Between the Seams Read Online Free PDF Page A

she so desperately wanted to see what his chest and stomach looked like without a shirt on—and smiled again. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I snuck in through the gate when your mom told me you were back here.”
    Chase had swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing almost frantically before he reached for the t-shirt lying in the chair next to him. He’d rapidly pulled it over his head, and Jo had taken the small window of opportunity to satisfy her curiosity. Chase without a shirt on made her breath hitch and butterflies dance in her stomach. He was more muscular than a lot of the boys in their class, and she could see a small trail of hair poking up above the top edge of his shorts, just below those hip to hip scars. She’d been through sex ed, she knew where it led. And suddenly she was really, really curious about Chase in a way she’d never been curious before.
    Too soon, the shirt was on and covering his torso. Jo had to suppress her sigh of disappointment. When Chase nervously cleared his throat, she realized she was still staring at the place where shorts met skin, just below his belly button. Embarrassed, she’d whipped her gaze back up to his face. And seen embarrassment there, too.
    Awkward silence had stretched between them for long moments until Chase had said, “They’re pretty bad, huh?”
    Confused, Jo had asked, “Bad? What’s pretty bad?” She hadn’t seen anything that looked bad at all. No, it all looked way too good to her fourteen-year-old, raging hormone mind.
    Chase’s neck and face had flushed pink for brief seconds. “The scars, Jo. They’re pretty bad. Sorry you had to see them.”
    Jo shook her head. “No, they’re not bad.” She swallowed. “I, uh, barely noticed them.”
    Chase had snorted. “Yeah, right. They’re pretty hard to miss.”
    “I wasn’t looking at the scars, Chase. I was looking at you.”
    The statement had been impulsive and real and honest. She’d never been more embarrassed in her life. Awkward silence that had never been between them before was there at that moment, and neither of them had known what to do about it. As they’d stood there, staring at each other, she’d noticed how Chase’s breath had kind of hitched, and his eyes had gotten a little darker brown. Nerves and butterflies had tingled in her belly, and despite the fact that she’d never been kissed before she just knew that Chase was about to do just that.
    Until Matt had stepped outside and opened his big mouth.
    It wasn’t long after that moment that Jo caught her mom hitting on Chase’s dad, and Jo had done the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life—she’d let her best friend and first love go.
    Jenn’s elbow in her rib cage shook Jo out of her reverie. She felt like she was coming out of a fog as her eyes focused and brought Chase and Owen into sharp relief at the front of the boat. Shaking the memories away, Jo opened her bottle of water and took a long, long pull.
    “Earth to Jo. Where’d you go just then?”
    She tried to tear her gaze off of Chase—she really did—but for some reason her eyes didn’t seem to want to cooperate with her brain. Jo sighed. “Just a quick little jaunt down memory lane, that’s all.”
    “I think that was more like a marathon than a jaunt. I’ve been talking to you for five minutes.”
    Jo finally managed to look away from Chase and the muscles that bunched under his t-shirt and his quick smile and the sunglasses that hid those melted chocolate eyes, and at Jenn instead. “Sorry. Being back here, and especially with you guys, it’s just stirring up memories. That’s all.”
    Chase laughed at something Owen said, and the sound carried on the breeze back to where Jo and Jenn were sitting. Jo’s gaze once again made its way to Chase. And just like that day when she was fourteen years old, Jo felt like she was on very, very dangerous ground.
    ~~*~~
    Chase could feel Jo’s gaze on him—he’d always been able to—and it took