Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Fiona
If I didn’t hurry, I’d be late.
Again.
I grabbed my books and climbed into my car after saying a quick goodbye and ‘I love you’ to Granny as I dashed out the door, ignoring her complaints about me not eating breakfast. I didn’t have time for breakfast because I’d overslept.
Again.
And why had I overslept? Because I’d been dreaming about him.
Again!
Ever since we’d come home from New Orleans, one man had haunted my dreams.
Jasper Francis Alexander DuBois.
Romeo.
I couldn’t stop thinking about him, dreaming about him. Fantasizing about him. I might only be eighteen, but I wasn’t innocent. I wasn’t a virgin. Hell, I’d given birth to a child.
A child who was now being raised by my adopted brother, Frank, and his wife, Claudia. I’d chosen Claudia because of who she was, not who she was married to. In fact, she wasn’t married to Frank when I chose her as my baby’s mother.
They weren’t even a couple yet.
Though she was pregnant with his twins. I hadn’t known that, nor had she. Even if I’d known, I still would’ve chosen her.
And at the time I chose Claudia, Frank wasn’t my brother.
I’d been living on the streets when I gave birth to Charlie. I’d been a tossed-out, pregnant foster kid with nowhere to go. Not because of my parents. They’d been amazing, though the only real memory I had left of my mother was of her singing to me when I was sick.
My parents died in a car accident when I was a child, and when no family could be found, I went into the foster care system. From there I bounced from home to home until I met Billy Johnson.
When I found out I was pregnant, Mr. and Mrs. Jones kicked me to the curb. Though I didn’t think they told the state. Couldn’t collect that paycheck if you gave the foster kid back.
God, the system was so screwed up.
Diana Peters had been different. She’d helped Frank and Claudia adopt Charlie, but she hadn’t stopped there. When Granny wanted to adopt me, Diana stood in front of the judge and spoke on my behalf.
Someday, I wanted to do that for someone else.
That was why I was planning to go to college and become a social worker.
Granny adopting me was how Frank and Georgie became my brothers; though legally they were my nephews. Granny was their grandmother, so her adopting me technically made me their father’s sister.
Yeah. Our family tree was complicated.
But we didn’t stand on legalities. Everyone in Rosewood called Martha Steiner Granny.
That could’ve been on account of her best friend’s name also being Martha. But regardless, Granny was now my adopted mom, and she was almost as good as my real mom.
That might not have sounded fair to Granny, but she understood. Right after she adopted me, she told me the law might see her as my mother, but she wasn’t looking to replace my mom—she’d step in as my grandmother instead.
I didn’t know where I’d be if she hadn’t.
Sheriff Brewer had wanted to arrest me for abandoning Charlie. It wasn’t his fault. He was just doing his job. But, boy, did that make Granny mad, and if there was one thing you did not want to do, it was piss off my Granny.
I was pretty sure even King might’ve been afraid of her.
King was the president of the Sons of Hell Motorcycle Club here in Rosewood. Frank and Georgie were in the club too.
Jasper was a biker too.
Just not in the Sons of Hell.
His club was the Silver Shadows MC in Nebraska, where everyone called him Romeo. Georgie had made a point of making sure I understood exactly how he’d gotten that name, as if I were too young to understand about sex.
Hello... gave birth to a child—alone I might add.
I knew Georgie meant well. Knew he was worried about me being taken advantage of again. But I didn’t see what Billy and I had done as being taken advantage of. I knew the law classed it as statutory rape, but I’d known what I was doing. I’d also known what the risks were.
Or at least, I’d thought I did.
At fifteen, I’d thought I was in love.
What fifteen-year-old didn’t think she was in love with the handsome older boy who paid attention to her?
I was older now. Eighteen, a senior in high school and about to go off to college. Georgie had to understand that at some point, he needed to let me make my own decisions when it came to my life.
When it came to Jasper.
I didn’t want to call him Romeo, because despite what Georgie might’ve thought, I knew exactly how he got that name. And while he was much older than me, and I wasn’t na?ve enough to think he hadn’t been with a ton of women, I preferred to think of him as Jasper.
Not that he’d ever want to be with me anyway.
The first time he met me, I was practically crying my eyes out over Joseph Higgins standing me up and walking into the dance with Amy after he’d asked me to go with him.
Not exactly the kind of first impression a girl wanted to make on a man like Jasper Dubois.
I imagined he saw me the same way everyone else did.
As a child.
What I felt for Jasper was just a crush—I knew that. It would go away eventually when I met someone else.
Not that the attraction would ever go away. That man was hot as hell. How he wasn’t a model, I’d never understand. I bet he’d look good in a pair of Calvin Klein underwear.
Way better than Mark Wahlberg.
My mind was stuck on the image of Jasper in nothing but his underwear as I pulled into the high school and parked in my designated spot.
Georgie had bought me a car and paid for my parking spot so I could drive myself to school.
Though he constantly texted me every morning to make sure I got there safely.
Which was why I ignored the buzzing of my phone as I rushed inside, practically running into none other than Joseph Higgins.
He’d been acting really strange since we came back to school after Christmas break. And right now, he was practically falling all over himself apologizing for almost bumping into me, yet he wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“Sorry,” I said automatically.
His eyes widened. “No. Sorry. I’m sorry.”
Then he was gone.
I stared at his retreating back rushing down the hall as if the Devil himself was chasing him.
Weird.
Shaking my head, I moved to my first class of the morning.
Biology.
Who scheduled a biology class first period when students weren’t even fully awake yet?
My phone buzzed again, but I knew if I looked at it, Mr. Kramer would take it. He might even read the texts out loud, and I didn’t need the entire school giving me grief about my overprotective biker brother.
No, Georgie would just have to wait.
It was lunchtime before I was able to even look at my phone. I wasn’t worried about Georgie; I knew he’d call the school to make sure I was there.
What surprised me were the text messages from Jasper. He asked me for my number after everyone spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s in New Orleans after Jack’s wedding. I thought he was being nice; I never expected him to actually text me.
Jasper: Made it home alive, Cher. Nebraska is cold as fuck.
Jasper: You awake?
Jasper: Figured you’d be getting ready for school by now.
Jasper: Fiona?
Jasper: You make it to school?
Jasper: I know you have class but figured you could answer before the bell.
Jasper: Text me when you see this.
Jasper: Cher, I’m trying real hard not to overreact.
Jasper: That was a damn lie. I’m already fucking overreacting.
Jasper: Is your phone dead?
Jasper: Did you make it to school?
Jasper: Fuck this. Answer me, Fi.
Jasper: I’m calling Georgie in five minutes.
Jasper: No, I’m not. He’ll ask why I’m losing my shit over you, and I’m not ready for that conversation yet.
Yet?
My eyes lingered on that one word before I forced myself to keep reading.
Jasper: Five more minutes, Fiona, then I’m calling Josie.
Jasper: I swear to God, if you don’t answer me soon, I’m getting back on the road.
Jasper: I need one word, Cher. Safe. Busy. Annoyed. Anything.
Jasper: Fiona, please.
My heart did a stupid little flip as I stared at the phone.
He was just worried.
Friends worried.
It didn’t mean anything else.
I kept telling myself that as I texted him back.
Me: I’m safe. I was in class.
Jasper: Jesus fucking Christ.
Me: The teachers will take my phone if they see me texting.
Jasper: I’ve been picturing your car in a ditch all fucking morning, or falling off the side of that godforsaken mountain the clubhouse is on.
Me: I don’t live at the clubhouse LOL. No mountain roads for me to drive to school on.
Me: I was running late for school, so I didn’t have time to check my phone. I figured it was Georgie checking on me.
Jasper: Does he do that a lot? And why were you late?
Me: I overslept.
Me: …and he only does that on days that end in y.
Jasper: So every day. Got it.
Jasper: Why did you oversleep?
Jasper: Were you dreaming about me?
I bit my lip and closed my eyes when I read his question. Heat crept into my cheeks.
Of course he’d ask that.
Jasper was a natural flirt. He probably couldn’t help himself, and I needed to remember that before my stupid heart started turning a joke into something it wasn’t.
Me: You wish
Jasper: That means yes.
Me:
Me: I have to get to class.
Jasper: What’s next?
Me: English
Jasper: Text me when you’re done.
Me: I have classes all day
Jasper: Then text me when you get home so I know you aren’t in a ditch or over the side of that fucking mountain.
Me: Bye, Jasper
Jasper: All right, Cher. Go learn something.
Me: Bossy
Jasper: Worried.
My thumb stopped over the screen.
Worried.
No joke. No flirty little comment tacked onto the end.
Just worried.
Me: I’ll text you after school
Jasper: Good. I’ll try not to plan another rescue mission before then.
I shook my head but couldn’t stop the smile spreading over my face. My eyes drifted back to that one word again.
Worried.
Jasper had that Southern charm Josie warned me about in spades. He probably flirted without even realizing he was doing it, and I couldn’t let a few texts convince me his attention meant more than friendship.
That was the part I had to keep under control.
He was older, definitely more experienced, and surrounded by beautiful women who knew exactly what they wanted.
I was still trying to figure out who I was outside of everything that had happened to me.
What happened when Jasper got bored with texting? When some beautiful woman in Nebraska smiled at him and reminded him how much easier it would be to want someone who already belonged in his world?
I shoved my phone into my bag.
There. Problem solved.
Except I could still hear that one word in my head.
Worried.
I needed to stop reading too much into his concern. Stop wondering what he meant when he called me Cher. Stop imagining him climbing back onto his motorcycle and driving all the way to Rosewood because I hadn’t answered a text.
Most of all, I needed to stop dreaming about him.
Because the man taking up more space in my heart with each passing day wasn’t Romeo.
He was Jasper Francis Alexander DuBois.