Free Mansfield Ranch by Jenni James

what to say, so I remained silent. I found myself wanting him to go on. He didn’t disappoint me.
     “I . . . uh, don’t really know what’s happening to me. I’ve never felt like this before, that’s for sure. It’s pretty painfully, actually.” Harrison chuckled softly before he continued, “What am I going to do with you, Lilly?”
    Leave me alone and never, ever think about me again.
    “I can’t . . . I, uh, I don’t want to give you up. Funny as that seems. I must be addicted to torture, because you’re pretty addicting.” Then he really laughed. “I’m a torture junkie! Imagine that! Me, Harrison Crawford, addicted to the one girl who couldn’t stand to be with him. It’s ironic, isn’t it?”
    “Whatever.” I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to say something. “You’re so overdramatic, you could be a movie heroine. Spare me, okay? You couldn’t care less about me if you were paid to.”
    “Lilly—”
    “It’s true! So don’t try to deny it. And if you’re honest with yourself, you’d see that the only reason— the only reason —you like me is because I don’t like you. And that bugs you. That gets under your skin so much that you don’t know what to do with yourself! You have to prove somehow that you can make me like you. Well, bravo. Your act is quite appealing. Almost believable, if I were someone else, but I’m not buying it. I never will. The only person you care about is yourself, Harrison. So—”
    “You know what? For someone who pretends to be shy and perfect all the time, you sure make some pretty rude, brash assumptions of people—based off little or no factual evidence—”
    What? “Factual evidence? As if I needed—”
    “And I can’t wait, Lilly Price, for you to be strangled by your own disillusions.”
    “My own—?”
    “Especially when you see me play the game your way—not how I want to, but with your rules—and then you realize just how jealous it makes you.”
    “How jealous it makes me?” What in the—? “You’ve got a lot of nerve, bud!”
    “Yes, I do have a lot of nerve. And guts. Or I wouldn’t be hanging around you, now would I?”
    “Grr!”
    “Oh. And make sure you wear something nice to school tomorrow.”
    What? “Why?”
    “Any girl who’s going to get the kind of attention you’ll get tomorrow will want to.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “You’re not my girlfriend, but we’re still married, Lilly Price—or wait! Should I say, ‘Lilly Crawford’?”
    Urgh! In disgust, I hung up. Harrison’s laughter rang in my ears long after the line went dead.
     
    ***
     
    The next morning came too fast, in my opinion. I played around with the idea that I was sick. I mean, I even tried to cough a few times before I gave up and got ready. No use putting off the inevitable. I clawed through the back of my closet and came up with the oldest shirt I could find and paired it with my oldest jeans, too. No reason to give Harrison any more ammo than I had to. Besides, I was almost a hundred-percent sure he’d said that junk about us still being “married” just to get a rise out of me. What guy is that cruisin’ for a bruisin’ anyway? He’d have to be a complete moron.
    Harrison Crawford is a complete moron. Ugh!
    Okay, so I admit it, once I got to school I had to give a point to the Crawford team. He had completely one-upped me. The last thing I ever would’ve expected was to be welcomed into the elite crowd. Why me? Seriously? By the end of second hour, I had about thirteen of Alexis’ and Lauren’s friends following me around the halls. Joy . All because Harrison helped carry our books to our classes first hour. Just that small act, teamed with yesterday’s sharing-the-book episode—that was now making the rounds like wildfire—made me officially go from a zero to a hero.
    In fourth hour, I tried to scare off the girls with my talk of horses and all things ranch/farm related. But by the end of class, they all wanted