Page 5 of Can't Get Over You
“The guy who wants to live on Bloom Lane and do block parties and shit. Can you imagine me coming home from work, roaring up the street on my Harley? The moms, in their designer jeans, would snatch up their kids and get them inside their houses, pulling the curtains shut. Me, mowing a fuckin’ lawn? Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
She didn’t like that he’d seen right down to her most tender core, but at the same time, his assumption pissed her off. “I’m not asking you to marry me, Jude. It’s a dance.”
“You got your whole life planned out,” he said with a hint of accusation.
“What’s wrong with that? People with goals wind up more successful in life.”
“Nothing wrong. I just don’t know why you’re asking me now, when school’s almost over, and we’re going in very different directions.” He shrugged. “You want to be a teacher, have kids, live on Bloom Lane.”
He made it sound like it was the most boring life in the world, but she wouldn’t apologize for the future she longed for. “And you want to go ride free—or whatever the club motto is. Cool.But I love it here. Calamity’s the most beautiful place in the world, and it has literally everything.”
Including you.
For now, anyway, it has you.
“And yet, no one asked you to prom. And other than Willa, you don’t have many friends.”
He’d plunged a blade into her heart. “God, Jude.”
“No, I don’t mean it like that.”
“Well, how did you mean it? Because I just told you what happened in sixth grade. It was literally the worst thing I’ve gone through in my entire life, and I’m sorry, but it’s not easy to trust people after something like that.” She let out a huff of exasperation. “It’s not like I don’t want to have friends.”
“No, I get it. I’m just saying… Forget it.” He opened the door.
“No, you don’t get to leave me hanging like that. What do you mean?”
But he’d already walked out.
What just happened?
How had it all gone so wrong?
She stood there, reeling, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut about Leia.
Worse, why had she asked him to prom?
He’d seen her vision board and knew what she wanted out of life. Leia probably wanted to become an ambassador. Travel the world. No doubt, she’d become someone important, live an international life filled with State dinners and yacht parties hosted by celebrities.
And as interesting as that might sound, it left Finlay flat. She didn’t want any of it.
A lot of things embarrassed her—and trust me, asking Jude to the prom just shot to the top of my list—but not her vision board. Not her dreams. She wanted them fiercely.
So Jude could hook up with Leia. Hang out with his biker friends. He could think she was a prissy, naïve little girl with small dreams of being a teacher, getting married, and living in a pretty house on Bloom Lane.
But it wouldn’t change who she was and what she wanted.
She went to close the door but found Jude on the landing.
Lowering his chin, he flicked a thumb over his bottom lip. And then, he looked up at her. “Yeah. I’ll take you to prom.”
What the hell were you thinking?
Unfortunately, Jude knew exactly what he’d been thinking.
As he stood in the living room, strangled by a monkey suit, he knew he could never say no to Finlay. She was just so pretty and sweet. She didn’t know it, but the way they “randomly” ran into each other after school was neither an accident nor a coincidence.
He went looking for her.
