Dirt: A Sexy Small Town Romance (Copperwood Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

but he didn’t say anything, so maybe he didn’t notice it. If anything, his grin shifted into the self–satisfied smirk of the cat who got the canary. I wasn’t about ready to be a canary. Not this time.
    His thumb brushed against the inside of my wrist and I felt the charge of his skin against mine everywhere. Nope, definitely not going to be the canary.
    I started at his lips. Reality couldn’t compete with my memories. He still had all of his boyish charm he used to get out of trouble when he was younger, but it was different somehow. Like his voice. Yep, the boy was definitely gone and a man had taken his place.
    I pulled my hand away and his fingers brushed along mine, tickling the inside of my palm. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it. He never did. All the touching and looks never crossed over the line of friendship. Even when I tried to send cues that I wanted more from him.
    The night couldn’t end soon enough for me. For most of the night, I moved behind the bar, sneaking glances at Shane whenever I was certain he wasn’t looking at me. The bar was busy enough to keep me from hovering too close to Shane’s radius so my sneaking glances grew further and further apart.
    By the time I shouted out the words ‘Last Call!’ and started the excruciatingly slow process of clearing out the bar, I looked around, expecting Shane to still be sitting next to Mike, but instead Alene had taken over Shane’s stool.
    I wondered when Shane left and why he didn’t bother saying goodbye. Not that I cared he didn’t say goodbye. At least he wasn’t around for Alene to hang off of.
    I cleaned the bar surface, swept up my tips, and tossed the empties into the cartons to give back to the distributor. A crumbled napkin sat in the rail where Shane had been sitting, and when I picked it up it made an unexpected noise. When I opened it up, expecting to find a piece of paper with a phone number on it, I instead found a surprise.
    A hundred dollar bill.
    What the hell? I wasn’t a charity case. I fisted my hand around the bill and spun around to face Mike. “Where’d he go?”
    “Who?” Mike grinned at me. He knew exactly who I was talking about. Hell, he probably knew exactly why I wanted to know where he was so badly.
    I fisted my hands on my hips and leaned forward. Narrowing my eyes at him, I tried to use a glare that had worked occasionally in the past with him.
    Mike raised his hands up in mock surrender. He knew I’d never actually threaten him with more than cutting him off, and even that wasn’t likely to be followed through. “I don’t know, Mya, really. He just said he’d catch up with me tomorrow sometime.”
    Alene stared at me with her beady little eyes. She’d never had reason to be jealous of me and Mike, but I had a feeling she wasn’t too happy Shane was paying attention to me when she wanted all of his favors. I had flashbacks of high school and the shunning from Alene and her friends in the cafeteria when Shane insisted I sit with them.
    “Fine.” I spun away from them, shoving the bill into my pocket. I’d just give it back to him. He’d either be staying at his dad’s house or the one motel in town, it shouldn’t be too hard to find him. I hoped.

6
    Mya
    T he bed, which I had slept in for over fifteen years, decided, on that very night, to become the lumpiest, softest, most uncomfortable bed ever.
    Yes, it was definitely the bed’s fault.
    And Shane Crawford’s fault.
    And Alene’s fault, but I could blame most of my troubles on her without trying too hard. Alene was a very culpable person.
    I finally gave up when the digital clock on my bedside flashed over to 4:17 a.m. The a.m. mocked my inability to sleep and even when I told myself not to stare at the clock, I couldn’t help but do just that. I tried every trick for getting to sleep, and since none seemed to work, I rolled out of bed.
    One more thing to add to my list of disappointments. Which ironically, wasn’t all that