Free Chaste (McCullough Mountain) by Lydia Michaels Page A

    Ashlynn
awoke with a smile and stretched. The birds were chirping and Kelly McCullough
had said she looked pretty.
    She
frowned. Why had he said that? All this time and he waited until she found a
nice guy to date to tell her she was pretty. It was probably because she bought
new girlie clothes, which had been an ordeal and a half. Shopping was not an
activity she enjoyed.
    She
played over her date from the night before. Josh had given her flowers. Turning
her head on the crisp pillowcase, she admired the wild blooms from where they
sat in her mother’s vase on the nightstand.
    No
one had ever given her flowers before. She never went to dances when she was a
teenager. It was pretty sad that she only had her first date at age
twenty-four, but from what she could tell it went pretty well.
    Josh
was nice and easy to talk to. Everything went pretty good until he walked her
out to her father’s truck. She didn’t know how to end a date so she’d wound up
standing there, looking stupid, and fidgeting like a moron. Then he leaned in
and she panicked and started rapidly spouting out words like she had some form
of Tourette’s.
    The
date had been fun and beyond flattering. Her belly tightened at the thought of
doing it again, but she was afraid if he kissed her she’d scare him away.
Twenty-four-years-old and never been kissed.
    Sighing,
she threw herself back on her pillows and moaned. You’re pathetic.
    Her
mind played a slideshow of every kiss she’d ever seen in person or on
television. Kissing shouldn’t be that difficult. Josh said he wanted to take
her out again and she wanted to be kissed. Really, really, really wanted
to be kissed.
    Her
gaze flashed to her door—stupid—but she glanced anyway. Slowly, she lifted her
hand and made a fist. Raising it slowly to her face, her lips pressed to the
back of her palm and she made a small smooching sound. Was that it?
    Puckering
her lips again, she turned her wrist and smooched some more. When a sudden
honking sound broke the silence she jumped and shoved her hand under the
covers. What the heck was that?
    Realizing
she was still alone in what was likely the most pitiable moment of her ignorant
life, she jumped out of bed and grabbed her robe. The horn honked again and
continued to blast.
    Who’s
here?
    It
was barely past seven in the morning. Running down the steps, she unlocked the
front door as a truck pulled in her long driveway, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Stepping onto the wraparound porch, she shaded her eyes, and squinted.
    She
didn’t recognize the truck. Her breath sucked in a sharp gasp. Yes, she did!
    Her
mouth opened as a smile broke across her face. It was the beautiful, four door,
pearly truck she’d been admiring the week before. Her dad leaned an elbow out
the window. “Morning, sug. How’d your date go?”
    “Where
did you get that?” she shouted as she ran down the porch steps.
    “Jenkins
loaned it to me. Go get dressed so we can take it for a test drive.”
    She
bounced and ran back into the house.   In a minute flat she had her teeth brushed and a tank top and overalls
thrown on over sensible underwear. Bursting back out the front door with her
shoulder bag trailing behind her like a runaway kite, she sprinted to the
pretty truck.
    Her
dad slid into the passenger seat as she hit the floorboard and climbed in.
Everything smelled of new car and leather. “This is so cool!”
    He
smiled and said, “I thought you’d like this. Fix your mirrors and buckle up so
we can see how she drives.”
    She
adjusted the seat and played with all the fancy dials her old truck didn’t
have. “I feel like I’m in a spaceship.”
    “Well,
let’s keep her below light speed, sug. Give her a go.”
    She
carefully put the truck in reverse and backed out of the drive. “It handles so
smooth. And look. I don’t need to turn the wheel over and over.”
    “That’s
the power steering. I gotta say it’s a lot nicer than I thought it would be.
And look at all this