Page 9 of Sweet Like Poison (Savage U)

“There are parties and girls back home.”

“No ice queens, though.”

It took me a beat to get that he was referencing our next-door neighbor. I chuckled. “Nah, there are plenty of ice queens back home. Plenty just like her.”

He hummed, shifted in his chair, and laid his clasped hands on his stomach. “I thought you grew up on a ranch or something. You have fancy women on every fence post?”

I shook my head. “I grew up in Northern California. Plenty of money and icy blondes around there. The ranch belonged to my granddad. My father didn’t take over until I was in high school. Spent all my summers there, though.”

“Not this summer.”

“I was working, couldn’t get back there for more than a couple weeks. I’ll be on the ranch full time when I graduate.”

He nodded. “That must be something, to know exactly where you’ll be, what you’ll be doing.”

“It’s something, for sure.”

We sat there listening to the waves for a while before heading back home. The workers were gone, quiet restored, but the mess next door remained.

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