Page 6 of Can't Get Over You
“Here.” His dad lifted the collar of Jude’s white dress shirt and wrapped the black bow tie around it.
To say they ran in different circles was an understatement. She was a good student, and the teachers loved her. If she were associated with Jude McKenna, it would ruin her reputation. He wouldn’t do that to her.
Worse, if she hung out with him, she’d be around his friends. That would be bad.
But most days, he couldn’t stop himself from visiting Wild Wolff Village just to catch a glimpse. Didn’t she wonder what he was doing there? He didn’t live anywhere near the ski resort.
Today, though, seeing that vision board in her pink bedroom with the frilly bedspread—with all her hopes and dreams on display like that—had weakened his resolve to keep his distance.
In his world, people were jaded—no, guarded. It seemed like, after enough brutal disappointments, they’d stopped allowing themselves to hope. It hurt too much when expectations were dashed.
But not Finlay. She was strong. Courageous. The fact that she wasn’t afraid to dream, to put herself out there… He admired the hell out of her.
He wouldn’t expose her to his ugly world, but now, with school ending in a few weeks, what would it matter if they were seen together at prom?
His phone vibrated on the coffee table, but he ignored it. As usual, his friends were up to something he didn’t want any part of. He’d take this one night to be the kind of man Finlay would be proud to date.
A yearning took hold of him, a longing. He could almost see himself on her vision board?—
But he shut it down. He could never give her the kind of life she wanted. He wasn’t built like that.
The stiff shirt was buttoned to his neck, cutting off his air supply, and he jammed a finger under the collar to loosen it.
“Stand still.” His dad fiddled with the tie.
Ava came into the house and dropped her purse on a side table. “Oh, don’t you look handsome?”
“I got the wrong size.” Of course, he had. Everyone else had rented their tuxes months ago. He’d had to take what was left.
“Should’ve gotten the clip-on.” His dad wasn’t having an easy time with it.
“Here.” Ava hip-checked his dad and took over, her familiar perfumed scent calming him. She’d been their nanny and babysitter from the day they’d arrived in Calamity when he wassix, and the closest thing to a mom since his had passed away. After getting the job done in thirty seconds, she stepped back and patted his chest. “There you go.” She turned to his dad. “You got a limo?”
“No,” his dad said. “They’re going with other couples. There’s a party bus.”
“Perfect. Okay.” Ava ran her hands through Jude’s hair. “You want to comb it?” She tugged on his scruff. “Maybe trim your beard?”
“I’m good.” He didn’t see the point. No matter how he dressed or shaved, people still saw him as a scary biker.
Except for Finlay.
Huh. So for her, yeah, maybe he’d do it.
He headed up the stairs.
“Where’re you going?” his dad called. And then to Ava, he said, “He just said he wasn’t going to trim his beard.”
“Well, don’t make a big deal out of it,” she whispered. “Just let him do it.”
Jude flicked on the bathroom light and shut the door. In the mirror, he saw the man people crossed the street to avoid and the bad boy girls handed dirty notes.
Meet me under the bleachers.
Gazebo tonight at midnight.
My parents are out of town this weekend…
And the thug teachers and cops eyed with disgust because he’d been such a pain in the ass as a kid. Somewhere around middle school, though, pranks started veering into criminal activity, and that was when Jude’s path began to separate from his friends.
