Rayston Point Road || Editing

Chapter One

Hoping I wasn't cursing myself with turning my car off only to have it fail to restart, I slowly twisted the keys and pulled them from the ignition, sliding them into the back pocket of my frayed jean shorts as I exited my car. My legs ached with stiffness as I stood for the first time in hours after the nearly thirteen-hour journey, and I took a moment to stretch out slightly as I glanced up and down the road to cross before I moved to make my way across the road, only to be distracted by the sound of someone yelling loudly. As I glanced back over my shoulder, attention grabbed by the warnings I heard behind me, my eyes landed on the boys on the baseball field to my right waving in my direction. I turned to them, shielding my eyes against the sun rising to her left and coming in over the top of her sunglasses at the exact moment a stray baseball cratered itself on the center of the hood of my car.

My jaw dropped slightly as a quiet, surprised huff passed through my lips as I lifted my sunglasses to the top of my head to look at the red-stitched ball nestled into the slightly dented white hood before I bit my lower lip and shook my head incredulously, the desire to laugh at my own misfortune rising in the back of my throat. I swiped a stray strand of light hair back behind my ears as I sighed heavily, the exclamations of the boys in the field who watched the ball fall through the air onto my car echoing in the background as one of them jogged the distance of the field towards me, tossing a helmet off to the side and waving the other players away.

            As I reached forward to pick the ball up from its crater, the player neared the fence and effortlessly pitched himself over it, coming to stand in front of me, a sheepish, yet bemused, expression on his face as he leaned back against the fence, crossing his ankles together and his arms over his chest.

"Was this your doing?" I questioned, tossing the ball up in the air and letting it fall back into my palm before stretching out my arm. The boy in front of me grinned slightly, both of his cheeks dimpling with the movement, as he pushed off the fence to take a few strides towards me and reached out to take the ball from my hand. "That's quite a swing." I watched him carefully as he turned the ball over in his fingers before letting his arm drop to his side, the smile on his face growing slightly at my words.

"I'm sorry about your car," he said, his words surprisingly lacking in the slight, southern twang I had heard my sister pick up after years of living down here, as he ran his free hand back through his curly hair, matted against his tan forehead by the heat and the helmet he had discarded on his way towards her.

"It's no big deal," I brushed it off, having fixed enough dents in my car to know it would easily pop back out with barely a lingering mark. I started to turn, the promise of the air conditioned shop still in the back of my mind, when I sensed that the boy in front of me wasn't turning back yet. I tucked my hands into the front pockets of my shorts, tilting my head towards the field with my body still partially angled towards him. "Won't you be in trouble for leaving the field during the game?" I wasn't truly mad about the damage to my car, it had cost me just over a grand when I bought if off my friends' brother with the money I made pawning off some of the designer bags my mother had bought me when I turned sixteen, just three years ago. I was, however, stifling under the cloudless sky, and the way this boy crossed his arms over his chest and looked me over with his chocolate brown eyes told me that he was too charming for his own good, and for mine.

"It's just a practice," he shrugged, throwing a brief glance over his shoulder, waving his hand dismissively as he crossed his arms over his chest, giving me the sense that he had the attitude of someone who felt they could get away with whatever they wanted to. "You're not from here." It was a statement, a sure declaration of confidence and pointing out the obvious.

"What gave it away? The accent? Lack thereof? Out-of-state plates on the car you just home-runned?" My arms swung out behind me as I spoke, gesturing to the yellow tinted license plate on the front that stood out against the blue, white, and peach colored of the ones on the cars that passed, and the baseball-sized dent that rested just above it. I looked behind me as I spoke, finding that when I turned back around, the boy in front of me seemed even more amused.

"That, and it's a relatively small town. I know everyone who lives in Rayston. Part of the job," he explained nonchalantly, both cheeks dimpling and the corner of his eyes wrinkling in a way that made his smile reach his eyes, a smile that to me, only spelled trouble.

"And what job is would that be?" I crossed my arms over my chest now, mirroring his stance for a moment before he shifted the baseball from his right hand to his left and then extended his empty hand towards me.

"Isaac Verano, Mayor Verano's grandson, Chief Verano's son." I took his hand slowly, finding that his confidence and charm made perfect sense now. Not only was he undeniably attractive, with naturally warm brown skin mixed with freckles that matched the brown curls in his hair, brown eyes that mirrored the color of rich chocolate melded with gold as the sun shone into them, but he was evidently the type of local royalty in this small town that I had tried to avoid in the trust fund, heir-to-the-empire boys I had grown up with in the city. He was also the epitome of every summer fling fantasy my friends from home had gushed over when I told them I was spending my summer here, and everything I had sworn up and down that I wanted to avoid.

"So you're related to the reason I can't seem to find my sisters' house," I stressed, adjusted my arms over my chest and cocking my hip out as I leaned back slightly, watching as a look of confusion cross through Isaac's eyes before he seemed to realize what I was talking about.

"The street signs," he shook his head as he laughed to himself. "The whole damn town's in an uproar about that. My grandmother's a little eccentric. Give it a week and it'll be back to normal. What's your sister's name? I can get you there." I studied him skeptically for a moment, biting at the corner of my lower lip before I decided to let him help. My phone, tucked into the other back pocket of my shorts, hadn't chimed since Leighton hung up on her and as enticing as the air conditioned coffee shop was, a cold shower and a change of clothes sounded even better.

"Leighton Prescott."

Isaac nodded immediately, looking back in the direction I had just come from, pointing with the baseball still curled underneath his fingers. "Three blocks down to the right, Cyprus Street. She'll be the last house on the right, off white with a wrap-around porch, light blue door." I looked in the direction he was pointing and then back at Isaac, mildly impressed, but more so confused by the information he had given me. The expression on my face must have been evident, because Isaac just shrugged again and smiled as he said, "Mayor's grandson."

"Well, thanks," I said, slipping my sunglasses back onto the bridge of my nose, turning away from him to reenter her car, the thought sneaking back into my mind of whether or not it would turn back on in the heat.

"Hey, wait!" Isaac had taken a few steps after me across the front of my car, and was closer to me now than he had been. I had to tilt my head back slightly to look up at him, the top of my head falling short of reaching his shoulders.

"I didn't catch your name," he said, twirling the ball between his fingers. I hadn't been annoyed with him before, but the combination of the exhaustion, heat, and arrogance made me want to roll me eyes.

"I didn't offer it," I replied breezily, turning on my heel towards the door to my car. I didn't look back at Isaac as I lowered herself onto the front seat, trying not to wince as my bare thighs slid onto the burning leather. With one hand gripping the steering wheel, as if trying to reassure my car and transmit the urgency with which I needed it to restart, I pushed the key into the ignition and held my breath as the car stalled for a moment and then slowly ground to life. Exhaling loudly and silently thanking the car for not leaving me stranded in this moment, I reached for the gear shift beside me and found my eyes drawn to Isaac, leaning down and slightly into my car through the passenger window.

"I'm sorry again about your car. If you like, I can have it fixed for you. Bring it down to AJ's tomorrow morning. Right down the road." I thought he was going to press me for my name again, but instead he started to back away from her as he spoke, the sound of his teammates yelling his name for the last few minutes finally catching his attention. "Mention my name," he added, the charming smile back on his lips before he turned away from me, his last name and the number seventeen on the back of his practice jersey, and hopped back over the fence, taking a few long strides before his arm whirled through the air and the ball soared back across the field, neatly into the glove of the pitcher, still waiting on the mound. I watched him jog back towards the dugout, catching pats on the back and grins from his other teammates on the field as he went, causing me to shake my head.

Throwing the car forward into drive, I threw one more glance back towards the field, my eyes landing on Isaac as he leaned against the side of the dugout talking to another player, before I leaned onto the gas and headed in the direction he had pointed out.