Painted Boots Read Online Free Page A

I sit.  I lift my bag strap over my head then set my bag in the passenger foot well.
    Kyle climbs in, closes the door then turns to face me, resting one arm along the back of the seat.  I’ve never been this close to him.  His hand is right there , an inch from my shoulder.  I want to fix his collar and adjust the way his Levi jacket lays against his chest.  I want to feel his warmth coming up through his clothes.  I wish I could brush his bangs away from his two-toned blue eyes.  They’re darker than usual—the colors of a winter sea—maybe because it’s cloudy.
    “Great truck,” I say.
    “Thanks.  It was my granddad’s.”  Kyle runs his hand along the black-stitched leather of his steering wheel then tugs his fingers through his hair.  “My dad and I restored it.  You likely noticed, but people around here don’t give up on their vehicles.”
    “ Yeah.  Private junkyards are everywhere.”
    Kyle laughs and his eyes grow brighter.  “You want to play a game?” he asks.
    I’m suddenly too warm, like I’m sitting on coals, and I tug my scarf away from my throat.  “I guess.  I don’t know.  What kind of game?”
    “ A revelation game.  Like I say, ‘My name is Kyle Thacker.’  Then you say your version.  ‘My name is . . . .’”
    “ Aspen Brand.”
    Kyle extends his left hand and I take it in mine.  “Pleased to meet you, Aspen Brand.  I’m from Gillette, bred and born.”
    “ The pleasure’s mine, Kyle Thacker.  I come from Portland, Oregon.”
    “Oregon, huh?” He glances toward the school then smiles, just enough that his dimple pops into being.  His backwards handshake turns less formal.  More like a hand-hold.  “I live outside town, on Grand View Drive.”
    “I’m on Pinehurst,” I say.
    “Our family trains horses for a living.”
    “My dad is a geologist.”
    “I love Wyoming’s wide open spaces.”
    “ Frankly, I can’t get used to so much sky.”
    Kyle laughs , again.  “I play guitar,” he says.  “Acoustic.”
    “I do , too!”
    He rubs his thumb along the knuckles of my hand.  “I don’t tell people much, but I have stuff on YouTube, under KDT.”
    “I have one post, called ABcings .  Sings is spelled with a ‘c.’”
    “I’ll look you up.”
    “I’ll look you up.”
    We stare at each other , and a few moments pass in silence.  He says, “I noticed you, Aspen Brand, our first day of school.”
    “ I noticed you that day too, and at lunch.”
    “I think you’re gorgeous.”
    “I think you’re hot.”  I bite my lip.  I can’t believe I said that out loud.
    Kyle grins, wide and genuine, and a smile spreads across my face.  It feels almost foreign, a rude stretching of the muscles under my skin.
    “I’ve never seen you smile before .”
    I shrug my shoulders.  “I guess I don’t smile much.”
    “ Seems a shame,” he says.  “You have a beautiful mouth.  Truth is I study that mouth of yours, sometimes.”  He glances to the school.  His hand warms in mine.  “You being here, sitting in my truck and smiling, makes me wish more than anything I could kiss you.”
    I smile again.  I can’t help it .  I’ve never kissed anyone on a first date, let alone a first meeting.  Weird, how I don’t care about that now.  I want to kiss him.  A lot.  But suddenly, my unexpected happiness feels like a betrayal.  My hold on his hand relaxes.  Then I let go.  Mom loved my smile.  She used to tell me so all the time.
    “Did I say something wrong?” Kyle asks.
    “ No.  Not really.  I mean, I think about kissing you pretty much every time I see you.”  I press my hand to my face.  I’m bursting with heat.  “I guess it’s okay to tell you that, since you want to kiss me, too.  But if we’re talking about wishes, especially one above everything else, mine would be that my mom was still alive.”  Tears sting my eyes.  “Sorry I ruined our game,” I say to my hands.  They lie folded in my lap, one over