BooksBarbecue
Back Cross My Heart Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Prologue
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Chapter Forty-Four
  47. Chapter Forty-Five
  48. Chapter Forty-Six
  49. Chapter Forty-Seven
  50. Epilogue
  51. Author’s Note
  52. Acknowledgements
  53. Keep Reading …
  54. About the Publisher

‘Thanks.’ My voice shakes when I try to force a grateful smile with Rod. ‘For telling me. I … I had no idea that’s why he was here.’

Rod snorts. ‘He’s good at hiding things. He gives you the infuriating cowboy pearly-whites—’

‘Oh, he does,’ I agree with a chuckle. ‘Like he’s trying to flush all the doubt out of your mind, right?’

‘It’s like being brainwashed!’

Rod and I share a moment of laughter. Colt. What a sweet, clueless, ignorant idiot.

‘Guess I have to make amends,’ I say once the laughter has subsided.

‘Don’t let yourself think that.’ Rod stops me. ‘He did you dirty, May. No one deserves to be left alone with their feelings like that. He’s the one who up and left, at the end of the day. I may not know exactly what upset you, but I’ll tell you that you have every right to be. People who leave …’ There’s a glassiness in his eyes that tells me he knows a little too well what it’s like. ‘They shape the rest of our lives, whether we like it or not, and we absolutely have the right to put that on them. But we can lessen that impact by looking at what we have now. And what you have now might just be a second chance.’

‘After …’

After everything he did to me? I’m about to say. But it doesn’t have the same punch now that I realize he’s paying in a different way. His homecoming isn’t one of celebration. It’s a self-imposed exile. He’s helpless here. Powerless.

‘Is there anything else I don’t know?’ I ask instead.

Rod looks up in thought. ‘Well – he totally doesn’t want you to know this, but there’s one thing.’ He pulls his phone from his jeans pocket and does a little bit of frantic tapping, scrolling, some zooming, as he talks. ‘I guess he’s dated a few women up in New England, that I know of, but nothing really seemed to last. I’d ask him how it went, and honestly, it wasn’t even like he was being a dick, or anything. He just sounded pretty guilty. Ashamed. And I think …’ He turns the phone my way. ‘This might have something to do with it.’

Oh. My.

It’s a photo of Colt by his Woodchucks locker, painted this ridiculous blue and full of what’s no doubt smelly lacrosse gear. Beside him and his cowboy pearly-whites, though, is a picture taped to the inside of the open door.

My University of Oklahoma City media day photo from freshman year, complete with my name in neon cursive, in case anyone was in doubt of who the woman in his locker was.

MAY VELASCO. #13.

Chapter Twenty-Two

In for a Penny

Colt