Near and Far

“Forget about it. To your knowledge, and I wish to my knowledge, there is no bet.” I really, really wished I didn’t know about that asinine bet. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around how you and Montana Barbie are cousins and, in one fell swoop, she displaced me. Of my bedroom,” I added when Jesse let out a long sigh.

“Listen, I know she’s a bit of an acquired taste, but give Jolene a chance, Rowen. You and I didn’t exactly get off on the right foot and look where we are now.” Draping her arm around me, Josie gave me a nasty noogie.

“Yeah, yeah. What would I do without friends like you?” I patted my hair back into place once she was done disheveling it. “And what are you talking about right and wrong foots with us? We got along swimmingly from the very start.”

“Whatever, Rowen. You might not have come right out and said what you were thinking, but the look in your eyes did. You hated me hardcore because you thought Jesse and I were still together. Face it—you were a bitch.”

My eyes widened. “What? I was not. I was completely civil.”

Josie snorted. “Yeah, civil by Henry Tudor’s standards.”

“Henry Tudor? Really, Josie? If you’re going to enter an argument with me, you better bring your A game.”

Jesse was smiling. I could feel it rolling off of him.

“Rowen. You’re a bitch. Not all the time and not with everyone, but we all know you do bitch well when you have to.”

I wanted to pull her braided pigtails until that smirk came off of her face. “Jesse . . .”

“No, no. Don’t you bring him into this.” Josie waved her finger in my face. “This is between you and me.”

I stayed silent for a minute, not because I was trying to build my argument against her, but because I knew she was partly right. Okay, mostly right. I was a bitch to her at first. I’d covered it up with a smile—a whole lot of no good that did me—and I knew Josie hadn’t been the first to form the B opinion about me. I’d developed that part of me as a defense mechanism. I’d let people into my life for temporary periods, but I’d never let them get to know the real Rowen. Not until last summer. Then I’d dropped the walls I’d hidden behind for so long. Even though every day was a struggle to keep them lowered, I knew I’d never regret fighting that battle. I’d shed so many of my dark layers that I might as well shake loose another one.

So yes, Rowen Sterling had been a bona fide bitch. Rowen Sterling didn’t need to stay one. At least not to the nth degree. I’d still reserve a little bit to keep things interesting.

“Fine. I was a bitch. What can I ever do to earn your forgiveness?” My overdone apology was interrupted when Josie threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

“You just earned it,” she said with a sniffle.

I patted her back and did my best not to squirm. Random acts of physical affection still threw me. There was only one exception to that: Jesse. No matter how many times he sneaked up behind me to throw me over his shoulder or leaned in unexpectedly to kiss the corner of my mouth, I didn’t squirm under his touch. Josie’s, along with everyone else’s, I was still getting used to.

“Just let your bitch relax and get to know Jolene. She’s really not that bad, I promise,” Josie said. I made an uncertain face, earning a pinch from her. “Behave.”

“So, Jesse . . .” I started. He braced himself. “What do you think of Jolene?”

He was nearing a wince when he answered, “I have a feeling no matter what answer I give you, I’m going to be in trouble.”

“You’re probably right. So why don’t you just go with the honest one?” I arched my eyebrows and waited.

He shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “She’s okay, seems nice enough. She hasn’t spilt coffee on my lap yet, so that’s a point in her corner, but she did detain me from picking you up last night, so that’s, like, negative a hundred in the other.”

I knew that wouldn’t be romantic to plenty of women, but to me? It was the ultimate aphrodisiac. “Pull over.”

“Why?” he asked, already doing it.

“Just do it.”

Before Jesse came to a complete stop, I had my seat belt off and was crawling over his lap. His eyes went wide right before my mouth covered his, then they closed and his lips moved against mine in eager, long pulls. When I felt three pairs of eyes on us, and when Jesse’s and my bodies were starting to run away from us, I pulled back and slid back into my seat.

“What was that for?” he asked, breathless.

I snapped my belt back into place. “For being so goddamned, amazingly you.”

Jesse shook his head a few times, and a loud thud sounded above us. Like something pounding the top of the cab. Or someone.

“That’s it. I’m walking. I’ll see you all when you finally get there,” Garth shouted, driving his fists into Old Bessie one last time before hopping out of the bed and marching down the road. All three of us inside the cab laughed.

“Hey, Garth?” I hollered, hanging my head out Jesse’s open window. “Am I a bitch?”

“Ha!” he shouted as he kept on trucking down the road, blazing his own path.

“Was that a Ha of outrageous disagreement or noncommittal, partial agreement?”

Jesse had pulled Old Bessie back onto the road and had caught up to Garth.

Garth scowled at us, quickening his pace. “That was a Ha! of utter, total, and unwavering agreement.”

My glare had barely formed when Jesse punched the gas so hard Old Bessie actually fish-tailed on the gravel road.

“What was that for, Speedy Gonzalez?” I asked.

Jesse grinned widely as he checked the rearview mirror. “For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.”

“Yeah, Jesse, I know you’re the valedictorian of Willow Springs High, but what does that physics gem have to do with peeling out on some backwoods road?”

“That was my reaction to Garth’s action.” His eyes flickered to the rearview again. Something really interesting seemed to be keeping his attention.

“So Garth’s action was implying I was a bitch . . .” I twisted to find a serious cloud of dust obscuring the whole road. It was so thick, I couldn’t make out Garth anywhere in it.

“And my reaction was giving him a dirt and gravel shower.”

“Would you quit being so perfect already? It’s really getting old.” Giving Jesse my own devilish grin, we both started laughing. I was going to have to keep that action/reaction reminder in mind when dealing with Garth. Or any other a-hole, for that matter.

“You’re not just going to leave him, are you?” Josie piped up.

“We really just are,” Jesse replied.

“What? You can’t do that. It’s still another couple miles to the swimming hole.”

I gave Josie a look. Since when did she care about Garth’s well-being? In fact, I’d been sure up until then that her name would have been the first on the petition to banish Garth Black from the face of the earth.

“Exactly. So by the time he makes it, maybe he’ll remember some of his manners.” Jesse urged Old Bessie along. Since we’d dropped the baggage, we were cruising.

“Manners? Garth Black?” Josie said the words, but they were the exact ones on my mind.

Jesse’s face scrunched up as he considered that. “Yeah, you’re right. But if nothing else, at least it will piss him the hell off and give us a little bit of Garth-Black-free time.”

Josie sighed. “You are an animal, Jesse Walker.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I waved my hands in front of me. “Did you just say Jesse’s an animal? And if my ears doth not deceive me, then what—in a world where the Jesse Walkers are animals—are the Garth Blacks?”

“Your words, expressions, and hand gestures doth annoy me, so I shalt not give you a response.”

“You and I might be the two most opposite chicks alive, but at least we’ve got Shakespeare in common.”

Finally, a smile cracked Josie’s face. “There is that.”

A couple minutes later, Jesse pulled off to the side of the overgrown road into a parking space that was doubly as overgrown. I couldn’t see the swimming hole, even though it was less than fifty yards in front of us because a ring of giant willow trees lined the entire shore. There was one tight spot a person could squeeze through, and an ancient dock that was just barely floating extended into the water there. The mass of giant trees seemed like it was protecting whatever was inside from the outside world. When Jesse had taken me there the first time last summer, I’d straight out refused when he told me that we’d have to walk through because it looked a little creepy from an outsiders’ perspective. Then he stripped down for his “swim,” and my feet magically followed him.

Once I’d made it past the willow tree perimeter and was looking at it from the inside out, back-floating in the middle of the water, well . . . it was magical. It had become a favorite of Jesse’s and mine. That was the first time we’d been able to swim since I left for school, but we’d made plenty of visits just to curl up in a blanket on the dock.

“Let’s hurry up and enjoy some Garth-free time.” Jesse shoved his door open and grabbed my hand to help me out.

“I enjoy all of my Garth-free time.”

Josie moved to the tailgate to open it for Jolene. “How you doing back here, Gimpy?”

“Stuck, I think. Garth had to help me in. Someone else is going to have to help me out since he’s probably still coughing up dust.” Jolene’s eyes landed on my certain someone.

“Well, don’t look at me. I’m not going to sprain my ankle helping your gimp ankle out.” Josie crossed her arms and took a couple steps back. Some best friend-slash-cousin.

“Jesse?” Jolene said slowly, expectantly. “Mind being your usual gentlemanly self and sweeping a girl off her feet?”

I didn’t even try to keep from rolling my eyes. Whenever that chick opened her mouth, an eye roll came standard.

“Sure. No problem.” Jesse shot me a nervous glance before moving toward the tailgate. I wasn’t irritated with Jesse. His willingness to help anyone at any time was one of the things I loved most about him. I was irritated with those who took advantage of his selfless qualities.

Jolene really ate up the whole thing, winding her arm around his neck, snuggling in nice and tight against his chest, making those damn Bambi eyes at him like he was the be-all-end-all in all maledom . . . which Jesse was. But that was for me to know and no one else to find out.

Jesse did his good deed of the day, kept his hands and arms to all of Jolene’s super safe areas—yes, I was watching—and was just about to lower her to the ground when she clung a little tighter. Subtlety was a nuance lost on that one.

“That’s a long trek down some treacherous terrain. Mind carrying me the rest of the way?” she asked, practically batting her lashes. “I’d hate to sprain the other ankle or see those muscles of yours go to waste.”