Jacked Up Read Online Free PDF Page B

being a bit bitchy. She could feel it. He was trying to be nice, encouraging her to have fun. Whatever reason he had invited her, obviously he wanted to hang out and have a good time. Yet she could feel the tension in her, like she felt the majority of her time lately. It felt like hands reaching out and squeezing her, so that she tightened all her muscles and gritted her teeth.
    She hadn’t always been like this.
    But every year that went by, she got a little more rigid. She wanted to stop it, wanted to reverse it, and enjoy her life.
    But she worried.
    She couldn’t be the only person who worried.
    She worried a lot. About losing sponsors. About her brothers losing points in the chase for the Cup. About losing money. About losing face. About choking alone in her condo and dying. About the cellulite she’d just found on her left ass cheek. About the migration of her body hair past the bikini line and onto her thighs. About not being married. Or even dating anyone. About not having children. About wanting to have children and not knowing if she could or not. About the risk of cancer from using her cell phone. About her parents dying.
    She worried.
    It wasn’t good.
    But she didn’t know how to stop it.
    Maybe Nolan was right. Maybe she just needed to laugh a little.
    Or have sex. She had been shocked at her ridiculous reaction to his threat to kiss her. If she were even remotely spontaneous, she would have let him. But she had been so freaked out by the thought she did want him to kiss her, she had recoiled in a total overreaction.
    “A funnel cake, please.” Eve glanced at the price. Three bucks. “Actually make that two.” It seemed only nice to order one for Nolan. If he didn’t want it, she’d eat it. It was that kind of night.
    When she turned, two paper plates in her hand, he was right behind her. “Ack!” She jumped and powdered sugar flew up in her face. “You scared the shit out of me.”
    “You scare easily.” He smiled and took the plates from her. “Let me carry these. You want to sit for a spell? There’s a band playing in the gazebo.”
    “Sure.” She eyed the band, which seemed to involve large men in tiny shorts with tubas, but she wasn’t going to worry about it.
    That was her new motto. If it wasn’t work, she wasn’t going to worry about it. Work or if it was about anyone’s health. Plus cellulite. Those three she could fear and rightly so. But other than that, she wasn’t going to worry.
    Nolan found them a seat at a picnic table and he straddled it, one leg on either side, so he was facing her. Eve sat correctly, unwilling to spread her legs like that just a foot away from him. The band was playing a rousing song that sounded to her untrained ear like it fit right in at Oktoberfest.
    He tore a piece off his funnel cake and chewed it. “I need a beer,” he said, powdered sugar puffing out of his lips.
    Damn, he was cute. Tuesday had been right, too. He was wearing a long sleeve Henley shirt, but that didn’t prevent her from seeing all that rippled muscle he had. “Is that your way of asking me to go get you one?”
    Nolan frowned. “No. Why would I expect you to go get it? It was just an observation that I would like a beer. Which I was about to follow up with ‘I’m going to get one, do you want one, too?’”
    “Oh.” Why had she assumed that? “Sure. Thank you.”
    As he got up to hit the beer stand, Eve shoved a piece of her funnel cake in her mouth. Why was he even here with her? She didn’t even want to be around herself so why the hell would he?
    Don’t worry.
    Have fun.
    She could do this.
    Taking a deep breath, she watched the band. They were having fun. They were older men wearing bad outfits, and yet they were bouncing around, tapping their feet to their music, smiling at the fairly sparse crowd. One of them, who looked about ninety and like his tuba weighed more than he did, caught her eye and winked. Amused, Eve smiled back at him and waved.
    “Flirting