Spring Unleashed (The Summer Unplugged Series)

by Amy Sparling

  I sit on a sawed off tree stump in the middle of the grassy area where people park their cars during a race. My heart still thumps away under my chest, trying to calm down from the rush of hurt and fear and exercise I just put it through. My face sinks into my hands and I stare at the dirt on my feet, watching as it morphs into blurry shapes under the tears that fall from my eyes.

  Why am I even out here? What the hell am I doing?

  “Bayleigh!”

  The unexpected sound startles me but I don’t look up because I’d know that voice anywhere. Footsteps get closer and faster as Jace jogs toward me. He doesn’t say anything else and I feel his body brush against mine a second later. He sits next to me on the tree stump. We’re silent for a moment.

  “Becca said I needed to talk to you.”

  I look up. My eyes meet his and I can’t tell what sort of emotion he hides behind his blank expression. “What else did she tell you?”

  He blinks. “She said it wasn’t her secret to tell.”

  I decide to stare at my hands instead of at my boyfriend. I’m not even sure he will still want to be my boyfriend after he finds out what I have to say. “Secrets.”

  “What?”

  “Secrets,” I repeat. “Plural. There are two of them.”

  “Wow.” He runs a hand through his hair. “And here I thought everything was fine.”

  I snort in spite of myself. How lucky he must be to live his life thinking things are just fine and freaking dandy. Jace turns toward me and takes my hand. “You need to talk. Now.”

  What are the rules for telling your boyfriend two very awful things? Do you tell him the least awful one first or the most awful one first? How do you even decide which is the worst? The possible pregnancy, obviously.

  I mean, I guess?

  If I’m not pregnant then the emails are the worst thing. I’m not sure I can stay with a guy who keeps emails like that despite having a girlfriend. I’m also not sure Jace would stay with me if I got pregnant. Either way, the odds of my relationship staying together after tonight seem slim to none.

  “You’re doing it again,” he says.

  “Doing what?”

  He brushes the hair out of my eyes. “Thinking. You’ve got some kind of crazy monologue going on in your head and you’re too busy telling it to yourself to tell it to me. Talk to me, Bay. You didn’t run out here by yourself for nothing. What’s going on?”

  I draw in a deep breath. It’s now or never I guess.

  Although never sounds like a pretty great choice.

  Without trying to be mean, I slide my hand out of his grasp. I’m not sure he’ll want to be touching me when I tell him my secrets. This weird desire to kiss him falls over me and I restrain myself. Now is so not the time.

  In one breath I tell him everything—the faster and quicker I get it out, the better. “My period is several days late and Becca said I might be pregnant and I also snooped in your emails and saw Julie’s freaking naked body and messages about how you’re not her boyfriend and she wants you to be and I can’t live with the guilt of knowing what I know.” When the words are out, I don’t feel relief. I don’t feel much of anything.

  Jace stiffens. “What all did you see in my email?”

  “I searched her name and I didn’t read them all…I just read enough to know that she likes. And she sent you naked pictures, Jace. And you didn’t delete them.” My voice is one shattered, shaking mess.

  Jace leans forward, concern stitched across his face. “You didn’t read any other emails? Nothing recent?”

  My brows knit together. “What? No.” More heartache and confusion grip me, making breathing difficult. What doesn’t he want me to know? What could possibly be worse than Julie’s photo? “What else is on your email?” I ask as tears fill my eyes. “What else didn’t I see?”

  “No, nothing” he breaths, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me in close to him. He squeezes so hard I can’t breathe. “Thank god.”

  I push him off of me and stand up. “What the hell, Jace? This isn’t a good thing. What else is in your email?”

  He smiles. What an asshole. I’m crying my eyes out and he smiles? “It’s nothing bad. I’m just glad you didn’t see it.”

  My hands ball into fists at my sides. “Screw you, Jace. How dare you smile about this!”

  His hand reaches out to me but I step backward. “I’m sorry baby. I didn’t mean to smile. Honey, it’s…I’m sorry you saw her emails but I swear I forgot they were there. I didn’t look at her skanky picture, I promise you.”

  “How the hell am I supposed to believe that?” I ask.

  “Because I wouldn’t lie to you. Look, just sit down and I’ll explain.” He pats the tree stump next to him and I shake my head. “I’d rather stand, thanks.”

  My anger levels soften as I listen to Jace explain himself about Julie. He says that she used to date one of his friends and they all hung out a lot. After his friend broke up with her (because she was a little crazy), Julie started flirting with Jace but he never flirted back because he didn’t like her. He said he was nice to her because she was psycho and then her emails became more and more obsessive and his only option was to ignore her.

  “So she just sent you that photo out of nowhere?” I ask, my hands on my hips. “You didn’t ask her to send it?”

  “God no.” His face crumples up in revulsion. “I actually remember that day. I was driving to your house and I opened the email at a red light. The second I saw the photo, I called her and bitched her out and said not to send that shit again. If you read the emails right after that one, she apologized and said she was sorry. Did you see that part?”

  I shake my head. Relief floods over me but I’m still disappointed. “Why didn’t you delete the email? You should have had more respect for me.”

  “I know, baby and I’m sorry. Honestly I just forgot about it. I get like a hundred work emails a day and they pile up and I never saw it again.” This time when he reaches for my hand, I take it. “Please believe me, Bay. I will delete every email from her tonight, I promise.”

  I let him pull me into his lap and the rush of emotions I feel when I lay my head against his chest comfort me in ways I haven’t felt lately. This is Jace. My Jace. He feels like home to me and I hate when things aren’t right with us. “Um…babe?” I ask, as I snuggle my face into his neck. “Did you not…um…pay attention to the first part I said?”

  He shrugs. “That you might be pregnant?” He says it so casually you’d think I just ask him if he heard me ask what time it is. “Uh, yeah,” I say sarcastically. “I mean, I hope it’s not the case, but I don’t know and..I—”

  Jace’s finger covers my lips. “I think we’d make awesome parents, so whatever happens, happens. Don’t you agree?”

  I pull back and look at him, my eyes wide with curiosity. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “You wouldn’t get mad and leave me?”

  “I’d die before I’d leave you.”

  With that, my heart bursts into a thousand pieces. I slide my arms around his neck and pull him into me, inhaling the intoxicating scent of his cologne and embracing the way his shaggy hair feels against my cheek.

  Jace lets out a sigh. He taps my thigh. “I need to stand up for a minute.”

  Confused, I get off his lap and sit alone on the stump. Jace’s expression gets a little weird as he stands up and pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Bayleigh…” he says, as if whatever he has to tell me is causing him a great deal of effort to spit out. His face lights up from the glow of his cell phone. “The reason I was worried that you saw my recent emails is…well, shit maybe this isn’t the right time to tell you.”

  “Uh, you bet your ass it’s the right time to tell me. You can’t just say something like that and then not finish it.”

  He smiles as his finger slides around on the phone screen. He clicks on an email and then holds it out to me, but the words are too small for m
e to read so I just look at him expectantly, waiting an explanation. “My newest emails are from the owner of KC Jewels. The last thing I want is for you to see the emails and ruin the surprise, but… hell I guess I’m ruining it already. Bay, I wasn’t at the track earlier today when I left you at home.”

  I gnaw on my lower lip as he continues. “I was at the jewelry shop, seeing the progress they’ve made on the custom engagement ring I designed for you. It won’t be ready for a couple more days but he sent me a picture of what it will look like,” he explains as he turns the phone back around to face me. My mouth falls open at the amazing hand sketched image of a gorgeous diamond ring with filigree accent diamonds along the band.

  It takes a moment for what he’s saying to sink in. I mean, I know what the words ‘custom engagement ring’ mean but it takes a while for my brain to register the reason why Jace is suddenly dropping down on one knee.

  Under the twilight of an empty motocross park and with the glowing of his cell phone reflecting off our faces, Jace holds out the phone to me as if it were a ring box and takes my hand. “Bayleigh. The last three hundred and sixty five days have been the most amazing part of my entire life. Will you…” he blinks and one tear rolls down his cheek. “Will you…pretend this is a real ring and not a cell phone and do me the honor of being my wife?”

  “Yes, baby I will.” I drop to my knees in front of him and throw my arms around his neck. He lets the phone fall to the ground as we collide and land in the soft grass. I kiss him as tears roll down my cheeks. Jace brushes the hair out of my face and kisses me back. He tastes like Vanilla Dr. Pepper. It’s never felt so good to be in his arms. None of the things I worried about feel like worries anymore. The feeling of his hands holding me tightly to him lets me know that whatever happens, we’re in this together.

  “I’m yours forever,” he whispers into my ear. “For this year, and every year for the rest of our lives.”

  His promise makes me warm and happy inside. All the shattered pieces of my heart mend themselves back together and an overwhelming feeling of peace falls over me as we lie on the grass and look up at the dark sky. I don’t know if I’m pregnant or not, but I do know one thing.

  I don’t ever want this night to end.

  The End

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  I wrote Summer Unplugged over the course of several Mondays while I waited for my daughter to get out of dance class. I wasn’t sure anyone would like the characters I created or care about their story, but I wrote it anyway because they made me happy. To my surprise, not even twenty four hours after Summer Unplugged was published, I had readers emailing me asking if there would be more books.

  And just like that, the Summer Unplugged Series was born. I hope you enjoyed following Jace and Bayleigh’s journey and I want to sincerely thank you for sticking with them until the end. Every email, Tweet and Facebook comment I get from readers means so much to me as an author.

  You guys have inspired me to continue writing new series with new characters and new love stories. I hope you will enjoy them as well.

  Thank you for your support!

  Never stop reading! <3

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Amy Sparling is a Texas native with a passion for young adult literature. In her free time she participates in an unhealthy amount of Xbox playing, attends nerd conventions and reads books with her daughter. Amy Sparling is a pen name for author Cheyanne Young.

  You can tweet her @Amy_Sparling or visit her at www.AmySparling.com

  If you would like to be the first to know about new releases from Amy, please sign up for her mailing list here: https://tinyletter.com/AmySparling

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