Burnout (Jack 'Em Up Book 0) Read Online Free PDF Page A

but she was like this perfect untouched orchid plopped into my grungy world. I needed to taste her. Have her.
    But no.
    This was probably just a pity date. She was sorry for hitting my car. This had nothing to do with me.
    She fiddled with her napkin, her aqua eyes darting between me and the table. “So, do you have any brothers or sisters?”
    I sat back, surprised, making the wooden chair creak. Was she going to treat this like a real date? Try to know something about me? I swallowed, not sure if this was a good idea . . . as much as I wanted someone—her—to know me. “One. An older brother.”
    “What’s his name?”
    I yanked off a hunk of bread. “Brent.”
    She was quiet a moment and I realized I’d been abrupt. My feelings toward my family had nothing to do with her. “He’s in prison. In Oklahoma.” I waited to see how she’d take this news. She didn’t respond, so I pushed on. “Aggravated assault.”
    “Oh.”
    With a sigh, I told her the whole stupid story. How my brother was just as angry as our father, and after our mom died, he went off the reservation. Brent got the maximum sentence after beating his then girlfriend so brutally that she was admitted to the hospital a mangled mess. It was something I was so ashamed of, so sure it stained me somehow, that I’d seldom told anyone the truth.
    Yet, here I was, spouting it off to Princess Jackson like she was my therapist.
    In a move that was becoming routine for her, she stretched her arm across the table and gripped my hand. “I’m sorry.”
    “For what?”
    She shrugged. “I just am.”
    I studied our interlinked fingers. Was still staring when Sofia brought our dinner. I drew away reluctantly and picked up my fork. “What about you?”
    She took a bite of meatball. “What about me?”
    “Brothers? Sisters? Only child?”
    “One younger sister, Danielle. She’s a freshman this year. And she’s perfect.”
    She went on eating as if she hadn’t just said that. “Perfect?”
    Her tormented gaze met mine. “Yeah.”
    Didn’t she know she was the perfect one? It was so freakin’ obvious. Beyond her beauty, she was kind. Smart. Spunky enough to try and learn to fix a car. “How so?”
    She rolled some noodles onto her fork, her gaze thoughtful. “In every way, I guess. She gets perfect grades, has perfect behavior, never talks back. You know . . . perfect.”
    “Sounds boring to me.”
    She looked up, a soft smile hovering on her full lips. “Yeah?”
    “Yeah.” This time I reached over for her hand that was loose next to her plate. “I happen to think girls who work on cars are much more fun.”
    That got the storm-busting smile I’d been craving.

Delilah
     
    H oly freakin’ smoke. I was in trouble.
    All it took was one measly day together and one dinner to find myself more than willing to fall in line with the hundred other girls lusting for Blake Travers.
    He was obviously so much more than the bad boy player I thought he was. He ate spaghetti and meatballs with the abandon of a child. Belly laughed at my jokes. He even asked me what I wanted to do after graduation, and I told him about my dream to do some kind of physical therapy, something I hadn’t told anybody else. He had no big reaction, other than a smile . . . like he thought it was perfectly attainable. He obviously didn’t know enough about my family.
    We changed the subject and he told me more about his memories of his mother in that restaurant, and about his older brother, and how he was planning to join the Marine Corp after graduation. And I got the impression he didn’t share that part of himself with many people.
    So why me?
    I glanced over at his profile, cast in the muted light of the street, as he drove me back to my car after dinner. My heart began thumping. What would happen now? Would we go out again? Would he let me keep helping with the car?
    He looked over and a half-smile tilted his lips. I tried to smile back, but I’m pretty sure it looked