants. The silence this time isn’t awkward. It’s nice.