Free Sacking the Quarterback by Alexandra O'Hurley Page B

ass.”
    Rhett’s mouth dropped open.
    Mrs. Ashby patted his cheek. “Don’t
look so surprised. You young people forget we were once your age
and screwed up our lives just as bad, if not worse, along the way.
You’ll find your way, just like we did.”
    “ I’m almost thirty. Not so
young,” he said.
    “ Compared to me, you are.”
Mrs. Ashby smiled widely. “And you’ve got plenty of time to get it
right. Why don’t you come inside? I just made an apple
pie.”
    Rhett chuckled and walked through the
door.

Chapter Eight
     
    Three months
later…
     
    “ Jim … move closer.
Jennings, stop grinning like a damned fool,” Taylor’s mom snapped
as she looked at the display on the back of the camera. “And
Taylor, will you please stop looking like you’re about to face the
firing squad. You just graduated. You should be happy.”
    Taylor was happy she’d graduated, but
something else was grating on her.
    After moving to Houston, she was so
damned homesick, she could barely see straight. The people, the
noise, and the wild, frenetic energy were just giving her headaches
and making her want to go home—for good. She’d been bitching about
leaving Dixon for years and now that she had her chance, she
realized how much she missed it.
    Home also meant something else now.
Rhett. She hadn’t stopped thinking about him every single damned
day since she left. She’d eased the ache in her body, her hands
caressing her flesh thinking of his hands, his mouth, his wicked
tongue. Almost every night, she touched herself to make the ache go
away. Almost every night she considered driving back home and
creeping into his bed.
    Not so much just his bed. His arms.
She’d liked the feel of being held in those big, strong arms and
wanted to know how it felt to belong there.
    He’d claimed she was his. He’d been so
very right.
    Rhett Banes had marked her as his own
the night he’d had his wicked way with her. The very first illicit
touch had etched his name on her soul. Taylor had thought she’d had
it bad for him when she was fourteen. That crush had nothing on the
raw ache she felt for him a decade later.
    Yet, if she moved home, she’d have to
admit defeat. She’d also probably admit to Rhett she was an
absolute sucker for him. He’d not expressed the same for her. She
wouldn’t be his plaything, like the other women he’d been
with.
    No, she wasn’t moving home. Better to
forge ahead and find her way instead of running back with her tail
between her legs. If she went home, it would be the worst mistake
she could make.
    “ Honey, why don’t you and
Jennings go find the car and pick us up? I want a minute with my
baby,” Taylor’s mom said to Taylor’s dad.
    Both men took off without a word. As
soon as they were out of earshot, Mama Bear came out. “What’s
wrong, Taylor?”
    “ Nothing,” Taylor said,
slapping the best smile across her face she could. “I’m
wonderful.”
    “ Don’t you lie to me, young
lady. I know when there’s something up, and there’s something up.
You just achieved one of your dreams. You should be ecstatic. Why aren’t
you?”
    Taylor sighed and looked off into the
distance for a moment, something catching her eye. As soon as she
caught a glimmer of it, it was gone. She wasn’t sure what she’d
seen, but it couldn’t have been. She turned to her mother and
smiled half-heartedly. “I feel like a failure.”
    “ A failure? You just walked
across the stage, how is that a failure?”
    Taylor walked a few steps to an open
bench and sat down. “In my rush to leave Dixon, I took the first
job thrown in my lap.”
    “ And you hate it,” her
mother finished.
    “ How did you know?” Taylor
asked as she lifted her head to stare at her mother.
    “ All the phone calls over
the last few months, well I figured it out. As time went on, the
less good you had to say about it. Eventually all I got was
a It’s fine , and I
knew it wasn’t fine.”
    “ I hadn’t planned to spend
my