Page 69 of Forking the Billionaire

“That’s right.”

“I’m already looking at it.” I grinned at her, hoping she could see my smile, hoping to start this conversation as lightly as possible.

She stopped and turned to me. “Why are you here? What do you want, Jasper?”

Her tone was harsher than I’d expected.

I ran a hand over my face. “I’m sorry.”

I was sorry I kissed her, sorry I offended her, sorry I was so lost.

“I know you and Gabe both think I’m irresponsible,” she said.

What?“I don’t think that.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. It was a defensive stance.

“You just called me trouble,” she said, hard, cold.

That wasn’t how I’d meant it. Why was I getting this so wrong? “You’ve always run headfirst, Bramble.”

“Stop calling me that.”

I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut, needing to think before I responded. It took me a second to figure out what she must be talking about. “You mean Bramble?”

“Yes,Bramble.I’m tired of the insult. Just don’t, okay?”

She really caught me by surprise with this. I didn’t know where she’d gotten the idea that I’d called her Bramble to upset her. “I never meant it as an insult.”

“Sure.”

“Truly.” I wanted to reach out and grab her shoulders, but flexed my fingers against my shorts to fight the impulse. I triedto think back to how I’d first started calling her the nickname. “I can’t say exactly when I first used the nickname but?—”

“I can.”

Of course she could. She never forgot a single detail.

“But,”I said again, before she got a chance to tell me how I’d screwed up when I was twelve or however old I’d been. “I always admired the beauty of the thorn bushes in the field between our houses. I loved eating the wild berries that grew there with you.”

She was quiet, really quiet.

I continued, “You were as untamed and free-spirited as those bushes, and just as thorny as you stood your ground no matter what the circumstances. You make decisions with your heart, and you go for what you want. You’re the kind of trouble that everyone else wishes they could be.”

I really wished I could see the details of her face. But maybe I wouldn’t have been able to tell her all of this if I could.

“Oh.” She dropped her arms to her sides. “When you say it like that, it almost sounds like a compliment.”

Good, this was good. At least I was getting something right. “That’s because it is. You don’t follow rules just because they exist. You forge your own path, and it’s a spectacular sight to behold.”

“Fine, call me Bramble if you want.”

“I won’t if you don’t want me to.”

She shrugged like it didn’t matter.

“You’re not going to try to kiss me again, are you? Because there’s no kissing on Turtle Beach.” I caught the uptick of her mouth, the teasing tone in her words.

“Maybe that’s just because they don’t want people kissing turtles,” I said.

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