Page 34 of The Winning Ticket

“Good night, JJ,” I say before turning and heading into the room, closing the door behind me and resting my head back against the door.

Maybe this is why I haven’t allowed myself to think about Richard… Even though I’ve been denying it to everyone else, I remember those long-forgotten feelings for my high school crush. And I am pretty sure he is feeling something, too.

15

I’LL NEVER SAY NO TO A VISITOR

JAKE

“Did you have a good weekend?” Dylan, the apprentice, asks as he takes a sip of Ice Break and shoves a pie in his mouth.

I try not to notice the crumbs falling onto the floor of my ute while I change gears.

“Yeah, it’s always good heading home,” I reply, turning off the highway onto High Street and heading into town. “I can’t wait until you get your licence back, mate. This drive out to get you every morning is getting old.”

“It’s not my fault you have your cushy house in town while I’m still living with my parents,” he shoots back, not remotely sorry that he was caught speeding while on his provisional licence one too many times and is now carless for the foreseeable future.

I grit my teeth, getting the shits with the seventeen-year-old who has no idea how much he’s pissed both my father and me off with this latest inconvenience.

“Well, you’re going to have to sort something out soon because this is costing me fuel money, and I already have to get up too fucking early without adding a forty-five-minute drive out to your parent’s winery every morning and night. Why can’t your girlfriend drive you?”

“Kirra won’t drive out there during the week. It’s too far from her place, and she doesn’t like staying overnight when my parents are always hovering around.”

“So? Stay at her place. She lives in town, and it would be a lot easier.”

He gapes at me for a minute. “Are you serious? I can’t just stay at her house all the time! We’ve only been together for a year.”

“Well, it will be over soon enough if you keep dicking around and losing your licence because you can’t keep your foot off the accelerator.”

“What’s crawled up your ass, mate? This is worse than your usual grumpy morning shit.” Dylan glowers at me.

I sigh, realising that I have been a bit of a dick… Although he definitely needs to do something about the lack of licence situation.

“Sorry, I’m just tired.”

“Well, yeah, you’ve been driving back and forth to Brisbane way more than usual,” he grumbles, squishing himself down in his seat to pout like a child.

I swear, if he weren’t my Dad’s best mate’s kid, he would be looking for a new job.

“Well, the company there is far more interesting than anyone I’ve met around here,” I shoot back, and I get an eye roll in response.

I’m only eight years older than him, but I swear it feels like I’m much older whenever I have to deal with his shitty attitude.

“So you’ve found yourself someone to sleep with there? Stacey’s going to be pissed.”

The joy of living in a small town is that everyone knows each other’s business. Something that hasn’t really bothered me before, but ever since I hooked up with Stacey a few times, everyone has been acting like we were the next big thing.

“Stacey will be fine. It was never going to be anything more than what it was, and we were both very aware of that. But to answer your question, no, I’m not sleeping with anyone in Brisbane.”

Not that I hadn’t found myself considering it with Bri being so close by all weekend. My mind instantly goes back to that moment in the kitchen on Saturday night when I had Bri in my arms, and all I could think about was kissing her.

“Well, what else is so good about the city then? I hate it there. Everyone is always in a rush, the traffic is shit, and people are rude.”

“Could you sound any more like a country boy right now?” I ask with a short laugh.

“And that’s a bad thing?”

I have never been more relieved to pull up to a job site in my life.

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