Under the Dusty Sky (Holloway Farms)

yesterday. How it’s the middle of the afternoon in my dad’s truck. How I haven’t showered. How it’s not perfect.
    I climb off Ben and sit in my seat, pulling the seat belt violently and buckling myself in. I pick up our shirts and toss his at him. A long and loud breath comes from beside me.
    “ If you can’t even bring yourself to say it, you shouldn’t do it.” His voice matches the cocky look on his face. He’s just proving a point. Making an idiot of me to prove a point. I look over at him and glare as hard as I can as he pulls his shirt back over his head.
    “ Screw you, Bentley,” I say mockingly.
    He wipes his hand across his mouth as he laughs, which sends me further into angry embarrassment.
    “ Sex isn’t a game, Gracie. Just because you feel it doesn’t mean you should do it.”
    “ You sound like Lacy,” I mumble and pull my knees up to my chin.
    “ It’s a mistake, and you know it.”
    I can’t take it anymore. We need to move and forget it. He just keeps talking.
    “ Yeah, well, while you’re over there making my decisions for me, did you think about how it might be my mistake to make?”
    Ben’s eyebrows burrow deep into his forehead, and his lips press into a firm line.
    “ You really don’t get it, do you? Did you even listen to what you just said?” His voice is hard, cold, and it makes my anger die out just a little. My mouth hangs open, unsure of what to say.
    “ You are that selfish. I thought it was just an exaggeration. But no, you really are that selfish.” Ben shakes his head, and my mouth falls open farther.
    “ Excuse me?”
    “ Did you ever stop to think that this ridiculously childish plan of yours is intruding on my decisions? That I’m not making decisions for you but really denying you the decisions you’ve already made for me? Christ, I’m not a toy. And as much fun as that sounds, not all guys are ultra horny douchebags that will screw anything that looks at them. Open your eyes. It’s not just your mistake to make, Graceland. Not when I’m the mistake.”
    As he speaks, Lacy’s words mix with his, the sting on my cheek coming back, and I feel flooded with I don’t know what. I don’t respond to him, mostly because I don’t know how. Instead, I just look out the window while he drives us home in the tension-filled truck and try not to cry.

CHAPTER 19
    Bentley
    It’s hard to drive in silence with her. It’s hard to do anything with her. She’s the most complicated person I’ve ever known, but she needs to hear it. But dammit, it was hard to pull away from her lying under me like that. This is what I came here to get away from. Guilt eats away at me about what I did to her, but Gracie doesn’t know she’s playing in the big leagues and my words wouldn’t have gotten through otherwise. I’m certain of it. Actually, I’m not sure if it got through anyway, but the way she sits and chews on her lip, barely blinking, tells me she’s feeling something. She’s getting something. I steal a few looks at her, but the expression that gets my attention is when we pull into the driveway. Her eyes go huge, and she leans so close to the window, the tip of her nose flattens. I follow her gaze and instinctively slam the breaks. Rasp is barking and jumping around the truck, but my eyes are stuck on a shiny silver sports car sitting in the middle of the yard.
    “ No,” I mutter, and Gracie looks over at me.
    “ Who is that?” she asks.
    “ If it’s who I think it is, I’m in a lot of trouble.”
    There’s some crazy feelings happening inside me right now, but I try to collect it all into one place and shove it away until I find out if I’m right. I hope to God I’m not right.
    When I park the truck and jump out, my heart starts hammering all over again. I pull my phone from my pocket and quickly scroll through my messages. Nothing.
    The screen door swings open, and my speeding heart is thrown into reverse. If a body could drop a heart like a car can drop a transmission, mine would be on the ground six feet behind me.
    In all her glistening, blonde, glossed, and bronzed glory, Sasha strolls toward me.
    “ Is that your sister?” Gracie whispers, now standing beside me, and I can only move my head up and down once.
    “ Wow.”
    I don’t have time to tell Gracie that my sister doesn’t deserve awe before we’re standing face to face.
    Sash smiles wide, flashing her chemically whitened and artificially sculpted teeth. The smile itself is