Page 26 of Rewrite Our Story

I’m a terrible friend. Pippa had offered to stay up and help celebrate my birthday the moment it turned midnight, but I’d told her I was tired.

“No. I went to bed,” I lie. I’d gone out to the barn, hoping Cade would be there waiting for me like he had the years before. Both my seventeenth and eighteenth birthday we’d gone out to the clearing just the two of us. I’d blown out a stupid candle lighter and it’d felt like the best gift in the world. But we never told Pippa that. It was our secret. I liked having a secret with Cade, something that was just shared between him and me.

Cade wasn’t there last night.

I’d come up with a million excuses as to why he wasn’t there, but it still hurt. We’d never talked about going out for a ride for my birthday, but it seemed like a tradition after the years before. Like an unspoken rule. It seemed obvious that he’d be there waiting for me.

He wasn’t.

It broke my heart a little.

But my heart only stayed broken for a moment. When I woke up to him waiting at my bedroom door hours later, an apologetic look on his face for missing it, I had to forgive him.

He slept all night in my bed, the first time he’d ever been in mine instead of me being in his. We’ve never kissed, it’s always been very PG, but PG has never felt so right.

Now that we’re going on an overnight camping trip with our friends to celebrate my birthday, I think this is the time to change things.

I might be brave enough to confront Cade about what’s happening between us. I can’t guess any longer.

“Do you think you need a nap before leaving?” Pippa looks at the clock on the stove. We’ve still got about two hours before we need to head out.

I nod, a nap sounding amazing. Once Cade had slid underneath my covers, I hadn’t slept very well. I didn’t want to sleep and waste committing him in my bed to memory. I wanted to be awake in his arms, to feel his breaths against my back.

I’m paying for it today. A nap would help me rest and get ready for my birthday celebration.

Because my birthday wish is the same as it’s been since my sixteenth birthday. I want him. But this year, I’m going to take matters into my own hands.

Tonight will be the night I kiss Cade Jennings.

15

MARE - AGE NINETEEN

“Pippa!”I scream, wiping mud from my helmet. I push down on the throttle of the ATV, racing after my best friend.

Her squeal of laughter rings through the air as I try to close in on her. She cuts through another mud pit to avoid me, knowing I won’t follow her into it. She loves to get filthy in the mud when we go riding, I don’t mind it, but I won’t do it on purpose either.

Cade’s friend, Brendan, pulls up next to me and we both come to a stop. He flips the visor up on his helmet. “Not going to follow her in?”

The ATV rumbles between my thighs as I shake my head at him. “If she wants to get dirty, that’s her choice. I’d prefer to not spend the next hour soaked and muddy as we get to the campsite.”

He laughs. His eyes focus on me a little too long, looking up and down my body. It feels good to be appreciated by him. It just feels better with Cade. “How about you and I veer off on our own trail?”

I’m quiet for a moment, content that he can’t see my face through the helmet as I think about his offer. Cade has barely looked at me since that incident in the kitchen a few hours ago. He pretty much pretended like I didn’t exist as we packed.

He’s giving all sorts of mixed signals, and the last thing I want to do on my birthday is spend the day trying to decipher every one of them. If he wants to act on it, he can do something about it. I wouldn’t even mind making the first move if he would even bother to look my way.

I stand up, stretching my legs out for a second. “Only if you can catch me,” I yell.

Before he can respond, I push down on the throttle and leave him staring behind me. I hear his ATV fire back up a few seconds later, but by the time it does I’ve already cut down a different path than the one the rest of the group took.

I know these trails like the back of my hand. I can find my way around the mountain just fine.

My T-shirt rides up in the wind as I navigate the terrain. It doesn’t take long for Brendan to pull up next to me. I like that he doesn’t try to pass me or pretend that he’s more familiar with this mountain than me. Brendan, Cade, and all their friends come out here sometimes, but I still know it better than any of them do. I like that Brendan’s not like other guys who have to be in control at all times; like Cade, who is a control freak. There’s no way his overprotective personality would’ve let me take the lead.

Once we reach an open stretch of land, I slow down before coming to a complete stop. Pulling off my helmet, I turn to find Brendan stopping next to me. He follows my lead, pulling his helmet off and showing off his clear blue eyes.

“You’re a wild one, Marigold Evans,” he says, hanging his helmet off the handlebar.

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