Making her way through the narrow aisle to sit between Jack and some other guy Everly had only glanced at was no easy task, and about three steps from the chair, she caught her shoe in the strap of someone’s purse and nearly bit it. She fell forward, catching herself on the desk part of the chair, her notebook and folder flying free from her grip.
Whether it was instinct or something else, Everly had no way of knowing, but she felt Jack’s strong hands on her again, this time on her upper arms. He was able to reach her without even getting out of his chair. Once it was clear that she was fine, he slowly shook his head, like he couldn’t believe what a klutz she was.
He was right, wasn’t he?
Across the classroom, kids snickered, some even laughing out loud. Everly felt her face catch fire again. “Thanks,” she mumbled. Jack said nothing, just slid his chair in the other direction, away from her.
“Here.”
T
The moment Everly Harrison had walked into the classroom, Jack had felt his heart rattling around in his chest again, just like at the grocery store. He’d been smelling her all day, like some sort of baked good, walking down the hallway spreading her tasty goodness all through the school. So far, he’d been able to avoid her.But here she was, literally falling right into his lap.Okay, not his lap, but his arms.While he knew it was actually a good thing that they had a class together, that didn’t make him any more excited about it. How he’d gotten the good fortune of getting her to sit right next to him, too, he couldn’t say, but his friend Tim who usually sat there and was home sick was going to get an earful, especially if he came back the next day to find his seat had been taken. Mr. Donald wasn’t one for letting them pick their own seats on a regular basis, so he’d likely tell Tim to take the last empty chair in the
The cramp in Everly’s hand was beginning to prevent her from writing any more Montana facts in her notebook. Thankfully, just before her fingers fell off, the bell rang.Everything happened so quickly. Mr. Donald flipped the lights on, crossing back to turn off the movie while he shouted, “We’ll pick up there tomorrow.” All of the other students got up, headed for the door like the room was on fire, while Everly was still in the process of closing her notebook and gathering up her stuff. Did no one else take notes? They must’ve all been experts on Montana history having lived here their whole lives.She’d just turned to give Jack his pencil back when he got up from his seat and charged down the row. “Do you want your—.” The rest of the words died in her throat.Over his shoulder, he snarled, “Keep it.”Everly dropped her hand, which she’d stretched out to hand him the pencil. Shocked
Everly was having a hard time believing what she’d just heard Alyson say. “Jack? Is your brother?”“Yeah, that’s right,” Alyson said as if it made perfect sense that the person in the school who had been the nicest to her and the person in the world who had been the meanest to her could be related.Still thinking about how strange that was, Everly went to her locker to get her schedule and realized she had choir next, so that was a relief. She loved choir and was glad she wouldn’t need to take anything with her, except for the paper that she needed to have signed by the teacher, Ms. Vander.It wasn’t too hard to find the music room. She’d seen signs for it earlier. When she walked in and saw Alyson sitting with a couple of other girls Everly didn’t know, she was relieved to see a familiar face. She waited for the teacher to finish the conversation she was having with some other students and then look ov
Jack was driving faster than normal, even for him. As much as he wanted to regain control of his emotions before he spoke to his sister, he knew he was going to have to say something soon whether or not he sounded mad. He just couldn’t understand what Alyson had been thinking.Driving the BMW M2 he preferred whenever he didn’t want to be so flashy and needed to be able to carry passengers, as opposed to his favorite car, his Ferrari, Jack tried to take the roads leading out of town at a decent speed. There was no sense in getting pulled over when he already wanted to pound some heads together.“I just… help me… why did you—” he began, not quite able to get an entire question out.Alyson was sitting in the back seat next to Will and Chase was in the passenger seat. He could hear his sister’s sigh and knew that she was just as irritated with him as he was with her.“I wasn’t going to go out of my
“How was school?” Jim asked over dinner. He had run into town to buy something to cook once the movers left, while Everly unpacked the kitchen boxes. When her dad came back with a box of Hamburger Helper and the meat it was supposed to help, as well as a little container of milk since they’d need that to make it, too, she’d taken her chances with the stove. The propane tank had been filled earlier that day while they were both gone. She had been a little afraid that the whole cabin was about to go up in flames, but thankfully the stove had worked well enough. It was just a little dusty.“It was… fine,” Everly said. She’d wanted to say good. She’d wanted to try and convince her dad that she’d had a good day at school so he wouldn’t worry or feel guilty about making her come there. But the lie wouldn’t quite stretch that far. It wasn’t true that she’d had a “fine” day at school eith
If there had been a way to get out of history class, Jack would’ve found it. Short of just refusing to go, or ditching class, he couldn’t think of anything he could do or say to be able to skip. If he had wanted to use his influence on the secretary, Ms. Mullinex, he might’ve been able to talk her into letting him work in the office that period, but he couldn’t do that every day. As stupid and boring as Montana history was, he needed the credit to graduate, and there was no way in hell he was going to stick around another year just to take Mr. Donald’s dumb class.He got to class in time to move his chair as far away from Everly’s as possible without it being in the aisle. He’d also written a message on a Post-It Note and stuck it under her desk. Tim was absent again, so Everly would certainly be sitting next to him, and she would definitely find the note.He wondered what she’d thought of the note he’d left in her
Lying on her bed with Toby at her feet, Everly thought about her second day of school. She’d gone in that day resolved to prevent Jack from getting to her. And he’d ended up buying her lunch.She had paid him back, though. She’d given him more than enough money to cover her tacos and Dewy Mountain soda. She hated Dewy Mountain, by the way. It was so sour. Why would anyone want to drink that? She needed to start paying attention to what she picked out for lunch. Or start bringing her lunch. Her dad gave her twenty bucks a week for lunch, and that was more than enough, but if she brought her lunch, she wouldn’t have to go stand in the stupid line. She always felt like everyone was watching her when she was up there, so she was always in a huge rush to get out of there and ended up buying something she didn’t even want.Frustrated, Everly turned over. She could see out the window now since her bed was even with it, and there were still no cur
History class was not going to be awkward or aggressive today. Everly wasn’t going to let that happen. One way or another, she was going to make sure that Jack wasn’t allowed to intimidate her. She hadn’t seen him at all that day, so as she walked into the classroom, he was sort of hoping that maybe he was absent.He wasn’t. He was there. But… some blond guy was sitting in her seat. Everly let out a sigh of relief but tried not to look too happy. She was pretty sure she remembered there being an empty seat in the back row, so she gladly walked to the one in the corner she was certain no one had been sitting in and sat there.Whoever this dude in her chair was, Jack seemed to like him much better than he liked her. The two of them were chatting and joking around. She tried not to let the sound of Jack’s laughter make her heart thump in her chest or the way he smiled set her cheeks aflame. He was probably so happy just to be rid of he