In my mind, he had given her a choice and she made her decision. True to her word, she never came back or even attempted to contact us. Maybe I should feel hurt or rejected that my mother left me too, but I didn’t. I didn’t miss out on anything. My dad made sure of that. I had Aunt Lynda, Beth, and her granny.
I was always a quiet child, never as outgoing as Beth, but after that, it was harder for me to make friends or let anyone else close. When Beth became interested in boys—well, only one boy, Aaron, she begged me to go with her to the quarter mile. I resisted until our senior year but even then I was always more interested in the cars. Boys thought I was odd, too much of a tomboy, always at the garage and covered in oil.
The only one who ever looked at me as though I was beautiful was Max Morgan. That first night I saw him at the quarter mile… It was like every romantic cliché. Everything instantly melted into the background when his eyes locked on mine. A flurry of butterflies erupted in my stomach, and my hand pressed against it in order to stop them from flitting around and making me feel like I was on a rollercoaster. No boy had ever looked at me like that or made my body react in that way. And then he smiled, but it was not the panty-dropping, wicked-as-sin smile he had perfected now. No, it was a beautiful, genuine smile that lit up his whole face, and somehow, I managed a small one in return.
Aaron shouted at me, and reluctantly, I turned my back on Max and focused on the engine in front of me. By the time I looked around again, Max was standing with a girl from town, blond and older, more beautiful than me. He was smiling down at her as she pressed into the side of his body. Clearly, I must have mistaken his smile for something else.
So I did what I did best and checked over Aaron’s Mustang, pushing all thoughts of Max Morgan and his addictive smile out of my mind.
“Aaron,” I shouted, but he was too busy chatting with Beth to pay attention to me. I needed some tools so I looked in his trunk, among all the crap he kept there, searching for his toolbox. Muttering under my breath.
“What kind of a grease monkey is he if he doesn’t have a fucking toolbox.”
A deep voice sounded behind me. “Do I get a kiss good luck?” I straightened, ignoring the way my heart stuttered at the sound of his voice and took a deep breath before turning around.
“Not fucking likely.” I snorted unattractively. Undeterred he took a step closer.
“Just one little good luck kiss.”
“Isn’t there someone else who can do that?” I willed my stupid heart to stop racing as he moved closer until he stood just in front of me inches away from my body. Closer than any boy had ever stood to me. And I started to notice things, like the way he smelled, fresh and enticing. The darkness of his eyes and the way his hair was blown about by the gentle breeze. I felt like I’d been living under a rock and had never noticed these things about anyone before.
“I’m sure there is, but I want one from you.” His voice dropped, and at that moment, he sounded as dangerous as he looked.
“Yeah, well, it ain’t happening.” The impact of my words was lost because I was struggling to breathe, and he knew damn well what his closeness was doing to me. His hand reached out and cradled the back of my head in his large palm, drawing my head upwards as his head lowered toward mine. He paused, just before his lips touched mine, giving me one last chance to stop him, but all coherent thought had left me. My mind was having trouble processing the fact that a boy was about to kiss me and not just any boy. My first kiss was going to be from Max Morgan, and while I was sure he’d had plenty of practice, I hadn’t. No boy had ever tried to kiss me before.
Triumph showed in his eyes before his soft lips pressed against mine. My eyes closed as his grip on me tightened. His tongue ran over the seam of my lips, and I parted them to allow his tongue to brush delicately at first over mine. A breathy moan escaped and this gave him further encouragement. Our kiss carried on, the people around us melting into the background, and for those few moments, it was just the two of us. When Max pulled back, confusion creased his brow as he stared down at me. Yeah, I think that kiss was as much a shock to him as it was to me.
“You have beautiful eyes,” he murmured, brushing a thumb over my bottom lip. “The way they sparkle.”
“What are you driving?” It popped out before I could think about how lame I sounded.
He chuckled and gave a little shake of his head, as though I amused him. “Subaru Impreza WRX.” His eyebrow arched when he saw me scrunch up my face. “What do you drive?” he challenged, waiting to see if I could do better.