Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
He was already rearing up, ready to punch.
It was only a moment before pain hit my jaw like a thunderclap, and everything flashed red and then black.
I went to the ground, knocking the back of my head against a wooden leg of the nearby bench. Vaguely, I was aware that a couple of other people further down the street had gasped, watching it happen from afar.
“What the fuck?” Mason hissed. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Babe,” I murmured in my dazed state, knowing that I was going out cold, and I’d be unconscious in less than a few seconds. “It’s okay. S’just Elliot.”
17
MASON
I’ve always told people that I’m a lover, not a fighter, and until tonight it had been one hundred percent true.
But apparently if a beefy guy shows up and clocks Jesse in the jaw—breaking us up when I really wanted to kiss him—I turn into a fighter real damn fast.
I didn’t think about the fact that he was built like a Mack truck and had just sucker punched Jesse. I tossed off my flannel, chucked it to the side, and landed a punch right on him. I shoved him off, using every bit of advantage I had from my own element of surprise, and he seemed stunned that some random cowboy outside a bar would even try to lay a hand on him.
Elliot.
Jesse had mentioned him plenty enough for me to know that I didn’t like him. I knew that I recognized his face at first. He was one of the players on Jesse’s team, and I’d also quickly spotted him in the frat house, the night I’d gone there.
“Holy shit,” I whispered under my breath, looking down at Jesse as ice-cold fear went through my veins.
“Fuck you,” Elliot said, glaring at me and wiping at a stray spot of blood that had appeared on his cheek.
I pushed open one of the front doors of the Hard Spot, yelling inside as loud as I could. “Help out here, please!”
I caught Kane’s eyes and he ran out from behind the bar, coming outside a moment later.
“What the hell is going on out here?” Kane roared.
Elliot was holding up his hands, feigning innocence. “That guy punched me. He’s out of his mind.”
“Jesse,” I said, ignoring every word that came out of Elliot’s mouth. I cradled Jesse’s head, watching as he blinked, coming back into consciousness.
I’d never felt more relieved in my fucking life.
“You’re here,” Jesse said as he looked up at me, a smile spreading over his face even as his face swelled a little on one side.
“Going to get him to the ER. I think he’s okay, but he needs to be checked,” I said.
Jesse was clearly out of it, but he was starting to mumble again, slightly incoherently. “Kiss me, Mason. Why’d you stop kissing me?”
Heat ripped through my body.
Kane had definitely heard Jesse say that. But none of that mattered when he was lying here, only half-conscious.
Kane body blocked Elliot. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Jesse, where are your car keys?” I asked.
“Keys to my heart, right with you,” Jesse mumbled.
I felt around his pockets, finding them and pulling them out. “Going to take his car.”
“Don’t you have your truck?” Kane asked.
“Ah, no,” I admitted. “Jesse drove me here.”
Kane nodded, a hint of a question in his eyes that there was no time for us to dwell on.
“Go ahead,” Kane said. “I’ve got this fucking asshole taken care of.”
Miraculously, with a little help, Jesse was able to get back onto his feet. I let him lean on me completely, taking him to the passenger seat of his car and guiding him in. He seemed to be regaining consciousness slowly but surely, and when I got in the driver’s seat, I gunned it down Second Street toward the local hospital.
Luckily, we were close. I talked to Jesse the whole ride there, asking him questions that he was able to answer: what year it was, what season, and simple math. Within three minutes, I was pulling up outside the ER and throwing the car into park.
“These things are expensive,” Jesse said, peering at the emergency room.
“Jesse, I’ll pay every dime. Don’t think about that right now.”
The waiting room was mercifully mostly empty. We only had to wait ten minutes before Jesse was seen, and with each passing minute he was more and more himself.
“I was so dumb to ever be with that person,” he was saying as he sat on the edge of a hospital bed, waiting for a doctor to show up. “God, I don’t want to live with regrets, Mason, but when it comes to him…”
“I understand,” I said. “But don’t worry about him right now. You’re the only thing that matters.”
The doctor was in soon after. She asked Jesse even more questions than I had, checked his reflexes, and shined a light in his eyes.