When You Took My Heart With You (Book 1) PUBLISHED

CHAPTER SEVEN

KAYLA

It was Saturday afternoon, and I had to do one of my worst chores, mowing the lawn. Two weeks ago, I met Jake, and I hadn't heard from him since. I even asked Alyson if he asked about me in school, but she said that she spoke to him in class and around the hallways, but he never mentioned me. I figured Alyson was right. I played the game too long that night, but I wasn't ready to kiss him yet.

Story of my life.

I was never ready to kiss anyone. I was sure that Jake had already forgotten about me.

Oh well, once he got to know me, he would've left me anyway, knowing how much of a prude I am. Why do I do this to myself? Aly's right. I push everyone away. How will I ever kiss anyone at the rate I'm going? I just have to man up and stop being such a chicken shit, or else I will be a very lonely old woman who still wouldn't have gotten her first kiss. I'm just going to let go. Let go of this fear. The next guy I like—that is exactly what I am going to do. I am going to let go and kiss him!

I had my Discman on, and it was too loud to hear anything around me. Even the lawnmower was a distant sound in the background. Suddenly, someone poked me on the back. I jumped a mile and turned around while taking my headphones off my head.

"Don't forget to sweep the grass up from the sidewalk. You always forget."

"Mom! You scared the daylights out of me!" I yelled back at her.

"Well, if you didn't have that damn music so loud, I wouldn't have scared you. I could've been some guy putting you in their van, and you would never have known."

"Okay, whatever, go back inside." My mother headed up the stairs that led to the front porch and went inside. "My God," I mumbled to myself as I put my headphones back on my head, lowering the volume a little since it actually was very loud.

I began to put more gasoline into the tank of the lawnmower. It took me about three minutes. I was already getting tired. I still had a lot of grass to cut since it was the first cut of the season. Surprisingly, it was hot for a day in March.

"You know, you really should have a guy do that for you." Jake was standing behind me. I could recognize that voice from anywhere. It was deep, raspy, and oh so sexy.

So damn sexy.

I turned around to face him. I was mortified. I had black baggy cotton sweatpants on that had holes in them, a tank top, and no makeup on. Not that I wear much anyway, but still.

My hair was pushed back in a ponytail, with loose strands flying everywhere, and I was soaking wet from sweat. Not to mention, my armpits probably wreaked of something funky.

"What are you doing here?" I tried to flatten the loose strands of hair flying around on my head, but I was only making it worse. I was a mess.

"Well, you gave me a challenge, and I couldn't pass it by."

I have no idea what he's talking about.

He noticed that I looked confused, so he elaborated. "You told me where you lived when you were at my house. You weren't that drunk to forget our conversation, were you?"

"Uh, no, I—I remember," I tried to wipe the sweat off my face. "But why are you here now? That was two weeks ago." I was fidgeting but annoyed at the same time.

"I wanted to come sooner, but I had to go to baseball camp all week. My last day was yesterday."

Why did Alyson neglect to tell me this important information?