Free Essential Beginnings by Kennedy Layne Page A

pulled into the left lane and brought her rusty heap of metal alongside his, motioning with her hand that he should pull over. She’d gone certifiably insane. He eventually pulled over and slammed the gearshift into park before pulling on the handle of the door. He slammed his shoulder against the side and was out of the Jeep just in time to see Henley pull in front of him.
    “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Mav yelled as Henley hopped out of her truck like she hadn’t just been a menace to the roads. “You could have gotten us both killed. Sheriff Ramsey should ticket your ass up one side—”
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake, calm down,” Henley snapped with a wave of her hand as she walked closer. Mav was lucky the vein in his head didn’t explode and she was currently in a haze of red as the level of his rage rose. “It’s not like anyone really travels this road except either to leave or arrive, and the one person coming into town isn’t arriving for another half hour. I need to say something.”
    “You…are you kidding me? You have something to add on to what you said last night? Trust me, sweetheart, your point got across so loud and clear that my eardrums are bleeding,” Mav gritted through his teeth, unable to accept that she didn’t see how dangerous it was to drive on the left hand side of the road. “What if Ernie’s customer arrived early? Did you think of that? Did it ever occur to you that someone could actually be driving through town in the lane they’re supposed to use before you foolishly decided to take your life in your own hands?”
    “I needed to confirm something before you left and I didn’t want to wait until you returned,” Henley stated, as if that validated her reckless driving. Mav ran a hand through his hair in disbelief at her carelessness and then was astounded when she had the audacity to bring up last night. “Why did you have those magazines in your Jeep?”
    “You’re asking me that now? I thought you already had that figured out.” Mav turned to walk away with every intention of getting back into his Jeep and driving away, but stopped himself short. He whipped his shades off and faced her. “Three years, Henley. You had three years to ask me that question and you chose to either ignore me or draw me into arguments that I couldn’t win. One snide comment after another for all that time and you need to ask me why? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you made assumptions about me based on your past experiences. Am I right?”
    Henley appeared taken aback that he’d dove headfirst into the discussion she wanted to have. Either that or she actually expected an answer. He’d eventually give her one, but not until he had his say.
    “Yes,” Henley answered with another wave of hand as if she was dismissing his fact, “you would be right, but—”
    “Then you’ve made up your mind about the kind of man I am,” Mav said, cutting her off. He pointed toward her with one side of his sunglasses. “ You made the choice to project other men’s actions on me. I chose to see you in a different light, regardless of your fame or the fact that you have men literally falling at your feet. You think you had it rough in your high-rise penthouse in Hollywood, schmoozing with the other models and actors getting paid more than ninety percent of the average middle class American? Try living in the projects with a mother hooked on crack who spent every dime on drugs instead of feeding her kid or making sure he had clothes on his back. When she wasn’t passed out on the floor, she was selling her body to the first man who’d line up with a ten-dollar bill. Do you think I judged you based on my past experiences? No, because you are your own individual person but in the end…it didn’t matter. Your opinion of me was no better than hers and I realized something last night—you should be living in Lost Summit where the population is limited because you have no