Kiss and Break Up (Magnolia Cove, #1)(5)

I stared at it a moment while he logged on since he knew all my passwords and then picked it up.

I didn’t want to play. I wanted to ask why boys were so confusing, but that would’ve been weird. “Don’t shoot me this time.”

“It was an accident.”

I tutted. “Sure, sure.”





Dash



“My heels are getting stuck in the dirt,” Mila whined.

Jackson cranked his bike beside me, the sound thankfully drowning her out.

He gave me a look that said, what was she even doing here?

I shrugged, then jabbed a finger over my shoulder at Lars, who was sucking back a cigarette and fiddling with my two-stroke’s spokes after hitting a boulder the size of Mila’s melon-esque head.

Lars was too poor to buy his own bike, so whenever we got the urge to ride, he used mine.

He once had his own, a Honda older than my mom, but admitted he’d sold it to pay for school uniforms two years ago.

Regardless, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t rip his shirt from his back if he fucked those wheels. They were worth more than the bike itself. Kind of stupid, but whatever.

“Lars, did you invite the melon?”

Lars flicked his ash to the packed dirt, looking back over the grass speckled hills to where Mila was stumbling.

You could see my house through the trees if you squinted. Three acres of undeveloped land was all mine for the taking. Dad purchased it with the house, and he never failed to remind me that I should be outside riding the bikes that cost him a small fortune instead of playing video games. I didn’t take suggestions or reminders too well. So I guess you could say I didn’t take them at all. I rode when I wanted to and never when he pointed out that I should.

“Shit.” Lars spat on the ground, then stubbed out his cigarette.

I frowned, adjusting my gloves as he smashed down his helmet and threw his leg over the seat. A second later, he was tearing off into the orange smeared sunset.

Jackson shook his head, his eyes laughing before he did the same.

Halting some feet away, Mila watched them go, then looked at me with clear dismay. I shrugged, slapped my goggles on, then sprayed her with dirt as I raced off after them.

We thundered over the jumps, clefts, and ditches we’d created after hours of patting, shoveling, and using the bulldozer Dad had bought me last Christmas.

Twenty minutes later, near the edge of our property, we stopped by the small stream hidden behind a smattering of rocks and weeds.

Lars pulled off his helmet, swiping back his sweat-soaked hair. “Do you think she’s gone?”

“She’s probably still hobbling back to her car.” I set my helmet on my lap, then plucked out my pack of cigarettes from my pants. They were squashed, as expected, but they’d do.

Jackson leaned over his handle bars, his cheeks mottled as he pushed a loud burst of air past his lips. “What was she doing here?”

We were in as good a shape as we could be for a bunch of idiots who drank, smoked, and took the odd drug here and there. But I didn’t care. I’d quit racing when I was fifteen and found more interesting things to do with my time. Things which, of course, involved my dick.

Jackson still raced from time to time. Lars never did. Too costly to upkeep.

Lars looked a little chagrined. “I might have said I was riding here today when she called me.”

“You actually answered?” I scoffed. “Dipshit.”

“I was half asleep when my phone rang.” He looked through the trees. “I thought she’d given up.”

Jackson tutted. “You thought wrong. How long has it been since you dipped in that anyway?”

“Right before school let out. At that huge bay party.”

I laughed.

Lars’s worn boots kicked at a sharp looking rock. “She wanted to meet up, and I said I’d be too busy riding to hang. Guess she didn’t take the hint.”

I’d be concerned that she knew where I lived, but everyone knew where most people lived in this hellish town.

Jackson pushed his hair back, sliding his helmet on. “The word no doesn’t exist in Mila Groove’s vocabulary.”

“You’d know, you savage.” I drew in a deep inhale, coughing laughter as he flipped me off.

“I never fucked her. That was Rave.”

I pondered that, then decided I didn’t give a fuck.

“Enough vag talk,” Lars said. “Wade’s having another party Friday. We in?”

I felt my body pull taut as I remembered Peggy mentioning that Byron Woods had asked her to go. Though the guy had some nerve, I wasn’t worried. Peggy probably wouldn’t even go.

I’d texted her this morning, telling her she should come over for a ride. It wasn’t something she did very often, but she usually made a point to during the summer. We were a few weeks shy of returning to school, and she’d yet to take me up on the offer. She couldn’t ride well, but she liked riding with me. At least, I thought she did.

I wasn’t privy to what she was doing instead, and I didn’t really care to be. Probably scrapbooking, Instagramming, or thrift shopping. Maybe staring at her metal-free teeth in the mirror for hours on end.



“Get up.”

Peggy moaned and rolled over, peeling an eye open.