Oh, shiznit. I’m falling in love with him. No, no, I can’t be. I hardly know him. So it can’t be love. It must be lust, then. He has a body hotter than Hades itself, but that’s not it either. I don’t know what it is. It’s more than lust, but not quite love. What comes in between lust and love? Whatever it is, that’s what I am. I’m in between lust and love with Brody.

“What?” Brody asked, looking at me with his head tilted to the side.

“I just can’t believe you went to so much trouble for me just so I didn’t have to sit alone on a Friday night,” I whispered. I laid the Coke can in my lap and raised my hand to his face, hovering just a millimeter away from his skin, but not touching him. My fingers trembled, whether from nerves or the need to touch him, I wasn’t sure. Maybe both.

“I told you the next time we watched a movie, I wanted you with me. Technically, I said in my bed, but since that isn’t possible, this will have to do.”

“Thank you.” My hand skimmed over his jaw to the back of his neck. I leaned to him and hugged him tightly, laying my head on his shoulder.

Brody wrapped his arms around me, resting his head on top of mine. When I ended the hug and pulled back, Brody cupped my face in his hands. I froze, and we looked in each other’s eyes. I could feel Brody’s breath against my lips. It came in fast puffs, matching mine. I wondered if his heart was beating as hard as mine. If he’d leaned in for a kiss, I wouldn’t have moved. I’d have let him kiss me—I’d have kissed him back.

He pulled me toward him. My tongue darted out to moisten my lips, and Brody groaned. Just before his lips touched mine, he pulled my head down and placed his mouth against my forehead. I sighed, partly from the feel of his lips on my skin and partly from the disappointment that it wasn’t on my lips.

“You’re welcome. It wasn’t a big deal. A few bags of microwave popcorn and a cooler full of Cokes, no biggie.” Brody shrugged a shoulder, pushing a lock of my hair behind my ear. “Have you seen this movie?”

“Nope.” I wanted to forget the movie and pull him to me. Brody made me feel things I’d never felt with Jaden. And it wasn’t just physical, although he was hot as Hell. It was everything. Brody made me feel wanted, cared for, special, respected, all things that a girl could wish for from a boy.

“Good. Let’s pop this sucker in and fill our faces with popcorn dripping in butter.”

“Sounds good.” I leaned back against the pillow and got comfortable.

We sat in Brody’s Jeep in the dark field watching a horror movie. I jumped at every little sound, and Brody laughed at me.

“Come here,” he said, putting his arm around me and pulling me into the crook of his arm. “I’ll keep the monsters away.” An amused grinned pulled on his lips.

“You couldn’t pick a comedy to watch while we’re out in the middle of nowhere in the dark?”

“That’s no fun.” He squeezed me tighter to him and tickled my side.

I giggled and squirmed against him. “Yeah, if you say so.”

I stayed snuggled against Brody’s side. His hand gently grazed up and down my arm, and I wished I could have worn short sleeves so I would’ve felt his skin sliding against mine. Since I’d started noticing the effects Brody was having on me, I’d wondered if I was having the same on him. Yes, he’d tried to kiss me, but he was known for his steady stream of romances. And no matter how hard I tried to put that out of my mind, I couldn’t get past him dating Sarah, Tanya, and then Kara right after school started. But every time I moved against him as the movie played, I heard his heart rate speed up under my ear, or his breathing change… and I knew. Brody Victor was not immune to the effects of our attraction to each other. He was feeling it as strongly as I was. That made me happy, and a little scared.

“That was pretty good,” I said when the movie was over.

“How would you know? You had the blanket over your eyes most of the time.” Brody grinned.

I moved to sit up so he could take care of the video, but his arm tightened around me. I settled back against him.

“I did not.”

“Okay, whatever you say.” Brody pulled the blanket around me. “Are you getting cold?”

Ha! If he only knew how not cold I was. “No.”

“So…” He drummed the thumb of one hand on his knee.

“What?” I pushed the strands of hair that had worked their way out of the knot at the base of my neck behind my ear and looked up at Brody.

“Jaden. He’s quite a piece of work, that one.”

I sighed and pulled away from him. This time, he let me go. “I was hoping we were going to avoid this conversation.”

“What? Just sit, watch the movie, and never bring up the thousand-pound elephant dangling over our heads?”

I glared at him. “I was hoping.”

Brody nodded. “Okay. Sure, if that’s what you want. I just don’t get you. You seem so self-assured in everything you do. So independent… until it comes to him. And then it’s like all your common sense and intelligence flies out the window. You roll over and just let him treat you like dirt. It doesn’t make sense.”

“I know. What time is it?”

“It’s after ten.”

“I need to get home. My curfew is eleven.”

Brody sighed and sat up. We were silent as we folded the blanket and picked up the empty pop cans and popcorn bowl, putting everything back in the bag in the rear of the Jeep.

It wasn’t until we were driving home that Brody spoke. “I overheard you saying to Jenna that you’d tried to break up with Jaden before. What happened?”

“I’ve tried more than once. He made my life a living hell. He’d follow me from class to class when I was at school, and I’d catch him following me even outside of school, at the mall, the movies, and places like that. He threatened any guy who came within ten feet of me. And forget asking me out, no guy would dare do that. They’d barely speak to me. That’s why I sat alone in all my classes before you came along. No one would risk getting on Jaden’s bad side. So they stayed away.”

“So he bullied you into getting back together,” Brody said, his voice hard.

“I guess so.”

“You’re home.” He stopped in front of my neighbor’s house and turned out the lights.

“Thanks so much for tonight. I had a lot of fun.” I looked at Brody and smiled. “It sure beat sitting at home all night.”

Brody grabbed my hand, laced his fingers with mine, and squeezed. “Anytime.”

I slipped out of the Jeep, our fingers sliding slowly away from each other’s. Shutting the door, I walked home. I saw Brody flip on his lights and slowly pull away from the curb as I closed the door behind me.

“You made it home before curfew tonight. There’s a first time for everything, I guess.” I jumped at the sound of Ralph’s voice behind me.

Ralph owned two successful car lots and was on the Cassidy Independent School Board. He was highly respected in the social circles in Middleton. My mother, however, was not. She was white trash from the wrong side of the tracks. Everyone assumed she was nothing more than a gold-digging hussy. If they knew the real Ralph McKenna—not the front he put on when he was around other people—they’d know there were easier ways to dig for gold. They’d also know gold digging went both ways.

Ralph and my mother married just six months after meeting. Six months after my stepdad died in a car accident. She was working as a waitress, trying to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table until the life insurance benefits and the inheritance from my stepdad’s will was finally distributed. She planned to go back to school and finish the degree she started before her surprise pregnancy with me caused her to drop out. But she met Ralph, and it was love at first sight. A whirlwind romance, an elopement in Vegas, and they’ve been happy ever since. Or that was the story they told everyone.

“Yes, sir,” I said, inching my way to the stairs and hoping he’d just let me go up to my bedroom.