Slow Twitch - Реинхардт Лиз (бесплатные серии книг .txt) 📗

“Jake.” Brenna drew my name out long and sweet, like a soft piece of sugary chewed bubblegum stretched out of her cute little mouth on the tip of her finger. I got stuck on the sound my name made coming out of her mouth. “This is the weekend.”

The sun was high and hot overhead, but it suddenly felt like the temperature spiked, and it had nothing to do with the weather. I actually hadn’t forgotten. Not at all. But I didn’t know what Brenna would feel about the whole thing, so I was going to let her take the lead. “This weekend?”

“This is it.” She bit her bottom lip and broke out the biggest, brightest, most excited smile I’d ever seen.

That smile grabbed my throat and heart and…other places all at once. How did Brenna manage to shake up and twine sexy and sweet so perfectly? How did she manage to make me want to protect her from anything and everything and corrupt her at the same time?

“So, you make plans with anyone else? Or are you spending the whole weekend with me.” She nodded softly, and I cleared my throat. “You gotta check in with Mom?”

She held up her phone. “We’ve already texted, and I’ll check in again later. She knows I’m going out. I’m supposed to have fun. And be careful. Is that what we’re going to do?”

Her grin was contagious. “Get your ass in the truck, woman! I need a shower before we do this!”

My step-dad was out playing pool, so I settled Brenna in my room and got cleaned up. After my shower, I came into my room and found Brenna on the bed, hair hanging off the side, bare feet propped on my wall, studying my motocross posters.

“Were you upset about today?” She turned her head and looked at me with these soft blue eyes. She wasn’t giving me any pity, and I wanted to kiss her like crazy just for that.

“I was.” I toweled off, and laughed at her construction-whistle cat calls while I got my clothes on. “You’re a sexual harasser,” I accused, falling on the bed next to her.

“Only for you.” She grinned and ran her hands over my shoulders and down my arms. “I thought you did great today.”

“I did alright.” I wanted to say more, but I bit my tongue hard before I started spilling all my regrets. It was stupid to go over them. The bottom line was, I needed to learn from what I did and go forward, not worry about what already happened.

“You would have done better on the better bike,” she said matter-of-factly. She nuzzled under my shoulder, and I cradled her in my arms.

“I know.” I ran my nose over her hair, soft and good-smelling. She smelled like home.

“You’d do better if you took honors classes.” It was just another fact.

“I know that, too.” I watched as she fitted her hand to mine, palm to palm. I could bend my fingers right over hers.

“You seem to know a lot.” She turned her head and narrowed her eyes at me. “But what will you do with all this vast knowledge?”

“Is this another attempt to get me to sign up for honors?” I asked. It wasn’t an accusation. In fact, I was happy that she gave enough of a shit to keep after me about it.

“No. It’s just…” She sighed and pushed my hair back off my forehead. I’d needed a haircut for a while, but this summer brought out a lazy side of me I didn’t even know I had before. “This summer has been so crazy. I feel like it’s been longer than three months, but at the same time, it went so damn fast. And we both did crazy stuff. Me and my stupid essay--”

“It wasn’t stupid,” I interrupted. “The more I think about it, the more I like it. I reread it a few times you know.” I had. I had sat on the edge of my bed and struggled through it three or four more times, until I had it locked in my head.

Her eyes widened til all the lashes seemed to stand out straight. “Don’t read it too many times! I’m going to write more essays. Different ones. That’s what I’m trying to say. This whole summer has been crazy, right? You and Caroline and drinking. You punching your dad and Cadence’s idiot boyfriend. Me getting a handle on how to be friends with Saxon without letting him drive me nuts. Meeting Evan and listening to her when she told me I needed to do more, be braver. Learning how to be independent, but also follow the rules. All of this stuff…” She pressed her lips together. “Things change so damn fast, and I never, ever want you to be left behind. Do you understand? I never want to feel like I left you behind.” When she looked at me, her eyes were shiny with tears and her voice was tight like a rubber band stretched as far as it would go.

“You know I plan to follow you wherever. Off the plank, if it comes to it.” I threaded my fingers through hers and held her hand tight. “I’ve got something to show you.”

I got off my bed and went to my closet, pulled out the stack I’d been keeping at the top. Brenna sat up, her hair a big sexy mess and her mouth rounded out. “Jake? Are those the books for…”

“Honors English.” I sat on the bed while she touched the spines.

“Were you hiding them?” she asked, inspecting the cover of Song of Solomonby Toni Morrison with its robed guy in front of a big sun.

I’d been worried about the book when I saw the weird-looking cover. But I was more than halfway through, and had decided Toni Morrison was probably one of those people who would blow your brain away if you ever got to sit down and talk to her for a while in person.

“No.” I took out my iPod and showed her my playlist, filled with all the books we needed to read. “You know I listen. I just need the books…well because you need the books to be in class.”

She clutched the book hard in her hands for a minute, then threw it on the bed and dove at me. “I love you! I love you.” She kissed me all over my face while I laughed, then she stopped. “Wait. Did you listen to any of this book?” She picked up the crazy Song of Solomonbook.

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“And I think the women especially scare the shit out of me, but I kind of love all of them, even if they’re batshit crazy. Am I just insane?” I asked. Or at least, I tried to ask, but she was kissing me and, suddenly, talking about English class was pretty much the last thing on my mind.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She whispered the question in my ear after she pulled her mouth away from mine.

“At first, I didn’t know if I was going to stick with it. Then I was thinking you’d just think I did it because you told me to. But I thought about it for a long time. And today, even though I know you wanted me to use the bike my dad sent, you stood up for me. So I know you’d believe me when I tell you that I’m doing this because I trust you, and I really did listen to what you said. And I won’t get left behind, alright? Big plans for both of us. But, I’m still following you wherever the hell you go. That’s non-negotiable.”

Honestly, I’d made up my mind when I decided I couldn’t accept that damn bike. I knew it wasn’t in me to take bribes from my family, but I also knew that I wanted the kind of life they had. I wanted to be able to afford good shit and not work like a dog. If I was going to have it all, I had to change. I couldn’t just keep doing the same idiot stuff and expect a different result. So I decided to put my lazy brain to work and see where it got me.

For a few seconds after I explained, it was Brenna and me, sliding together like a key in an ignition. Or almost like that.

But not quite. Because I hadn’t forgotten this weekend was theweekend. And there was another part to my whole grow-the-fuck-up-and-stop-being-chickenshit plan. A part that scared me so much more than crashing headfirst into a dirt mound on my bike or flunking every test I attempted to take.

Because nothing scared me more than the way I felt about Brenna.

“I’ve got a surprise for you.” I liked the way I could see her trying to figure it out, like watching gears click and whir together.

“What is it?”