Damn. She was cute as hell chewing on her lip like that. The way the rising sun shined through her hair while the fog crept behind her through the field—it looked like a picture. She may have only been a stranger passing through my life, but I wanted this to be a moment I’d remember forever, because if I could remember her just like this, I’d remember that, at one point, there was an innocent, pretty girl who looked at me like I may just give her the world. And money couldn’t buy shit like that.

“Come on, little lady.” I stepped onto the porch and opened the screen door, stopping to hold it open for her.

Her cheeks were pink when she ducked beneath my arm. It took very little to make that girl blush, and I reveled in it. My eyes were glued to her ass when she walked into the living room, I guess that’s why I didn’t see Grandma over in the recliner. Hannah stopped midstride when the creak of the footrest snapping into place sounded

“Well,” Grandma said. “Making house calls, I see?” Her lips laid flat across her face when she glanced over Hannah’s shoulder at me. I know she was probably saying a prayer for God to save the preacher’s daughter’s soul. I didn’t have the best track record.

I stepped around Hannah, trying to hide her from Grandma’s judging eyes. “Her brother ended up down at The Grounds with a bunch of teenagers, and seeing as how he’s my boss’ son, I couldn’t exactly call the cops on ‘em.” I walked over to her recliner, leaned down, and kissed her cheek.

“I hope we didn’t wake you,” Hannah said.

“Oh no, honey. I’m up with the roosters, besides”—she pointed a weathered finger down the hall—“that one sounds like he’s buzz sawing a Redwood.”

I shook my head on my way down the hall to get Bo. I heard Grandma ask Hannah if she was going to church when I ducked through the doorway. Bo was sprawled out on the bed like a damn starfish with a fresh pile of drool on the pillow. “Alright,” I said, clapping my hands. He jumped a little but didn’t wake. “Come on now, Bo.”

Groaning, he flopped over on the bed. “Ugh.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I flipped the light on. “We all have these nights. It’s a rite of passage or some shit.”

He opened one eye, his brow wrinkling. “What the…”

“Ah, blackout drunk.” I held a finger up. “That’s when you know you had a good time.”

“God, I feel like I’m dying.”

“Ah, hell, one bottle of Jack ain’t a death sentence.” I grinned. “Trust me.”

He swatted his hand over his face and attempted to sit up, but immediately sank back to the rickety bed.

“Yep, suck it up, buddy.” I patted his knee. “Your sister’s waiting on you.”

“Hannah?”

“Yep.”

“Jesus, does she want to kill me?”

“Nah, man. You’re actually lucky as shit ‘cause that girl loves you. Don’t even know what you’ve got, do you?” I shook my head. “Come on. Let’s get a move on.”

When I walked back to the living room, Grandma had the photo album open on her lap. “What are you doing?”

Grandma slowly looked up from the old picture album and arched that damn brow. “Showin’ your baby pictures since you don’t ever bring a girl home for me to show, I thought I’d show the preacher’s daughter.” Her brow quirked before she went back to the album. “This is the first time I knew he’d be a smartass, caught him pretending to smoke one of my Marlboros in his Pull-up.” She snickered. “He was a cute stinker, whatn’t he?”

Hannah glanced at me with a grin spread across her face, her eyes twinkling. “You were pretty cute.”

I rolled my eyes and snagged the album from Grandma. “Alright now.”

“Noah Benjamin Greyson,” she scolded.

Hannah laughed. “Benjamin? Aw, that’s adorable.”

“Itn’t it?” Grandma nodded. “Give me that photo album back, boy.”

I shook it at her. “No, ma’am, I know what’s on that next page.”

She pushed up from the chair, grumbling as she tossed her hand into the air, her house slippers shuffling over the floor on her way to the kitchen. I tucked the album back in its place on the built-in bookshelf by the fireplace.

“What was next, huh?” Hannah pried.

“A picture of me in a full body cast.”

“What?”

“I fell out of the neighbor’s window when I was four.”

“Aw, that’s terrible.”

“Yep.” I glanced over my shoulder. “Terrible, alright.”

The worst part of it wasn’t the body cast—that is sad—it was the fact that they didn’t make kid’s clothes that fit over that shit, so in the picture, I’m standing there in my body cast with a scowl on my face and my pecker just hanging out. I mean, sure I was a kid, but I don’t want this girl seeing that, and my grandma sure as shit would have shown her.

A low, Frankenstein’s monster-like moan came from the end of the hallway. Hannah craned her neck around the corner, glancing down the hall as her brother came stumbling out of the bedroom with his hand clutched to his head. “Never again…”

“Dear Lord,” she sighed. “Daddy’s gonna know you’ve been drinking.” The second she got within three feet of him, she waved her hand in front of her face, her nose wrinkling. “You smell like a Tennessee distillery.”

Bo slumped against the wall and glared at her. “Not helping.”

“Give him some gum and he’ll be fine,” I said.

“I don’t think gum is gonna help”—she circled her hand over his face—“this.”

Shrugging a shoulder, I nodded toward the door. “Come on. Let’s get your truck out.”

I leaned through the open window of the truck and glanced back at Hannah sitting behind the wheel of mine. She looked so tiny and out of place. “Back it up.”

She pulled the gear down so hard her hair bounced, then she floored it. I pressed my foot on the gas, but the wheels only spun. Dirt and mud slung everywhere. I put it back in park and leaned through the window again. “Hang on a sec, Hannah.” I turned the wheel. “Alright. Floor it.”

The engine revved. I watched in the rearview as the truck fishtailed. “It’s fine,” I shouted as loud as I could, pressing the accelerator. The tires squealed. The Bible on John’s dashboard flew into the floorboard when the tires jumped over the rut the truck was stuck in. I slammed on the brakes, put it in park, and opened the door, leaving the truck running.

Bo stumbled into the tree line to vomit. Hannah was already climbing out of my truck. “Thanks,” she said, shutting the door.

“No problem.”

She tossed my keys at me when she passed by, and I grabbed onto her arm, stopping her. “It was nice hanging out with you last night, you know, just talking.” I looked her in the eyes, hard. I wanted her to know that wasn’t some bullshit line. I meant it.

A soft smile slowly inched over her lips. “It was…”

Bo staggered out from the tree line, wiping his mouth before he yanked open the door to their truck and crawled inside.

“Seriously, give him some whiskey.”

“What? Are you crazy, he’ll vomit everywhere. He needs fluids.”

Half rolling my eyes, I patted her back. “Yeah, yeah, nursey, I know, but I’m telling you, give him some whiskey, some water, and a Tylenol. He’ll be fucking golden.”

She glared at me with curiosity, and I liked it. I liked the way she looked at me like I was something she shouldn’t touch but wanted to, because that was exactly how I felt about her. “Trust me,” I said.

“Okay, Noah Greyson, I’ll trust you this once.” She smiled before pulling herself into the cab of the truck. Without another word, she shut the door and spun the truck around.

I took a step back, watching the taillights disappear down the overgrown path.

That girl… God, I knew I could hurt her and I didn’t want to do that, so as much as it felt like the planets lined up just to throw us into each other’s orbits, I swore to myself I would ignore it and walk away.

Some things in life, you just don’t want to taint.