“Oh, shit,” I said.
I jumped to my feet and looked down to the corner.
I turned my head and saw Ash’s truck up at the top of the street where he had parked.
Sarah let out a cry. “You fucking bitch… you set this up…”
By the time I turned to face Sarah again, she was on the move.
I didn’t set anything up… it was Them.
Sarah wasn’t lying either. She did have someone with her.
Gray.
And he was being held up by Uly and Hil, already looking beat up as Ash faced off with him.
I opened my mouth to stop Them from doing anything else…
But I didn’t say a word.
It felt good to be protected and defended.
So I just smiled and let Them do whatever they wanted to do.
* * *
I opened the passenger door to Ash’s truck and climbed up.
And I waited.
All three came hurrying toward the truck a couple minutes later.
Ash behind the wheel.
Uly and Hil in the back.
“That was good stuff,” Hil said.
I turned and shook my head at Them.
“Don’t give me that look, doll,” Uly said. “That’s what you wanted to have happen.”
“You should have hit your old friend, beauty,” Hil said.
“I hit her without a punch,” I said.
Ash started to drive.
He purposely went down the street and I saw Sarah and Gray.
Standing on the corner of the street in a shitty place of town.
Gray looking beat up.
Sarah looking defeated.
“I win,” I whispered.
Ash reached for my hand and squeezed it. “You’ll always win with me, angel.”
I leaned toward him to meet him halfway for a kiss.
That’s when Hil’s face appeared and his lips hit the corner of my mouth.
“Fuck,” Uly said. “My turn.”
Ash slammed on the brakes of his truck and pointed to the door.
“Get the fuck out, Hil,” he said.
“What?” Hil asked. “Saw a chance and took it.”
“Get out,” Ash said.
“He’s not lying,” Uly said.
“Yes, he is,” I said.
“Get the fuck out,” Ash ordered.
“Fuck this,” Hil said.
He opened the door and climbed out of the truck.
Just as the door slammed shut, Ash sped away.
“Ash!” I yelled. “You can’t leave him here.”
“I think she’s hot for him,” Uly said.
Ash slammed on the brakes again. “Now you get out too.”
“Me?” Uly asked.
“Get the fuck out,” Ash yelled.
“I didn’t even get to kiss Belle,” Uly said. “Just one little kiss and I’ll go…”
“Out!” Ash yelled.
Uly looked at me and blew me a kiss.
Then he got out of the truck.
And just like with Hil, the door slammed shut and Ash took off.
I grabbed the edge of the seat and looked in the mirror.
Uly ran across the street to meet up with Hil.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Ash? You want to be protective of me? That’s fine. But I can handle myself. I can defend myself. Okay? If I need your fucking help…”
I turned and Ash was leaning toward me.
Holding roses.
Looking as hot as I had ever seen him look.
Something about the way he was looking at me…
“I had to ditch those assholes, angel,” he said. “For you. We’re out of here.”
“What?”
“We’re going to go do something fun.”
“What about Them?”
“They have arrangements.”
“So that was just… another setup?”
Ash winked at me.
“I’ll take the roses because they’re pretty. But you’re still an asshole.”
“I know.”
I took the roses and didn’t prick myself this time.
I sat back and tried to fight off smiling.
My eyes looked in the mirror and Uly and Hil were standing together, Hil lighting up a cigarette, Uly on his phone.
Getting a ride home.
I meant it when I said I kind of loved all of Them.
Hil made my heart race. Uly made me smile.
But Ash was everything else.
“I know how this goes, angel,” Ash said. “With the way you’re looking right now. But we need to have some rules.”
“I thought you just fought the Rulz?” I asked.
“Funny,” Ash said.
I reached for Ash’s hand. “I’ll kiss anyone I want to, Ash. I’ll do anything I want with anyone. Just be happy it’s with you.”
Ash looked at me and curled his lip. “How can one person be so beautiful and so evil at the same time?”
I laughed. “I’ve asked myself the same question about you, Ash.”
* * *
I watched the baseball bat disappear in the ocean.
When I turned and saw Ash still waiting for me, I smiled.
This wasn’t part of his plan for the night, but it was my night. I was the one he loved. I was the one he would listen to.
And I needed to get rid of that fucking baseball bat.
I ran toward Ash and jumped into the air.
He caught me and held me tight.
When he put me down, I stupidly buried my face into his chest to smell his cologne once more. He was my Ash now. And that was fucking okay with me.
“Are you done here, angel?” Ash asked.
“Why? Got a hot date somewhere else?”
“I might,” Ash said.
“I’ll throw you into the ocean next then.”
“I can swim.”
“So can I.”
Ash shook his head. “You’re going to make me regret everything I’ve done for you, Belle.”
“No. I’ll make you make sure you’re true to it.”
“So, what happens now?”
“With what?” I asked.
“You got your story.” Ash touched my face. “What else is there to know? Think about it, angel. From your old friends to your mother. To Werthwood. To East vs. West. You know about Hil’s old man. Uly’s mother. My mother and father. The band. Penelope… what else is there?”
I touched his arms.
I carefully studied the ink.
A smile crept across my face.
“This,” I said.
“What?”
I rubbed his arms. “This. Ink.”
“Oh fuck, Belle… don’t tell me you want me to tell you some elaborate story about my tattoos…”
I looked up at him. “No. I want to get a tattoo.”
“Really?” Ash asked.
“Yeah. Miss Whitaker made me pick a word out of a beanie for a project… don’t ask. It’s fucking stupid. The first word I didn’t do anything with. Want to know what it was?”
“What?”
“Trust,” I said. I laughed. “Of all the words… so maybe I can get that tattooed on me. What do you think?”
Ash sucked in a breath. “I think anything tattooed on you is going to drive me crazy.”
“Good.”
“But you should trust me to pick something out. And I can even do it for you.”
My body warmed head to toe. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Just nothing bad,” I said. “Not like a butterfly pissing on a flower.”
“Shit,” Ash. “That was my idea.”
“Shut up, Ashby Rivers,” I said, using his full name.
Ash curled his lip and put his forehead to mine. “You’re lucky I love you, Belle Bablebit.”
I groaned. “Are we doing this or what?”
Ash brushed his lips to mine. “Oh, angel, we’re fucking doing it.”
Epilogue
I folded my legs and sat in the chair with a cigarette and a cup of coffee.
Miss Whitaker (excuse me, Lake) came out of the house, looking as rough as I did. Her hair was in a messy side bun and she wore a ripped, oversized shirt that had missing letters. But she made it look fashionable. She looked like a bitchy, overtired writer.
And that’s what she was.
That’s what I was too.
We had an amazing project to work on together.
My ten pages I gave to her turned into ten more, plus pages from her.
To explore our lives of love, loss, and everything in between. From two different sides of the emotional world we lived in.
In reality, it was just crazy fun to smoke cigarettes, drink coffee, and hang out with her.
“This is good,” she said to me, wiping ashes off a stack of pages. “But let’s make it better.”
“What if the ocean is his eyes?” I asked. “It’s so fucking perfect yet so dangerous. But you don’t see the danger because you’re focused on how it looks. Right? The sky is blue. The water is nice. Nothing can be dangerous. But it is.”
“Keep going,” Lake said as she sat down.
“But if you go to the ocean at night… your eyes can’t focus on the beauty. So you hear the sound of the waves. You feel them in your soul. You realize how scary it is.”
“So if I shut my eyes, I see the truth,” Lake said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Fuck,” she said.
“Fuck,” I said.
“Belle, this is fun,” she said. “I haven’t felt like this in a long time.”
“You’re welcome.”
We both looked and there was Uly, standing in the doorway to the house, his arms in the air, gripping the frame, like he always did. To show off his jeans sagging down his body, testing me to see if I’d look.
Of course I’d look.
Who wouldn’t?
“I don’t see you writing out here,” I said.
“I write at night,” Uly said.
“With Hil?” I asked.
Uly grinned and pulled his sunglasses off his face and winked at me.
I smiled back at him.
He and Hil were crazy.
One night they could piece together some amazing music. And then for the next three days they’d argue over Penelope and get into physical fights over her.
But the music they wrote… it was good.
Damn good.
“We’re trying to work here, Ulysses,” Lake said.
“It’s my house,” Uly said.
“Then I’ll move out,” Lake said.
My phone buzzed on the table.
I need to kiss you angel. Right fucking now.
I smiled even more.
I loved Ash’s texts.
There was never a conversation.
Just commands and statements.
Come find me ;)
I sent the text and looked for Lake.
She was going inside after Uly, yelling at him about something.
“I need a new place to crash, beauty,” Hil said as he appeared in the doorway next.
“You slept here last night?” I asked him.
“Why? Jealous? Feel left out? I can go ask her to leave the bed and you can take her place.”
“Her?” I asked.
Hil shrugged his shoulders. “Sometimes it’s almost too easy for me.”
I shook my head.
“Hil, get the fuck in here!” Uly’s voice yelled.
“Shit,” Hil said. “She must have come out of the bedroom. I told her not to.”
Hil ran into the house and I laughed.
I looked around and took a deep breath.
It was all going to stay crazy as long as I stayed at BFH.
But I had a good reason to stay and live in the craziness.
Hands touched my shoulders and I screamed.
I turned my head and Ash stood over me.
“Found you, angel,” he said.
I gasped for a breath. “I guess you did.”
He leaned down and kissed me.
Then he backed away.
I put my feet down and stood up. “Where are you going?”
“You’re writing today, Belle,” he said. “I’ll let you know when I need another kiss.”
“You came here just for that?”
“It’s not just for that… a kiss from you is worth everything.”
“You’re romantic and sweet and kind and cute and adorable and all the other words that scare you,” I said.
“Each time you say a nice thing about me I have to punch someone in the mouth.”
“Sucks to be those people then.”
Ash nodded and turned.
I grabbed my phone and bit my lip.
One more kiss?
Ash stopped walking.
He stood with his back to me and texted me.
Beg me…
I put my phone down and walked up to him.
I grabbed his shoulder and pulled.
He turned and picked me up to kiss me.
“I’m not begging you,” I whispered.
“You are right now, angel. Your eyes tell me everything.”
I shut my eyes.
With my eyes shut… I can feel the danger…
My heart pounded in my chest.
“Try again,” I said to Ash.
He kissed me.
Heat flooded my body.
The only danger near Ash was falling in love with him.
And it was too late for that.
I kept my eyes shut anyway.
And I secretly wished us kissing would never ever end.
#bfh… #hch… and now #bc
Darlin’ … DO NOT STOP READING YET!
You may have heard about HCH in this book or read about #hch on social media… well, that’s the rival town for Bay Falls High. And I’m inviting you RIGHT NOW to start reading Hidden Creek High! Trust me, you’re going to want to know the story of Wes & Aira (and Nova & Elijah… and more). It’s simple. How? Check this out here: bit.ly/hch1-us
*** AND NEW! ***
Due to reader DEMAND, this world is expanding even more. You’ve heard about Brooks Crest in both the #bfh and the #hch books. Now it’s time to explore what Brooks Crest really is. Through the eyes of Mac, Les, Aric, Taz, Raf, and more.
Make sure you’re following me anywhere on social media… or just search Amazon for ‘Jaxson Kidman Brooks Crest Mac’…
Also, I have a couple important things for you…
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* * *
Look for more heart wrenching, emotional upcoming novels including:
A LETTER TO DELILAH
THE WRONG SIDE
* * *
Other bestselling novels by Jaxson include:
5
Years Later
Somebody Else (& Nobody Else)
Dear Everly,
Imagine Us
Anna’s Dress
Let You Go
When I’m Gone
What You Don’t Know
Every Other Weekend
Check out the books here:
Jaxson’s Amazon Page
* * *
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. (This also includes the cover image and/or cover model(s) appearing on the cover. The context of this book does not in any way depict the personal life of said cover model(s). Image is licensed and used purely for fictional purpose only.)
First electronic edition February 2020
Copyright © 2019 by Jaxson Kidman
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.
Copyright image iStock/DepositPhotos
Copyright cover Cosmic Letters
NOT SO Special: a bay falls high novel Page 21