I shot a look at the girl and saw fear written all over her timid expression. She ducked her head, letting her bangs obscure her face again, but I’d seen enough. Something inside me strained against whatever was happening here.

  “Your momma should have taught you to watch your mouth around the ladies,” I shot back. “No wonder your girlfriend looks so dissatisfied.”

  My smirk was wiped clean away as the guy’s hand fell on my shoulder—hard—and he shoved. Off balance, I tumbled backward into Helen.

  “Oh!” she gasped and we both almost went tumbling.

  A hand caught my waist, managing to right me just before I went heels over ass. I straightened and found Casey standing beside me, his furious gaze trained on my attacker.

  On my left, Helen was being righted again by another bar customer. Frank rushed over from the pool tables and steadied Helen. “I’ll find Bobby right now,” he said. He shot a glance at Casey and then me before disappearing into the crowd already gathering behind us.

  “Wayne, you’re a piece of shit and that’s not new. But go be a piece of shit somewhere else,” Casey said. He took a step forward, angling himself in front of me, his hands fisted hard enough to raise the sinewy muscles along his forearm.

  “This doesn’t involve you, Luck. Move on.” Wayne’s angry eyes glinted and I knew, despite his words, he’d rather Casey stay. And fight.

  Hell.

  I did not want my first night out in Grayson to involve a bar fight.

  “Jenny, everything okay here?” Casey asked, ignoring Wayne.

  Wayne growled, but Casey kept his eyes pinned on the girl—Jenny. I watched her again and this time when her gaze lifted, she held Casey’s without flinching. No fear. And the way he said her name … I looked back and forth between them, sensing a history there.

  She mumbled a few words that were lost over the music and low roar of voices.

  Scruffy the bartender wormed his way through the small group of onlookers and planted his feet between Casey and Wayne. “You two piss-ants better take it outside or I’m calling police and your parents, you got that?”

  Summer appeared beside me just then and I looked over at her, brows wrinkled. “Parents?” I echoed on a half-laugh.

  “Don’t knock it. Country boys ’round here do not like having their momma called on them any more than the law.” She stepped up to Casey and I caught sight of Ford doing the same to Wayne from the other side. “Come on,” Summer said to Casey but he didn’t budge.

  Neither, did Wayne.

  Jenny looked at her boyfriend and then back—at me.

  “Wayne, let’s go, man. You’ve had a few,” Ford said. “I’ll drive you home.”

  Wayne twisted away from him and glared at me. “I heard your name earlier, you know. I know exactly who you are, and you ain’t welcome in this town or the next.”

  I watched in surprised silence. Talk about a warm welcome.

  “I mean it, Wayne,” Scruffy yelled. “Git!”

  “Listen to them, Wayne,” Casey warned, chest puffing up as he squared off with Wayne. Even from here, I could see a vein sticking out in his neck. Seeing him so worked up was the only thing keeping my own temper at bay. That and my utter confusion over this guy’s dislike for me. Even if he somehow knew the story and took my grandparent’s side, how did he know anything about me personally?

  “You know me?” I asked, craning to see around Casey.

  “No, I don’t, and I’d just as soon keep it that way.” His lip curled in disgust. My cheeks heated even though I had no reason to be embarrassed. I couldn’t remember ever being so rudely rejected before. And in public.

  “Screw you,” I said but my words were drowned out by Casey.

  He stalked forward, shoving the bartender aside, and pointed a finger into Wayne’s chest. “You have exactly three seconds to get the hell out,” Casey said. “I won’t tell you again.”

  “Casey, come on,” I said, tugging on his sleeve. But it was like tugging on granite. He didn’t move. “He’s not worth it, let’s just go,” I said, pulling harder to no avail.

  “Two seconds,” Casey said.

  Wayne took a deep breath, hocked something up from deep in his throat, and spit it at Casey’s feet.

  Someone in the crowd gathered behind me—I suspected Helen—gasped.

  “Fuck you,” Wayne said and Casey’s fist reared back so fast, I never saw it move.

  Apparently neither did Wayne. The punch landed and sent Wayne’s face sideways. He stumbled backward, barely missing taking Jenny down as his back hit the wall. She squeaked and jumped aside.

  Casey stood stock still, his hands fisted, while he waited for Wayne to recover.

  “That’s it! The cops are on their way,” the bartender shrieked.

  Summer slid in front of Casey, leaning close to whisper something I didn’t catch, and Casey blinked, finally breaking free of whatever fight club spell he’d fallen under. He let himself be jerked back and caught my hand in his as Summer propelled us toward the door.

  Ford stayed, still hovering near Wayne as Scruffy ranted about both boys being banned and not getting blood on his floor. Wayne’s hand came away from his nose and a spray of red covered his top lip.

  “The beers,” I said, trying to turn back just before Summer ushered us outside. “I have a tab.”

  “Frank will get it,” Summer said. “It’s time to go.”

  The parking lot was starkly quiet compared to the chaos we’d left behind. Casey huffed as Summer led us toward her car. His hand held tight to mine but he didn’t look over. No one spoke.

  By the time we’d reached Summer’s car, the silence was bugging me. I tried veering away and sitting up front but Casey tugged me into the backseat with him.

  “Aren’t we waiting for Ford?” I asked as Summer cranked the engine and began backing out.

  “He’ll catch a ride with Frank,” she said, but her tone was flat and her eyes flicked to Casey in the rearview.

  I looked over at Casey beside me in the backseat. “What the hell just happened?” I demanded.

  But Casey only pressed his lips together and stared out the window. Summer sighed. “Wayne’s not the nicest guy,” she said and Casey snorted. “In high school, he was always talking shit about someone. Usually girls. Casey and Wayne didn’t exactly get along.”

  “And Jenny, his girlfriend?” I still didn’t understand why they were acting so strangely about the whole thing. Or why Wayne had already decided he hated me.

  “They’ve been dating about two years off and on,” Summer said. Again, her gaze flicked to Casey but he didn’t look up. His hand tightened in mine and I wondered what the hell for. Suddenly, everything was suspicious.

  “Did you guys go to school with her?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Summer said.

  “Did you date her or something?” I asked, whirling on Casey as pieces clicked and shifted in my mind.

  “What?” Casey finally blinked over at me, his brows drawn as if deeply confused—or deeply offended. “Yeah, we did. So what?” he asked and it grated the way he cast it off.

  I yanked my hand free of his. “Was that you defending her honor, then? Because she didn’t ask you to and I damn sure didn’t want my first memory of Grayson’s nightlife to be you—”

  “Me what?” he yelled, cutting me off. He sat up straighter, taking up more space between us, and I slid away. “Acting like a redneck? Embarrassing you?” he demanded.

  “Of course not! I was going to say using me to make someone jealous!” Only partly a lie.

  “Jealous?” Casey shook his head and laughed bitterly before meeting my eyes again, his expression hard as stone. “Jenny might’ve been my first kiss but she won’t be my last.” Up front, Summer snorted, but Casey ignored her.

  “We dated in sixth grade,” he went on. “Not since. The people in this town know what Wayne is, including Jenny, but she still goes back. It’s sad, but if she wants out of that, she’ll have to ask for help. I punched Wayne for talking shit to you, not Jenny. Dammit. I don’t want to make you jealous, Jordan, I want to make you happy. If you’d put aside your judgments of small towns for five minutes, you might see that.”

  “I…” What could I say? He was right. My judgments were the exact thing keeping me from admitting that what he’d just said was actually the most romantic thing I’d ever heard.

  But there was still one problem with all of it.

  “You still haven’t answered my question. None of this explains what the hell actually happened back there. Wayne knew me.”

  Casey studied me for a long moment and I almost crumbled under the disappointment he wore. I hated that I’d glossed over the nice things he’d just said, but I couldn’t respond. Not now. When I knew he and Summer were still keeping something from me.

  I turned away from him and caught sight of Summer in the rearview. In the glow of the dash lights, I saw that her lips were pressed tightly together. I waited until she’d made the left that took us out of town toward home. I’d almost given up when she said, “Wayne was right. He probably didn’t know your face or you, but he knows your name.”

  “Apparently so does everyone else,” I muttered.

  Up ahead, the road split, and Summer eased the brake and came to a stop at the four-way. She turned in her seat and met my gaze, wincing only slightly before she spoke again. “Wayne knows it because his last name is the same as yours.”

  “Wait. What?” I looked from her to Casey. He didn’t meet my eyes. “We’re related?” Summer nodded, looking pained. “How?”

  “I don’t know the whole story. Wayne’s mom left town years ago. Wayne mentioned in high school that he lived with his grandparents for a while … in Windsor. He went to school with us senior year only after he was expelled from his own school. Anyway, if it’s true, that makes him your cousin.”

  “Cousin?” I repeated. Please dear baby Jesus, say no.

  Summer shifted and turned forward again, easing the car down the narrow road. We sat in silence, Casey stiff and stoic beside me. I chewed my lip, hating the distance but hating even more that he’d known this and kept it from me. If he’d known Wayne in high school, why hadn’t he said anything?

  Summer pulled up in front of the house and Casey slid out, holding the door open for me to follow.

  “I’m sorry for not warning you,” Summer said to me. I knew from the regret in her tone that she meant it, but I was too churned up to respond. I nodded once and climbed out of the car. As soon as the door closed, Summer drove off.

  I was halfway to the porch when Casey stopped me. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d judge them for it.”

  I turned slowly, taking in his haggard expression. It was more than just tiredness that lined his eyes as he stared back at me. Exhaustion of a different kind seemed to hang over him.

  “You lied,” I said simply, too hurt to be angry now.

  “No, I decided not to share everything,” he corrected. “I wanted you to get to know me. And maybe even them. Without the burden of knowing your family includes someone nasty like him. When you told me about your reasons for being here, I could see how angry you still were at them. But this is about your grandparents. You didn’t need to know about Wayne or let his mistakes and reputation ruin your experience here. And then seeing how bad it went with them last weekend … I wasn’t about to add to the reasons you might have to dislike them.”

  “And Summer?”

  His shoulders slumped. “She didn’t make the connection right away. When she did, I asked her not to say anything to you about it.”

  I folded my arms.

  Casey sighed. “I hope you’ll understand once you’ve slept on it.”

  I bristled at his gentle tone. The way he treated me as if I were in the wrong here, not him. He’d lied. He’d punched a guy. And he’d done it all in the name of some outdated excuse for protection.

  Casey hesitated a moment longer, hovering close. Then he stepped back and gestured to the steps. “I’ll see you in the morning, Jordan.”

  I didn’t have to be told twice.

  I spun on my heel and marched inside without a backward glance.

  Chapter Three

  Casey

  Quittin’ time came and went and still I lurked underneath the belly of this damned tractor. Goose was almost as hard to figure out as a woman. I figured if there was anywhere I deserved to be, pouring sweat and tears into a problem, it was here. Four days since the bar fight and Jordan had barely spoken a word to me. All I could think about was how she’d looked in the moonlight in our front yard.

  Embarrassment, confusion, anger, hurt—I’d watched it all play across Jordan’s face as she’d walked away from me. I’d let her go because I hadn’t known what else to say. She was right. I’d known and I’d kept Wayne’s identity from her on purpose. For my own selfish reasons, too. I wanted Jordan to stop stereotyping small-towners. To give me a shot at getting to know her better.

  That was on me. But the judgment and quick accusations—those were on her. And she wasn’t going to own those easily.

  Hell, whether she owned them or not, my chance at anything real with Jordan was gone. Didn’t matter that I’d only kept my mouth shut to protect her. To keep Wayne from confirming all the stereotype judgments she’d formed against her own people and ruining her chances at making things right with them. I’d known all along he’d be a dick about the whole thing. Word on the street was that he wanted John’s car dealership for himself. He knew he stood to inherit it all and he wasn’t the type to share. I’d known from the start he’d give Jordan shit for being here.

  But now, all that mattered was that to her, I was the enemy. I was everything she’d come here assuming I was: a backwoods, country asshole. If I ever wanted to prove her wrong, there was only one thing I could do for her now.

  “You trying to kill it or fix it?”

  Summer’s voice was way too cheerful for me right now. I ignored her and kept banging away—my new method of repair—on Goose’s exhaust pipe and general underbelly.

  “Thought you might want to know Dad was talking about repurposing that shed out by the bonfire site.”

  Summer’s words were careless enough, but the wariness curling in my gut was the exact opposite. I lowered the wrench I’d been wielding. “And why would I want to know?”

  Her feet shuffled along the dirt floor, kicking up a fine layer of sawdust. “He wants to use it to store spare parts and that extra tiller he’s got coming, which means he’ll end up tossing out everything currently inside.”

  I rolled reluctantly out from my hiding spot. Summer stood over me, hands tucked in her back pockets, wearing a meaningful expression.

  “You know what’s in there right now?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “I know your hobby is bigger than any of us thought.” And then her nonchalance fell away and her brows furrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me you’ve got enough bike parts back there to supply an entire Motocross circuit?”

  I rolled away and got to my feet, debating how to answer her. I wasn’t exactly in the mood to lie—but hadn’t I done that already with keeping it all a secret? I grabbed a soda from the fridge—I hadn’t been in the mood to drink since Friday night—and turned to face Summer.

  “I’ve been running a side business,” I admitted, watching her carefully as I spoke. “I’ve taken orders and gotten projects by word of mouth. Mostly Windsor and over near the track where I used to race in Milton.”

  “That’s great.” Summer blinked, clearly surprised. “Why haven’t you said anything?”

  “Because this is my job,” I said, gesturing to Goose and the rest of the barn. “This is what I do every day. What am I going to do, quit on Frank? On Dean?”

  “Well … yeah,” Summer said, her head cocked as if the answer were so simple, I was the idiot.

  “I can’t do that, not when Frank paid for mechanic school. I can’t use him that way,” I said, irritated and wishing I had gone for the beer instead. Or anything but the conversation.

  “Look, I don’t know what Frank has said to you but I know him. He paid for school because it was what you wanted. He wants you to figure out your life. We all do.”

  My eyes narrowed. “What does that mean? Who is ‘we’?”

  Summer stared down at the line her toe made in the sawdust.

  “Spill it, Stafford.”

  She sighed. “Frank, Dad, Ford, and me. We’ve all talked about it and we agree that you’re just circling.”

  “Circling?” I repeated, temper heating my neck and face.

  “You’re not happy, Case. We all see that even if you don’t. You come to work, go home, ride on the weekends, tinker with bikes—but it’s just you going through the motions. There’s no satisfaction, no ambition.”

  “I have plenty of satisfaction,” I said suggestively and even I knew the leer I added at the end wasn’t going to help my argument.

  Summer gave me a wry look and crossed her arms. “You know what I mean. But since you brought it up, I have to say, you have been different since Jordan came to town. She’s been good for you.”

  “Jordan and I are not … Look,” I said, rubbing at the back of my neck as I searched for words. “I’ll tell Dean about the bikes. He has a right since it’s his shed I’ve been stashing them in. But Jordan isn’t happening. She’s got a lot on her plate and I’m not going to overload her.”

  “You like her?” Summer shot back.

  “What? Yeah, but she’s only here temporarily.” It was the easiest excuse I could muster without going into the whole mess about her family.

  Summer rolled her eyes. “Do I need to remind you how Ford and I got together? We were doomed from the start and we figured it out.” I opened my mouth to argue, to explain that this was different; Jordan had already made up her mind about guys like me. But Summer cut me off. “If you like her, do what it takes. Even if she leaves in the end, Casey, do it for you. Shake things up. Figure out what you want, how you want to live your life. I don’t want you to spend it hiding underneath Goose.”

  All I could do was stare at her, at a loss. The silence felt uncomfortable, but what did she expect me to say to all that? “Well, damn,” I said finally. “Don’t go easy on me or anything.”