Jackson Stiles, Road to Redemption (39 page)

Temporarily, but I digress.

There she is, leaning up against the Chevelle, reading some shit on her smartphone, looking like it’s any other day of the year.

I nod when she peeks up from her work.

“Hey.”

“How’d it go?”

I pull out the folded paper Lana gave me and shake it like I just aced a history quiz back in high school. “I’m official.”

Green laughs and puts her phone away.

“We should celebrate.”

“We should.” I ease up to her and trap her there between me and the Chevelle. My tone is playful. My eyes though? They’re serious.

Man, am I glad she’s here.

She reaches her hand up, and I know where it’s headed. So I push the hair behind her ear for her.

Our eyes are locked.

“What?” Her voice is pitched. She’s nervous. But I’m not. Not with her.

“Thanks, by the way.”

“For?”

“For being someone I can count on.” I lean in and kiss her on the lips once.

“For showing me I can be someone people count on.” I kiss her again, longer this time.

And fuck it. I’m going all in.

“I─”

“Don’t say it, Jackson.” She wiggles her arms out from between us, and I open my mouth to ask her why, but she stops me with a single motion. One that places her luscious lips against mine this time.

She holds my face in her hands, and I find her waist with mine as we move in sync with each other, as usual. When she’s made her point, she slows the pace and ends the kiss.

She presses her forehead against my chin instead of looking up at me.

“If you say it, it’ll make this real. And if this is real, I don’t want to know yet.”

She peeks up.

“Deal?”

I don’t know what she’s thinking. Actually I’m pretty sure I already know. It’s got something to do with an ex and a bad story she has no interest in telling me.

I’m not about to push her away at this point. So I tell her, hesitantly, “Deal.”

Green smiles that triumphant smile of hers that’s starting to grow on me and pulls her door open.

“Oh, here.” She bends down and picks something up off the ground. “This fell out.”

She holds my cigarette out for me.

I think about it. I take it and examine it. A twist of my lips, and I toss it into the street.

“I don’t need it anymore.”

“You never did.” She smirks, and I shake my head. I start around the car to the other side but stop halfway around. ’Cause ya know what? Fuck that.

She’s not taking this shit away from me.

“Hey, Green.” I start toward her, again, urgent.

“Mmmm?”

I grab her by both arms and kiss her firmly on the mouth. Her lips part, and our tongues meet with every ounce of passion they did that first time I kissed her. Even though I didn’t know it then, I can look back, and in hindsight, I know I knew on some level.

I
end the kiss when it’s time, and as she opens her eyes, I glare down at her, slightly pissed off.

“I’m goddamn crazy about you.”

“I─”

“I don’t give a flying fuck if you want to hold on to something you think you have to hold onto because if it’s real it makes it, what? Too hard? Scary? Screw that. You know what’s hard, Emma? Blindly going through life with nothing but work and a piss ass one-bedroom apartment, thinking there isn’t anyone out there for you. That no one, not even your fucking family, understands you. And happily ever after? Well forget that ’cause who’ll put up with your ass long enough to let that happen?”

Green’s mouth is agape.

“I. Give. A shit. About you.”

“Y─”

“Deal with it.”

I leave her there with the open-mouthed, shock and awe look on her face to think about what I just said. Meanwhile, back on my side of the Chevelle, I’m still trying to figure out where this all came from.

Green still hasn’t moved when I pull the door open and fall into the seat. Not gonna lie, I’m scared shitless. I haven’t felt like this about someone since fifth grade when I thought I was gonna marry my P.E. teacher.

However, I’m eerily okay with what just happened.

My head rests against the seat. All I can do at this point is breathe.

Namaste, motherfuckers.

Two to four minutes later, maybe ten, I’m still waiting for Green to get in. I glance over to make sure she’s still next to the car.

Seriously, what is there to ponder out there?

When she finally pulls the door open and slides in next to me, she sits face forward.

For a long while, we just stay like that, but when the back of my neck itches, I have to fucking say something. I see her lips twitch and turn up into a content smile. Like she just won some battle she’s been fighting for a long damn time.

“You called me Emma.” She says it quietly, and almost like she’s questioning whether I said it or not.

Personally, I hadn’t even fucking noticed.

Regardless, what’s the big deal?

“It’s your name, isn’t it?”

Her hand stretches over to mine and she squeezes.

“You’re not so bad yourself, Stiles.”

And that’s that.

“Well, all right then.” I start up the car and pull out into traffic.
Just like any other fucking day of the year
.

THE END, for now.

Cookie Cutter
(Little Bird Publishing

Cursed be the Wicked
(Soul Mate Publishing)

Lost in Christmas
(as part of Soul Mate Publishing’s Holiday Anthology
All I Want for Christmas is a Soulmate)

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