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Bitter? Jealous? Those weren’t words I’d use to describe Jesse, but tonight, he seemed to be a little of both

"Jesse I’et into my head I let him remind me of all my fears and insecurities I let him tell ot any , bloody wound

"Well, sorry, but I don’t let Garth Black decide what I do and don’t deserve And you shouldn’t either"

"I know," I replied quietly I could have gone into all the reasons I had Why it was so easy to believe the Garth Blacks of the world Why the bad was so one into a day-long lecture on the special brand of screwed-up I was, but y wasn’t abouthi toto reh followed "What were you doing at Garth’s place that night anyways, Rowen? Why were you kissing the hell out of e chair later that night?"

I could have cried fro thatinside ofinside ofinside ofinside of myself off and sucked in a deep breath "Because Garth Black isn’t able to break my heart" I bit my lip and pressed on "You are" The ice in Jesse’s expression melted His eyes softened The wrinkles in his forehead s me, because I knoill I knohat to expect with him I know he’ll screw up and leave ive hi into I don’t knohat I’ive all of " Was I really spilling uts in a honky tonk with hundreds of people around? I took a quick scan of the area Yeah I sure was "You make me feel too much, Jesse" I crossed those few steps I’d put between us "It freaks me out"

There was al but hi him A minute of silence after you drop that kind of deep stuff on a guy is basically an eternity

Finally, Jesse’s mouth parted "When you open yourself up to people, you let the bad in with the good I can’t promise I won’t ever hurt you, Rowen But it won’t be on purpose I will never hurt you intentionally I can promise you that" Jesse’s hand dropped to my waist, but he didn’t drawwe’re going to give a go, I need you to proo out of your way to push e chair, when--not if--things get scary I can tell you don’t want to let people in, that it scares you, but you need to letchance You can’t shove me away the moment you let ers curved into th in them made my eyelids heavy "Don’t hurt ed at any and every feeling I had for Jesse

I knew letting hi current I kneouldn’t feel natural, or be my first, second, or even third instinct, and I kneould be a daily struggle to keep frootscary, as he’d said

But when I looked into those eyes of his that saw everything, those eyes that saw le to let hiates would be a battle I’d never regret fighting

I inhaled I exhaled I wove h his where his hand still rested on aze to his "I won’t"

It was a promise A vow A prayer It thrilled me It terrified hof peace that washed overthat overwhelmed me?

The smile that lit up his face

"I think you owehis other hand around my waist We weren’t on the dance floor, nowhere close to it, but we could ht there

My hands settled over his chest, and I tried pressing closer Apparently, ere as tight together as two people could get "I owe you three" I winked up at him

"After this past week, I think you owe me more than that" He tilted his hat back farther on his forehead

"What did you have into the silence of one song ending and another beginning

"I’ll think of soher than the other "But why don’t you kiss ?"

It was one of those moments that felt like it was irlgirl glances for the briefest moment over boy’s shoulder before she closes her eyes to taste his lips and sees

The boy’s ex-girlfriend

"Crap," I whispered Josie atching the two of us with a blank expression She didn’t look over-the-moon pissed or irreversibly hurt She looked more like she couldn’t quite understand what she saw

"What?" Jesse said, pulling back right before hishim

But I couldn’t do that in front of Josie, not with her watching like she was the most confused person in the room I owed her an explanation, too I’d owed a lot of those lately