“Jack!” I peer through the crowd to find him wedging his way between people. He breaks free and darts up to slap Star’s side and rub his ears.
“Good boy,” Jack says, rubbing the horse’s muzzle and smiling up at me.
“I’m sorry,” I say with a sob.
“You’ll win next time. I know it.” He holds my gaze, grinning, and I squeeze his hand. “Come down here,” Jack says, and I let him pull me off the horse. Gael grabs the reins. And when a photographer gets in my face to snap a picture, Jack pulls me into a long kiss, wrapping his arms around me, cocooning me like he’ll never let go. And I kinda hope he doesn’t.
“I swear,” I hear Mr. Goodwin say. “Do you have to kiss her in front of everybody?”
“Yes,” Jack replies, then dives right back in, kissing me again.
“I thought Jack had a girlfriend—that Winchester girl,” Mrs. Goodwin says, sounding confused and pissed. “John, why is our son kissing Danny’s daughter? John, what’s going on?”
“How romantic,” Shelby sighs.
“I’m going to kill him,” Dad says.
“This would be a great climactic scene,” Rory adds, and out of the corner of my eye, I catch him jotting down notes.
Star sniffs my hair and nuzzles his neck between our heads. Jack and I break apart.
“Is my horse trying to cock block me?” he whispers in my ear.
“Appears so.”
“If he hadn’t done so well, I’d send him to New York to drag a tourist carriage. For real this time.”
Jack and I smile, continuing to kiss, and even though we’re not in the winner’s circle, I feel like I won.
Laughter and hooting and hollering distract me, and when I pull away from his lips, he turns me to face the scoreboard. It reads:
Sav—Will you go to homecoming with me?—Jack
I laugh. “That’s so much better than a skywriter!”
After the press has melted away and while Jack is attempting to smooth things over with his mother, who is super agitated that her son was making out in front of a crowd, Mr. Goodwin walks up to me and Dad with a gentleman I don’t recognize.
“Danny and Savannah, meet Thomas Alexander. He runs the Kentucky Thoroughbred Village in Lexington.”
Mr. Alexander shakes Dad’s hand first and then mine. “You’re quite talented, Savannah.”
“Thank you.”
He hands me his card. “We have a jockey-training program at the Village you might be interested in. We offer college credit that’s accepted at the University of Kentucky. You’d have to spend several hours a week exercising the horses, and you’d work as a sort of apprentice instructor, teaching younger kids how to be a jockey. If you’re interested, I can have my assistant get in touch with you to discuss the details.”
Mr. Goodwin smiles down at me. I peek up at Dad, who’s picking at the inside of his eye with his thumb, trying to act manly by pretending he’s not tearing up.
“I’m very interested, thank you.” I bounce on my toes.
I give Mr. Alexander my phone number and email address, and after he’s gone, Mr. Goodwin pats my shoulder.
“Thank you for doing that for me,” I tell Mr. Goodwin, cradling the man’s card in my hands.
“Don’t thank me. Jack asked me to make the introduction. It was all his idea.”
I lounge in a cushy chair on the patio, watching Jack work the grill. Wearing an apron, he whistles as he flips the burgers. The smell of cooking meat wafts over along with the sound of the radio. He likes listening to college football games. I never knew that about him until tonight. What else don’t I know?
“What are you smiling at?” he asks.
“Wondering if you have any secrets.”
The edge of his mouth lifts into a smirk. “I won’t keep any secrets from you…except…”
“Except what?”
His grin is full of mischief as he abandons the grill to come give me a kiss. “I can’t tell you what I want to do to you later in private. It’s a secret.”
Stomach butterflies flutter up into my chest and heart, leaving me breathless. Smiling, he returns to his position at the grill, and I pull my knees to my chest, incredibly content. It’s a chilly autumn night, and I’m cozy in one of Jack’s extra large sweatshirts. He gave me a guest bedroom with a queen-size bed, with a fluffy white duvet and pillows made of lace. When I sleep there tonight, I’ll feel like a princess…who’s also a horse jockey. Bad. Ass.
“I told you I could grill,” he murmurs, smiling as he serves me a cheeseburger.
After dinner, and after a crazy make-out session in the hot tub where he let me in on the secret things he wanted to do to me, we curl up in the hammock together. His parents won’t be home from some fancy dinner for a while, and his sister and the housekeeper are inside, so it’s almost like we’re in our own little world. Except for Jack’s hounds resting on the ground below us. Thor is a big snorer.
“This is my favorite place,” Jack says, wrapping his hands behind his head, staring at the stars.
“It could easily become mine too.” I love the soft sounds of the crisp night. Crickets. A stream babbling in the distance. My boyfriend’s steady breathing.
“Thank you for supporting me today,” I say, curling up against his chest.
He kisses the top of my head. “Thank you for believing in me.”
Chapter 20. Future Plans
The little bell on the door jingles as we walk into Tennessee Ballers.
Jack and Rory head straight for the counter but Vanessa grabs my elbow. She loops her arm through mine.
“Tell me everything,” she whispers.
Jack took me on a day date to Fall Creek Falls today, where we went horseback riding around the waterfalls and did some hiking that involved lunch in a deserted meadow. And lunch led to dessert which led to more. Red and gold leaves fell around us as we stretched out on the picnic blanket, taking our time.
“We did it,” I whisper back, and Vanessa squeals.
“Details!”
“It was great…well, until Jasper—Jack’s dog—stole my shirt,” I say, laughing. “But I do have some questions…”
She pats my arm. “Let’s talk more later.”
I don’t regret giving myself to him, not one bit, but there’s stuff I need to know, and I’d rather sing a solo in the school musical than ask Rory stuff about sex. Like, what in the world are you supposed to do with your hands? And am I supposed to help him put the condom on?
“What do you want to eat?” Jack asks me.
“Cheese quesadillas and tortilla chips.”
He grins. “Stake out a seat for us.”
I weave around the tables, saying hi to kids from school, then grab the corner booth. While Jack collects our food and brings it to the table, Rory pushes Vanessa up against the counter and kisses her so passionately I have to look away.
“Whitfield! I’m sure that’s a health-code violation. Stop!”
My head pops up to find a humongous guy pointing at Rory, who keeps on kissing Vanessa like he can’t hear a thing.
“Who’s that?” I ask Jack.
“Joe Carter. He used to play football for Hundred Oaks and now he owns Tennessee Ballers.”
“I’ll kick you out of here, I swear, Whitfield, and you’ll never eat my tacos again,” Joe Carter says. “No tacos for you!”
Rory grins as he kisses Vanessa.
“That’s it,” Joe says, clearly exasperated. “If you don’t stop right now, I’m calling Vanessa’s brother—”
“No!” Rory roars, ripping away from Vanessa. He picks up their tray and yells over his shoulder, “You’re evil, Carter.”
Vanessa and Rory slide into the booth with us. “If he calls your brother, I’m dead,” Rory says.