See Jane Fall by Katy Regnery

tension between
them by kissing her senseless. But she stood up, still not looking
at him, so instead he watched her walk purposefully back to the
cottage without turning around even once.
    ***
    Two hours later, Jane glanced over at Lars,
who was driving them to the first of three location shoots so she
could photograph them and send pictures to Samara. She checked her
phone, even though Lars had warned her there wouldn’t be reliable
cellular service for as long as they were in the park. No signal.
No bars. More’s the better. She rolled down her window, which added
white noise to the otherwise quiet of the car. Lars had seemingly
given up all attempts to charm her out of her grumpy funk and drove
in silence, which Jane hated as much as she suspected he hated
grumpy Jane.
    Not liking Lars was proving to be just about
impossible, and the effort it was taking to be aloof and
professional was draining, especially when he seemed so thoughtful;
bringing that CD for the ride to dinner last night and showing her
the bison this morning. But, whenever she felt her resolve
slipping, she would think about Paul’s words from last night— the
girls from the park —and the coolness would return quickly. She
felt sure that if she had let him kiss her earlier, that’s all
she’d be: a temporary distraction left in the dust once Samara
arrived. Just another girl from the park . Jane didn’t want
that.
    Well, she didn’t think she wanted
that.
    Or did she?
    Their chemistry was not just in her head
anymore, not that she had ever really believed it was
totally in her head. She felt Lars watching her yesterday, taking
her hand, touching her curls. She could see how pleased he was to
see her this morning.
    She thought of him asking her if anything
was wrong, and how he had laced his fingers through hers as he led
her out to the meadow earlier; she knew there was something between
them, something crackling and interested, simmering just beneath
the surface.
    Jane peeked over at him.
    Smokin’ hot . Like, double-take on the
street, tongue rolling out of your mouth, rugged, western-model
perched on a horse with a cowboy hat and a lazy smile hot. And Jane
was pretty sure that if she wanted a fling with Lars, it was hers
for the taking…at least until Samara arrived.
    That was the rub. No way Samara wasn’t going to hit that. Jane would be surprised if Lars wasn’t her first order of business. And Jane knew her place.
Every day, every moment of her life so far had impressed upon her
that she couldn’t possibly compete with Samara.
    From a young age, Jane had believed what she
had been told in a myriad of unspoken ways; Sara was vapid, but
pretty and Jane was smart, but plain. Unfortunately for Jane, her
smarts had never been a match for her cousin’s beauty in the eyes
of her guardians.
    By high school, Jane’s whole existence had
been overshadowed by the breathtaking, luminous Sara. Graduating
from high school, Sara was almost six feet tall, willowy and
confident with a perfectly formed body, long, silky onyx hair and
lavender eyes fringed with long, black lashes.
    It was as though she had skipped puberty
entirely, neatly developing within the time span of a mild New
England summer before her freshman year with nary a blemish on her
porcelain skin, and no need for the awkward machinery of braces.
Her breasts followed a perfect trajectory from an A cup freshman
year to a full B cup by the end of high school, ever accentuated by
her increasingly tiny waist and adorable backside.
    The beginning of the high school senior
superlatives list was a veritable homage to Sara: Prettiest, Best
Eyes, Best Smile, Best Hair, Best Figure, Most Likely to be in a
Movie, and—especially baffling to teenage Jane, who shared a room
with spiteful Sara—Best Personality. Indeed, Sara’s true nature
asserted itself privately. Her early insecurities at Jane’s
unexpected intrusion in her life imposed an unfortunate edge to
Sara’s demeanor that