Clover

By Braxton Cole

Clover Watson wants more from life than what she can find on her daddy's farm in southern Oregon. Young, smart, and driven, she has a plan and she refuses to be distracted from her goals. After four years at the University of Washington in Seattle, she heads home for the summer with her diploma and an acceptance letter to graduate school at University of Portland. She's sure she’s got things all figured out.

Except for Jake Feldman. He was one of her childhood friends, and she hasn't seen him since she left for college four years ago. This summer he's back in town and all grown up -- sweet, handsome, and completely smitten with Clover.
At first, she thinks a harmless summer fling is the perfect reward for her hard work at school.

But as the summer continues and their romance grows, Jake challenges everything she thought she knew about herself and her plans. When the end of summer comes, Clover is forced to evaluate what she really wants, but can she find a way to write Jake into her life?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Braxton Cole
• Release date: Aug 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301405466

Book preview

Chapter 1

Present Day

Heat rippled off the blacktop in waves, creating shifting mirages on the horizon. The temperature gauge on the dash pushed further and further into the red as Clover Watson drove well below the speed limit, with the windows down and the heater blasting. She wasn't sure which would be overcome by the temperature first, her or the car.

We should just pull over, R.J., her baby brother and perpetual pain in the butt, whined. He had his shirt off, his head out the window, and a 32 ounce cup of ice in his hand. He'd been applying the cubes to his bare skin and his chest was now a red and white (and wet) blotchy mess.

You feel free to walk if you want to, but I'm not leaving my car on the side of the road. Clover slapped her palm against the steering wheel for emphasis. The engine responded with a pop, a hiss, and a billowing cloud of white smoke. Clover cursed and pulled to the side of the road. She put it as far into the bar ditch as she could safely go. Damn it! I'm going to be late for work.

She was already ten minutes late. That's what going fifteen when she was supposed to be going fifty got her. The city pool was no doubt already overflowing with people trying to escape the summer heat. She'd be lucky if she didn't lose her job.

Being a lifeguard wasn’t what she’d had planned for the summer. She’d finished college with honors and was scheduled to start graduate school in the fall. If she’d had her way, she’d be in the Caribbean with her best friend Lexy right now. For four years, they’d talked about lying in the sand for two months straight. Lexy’s parents had come through with funding. Clover’s dad, on the other hand, told her to come home and work. Grad school was expensive.

She grabbed her bag from the backseat and cuffed her brother over the head with her free hand. He deserved it for jinxing them.

Hey! What the hell?

Suck it up. It's your fault we have to walk anyway. Clover knew she sounded unreasonable, but she didn’t care. It was too damn hot to be rational anyway.

How is it my fault that your car is a piece of shit? That makes no damn sense.

How about the fact that you're going to be on foot until your birthday? Because I’m not giving you a ride again. You are bad luck. Clover climbed out of the car and slammed the door. She stomped down the road, her anger losing the battle to the midday sun. She may be righteously pissed off, but that meant nothing in the southern Oregon heat.

Oh, come on, you don't mean it. R.J. looked genuinely concerned. He was five months away from sixteen and officially had his driver’s permit. Their dad, however, wouldn't let him take one of his cars out alone until he passed the test. Forget the fact that they’d both learned how to drive before they could properly see over the steering wheel. The perks of living on a farm. The county sheriff didn't patrol private acreage. For her part, Clover didn’t care what a piece of paper said. There was no way she would get in a car with R.J. behind the wheel.

Clover didn't answer. He'd be on his own when she returned to school in the fall anyway. She was seven years older than R.J. and had grown up with him as a near constant shadow. During the school year while she was away at the University of Washington in Seattle, she almost missed him. It didn’t take long when she came home on breaks to remember why he irritated the crap out of her. She'd only been home for two weeks this summer and she was ready to leave again.

An F-150 rolled up behind them and slowed to keep pace with Clover. The driver rolled down the window and leaned out.

You guys need a lift? The young man driving had wheat blonde hair styled in a wind-blown, mussed surfer look that a boy in Oregon should never have. Especially with the bits of straw clinging to it that pegged him as local. He had a smattering of freckles across his nose and a friendly, easy smile.

Clover lowered her sunglasses so she could see him better. He winked at her, his bright blue eyes laughing in a way that invited others to have fun with him. She pushed her glasses back up and resumed walking.

Clover glared at him. I don't know you.

The young man laughed. Well, I know you. Clover Watson, resident hottie, smarty pants, and lifeguard.

She wasn't amused. He could tell her she was hot and smart all day long and that didn't mean she'd get into that truck with him. She'd watched those shows. She knew what happened to young women such as herself who got into strange vehicles with strange men.

Clover, don't be an ass. You know Jake. R.J. did a weird hitching walk-run to catch up with her. They'd been walking single file in the bar ditch. Hey man, thanks for stopping.

Jake? The only Jake she knew was a skinny, pasty boy who came to visit her neighbor, Tammy Feldman, every summer. This man wasn't wearing a shirt, so she knew for a fact he wasn't skinny or pasty. His muscles were well defined and beautifully bronzed. But even handsome men could be homicidal maniacs.

Jake Feldman, at your service. It's been a few years. Jake offered a crooked smile and suddenly she could see the boy she used to know. He had grown up well. Jake extended a hand to R.J. and they did a weird hand slap, handshake combination that Clover would never understand. Couldn’t leave you stranded.

Clover stopped walking and R.J. almost ran over the top of her. When she looked really close, she could see the same curious intensity she remembered from the Jake she knew. She was feeling a little more inclined to accept his offer of a ride.

He smirked. He'd totally caught her checking him out and that made her blush. It didn’t, however, make her look away. Despite the flush of heat that started in her chest and went the rest of the way up, she stared at him openly, looking for other signs of the boy she used to know. Now that she could really see him, see the guy she knew him to be, she was intrigued. There were hints of him everywhere, in the shape of his jaw, the scar just above his right eyebrow, the slightest hint of a dimple on the same side.

All those traits worked together to make him look even more handsome, but the gangly boy who used to follow her around was right beneath the surface. She wondered if his voice still cracked when he got excited.

A tractor passed them on the road and traffic came to a stop in the other direction. If they were in Seattle, they would’ve been hit with a rash of swearing and cursing to go with it. But in farm country, drivers smiled and waved.

Where are you headed? Jake asked. Despite the good nature of the local population, he knew as well as Clover that they needed to get off the side of the road. It was rude to hold people up for longer than necessary.

The sun was beating down and the walk the rest of the way into town would take at least an hour. Since she did in fact know Jake, she wasn’t about to turn down a free ride. I'm on my way to the pool. I’m working there again this summer. She felt silly saying she worked at the pool. It was the same job she’d had when she was sixteen.

Now she was twenty-two with a degree in finance. She should be doing something more important with her time, but her dad refused to sponsor a summer internship for her. He wanted her to have one more summer of being young, he said. Whatever that meant. When she’d asked about the pool at the city office, the hiring manager had been excited to have her back for another season. Too bad he wasn’t the guy actually running the pool. He was less likely to fire her than the jerk she reported to.

I can take you. Come on. Jake opened his door and Clover wondered what exactly she was supposed to do. Crawl over the top of him? She was hot and sweaty and as far from attractive as she could get. On the other hand, he was muscley, half naked, and smiling at her like he knew she wouldn’t do it.

When she combined Jake’s teasing grin and the melty effect the sun was having on her brain, the decision was easy. She was standing on the sideboard before she even realized she’d made a choice.

Clover handed Jake her bag, then smiled at him as sweet and flirty as she knew how. Without giving herself a chance to change her mind, she climbed into his lap. His jeans scratched against her thighs where her skirt rode up momentarily, then she slipped into the middle of the bench seat. Jake blushed as she organized herself next to him.

R.J. wisely chose to walk around.

Dude, what's up with the hay? R.J. asked as soon as he settled in the seat next to Clover. Apparently, she wasn't the only one to notice Jake's scarecrow look.

Hay?

You have some... Clover smiled and gestured toward his head, then gave up trying to pinpoint one piece and pulled one from the side of his head. She played her fingers through his hair, because really, when a girl is this close to a totally hot guy, she should indulge a little. Here. Clover showed him the piece. She leaned in too close and heat radiated off his body. It felt better than lying out in the summer sun. It's kind of everywhere.

Jake’s eyes grew wide as he regarded Clover. It took him several moments to respond. It is? Oh. He brushed his hands through his hair and bits of hay flew out. Shit. I'm sorry. His cheeks tinged pink. I was helping my aunt feed the cows earlier.

Even after his vigorous work to remove it, he still had quite a bit left.

Don't worry about it. Clover helped him, carefully removing one piece of hay at a time, then finger-combed her hands through his hair, scratching her nails lightly over the scalp as she moved. It's kind of cute.

She was flirting shamelessly and not at all sure how she felt about it. Jake was three years younger than her. She didn’t want to get stuck in the memory of the scrawny kid from next door because then she wouldn’t be able to appreciate the man he’d grown into. Somehow having that image on the periphery of her thoughts, though, made him even more appealing. She just couldn’t let it be more than a fleeting recollection because that would replace the happy tingling in her belly with skeevy wrongness.

After she'd found the last little bit of hay, she tousled it gently. All better. She faced forward and clicked her seatbelt into place.

Right. Umm... Jake cleared his throat and then shifted the truck into gear. He had a standard transmission and his hand bumped against Clover's leg. Sorry. His ears grew increasingly red.

You should call Dad, R.J. advised, thus reminding Clover that she wasn't alone with Jake in the truck.

You do it. She handed R.J. her phone and returned her attention to Jake. She hadn't seen him since before starting at UW. Before that, he'd been a pretty common sight on the Feldman farm during the summers. The years in between had been very good to him.

What time are you supposed to be at work? Jake pulled out onto the highway.

Clover glanced at her watch. I have a shift at noon and I'm way late. It was already 12:20.

Jake put his foot onto the accelerator a little harder and they sped down the road. Did you call your boss?

Yeah, I called when my car started acting up. Not that it mattered. They’d switched supervisors since last season and the new guy was a grade A asshole as far as Clover was concerned. Two days into the summer, he'd propositioned her for a blowjob. She told him to go to hell and he'd been holding it against her ever since.

What about R.J.? Jake asked.

Clover kept forgetting that her brother was in the car. She much preferred to think about Jake and his fabulous chest.

He's spending the night at his friend's house. They're picking him up at the pool.

Clover, Dad wants to know how you're getting home after work. R.J. nudged her in the ribs.

Jake smiled all lopsided and sweet, and said, I could give you a ride? He took a perfectly good sentence and turned it into a question. Clover thought it was adorable.

Yeah, I'd like that. Clover rested her hand on Jake's thigh for a moment and his leg tensed. The muscle beneath her fingers was hard and inviting.

Got it. R.J. finished the conversation with their dad and returned Clover's phone. He'll get your car. He said it sounds simple, like a busted radiator hose. He'll call you when he knows for sure.

R.J. squirmed in his seat and jostled Clover in the process. She wished for the hundredth time that morning that she wasn't his designated driver. Jake sat next to her, arms flexed so that his muscles stood out in sharp definition, and all she could do was look. Even if R.J. wasn’t with them, she wouldn’t do anything more than look. No matter how beautiful it was, molesting Jake’s arm was a bit over the top. It was one of those things, like grinding herself on his lap as she got into the truck, that she just couldn’t let herself do.

Clover'd never been a wild girl. In high school, the last time Jake had seen her, she'd been a straight A student more interested in her books than boys. No, that wasn't true. She was plenty interested, but she was also focused. Good grades gave her opportunities, a way to find life beyond her dad’s farm while simultaneously making him proud of her. She wanted those things more than she wanted to play with the boys in her class. They were all a little dense as far as she could tell anyway.

Life was different now, however. She’d learned a few things in college, like how to balance work and fun. She still maintained her GPA, but she also took time to play, to enjoy the fun parts of life. She hadn’t shifted her priorities completely, just learned how to make room for more than her studies. Her best friend, Lexy, had a lot to do with that.

And Jake looked fun. Tan and lean and hard and completely and totally adorable, yet sexy at the same time. She'd promised herself this was the summer, her summer, to reward herself for all the sacrifices. Of course that was before her dad had told her she couldn’t go hang out on the beach with Lexy for two months, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make the best of the situation she was in.

Yes, she had to work. But that left her plenty of time for other activities and, until her car dumped her on the side of the road, she'd had no idea what she was going to do with her free time. Since Jake clearly wasn’t a serial killer like she originally feared, why not spend it with him?

Chapter 2

Twelve Years Earlier

Jake was too old to suck his thumb and he knew it. He was going into second grade, which made him officially a big kid. Somehow, though, that didn’t make it any easier to listen to his parents fight.

At least right now they were yelling at each other and not at him, but that would change when he told them he had to go to the bathroom. He didn’t know how much longer he could wait and they’d been driving forever.

He studied the clock on the dash. He’d been trying to figure out the whole time thing. That was something a second grader should know. He wasn’t good enough to tell the exact time, but he knew they’d been in the car for at least two hours. When he’d asked where they were going, his dad had just yelled at Jake’s mom about not telling him. Then they’d started fighting for real and he hadn’t asked again.

We’re here, his dad announced as he pulled into a long gravel driveway. The bumps made Jake feel like he was going to pee his pants, so he held his legs tighter together and hoped that, wherever ‘here’ was, it included a bathroom.

They stopped in front of a house with a wide porch. A woman stepped out of the front door at the same time that his dad turned off the engine. Jake looked back and saw a cloud of dust rising off the gravel.

His dad got out of the car and said, Come on, Jake. Come meet your Aunt Tammy. His mom waited in the car.

Jake climbed the stairs to where the woman, he guessed Aunt Tammy, stood with her arms crossed over her chest. She glared at Jake’s dad. Her eyes softened a bit when she looked at Jake, but she still made it clear that she didn’t want him there any more than he wanted to be there.

Jake stuck out his hand like he’d been taught and said, Hi, I’m Jake.

She shook it and said that it was nice to meet him. He didn’t know if she meant it or not.

Here’s his bag, Tammy, his dad said from the bottom stair. He stretched far enough to set the bag on the porch next to Jake.

The woman glared again, but didn’t say anything. Finally, Jake’s bladder couldn’t hold out any longer. If he didn’t find a toilet now, he was going to pee all over the porch. The woman looked angry enough as it was.

Excuse me, can I use your bathroom? he asked with his best manners.

Sure. She pulled the door open and pointed. See that hall? It’s the first door on the right.

Thank you. He ran with his hands cupped over his crotch.

He peed for at least five minutes straight, and when he came back out, his parents were gone. The only sign they’d even been there was the small suitcase sitting on the porch next to his aunt. She stared down the highway at something he couldn’t see.

He knew that raising a fuss wouldn’t help and was more likely to earn him a pop to head than anything else. He sucked in a breath and wiped his nose on his sleeve. A few tears escaped before he could stop them. He flinched when he felt his aunt’s hand on his head, but she just ruffled his hair and picked up his bag.

Come on, kid. Let’s get you settled.

Chapter 3

Present Day

Clover stared at Jake’s profile. She couldn’t believe the changes she saw. She rested her hand on her own thigh in a way that let her fingertips brush against Jake’s leg. She left it there and tried to ignore the flush of heat and excitement the small gesture created in her. Jake blushed when he looked at her hand, then smiled at her like he couldn't quite believe his luck.

You’re just home for the summer? Jake’s voice cracked in the middle and he cleared his throat. Clover suppressed a giggle. She loved that she was having an effect on him.

Right. I start at University of Portland this fall. She didn’t really want to talk about school. It was one more reminder that he was three years younger than her.

"Oh, I thought you