Young Love Dies Hard: The Young Brothers, Book 1 Nikki Lane (books for students to read .TXT) 📖

fingers through Jacob’s hair. His soft beard tickled my sensitized skin.

He shifted his head to peer up at me, my fingers still grazing through his hair. His body lay lax on top of mine.

“I’m going to miss you when I leave for Florida.” He reached his hand out and twirled a piece of my hair.

I sighed, still reeling from the intensity of the last few minutes. “I know.”

He scrunched his face and tugged my hair a little harder.

I chuckled. “I’ll miss you, too. This place is going to feel empty when you’re away.”

“Are you going to go to Meg and Jim’s for Christmas?”

“I don’t think so. Not after how the last holiday went.”

“Then where are you going to go?”

I shrugged. “I’ll just stay here.”

“By yourself?”

“Sure, why not?”

Jacob readjusted so that he was lying beside me. “You can’t spend Christmas by yourself.” He leaned his head into his hand.

“Sure I can. I don’t always go back home for the holidays. It’s fine.”

A few quiet beats passed before Jacob asked, “Why don’t you come home with me?”

“What?”

“Come home with me to Florida.”

“Are you insane?”

He considered the thought. “No,” he said, looking back at me.

I focused my eyes on the ceiling. “I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“Why?” I searched the ceiling but the answer wasn’t there. “Because I can’t afford the ticket. And…” There were plenty of reasons. I just had to pick the worst one. “And it would be weird to bring me home.”

“It won’t be weird.”

“It would be weird for me. I can’t show up to your house uninvited.”

“First of all.” He kissed my shoulder. “I can cash in my first-class ticket for two coach tickets.” He kissed my shoulder again. “Second of all, my family would love to see you. My mom would fall over.”

I sat up in the bed so that Jacob had to peer over to see me. “It’s not a good idea.”

“I think it’s a great idea.”

I picked at the cuticles around my nails. One started to bleed. “I have a job, Jacob. I can’t just not show up.” I sucked the blood away.

“Weren’t you just complaining to me the other day that they cut your hours?”

Figured. I had the only man who actually listened to what a woman said, living under the same roof with me. But it was true. The club closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

“Come on, Maeve.” He grabbed my hand when I tried to destroy another cuticle. “I want to bring you home with me. I don’t want my girlfriend to spend Christmas all alone.”

My chest tightened when I heard the word. I swung my feet over the bed and stood up, holding the sheet close to my body. I went to walk away, but the sheet tightened in my hand.

When I turned to give it a few tugs, I noticed the other end of the sheet was crumpled in Jacob’s hand.

“Let go, Jacob.”

“Where are you going?”

“I want to get dressed.”

“Why are you walking away from me?”

“I’m not walking away.”

“You are doing the literal definition of walking away.”

My clothes were on the floor, out of reach. Jacob tugged at the sheet, trying to coax me back on the bed. I couldn’t.

I couldn’t let go.

I couldn’t let him uncover me. Make me explain myself. Why the thought of being his girlfriend sent me running into the next room. Why I couldn’t summon the courage to drop the sheet and bare my naked body to him. Not now. I felt so exposed.

“I’m not your girlfriend, Jacob.” I readjusted the sheet and tightened it around my body.

His mouth settled into a deep frown. “But you promised.” He got up from the bed but maintained a tight grip on the sheet.

He wasn’t going to make this easy.

“You promised,” he repeated. “Just you and me, remember?”

I shifted my weight from foot to foot as he approached me.

“Yes. What I don’t remember is promising to be your girlfriend.”

“What did you think I meant?”

I shrugged and threw a hand in the air. “I dunno,” I cried. “I thought it was just something said in the moment.”

He shook his head. “That’s bullshit, and you know it.”

“I can’t be your girlfriend. Anyone’s girlfriend.”

He cradled me in his arms, his eyes big pools of gold. The scent of our romp between the sheets still lingered in the air.

“Try for me.”

“What if…I’m terrible at it?”

He wrinkled his face like it was unfathomable. “You won’t be.”

“What if we do this and you end up hating me?”

“That’s impossible.” He pressed me closer against his body. “I promise you won’t regret it. Just try.”

His words held so much weight I could feel them float through my ears and seep into my brain. In his arms, it almost felt like being in a relationship was possible. Being his was possible.

And if I said no? What would be the consequences I would face? Lose him for sure. My heart raced at just the thought.

“Okay.” My stomach clenched as soon as the word left my lips.

Jacob smiled and pulled me into a hug. “Great. Now let’s start packing for our trip.”

Chapter Seventeen

When we landed at the Orlando Airport, I wanted to kiss the ground. I was sure my first plane ride ever had been the most turbulent, too. I made it through the two-and-a-half-hour flight with my face burrowed in Jacob’s arm, trying to visualize our safe landing over and over in my head. And the nausea. I wasn’t prepared to feel like I could hurl every organ out of my body when the plane began its descent for landing. Every time we lowered a few thousand feet, I was sure my face turned the color of pea soup.

I followed Jacob through the crowded airport, pulling my carry-on behind me. He’d managed to get through the flight without so much as a sneeze. It was no wonder his mother insisted on buying him a first-class seat. Jacob and I were squeezed together in the center row of seats in between a severely overweight man and a nun. Of