FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Prologue

Less than a year and I'll be out of this town and it won't be a day too soon...

I was born and raised on a small generational farm on the outskirts of Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania. Tourists call Jim Thorpe, the Switzerland of Pennsylvania because the town itself is quaint and considerably mountainous.

I try to avoid town as much as possible, too many out of towner's ohhing and ahhing over every little thing. I'm sure I take the picturesque town for granted most of the time but to be honest, when I just need to go grab a part to fix the tractor and get stopped by ten people asking where all the antique stores and ice cream shop are, it can get a little annoying.

Legally, there is nothing stopping me from leaving this place this very minute because I graduated from high school two weeks ago and I turned eighteen last month. The reason why I still have to wait a year to get out of here is because my little sister Dove won't be eighteen for another ten months and she still has her senior year of high school to complete. I feel responsible to keep an eye on her and to do my best to keep her out of trouble.

Dove and I have always been very close and being only eleven months apart makes us almost like twins in a way.

Not having our parents around for most of our life, makes our bond even stronger.

The absence of our mother and father is also the reason why I feel the need to take care of my baby sister. If I didn't look after her, god knows what kind of trouble she would get into. I realize that I can't watch her every waking second of the day but when I am with her, I do my best to make her understand that I only have her best interest in my heart.

Sadly, her best interest in my heart is the last thing she wants from me right now.

Dove wants to be treated like a grown up, she wants to be able to go and do as she pleases and if she were more responsible and had a better mindset, maybe I would just let her alone.

That isn't the case...My baby sister has the same mindset as the rest of the girls around here do.

She wants to get her claws into some boy, fall in love, get married and start popping out babies while her husband takes care of their farm.

All the girls in this area think the exact same thing.

That fact, is the number one reason why I refuse to have anything to do with any of them.

Unfortunately, that doesn't stop the girls from trying to have something to do with me. There are plenty of single girls that I find attractive and if I let my hormones control my decision making, I'd probably have at the very least, one of them pregnant by now.

I'm smarter than that.

I want out of here...

Getting involved with one of the girls from around here would only prevent me from leaving this place.

No Jim Thorpe girls for me, no thank you...

I'm assuming, you want to know why I am so dead set on leaving a place that everyone else would do anything to stay put in. If you have enough patience to bear with me, then you just might understand where I'm coming from. You will also understand, how one encounter with a complete stranger, turned my entire world upside down.