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another one to get his shoulders.
    “The jacket’s going to have to be washed,” Jason noted.
    “Yeah, um ... that’s my dad’s favorite jacket.” I pulled at a lock of hair behind my ear.
    “What?”
    “We’ll just hang it up in the mud room and he’ll never know.” Apparently some of my teenage reasoning had surfaced on my reckless ride through the trees.
    He pulled out his cell phone to send a text. “What are you doing?”
    “I’m downgrading my status to H.S.U.”
    “What’s H.S.U.”
    “Hopelessly screwed up.”
    I walked Millie back to her stall. We pitched hay into the mangers and were on our way out when his phone beeped. “What did he say?” I asked.
    “T.C.S.”
    “What’s T.C.S?” Spy talk was as bad as teen texting.
    “Take control of the situation.”
    I cocked my head. “How do you plan on doing that?”
    He tucked his phone in his inside pocket. “The first thing I’m going to do...” He lunged forward, picking me up in his strong arms while I squealed. “...is throw you in the straw.” He easily chucked me into the pile of hay. The landing was soft, but the flakes stuck everywhere. My hair was brutalized. I laughed as he bounded in next to me.
    “Now what?” I giggled.
    “I hadn’t thought much farther than this.”
    My breath caught as he leaned over to kiss me again. This wasn't the soft brush he'd given me in the coat room and I slid my hands around his neck. Thoughts of spies, secret hideouts, and my thieving boss, floated away. I kissed him back until I heard another four-wheeler coming to the barn. I scrambled. Being hay-covered could be incriminating if caught by the wrong person. I prayed it was my mom on the four-wheeler and not my dad. Jason threw his hands behind his head and lounged. I threw him a nasty glare.
    “He already hates me,” he said.
    I rolled my eyes.
    “Well, well, well,” boomed a voice I was grateful to hear.
    “Matt.” I jumped into my oldest brother’s outstretched arms. “What are you doing here?”
    He hugged me back, his forty-some-odd years wrinkling around his eyes when he smiled. “I just came to borrow some hay.” Matt and his family lived as close to next door as it got in the country. He let go of me and threw a bale on the back of his four-wheeler. “What are you doing here?”
    “I wanted to introduce Jason to Mom and Dad.”
    Jason climbed out of the hay pile and brushed off his jeans. I flushed like a sixteen-year-old on her first date. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t been sixteen for over ten years. Matt was still my oldest brother and I was still his little sister.
    “Wow,” Matt said, “It must be serious if you dared to bring him home.” He shook Jason’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
    “You, too. Alyssa speaks very highly of you,” said Jason.
    Matt’s eyes twinkled. “She should. I’m her favorite.”
    Jason turned to me. “I thought you said Kaleb was your favorite?”
    "What?” Matt picked me up, despite my protests, and threw me back in the straw.
    “Matt, honestly!” I gave him my best younger-sister glare from my landing spot.
    “You can’t be too mad. I just gave you an excuse for the flakes in your hair.” He climbed back on the four-wheeler. “I’ll tell Dad it was me that threw you in so he won’t know you were out here kissin'. Bye.” He waved over his shoulder as he sped toward the house.
    I shook my head. How could I not love a brother like that? Jason smiled and offered me his hand. The barn, nestled next to the mountain, dropped into shadow as the sun slipped behind the tree tops. A chill washed through the air. “Let’s get back inside.”
    I sighed. Back to mediating between my dad and Jason. Sometimes being the only girl was hard.

Chapter 8
     
     
    W e sneaked into the house through the garage door and stashed Dad’s jacket under a couple of others on the peg. Jason was seriously quiet and if his hand wasn’t on the small of my back, giving me thrills, I wouldn’t have