Tackling Summer Read Online Free PDF Page B

Chanel if he touched her baby cousin. Shutting Jessi down wouldn’t be easy. He’d seen that hungry look in girls’ faces before. They were hard to shake, and he’d have to be careful with this one. If he hurt Jessi’s feelings it would be as bad as if he’d messed around with her. It was a lose-lose situation.
    “Here, stick everything in these coolers. That’ll keep it cool and the dogs out of ‘em on the drive home.” Mitch lifted the lid on a large cooler, and Maddox hefted the bags and the box of beer over the edge of the truck bed.
    “Bye, Jessi. Call us later!”  
    Jessi broke from the adolescent herd, leaving giggles and whispers in her wake, and crossed the parking lot. Maddox noticed a little sway to her hips as she came his way. She brushed passed him and climbed into the pickup, sliding to her place in the middle of the bench seat.  
    Mitch climbed behind the wheel. “Geeze, Jess, give the guy some breathing room. Scoot over this way or get in the backseat.”
    A grateful smile tugged on Maddox’s lips as he slammed the passenger door. Thank you, Mitch.
    Jessi sulked for a couple of miles, and then she was yammering away again about all the fun things there were to do on the ranch. She covered everything from riding horses in ponds, which sounded like a terrible idea to him, to hiking to waterfalls. That one intrigued him, but not to do with Jessi. He imagined skinny-dipping in a secluded spot with the curvy Lila. Mitch was quiet for most of the drive except to point out some deer grazing in a meadow. How did he tune out Jessi’s babbling? Maybe surviving raising a teenage daughter did that to a man. From what he’d seen in the A-frame the day before, it looked like Mitch had done it alone too. Aside from Chanel, there was no sign of another woman living there.  
    For just a second, Maddox wondered what Chanel had been like in high school. Had she been silly like her cousin, or had she been the snarky condescending person she was now?
    Maddox was relieved when they finally pulled up the driveway into Mitch’s sister-in-law’s house. He’d told Maddox they were having dinner there that evening. Maddox was glad he didn’t have to bust into his cardboard rations quite yet, and he couldn’t wait to escape the confined space with Jessi. His relief was tempered when he saw Chanel leaning against the porch with a middle-aged woman with short blonde hair.  
    Jessi tumbled out of the truck on his heels. “Mom, have you met Maddox yet?”
    The older woman smiled, and Maddox was drawn to her warm brown eyes. She took his extended hand in both of hers and squeezed. “I haven’t. Christine Eber. I’m Jessi and David’s mom, and resident housemother. You just let me know if you need anything or get hungry.”
    Maddox didn’t miss the rolling of Chanel’s eyes. Apparently, she didn’t want to share her aunt with him either.
    “Can I grab you a beer?” Mitch asked, pausing with the screen door open.
    “That’d be great,” Maddox replied.
    “Chel?”
    “Sure, thanks,” she said.
    Jessi shot her mom a pleading look, and Christine shook her head. “Don’t even think about it, young lady. There’s root beer in the back porch fridge.”
    The girl’s cheeks flamed red at the reminder that she was not yet an adult. She let out an exasperated sigh and stomped across the porch and into the house.
    Christine turned back to Maddox. “How was your trip to town?”
    “I won’t starve now,” Maddox said. It was all he could think of that wouldn’t insult the small grocery store, and he wasn’t about to share meeting Lila with Christine and Chanel.
    “It was nice of Dad to take the time to haul you to the store,” Chanel said.
    Maddox shrugged. “I appreciate it.”
    Mitch reappeared and passed ice-cold bottles of beer to Christine, Maddox, and Chanel. Jessi was conspicuously absent to Maddox’s relief.
    “You want me to fire up the barbeque?” Mitch asked Christine.
    “That would be