Chapter Two

Aspen

“Hey, sweetpea,” mom says, coming over to where I’m still standing just inside the kitchen and wrapping an arm around my shoulder. A man, who I assume is Collin, takes a few steps in our direction and smiles down at mom and me. Collin is an attractive man—who looks to possibly be in his forties, seeing as he does have a touch of gray at his temples, mild laugh lines around his mouth, and eyes following behind her. As I take him in, it’s his eyes that catch my attention the most—the bright blue orbs hold so much love and adoration for my mom, that it makes me feel guilty over how I acted earlier.

“Aspen, honey, this is Collin.” She says to me, indicating to the man at her side with an ear-to-ear grin. The, turns her attention back to the man who has his arm slung around her waist, and says, “Collin, my daughter, Aspen.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Sir,” I say, holding my hand out to shake his. He chuckles, and releasing my mom, walks over to me, pulling me into a hug.

“We hug in this family.” He says with another chuckle, “And none of that Sir stuff— I may be older than your mom, but I’m not that old. Just Collin is fine.”

“Sorry,” I mutter, pulling back from his embrace, feeling a little awkward at the unexpected affection. Just another thing that I’ll have to get used to, I think as he goes back to mom’s side.

“Do either of you mind if I go out and explore a bit?” I ask, using my thumb and pointing towards the door, “after being stuck in the car and getting everything unloaded, I could use the fresh air and maybe I can get a feel of the area.” I say with a smile and a shrug, “two birds, one stone.”

“Honey, I don’t…” Mom starts but is cut off by Collin.

“I think that’s a fantastic idea.” Then turning to Mom with a smile, he says, “She’ll be fine, let her explore.”

“If you’re going out, there’s a football game tonight.” He must pick up on my confusion, because chuckling, again—the man sure does chuckle a lot, I think as, he begins to elaborate, “You’re mom told me that you were a cheerleader at your old school.” At my nod, he continues, scratching the back of his neck as if suddenly uncomfortable. “Well, you should check it out—if you want to, of course.”

“Okay, but make sure you take your phone and some cash in case you need to catch an Uber back.” As she says this Collin pulls his wallet from his back pocket and hands me some cash, a while smiling over at my mom.

“Yes, mom.” I say, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and giving her a hug, “thank you.” I say with a smile at Collin.

“No problem, kiddo. Have fun.”

“Thanks,” I say with an awkward smile of my own as I reach out, taking the cash from him, I call out, “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Be careful,” Mom calls out and just before the door closes behind me I hear her shout, “oh, and make sure you have your pepper spray on you!”

I chuckle, thinking about the pepper spray that she gave me after a creepy guy followed me around a department store back in Monument—more so, how I had overreacted because he wasn’t actually following me. I had just been paranoid.

Thinking about the football game that Collin had mentioned as I make my way down the driveway, I decide that it sounds like the perfect thing to do with my evening.

After paying for my entry, I climb up the steps and glance across the stadium bleachers.

It.

Is.

Packed.

The scoreboard shows that the game must have just started. It looks like whatever team is black and yellow is on offense and one of their players is hauling as*s down the field.

Several of the guys in silver and dark blue are running after them, but every time someone gets close to getting their hands on him, he manages to evade them until he’s crossed over into the endzone.

TOUCHDOWN!

The whole crowd goes wild as the player who ran the ball, makes his way back toward the rest of the team. Before he even makes it to them, his teammates rush him, smacking his helmet and getting excited over the night’s first touchdown.

The offense switches out, and defense takes the field. The guy who scored, his jersey reads Jones #44 and takes to the sidelines.

Pulling his helmet off, he says something to one of the other players and then walks over to a water cooler, pouring some in a cup and guzzling it. Glancing out at the crowd as he refills it and chugs it again.

My breath catches as piercing blue eyes lock with mine and his full lips pull up at the side, smirking and then winking as he finishes off his drink.

He’s hot, and not just from playing the game. Along with those piercing blue eyes, he has dark hair that looks incredibly soft, my fingers itching to feel the strands running through them, a jaw and cheekbones that look as though they were chiseled from stone, and a strong nose. Although he’s in uniform, I’d bet that he has the body of a Greek God hiding underneath.

I try shrugging off his attention, telling myself that he was probably smirking and winking at someone else anyway. Why would I, out of all of these people, catch his attention?

As he joins the rest of the players on the sideline, he knocks his elbow with another player whose jersey shows the last name of Jones as well. The second Jones boy leans over, listening as the first Jones boy says something to him.

The second Jones boy turns around and glances out into the crowd. Eyes the same color as the other one land on mine, his full lips also pulling into a smile, and then turns back to the first Jones boy.

The second Jones boy looks so much like the first, that I’d bet that it’s safe to assume that they’re brothers, maybe even twins.

Having not been paying attention to the game, since I was paying attention to the players instead, I’m surprised when they both pull their helmets back on and head back onto the field.

I cheer along with the rest of the crowd with every touchdown that’s made, excitement building within me.

By halftime, the team that the Jones boys are on is ahead 22-12. The cheer squad is in the middle of performing their halftime show as I overhear a few kids next to me talking about a party going on after the game that the whole team is supposed to be going to. Suddenly very interested, I try to discreetly listen more carefully, trying to replace out more details about the party.

Both teams come back onto the field and the second half of the game starts up, my attention is now back on the action in front me as both Jones boys are back on the field.

I watch, enraptured, as the players work together like a well-oiled machine while the opposing team looks like a bunch of bumbling fools who were introduced to football just this morning and were left to figure out what it is and how to play all on their own.

The Hornets, who I realized after halftime, are the home team, win 43-18 and the guys are ecstatic, causing a grin to play on my face as well, their excitement contagious.

I watch as both teams make their way off the field and towards the locker rooms to get showered and changed. Standing around awkwardly in the parking lot, I try to figure out how I could get to that party that I overheard the people next to me talking about. It sounds like it could be fun and maybe even a good way to get to know some of the people that I’ll be going to school with starting next week.

After waiting around for way longer than I probably should have, as I tried to come up with an idea other than asking for a ride with some random stranger, I give up and begin making my way back towards Col—my house.

I’m about a block down the road when a big black truck pulls up next to me, “need a ride somewhere?” a deep voice asks, causing butterflies to erupt in my stomach.

Really?

From the sound of his voice alone? He could be ugly as hell. But when I stop and turn towards the person who spoke, my breath catches as one of the Jones boys is looking back at me from the driver’s seat, his smirk back in place.