Read Online Love and Relativity by Rachael Wade - Free Book Online Page A

to look out the window, finding nothing but blackness as we rolled down the interstate. I couldn’t believe his audacity, implying that because I was letting Brian and Jace hit on me, it made me just like all the other girls he fooled around with.
    My head whipped back to his.
    “This may come as a surprise to you, but I like to let my hair down every now and then. Women have just as much of a right to do that as men do. Just because we choose to go home with someone, it doesn’t mean we’re all waving the flag of promiscuity.”
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Before you start burning your bra over there—if you were wearing one—I’m not insulting you, or your gender. I’m simply stating a fact. You don’t have casual flings.”
    “If I did choose to have one tonight, it wouldn’t have been any of your business. You don’t see me making comments like that to you every time I see you take a girl home. So stay out of it. You don’t know me, Jackson.”
    “Yeah, I think I know you better than most, Emma, as much as you don’t like admitting that to yourself. And I know you want the real deal, not some frat boy one-night stand. Just forget it.” He huffed and turned on the blinker, shifting lanes to catch the next exit.
    “Good idea. Let’s get back to the fight. So you started insulting this Chase guy’s friends, he started insulting your dad, and—wait, where are we going?”
    “I’m fucking starved. I’m about to eat my shoe.”
    “I can’t go in a restaurant like this.”
    “I’ll go through a drive-thru.”
    “Fine.”
    “ Fine .”
    We pulled into a hole-in-the-wall Mexican joint somewhere off the interstate, nothing but farmland and the smell of hay surrounding us. Jackson parked at the far end of the lot.
    “There’s no drive-thru,” I said. The lot was pitch dark, only illuminated by the faint glow of the storefront’s yellow and green neon sign, and a string of ratty Christmas lights that dressed the roof’s overhang. ‘Order Here’ was written on a shoddy piece of cardboard and plastered above the counter window.
    “Hang tight.” Jackson got out and strolled over to the restaurant window, leaving the key in the ignition. Hands on my lap, I fidgeted with my fingers, the quiet pricking at my skin. I thought about turning my phone on and calling Whitney, but my mood was pensive, and like Jackson, I wasn’t really up for chatting about the fight or why I cut the trip short. Especially when I still had no more information than before. Whitney would want details, I didn’t have them, and after the night’s unexpected turn of events, I was flat-out tired.
    What was it about Jackson that made me so crazy? Sure, we were both stubborn. Temperamental. Different. But there had to be more to it than that. There had to.
    I stared at him through the windshield, studying his loose stance at the restaurant counter. He fished out some cash from his pocket to pay for the food, then raised his arms and stretched while he waited, pulling his elbows behind his head. His shirt rode up just above his pant waistline.
    I looked away.
    Was it really just resentment? Did he unhinge me so drastically just because he knew my deepest, most shameful secret? And how was that his fault? He’d helped me that night, saved me from things he knew I’d regret later. How could he make me feel so uncomfortable, yet provide me with so much comfort at the same time?
    I sighed.
    Jackson strolled back to the truck and set the tray of food on the hood, then came around to open my door. “Come on and eat with me.” He held out his hand.
    “Can’t we just eat in the truck?”
    “We’re the only ones here. No one will see you, come on.” Not giving me a chance to object again, he reached in, gripped me by the waist, and lifted me up off the seat and over his shoulder, then slammed the passenger door shut.
    He set me down on the truck hood and smiled. “Dinner under the stars.”
    My gaze followed his as he gestured to the sky