Chasing Trouble (Chasing Love 1)

Colt laid money down on the bar, grabbed his keys, and burst out the door, barely hearing Huck yell something like, “Anytime, bro.”

…

Jenna stared at her laptop and groaned. She’d looked over the grant proposal so many times she was going cross-eyed. She had also read over the job description, rules and regulations, and all the personal bios of each school board member.

She snapped her computer shut, took off her glasses, and rubbed her nose. There was a knock on the door. She glanced at the clock: eight thirty.

She opened the door and her mouth dropped when she saw Colt standing on her stoop, his truck idling in her driveway. “Jenna Justice, you are amazing and beautiful and smart and I want you to come with me.”

“What?” Her heart stopped at least twice during his admission. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine.” He stepped through her door, forcing her to move back and let him enter. “Come away with me. Just for a few days.”

“Colt, I don’t know.”

“JJ, you’re not trash. I should have said all those things before but I was so shocked because I don’t understand how you can’t see what I see.” He tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “I’m sorry for the shit you had to deal with and still have to deal with today. But if you give me a few days, I’ll do my damnedest to show you what I see in you.”

Oxygen was nowhere to be found. Or maybe she just had a hard time breathing because her brain was foggy and her lungs burning. Colt had just verbally delivered a boot to the chest and her heart was equal parts happy and hurting. But she couldn’t really just pick up and leave…could she? Actually, she could. If she wanted to, that is. The school board meeting was still two weeks away and school had just ended. She had plenty of time to prep for the next year still.

“Where?”

Colt smiled. “Not far. I just—” He gripped the bill of his ball cap, which Jenna was learning he did when he was nervous. “I think some space from all this would be good for us.”

“Us?” She raised a brow but immediately felt bad for her tone. Colt didn’t seem deterred.

“Yeah. Us.” He flicked her under the chin and unleashed a smile so sexy she about puddled between the floorboards. “Look, we have a lot of st

uff going on. I’m not great at all this—” He waved his hand over her body.

She smiled. “Actually, it’s been my experience that you’re very good at all this.” She mimicked his previous hand action.

His eyes blazed. “I was talking about the relationship part, but if I can catch on half as well as I did to your little moans, then, sugar, I’ll be a master in no time.”

He winked.

Something girlie and giddy rose in Jenna’s throat, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was a teenager again, staring at the dreamy rebel who was currently attempting to whisk her away.

“I’m sorry I got mad earlier,” Colt said seriously.

“Don’t be. I asked you to talk and you did. You were being honest.” She gazed up at him. “Are we making up now?”

He grinned. “Making up? Don’t you have to break up first? And wait…” Colt looked at the ceiling and ran his fingers through his stubble. “Don’t you have to be together before you can break up?”

Jenna pursed her lips. Colt smiled victoriously. “I’ll be damned. The no-strings Miss Justice is thinking about something more.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

She rolled her eyes. He was worse than her students.

His hands closed around her hips. “Come away with me. If for no other reason than because I want you. Alone. To myself. I want a chance, a real chance, to see you.”

Colt’s words hit something deep in her soul. She couldn’t be herself in Diamond. Not right now and not with Colt. Maybe once this whole after-school program was going and Jenna was voted in for the job, she could consider dating Colt—

There she went again. With the “maybes” and “considering.” The thing she loved about Colt was, despite what he thought, he didn’t push her. He simply urged her to say her thoughts aloud.

She didn’t want to give up on her dreams. She wanted to teach and head up that program. But she wanted Colt too. “Okay.”