One True Thing by Lynne Jaymes

 

   
 
  “That was all before…” Jolene waves her hand in the air, but we both know what she means. Before I touched her in the most intimate places. Before I felt her shudder under my tongue. Before she tasted the salt on my skin. Before I promised a lot more than I could deliver. Ty Branch has wanted one thing his entire life—to play professional baseball. When he gets a chance to move from San Francisco to play at Texas powerhouse Garvin State University, he's willing to do whatever it takes to make his dream come true, even if that means hiding his past. But when he meets dance major Jolene Taylor, the chemistry is so strong his single-minded quest begins to weaken. As he gets to know her quirky, small-town family, he falls more deeply in love, but becomes even more sure he can never tell her the truth about his family. When a surprise visitor blows his past wide-open, Ty is forced to come to terms with his secrets. But is the damage already done with Jolene or can he find a way to sacrifice everything he's worked for in order to win back the heart of a once-in-a-lifetime love?    
“Thank you,” Jolene says, as I hold the door open for her, the soft Texas twang in her voice making my heart beat faster as she brushes by me, her dark brown eyes fixed on the ground. Jolene Taylor. Dance major, sophomore, comes from somewhere outside of Abeline—way outside according to Jessie, one of those towns that has only four stoplights and a Dairy Queen with a sign that congratulates the FFA on their livestock win. “No problem,” I reply, following her through the door. We approach the stairs to the second floor together, but I slow my pace so that she can get ahead of me, hoping that I don’t look like a stalker and that she doesn’t notice that I’m sneaking looks at her ass as she walks up the steps. And it is a perfect little ass. Jolene has a way of moving that’s more like gliding than actual walking, her feet turned out just slightly in that way that dancers have. She’s wearing baggy sweats that sit at the place where the two dimples on her lower back meet her spine and a workout top holding her small, perky breasts that leaves little to the imagination. I can see the muscles in her back move as she walks and that turns me on more than anything, so I shift my eyes up to the expanse of bare skin on the back of her neck, covered by a few dark tendrils of hair that escape from the messy bun on top of her head. Even at her messiest, Jolene is perfection. But I can’t talk to her, there’s no point. There’s too much I’d have to say, too much I’d have to give up to make it real. I want her to look back as I approach the door to my apartment, nosily fumbling for the keys to try to get her attention, but she stares straight ahead, her back tall and her thin, muscled arms gripping the laundry basket as she heads for her apartment at the end of the hall. I sigh as I take one last look at her and swing my apartment door open. Gotta keep my eyes on the prize. Jolene Taylor is just one more thing I shouldn’t be messing with this year.  
Lynne Jaymes is a life-long reader and accidental writer living in Northern California. She writes contemporary fiction that is sometimes funny, sometimes sexy and always from the heart. Although this is not her first venture into writing – Lynne is traditionally published in another genre under another name – she loves the indie world for the freedom it gives her to write the stories that call to her, the ones that mean the most and the ones that editors have said would never sell. ONE TRUE THING is the adaptation of the first book she ever wrote and the story is one that is close to her family and has lived deep in her soul for years. She is also the co-author of the second book in the UNFILTERED Series, UNFILTERED & UNKNOWN. Keep up with Lynne at www.lynnejaymes.com, on Facebook and Twitter.