Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
“Jade, you never go anywhere without your phone, and tonight of all nights? Driving off with a complete stranger?” she says with emotion, sounding more like a worried mom than an angry mom now.
“Zak’s not a strange,” I hear myself snapping at her hotly. “He’s kind and amazing…and he treats me like an adult, which is more than I get from you or anybody else lately.”
My words stop my mom in her tracks, and I can see her mind working through every possibility, everything she’s already assumed and probably told herself could never happen if I was alone with a guy.
Especially a guy twice my age who I’d never met until most recently. Because I’m not the prettiest girl. I would never get any interest from a guy like Zak, even if I’m half his age.
She may as well be saying it out loud because I know that’s what she’s always thought about me.
It’s what everyone always thinks about me.
Nerdy, fat Jade. Safe Jade. Always doing what she’s told Jade.
Well, not anymore.
I don’t want to jinx something that hasn’t even happened yet, but I trust Zak with more than just my virginity.
I trust him with my life. The life I know he wants to include both of us, together forever.
It might sound young and innocent, hopelessly romantic.
But whenever I think of Zak now, it’s all I can feel inside.
He said it himself. The two of us being brought together is destiny.
The same destiny that I know now could tear apart the little family unit we all have here, my mom and me. Even little Joey and Sheree, mom’s best friend next door.
It could all blow up and mean I lose everything, but as long as I have Zak, I really couldn’t care about anything else right now.
I don’t even care if I have a job with Zak or not. As long as he wants me for me, who I really am. That’s all that matters to me.
“This whole thing’s very fishy, Jade,” Mom finally says after a long silence.
I move over to take my phone, and powering it up I can see Joey’s been trying to message me all night.
Joey.
Poor kid.
It’s always me he chats with online or messages whenever he’s having a good or a bad day.
And today is a bad day for him because I know Sheree will have banned him from his computer room on top of his grounding.
I’m surprised he’s daring enough to even text me, but I slide my phone into my pocket, not wanting to let mom know Joey’s been trying to message me.
He’s in enough trouble as it is, and by the looks, so am I.
But as bad as I feel for him right now, I know it’ll only be worse once he finds out I’m not only going to work for Zak, but I’ll also be spending a lot more time with him.
“I forgot my phone and wore a free tracksuit from my new job home, Mom. What’s so fishy about that?” I ask her. I am so over this whole line of questioning already.
And only because I know if she really found out, I’d probably never leave the house again.
I don’t know how she’d do it, but my mom would find a way to ground her twenty-year-old daughter forever if she could.
“That’s not what I meant,” she snaps back at me, giving me a knowing look.
“I want to know more about this Zak Templeton and his so-called job offer before you step out of this house again with him, young lady. Do I make myself clear?” she says in her sternest voice.
It goes against every feeling in me right now, and maybe it’s just my exhaustion mixed with fresh battle fatigue from arguing. But I nod my head.
Sighing quietly to myself and telling her I’m going to bed.
“I mean it, Jade,” she says again, making sure to have the last word.
“Not a foot out the door until I’ve spoken to this Zak guy myself,” she practically hisses.
I drag myself to my room, knowing mom will be up and about. I try hopelessly to fall asleep, and I make a promise to myself.
And to Zak.
I promise to do whatever it takes to ensure that Zak and I can be together all the time.
A job in game programming is like a dream come true, but being with Zak is an even bigger dream, and most of that’s already come true as well.
Literally, and all over my old sweater that I can never bring home again.
If mom found out the way Zak left it, being grounded wouldn’t even come close to how crazy she’d get.
But all of that isn’t what keeps me awake all night, and neither is the fresh memory of Zak’s sweet face between my thighs.
I’ve got a real problem now.
How the hell am I even going to get to see Zak again tomorrow, let alone get myself there if mom’s acting so nuts right now?