Crashing Into Love Read Online Free

for the phone.
    “Good luck.” His mother handed it to him.
    “Good morning, Em.”
    “Jake.” She said his name like an accusation. “Is it true? Did you go home with Sarah Chelsum last night?”
    Jake imagined Emily’s brows drawn together as she paced her living room, arms crossed, a scowl on her pretty face. She was as protective of her brothers as they were of her, but what he was hearing wasn’t protective at all. It was disgust.
    “It’s the ass crack of dawn. You got up to ask me that?”
    “Jake!”
    “Chill, sis. No. I didn’t go home with her.” He shifted his eyes away from his mother.
    “You left with her. Apparently everyone in Trusty saw you.”
    “You mean Dae saw me leave the bar, and he told you.”
    She blew out a loud breath. “No. Dae and three friends who all texted me last night. I waited to call until now.”
    “Christ,” he mumbled.
    “Christ? Is that all you can say? You know everyone in town is going to be talking about this, and Fiona is home, so she’ll find out.”
    Jake gritted his teeth. “Do you think I give a rat’s ass about what anyone thinks of me, much less what she thinks?”
    “Jake…”
    “Emily…”
    She huffed into the phone.
    “I gotta go for my run. Good to talk to you, sis.”
    “Wait, Jake—”
    He handed the phone to his mother. “I’m going for a run. Want to talk your daughter off the ledge?”
    She took the phone and covered the mouthpiece with her hand. “Jake. Sarah Chelsum? She’s ten years younger than you.”
    Jake rolled his eyes, then kissed his mother’s cheek. “Have faith in me, Ma. You didn’t raise an idiot.” Just an asshole .
     
    FIONA GAZED OUT at the overlook on the side of Old Hill Road. She was wearing a tank and running shorts and was thinking about how often she and Jake had run along that route. They’d run together nearly every morning before school and most weekends during the two years they’d dated. She’d calculated it once and knew it was more than one thousand hours of easy conversation and heated innuendos. More than one thousand hours of running side by side with the only guy who’d ever really understood her. And she’d spent thousands of hours since then thinking about meeting him here and hoping they could rekindle their relationship, because once she’d been with Jake Braden, nothing and no one else measured up. Not geology, not family, and sure as hell not any guy.
    Fiona bounced from one foot to the other in anticipation of seeing him. She checked her watch, though she wasn’t sure exactly what time he might go running. Especially since he’d left the Brewery with Sarah Chelsum last night. The thought made her sick to her stomach, but not sick enough to give up on him. He used to be as much a creature of habit as she was, and she knew from friends that he’d been running their trail in the mornings since he’d been home.
    She looked out over Trusty, thinking about how many times she and Jake had kissed in that very spot and how many times over the years she’d come back and revisited the memories. Sometimes she wondered how she could have been so stupid to break things off before college—and other times she didn’t have the strength to question it, accepting that it might have been the right choice.
    Sow your oats her mother had told her that summer, right after her father had moved out. Experience life. The advice had helped her do well in school, because if she’d stayed with Jake, she would have been sidetracked by him. Once they’d broken up, she’d thrown herself into her schoolwork and into drowning her doubts. But it hadn’t taken her long to realize that while her mother’s advice had helped her academically, it wasn’t good advice for her heart. She’d partied hard and dated a handful of guys, which was enough for her to know deep in her heart that Jake was the right guy for her. The only guy for her.
    She kicked at the dirt and glanced down the road, wondering if she would