Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 89170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Smiling, I shook my head. “Sadly, I am not. I’m an agricultural business major, though, so maybe we’ve passed each other once or twice.”
She nodded. “Maybe. I was hoping you were; I missed class and need the notes for the quiz, but I’ll send a message to our group chat. I’m not doing very well in that class, and if I don’t pass my mother will kill me.”
I turned on the barstool to face both women. “I got an A in Professor McNullen’s class last year. If you need any tutoring, I’d be more than happy to help you,” I said with another brilliant smile.
The redhead’s eyes lit up. “Oh my gosh, really? That would be so amazing.”
I pulled out my cell phone and handed it to her. “Put your number in, and we’ll work out a time.”
She quickly added her name and number and handed me back my phone.
“Shelby?”
Nodding, she replied, “That’s me!”
I sent her a text. “Blayze Shaw. I look forward to helping you out.”
Shelby’s tongue swept quickly across her lips as she let out a nervous giggle. “Sounds good, Blayze. I’ll talk to you soon.”
With a nod, I replied, “Talk soon.” Little did Shelby know, tutoring was all she was going to get out of me. Oh, I wasn’t an innocent, but I didn’t make it a habit to sleep around with women. Something my father and uncles had pounded in my head, along with my brother, Hunter, and my cousin, Bradly. Josh and Nathan, my cousins, were still too young to understand.
After Shelby and her friend had turned and walked away, I looked back at Ryan and Mindy.
Laughing, Mindy lifted her beer to me. I clinked it as she said, “And I just proved my point. You could charm the panties off a damn nun.”
Ryan shook his head. “The sad part is that you’ll probably only teach her about finance.”
I laughed because Ryan knew me so well.
I glanced to my left and asked Mindy, “Why are you staring at me like that?”
She narrowed one eye and tilted her head. “Are you still hung up on her?”
I laughed again. “What are you talking about?”
“Come on, Blayze. I’ve known you far too long. You may be able to charm any woman into going back to your place, but I know you don’t sleep with all of them.”
“And your point is?”
“My point is, are you still stuck on the one who got away?”
Her question caused Ryan’s head to pop up. “You think because he doesn’t fuck around he’s stuck on some girl?”
Mindy gave him a one-shoulder shrug. “Georgiana wasn’t just some girl. And since that summer, she hasn’t ever come back to Hamilton.”
My heart dropped to my stomach. How in the hell could Mindy read my mind like that?
“Georgiana?” Ryan and I both said at the same time.
With a look that said she wasn’t buying my bullshit, Mindy sighed. “Blayze, I’m like a sister to you. I was there, remember?”
I looked down at my beer. Georgiana Crenshaw had been coming to our ranch for as long as I could remember. Every summer. June to early August. She was part of our group. It was always me, Ryan, Mindy, and Georgie. But the older we got, the more I started to see her as something more than my friend. The summer she turned sixteen, she had changed in both her looks and worldliness, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Dreaming about her. She was the only girl I had ever told that I liked her. Just before she left to head back to Texas, I kissed her behind my father’s barn. The kiss turned into something more with me lifting her leg and touching her, and it was then that I asked Georgie if I could make her mine.
I closed my eyes, remembering her big green eyes as she’d stared at me in shock. They’d softened and she’d said yes, and that was the moment I’d given her my whole heart.
I snapped out of the memory and forced myself to chuckle. “I was lucky enough to give Georgie her first proper kiss,” I stated with a smirk.
Mindy shook her head. “I think a little more than that happened.”
I sighed. “Yeah, that’s putting it lightly.”
“I liked Georgie. She was funny,” Ryan said as he stared at the beer he was holding up to the light.
Mindy smiled and bumped her shoulder against mine. “Don’t worry, Blayze. We all remember our first kiss. Some more fondly than others.”
Ryan met her glare across the table. “It wasn’t pleasant for me either, Mindy.”
Mindy and Ryan had somehow ended up hooking up after a pasture party one night. Both of them pretended to regret it, but I knew from talking to them separately that they were glad their first time had been with someone they cared about and trusted. There had been zero feelings beyond friendship.