Broken Hill Hearts (Broken Hill High 4)

Courtney – Ugh! Did you hear? Bry is organizing some kind of clean-up at school. Get your ass there or I’m going to be hearing about it!

Brylee – Did you get my text? Can you drive? Should I pick you up?

Trust Bry to be the leader of the clean-up crew. She’s such a goody goody.

I get to the bottom of the stairs and find mom busy in the kitchen. I walk straight up to her. “Could you help me out?” I say with a shy smile. “I can’t do my jeans.”

Mom turns and looks down at my open jeans and starts chuckling to herself. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry,” she laughs as she places the tongs down on the table and reaches for my pants. “I really don’t mean to laugh.”

“What’s going on here?” dad’s amused voice comes from the hallway as he watches mom do up my pants.

I roll my eyes. I guess I’m going to have to get used to being the center of their teasing for the next few weeks. “Just you guys wait until my arm gets better.”

“Uh huh,” mom grins, getting back to breakfast.

“I, um… have some bad news, mom.”

She turns to me with wide eyes as I show her my phone. “The girls want to get involved in a school clean-up and I’m being summoned.”

“Oh, sweetie. That’s a wonderful idea, but are you up for it?” she questions. “I don’t want you lifting things with your arm the way it is.”

“There will be plenty of things she can do with one hand,” dad says. “I don’t want her sitting at home while the rest of her friends are involved in cleaning up our community. It looks bad.”

I guess there’s my answer.

Dad continues. “Eat a little breakfast and I’ll drop you off.”

“Ok,” I grumble, sliding myself up on to the kitchen stool. I pull my phone out and let the girls know I’ll be there in a bit. Next up, I text Brooke and Nate to let them know what’s going on. Naturally, Brooke isn’t too keen about cleaning up, but Brylee has already twisted her arm into helping. Nate, on the other hand, has a few choice words to say about me joining in, but nonetheless, agrees to get the boys and lend a hand.

An hour later, I stand in the middle of the football field, right where I was yesterday when B-Man broke my arm, holding a huge trash bag for Brooke in my good hand as she collects bits of debris and dumps it in the bag.

So many people have shown up this morning. It’s actually really nice to see. All the boys reluctantly showed up and were helping remove the fallen trees, but when the football team showed up, it became more of a pissing contest, as in who could get rid of each tree the fastest. It’s pretty damn amusing.

What sucks is that with the football team here, B-Man keeps wandering over trying to take the trash bag from my fingers. The first few times I smiled and told him I was fine, but now it’s starting to get annoying.

Brooke picks up a big piece of debris and helps me to open the trash bag wider. “Hey,” Jackson’s familiar voice says from behind us. We turn and give him a smile as Brooke continues dropping the debris in the bag.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“I, ah, wanted to come and check on you. I feel like yesterday was my fault.”

“Don’t be stupid,” I tell him. “You couldn’t have known that was going to happen.”

“Yeah, but-”

“No, buts,” I say. “As soon as my arm is better, I intend to take you up on that game because I know for a fact I’m going to kick your ass.”

A grin rips across his face. “You’re on.”

And just like that, everything is good in the world. Jackson seems to have cleared his conscious and jogs off to help the rest of the footballers as they load a crapload of tree stumps into the back of someone’s trailer.

I feel an intense gaze boring into me and I turn to find Nate’s heavy stare. He doesn’t like Jackson talking to me but right now, I’m not getting that pissed off, annoyed vibe from him. It’s almost as though there’s a level of respect. I mean, what’s happening here? I narrow my eyes on him and all he does is grin back at me.

“Alright,” Brooke says. “What’s going on with you two? You’re smiling at each other way too much.”

I can’t help but laugh. “We sort of got back together in the back of the ambulance.”

“What?” she laughs. “Geez, I should have known. He can’t resist a damsel in distress.” She lets out a sigh. “So, it’s official then?”

“Yep,” I smile, dreamily as I look across at the very guy in question to see him hauling a huge tree stump over his shoulder and dumping it into the massive pile the boys have created. All he needs is a gust a wind through his dark hair, gluing his shirt against his abs and the moment would be perfect.