Jason reined the horse in and tipped his hat back. Ashley took an instinctive step back at the menace on his features. Had she ever really been so young and so stupid to think she was hopelessly in love with him?
"You’ve got two choices here, lady," he growled. "You either climb back the way you came or we wait here until the sheriff shows up to arrest you for trespassing. Which one do you prefer?"
A chorus line of nerves started tap–dancing in her stomach, and she couldn’t seem to think straight with those midnight blue eyes boring into her.
"Go ahead and call the sheriff, Mr. Williams. In fact," she added brightly, "I can do it for you if you’d like, since I’ve got him on speed dial on my cell phone. I have all my brothers on speed dial. Luke is #2, right after Mom and Dad. It’s only fair, since he’s the oldest and that seemed the easiest way to keep the numbers straight. I should probably put Evan at #2 since I call him most often. He’s the brother just older than me. We’re only two years apart so we are probably the closest. Still, he’s at number three. I don’t call the twins very often since they live on the coast so they’re at five and six. But like I said, Luke is #2 so it would be easy to get him here fast if that’s what you want to do —"
By the time she had the sense to realize she was rambling and could manage to clamp her teeth together to stem the gushing flow of stupidity, Jason Williams' famously gorgeous eyes had started to cross.
This was all his own fault, she thought, crabby all over again. He didn’t need to sit there on his horse and glower at her like she was the treasonous spy in one of his movies.
"I’m sorry," she said stiffly. "You don’t care about any of that. When I’m nervous I ramble."
"I hadn’t noticed," he muttered, with such condescension she wanted to smack him.
"Enlightening family history aside, you’re still trespassing — an eight–foot–high locked iron gate is usually a big tip–off there."
She drew in a cleansing breath and let it out again. This wasn’t going well. She needed to put aside her instinctive nervous reaction to her silly teenage heartthrob and focus on the crisis at hand — the reason she was there.
"It’s your own fault. If you weren’t such a …a darn hermit maybe I wouldn’t have to resort to such drastic measures."
He blinked. "A hermit?"
"Yes! How am I supposed to talk to you if you hardly leave Black Jack Ridge?"
"I happen to like my privacy, Ms…"
She drew herself up to her full five–foot–three inches tall and glared at him with all the frustration that had been burning through her for three weeks. "Ashley Barnes. Kendyl’s kindergarten teacher. Whether you want to be bothered or not, it is imperative I talk to you about your daughter."
YOU ARE READING
Starstruck
Lãng mạnJason Willimas is a jerk! Sure, Ashley Barnes may have had his picture in her locker back when he was a Hollywood heartthrob. But now that the former idol’s daughter is causing trouble in the classroom — and Jason doesn’t seem to care one bit — kind...
