Under the Dusty Sky (Holloway Farms)

the door wearing nothing but a towel. Her hair is sopping wet and hanging around her shoulders, her eyes wide with surprise. She shrieks so loud that I jump, and then she slams the door in my startled face. I can hear her laughing hysterically on the other side.
    I close the door to my room behind me and lean against it. I’m so done for.
    In this moment I am legitimately contemplating going home, taking a stupid business diploma and taking over my dad’s business like Mom wants. All because a girl in a towel that I’m trying to stay away from makes my head spin so fast I’m constantly dizzy and eternally in danger of falling over the edge. An edge I don’t want to fall over, not when all there is at the bottom is games and lies.

CHAPTER 15
    Graceland
    The wind pushes my hand, and I push back, letting my fingers play through the air current as we speed down the gravel road. I look at Ben again, his eyes shaded behind dark sunglasses. L.A. sunglasses I assume because no guy here would wear glasses like that, strictly for style and nothing else. I grin and hold back a laugh. Just as I look away, I see him look at me.
    “ What?” I ask, shoving a big chunk of hair behind my ear.
    “ I might ask you the same thing?” He smirks.
    “ I’m just laughing at your face.”
    “ Oh, thanks.”
    “ No, this morning. I’ve never seen emotion on your face ever. You’re either bored, thinking, or completely neutral. It was nice to see that Big Ben feels things.”
    He raises his eyebrow at me. “I definitely feel things. Most of them you wouldn’t want to know.”
    “ What if I did?” I say and immediately regret it. Not that it’s a lie but because it shouldn’t be true.
    “ What do you want to know about my feelings?”
    I turn to face him, pulling my feet from the dash, and the corner of my mouth twitches but I force it down.
    “ For the sake of getting to know each other better , of course.” I say, and he laughs but doesn’t look at me. “Why do you refuse to go home?”
    He laughs louder and stretches his hand over the steering wheel, resting his wrist on it. He looks at me this time with that illegal smile.
    “ Bringing out the big guns on the first question, are we? You really waste no time with anything, do you?”
    “ I’m efficient, what can I say.” We’re flirting. It takes everything I have not to giggle when he smiles, or looks at me, or one of his fifty bazillion muscles flex. His smile never fades, and he keeps shaking his head and laughing to himself.
    “ Well, for the sake of getting to know each other better,” he mocks. “My father’s recording studio was left to me in his Will as the oldest son. Apparently, both my parents thought themselves royalty…” He scoffs, but my jaw is hanging wide open.
    “ What? A recording studio? You own a recording studio?” I can’t help my voice from rising a couple octaves.
    “ Not yet. I will when I’m twenty-one. I guess I have to be able to drink first to smooze the band managers. But my mom wants me to take some stupid business degree thing first. She insists that she will remain stinkin’ rich until she dies without ever actually doing anything to earn it. She has little faith in her eighteen year old son.”
    “ That’s freaking huge, dude.” I reach over and hit his leg then scrunch my nose. I can’t hang out with my brothers anymore.
    “ Totally, bro.” He teases.
    I slap his leg again.
    “ So you don’t want to do it?”
    “ I don’t know what I want.”
    “ That’s why you came here, isn’t it?”
    “ Yeah, I just needed to be away from it. From all of it. To get shit straight in my head, you know?”
    “ I want to get away everyday. I get it.” I watch the road as we pull into town.
    “ Looks like you have a pretty sweet life here.”
    I snort. “More like boring and predictable.”
    “ As opposed to frantic and completely fake.” He states it flat and with a tone I’ve never heard from him. It’s harsh and cruel. He really hates where he’s from, and I feel like the door on this conversation has been slammed, locked, and barred.
    “ Well, are you ready for a real taste of small town life?” I laugh because it really is boring and predictable.
    “ You mean the Kick-Off wasn’t taste enough?”
    “ Not a chance. That was a special occasion. Everyone is at their most fun on those days. I hope you love talking about the weather.”
    He smiles warmly at me, and I do giggle this time before biting my