'Cause it sounded good last night
We had a damn good time
Jack Daniel's got that jackhammer pounding on my mind

Ryan's POV

I forced my eyes open and groaned from the blinding sunlight streaming through the blinds in Chase's living room as I pulled myself up into a sitting position on the couch. My head was pounding and my mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton. My groan however, was not just hungover induced. Part of it was due to the fact that I had met a beautiful woman and completely blew it. Epic failure on my part.

I was obviously too drunk to drive home last night, and I guess I was also too drunk to make it upstairs to a guest room since I woke up on the couch. Note to self: don't drink so damn much.

I really wanted to talk to Sam. That kiss last night was something. I didn't expect her to respond quite the way she did. She actually seemed really into it. Although she was pretty drunk herself. Admittedly, I doubt I would have done it had I been sober. I'm usually a little more reserved and pretty awkward. I knew I had acted like a jerk though. I continued to egg her on, and to my surprise, she gave back as good as she got. She intrigued me. I really did want to get to know her. I liked her feistiness. She clearly had a wild side that I would love to tap into. The question was, how much of that was the alcohol? What was she really like?

She and I had obviously gotten off on the wrong foot. Had I not been half assed drunk before I even laid eyes on her, things might have been different. Maybe we could make amends and call a truce. Start over. Show her that sober Ryan really wasn't such a bad guy.

I stood up and staggered into the kitchen, hoping like hell I could find some aspirin or something to kill the tap dancing on my brain. Sam was already in there, eating a chocolate cupcake while waiting for coffee to brew.

"Good morning." I said softly, startling her and causing her to smear a bit of chocolate frosting on her upper lip. I thought again about the kiss we shared last night, and I had to fight the urge to lick it off. She grabbed a napkin a quickly wiped it away. She turned and faced me, her expression was clearly one of annoyance. Of course she had the fucking nerve to look like a damn wet dream. Baby blue eyes as clear and bright as the morning sky. She didn't seem to appear as if she were interested in making amends.

She almost looked guilty as she finished off the cupcake, kind of like the kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

"Good morning." She replied back, in a cool, polite tone as she wiped the chocolate frosting from her fingertips.

"You missed a spot." I pointed to the corner of her mouth.

"Thanks." She muttered, dabbing it with her napkin. "Coffee is almost done if you want." She pointed towards the single cup coffee maker, then averted her eyes, as if she would rather be here with anyone else. Damn she was an ice queen. Forcing herself to be somewhat civil, all the while looking at me like I was a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

"I don't guess you'd happen to know if there is any aspirin around here?" I asked. This conversation I was trying to initiate might go a little better if I could get rid of this giant ass headache.

"Here." She handed me a bottle of aspirin that had been sitting on the counter, and grabbed her mug of coffee that had just finished brewing.

"Thanks. How are you feeling this morning?" I asked.

"Fine." Was her only reply. Maybe she just wasn't a morning person.

I tried again. "You're up early. I guess Chase and Courtney are still asleep."

"I'm used to getting up early. Old habit. Someone needs to tell my internal clock that I'm on vacation."

Whew. That was better. I had finally progressed beyond one word answers.

"Sam, about last night..." I began.

"I was drunk, we both were drunk. That's all that kiss was." She interrupted, but that wasn't all I wanted to talk to her about.

"Yeah. We were. I was an ass, I admit that."

"What exactly are you trying to say Ryan? Are you going to tell me that was just the alcohol talking and you're normally a nice guy?" She folded her arms across her chest and gave me a pointed look.

She really wasn't making this easy. I could have thrown it in her face that she had acted just as obnoxious as I did, but I knew that was without a doubt the wrong thing to say. I needed to suck it up. Be the bigger person.

"What I'm trying to say is I'm sorry. I really acted like a jerk. I pushed your buttons and allowed you to push mine. I'm not sure how long you are going to be here, but I'm sure we'll be seeing each other around, so maybe we could call a truce. Start fresh."

She smiled, finally, a real smile. "I accept your apology and I also apologize. I was rude. I behaved badly. It would be easy to blame it all on the alcohol, but I had other things on my mind. Not a real excuse but nonetheless I do apologize." She sounded so formal, almost as if her little speech had been programmed. She did sound sincere though, so I chose to believe she was.

I held out my hand to her. "Truce?"

"Truce." She took my hand briefly and shook it, but it was long enough for me to feel a spark.

"How long are you planning on being in town for?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

"I'm not really sure. I'd like to stick around for a little while, at least until Court and Chase get sick of me."

"Are you going to be in Talladega this weekend?" I asked.

"I don't know. Chase and Courtney never mentioned it. Maybe they just haven't gotten around to it."

"Have you ever been to a race?" I asked.

"Not since I was a kid. My dad and Courtney's dad took us to Talladega a couple of times. They loved it." She replied.

"Did you like it?" I asked curiously.

"It was fun. I guess I did. I remember it was really exciting, and loud." She laughed a little, but then her smile faded and a shadow of sadness passed across her blue eyes.

"You really miss him don't you?" I asked softly.

She nodded.

"We're the two of you close?"

She nodded again, and then the look was gone. Her moment of vulnerability passed as quickly as it appeared. She obviously didn't want to talk about her dad. She really didn't seem as if she wanted to talk about much of anything. She didn't really elaborate on anything and she didn't try to engage in much of the conversation. Either she was just really private, cold, or flat out didn't like me, despite agreeing to a truce. I probably should have quit, yet something compelled me to keep going. I just wanted to get to know this woman.

"Why did you leave Louisiana?" I asked.

"I just needed a change of scenery." She replied.

"Bad breakup? Family troubles?" I pressed further.

"Something like that." She shrugged.

"What are you running from?" I finally asked, and could have face palmed myself. This time I may have pushed too far. The look of contempt and hostility was back, turning her blue eyes dark and stormy.

"Who says I'm running from anything? She snapped coldly.

So much for a truce. I definitely pushed too far. "No one. Just seems like you're running."

"Are we done with the twenty questions now?" She glared at me.

Yep we were done. I had succeeded in pissing her off once again. Not my fault she was so touchy. Luckily, we were saved from further awkward conversation and icy looks when Chase and Courtney entered the room. So much for getting to know Sam. She obviously had no interest in me.

Sam's POV

After a very awkward morning with Ryan, which thankfully was interrupted by Courtney and Chase, Ryan went home, claiming he had to take care of his dog. He probably couldn't wait to leave, to get away from me. I certainly wasn't a ray of sunshine, but he just had to keep asking me questions that I had no desire to answer.

Early that morning, before he got up, I may have Instagram stalked him. So what? I just wanted to get a little backstory on the guy. There were several pictures of him with a brunette. She kind of looked like me. Same height and build, long dark hair and blue eyes. He had her tagged: Brooke Bennett. I clicked on her name. No pictures of him at all, not even following him. If she were an old girlfriend, she had clearly removed any traces of him from her feed. She was an actress and clearly had a boyfriend.

I went back to his profile. More pictures of him, this time with a different brunette, actually several different brunettes. Looks like he had a thing for brunettes. He also clearly looked like a player. Was that why he seemed interested in me? I was his type.

I checked out who he was following and it was full of actresses, models and singers. He was for sure into girls who looked a certain way.

I was also embarrassed to see that someone had taken video of us last night, including the kiss, and posted it to their story. Both Ryan and I were tagged in it, and I cringed over the thought of it being out there. I took a small bit of consolation that my account was private, and the story would only be up for twenty four hours, but the other accounts were public. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could do about it.

There was no way I was letting myself get close to Ryan. By the way he kissed me, and the way I responded to it, it would only be a disaster. In a weird way, he was too much like Steven. Not that they looked anything at all alike, but both were good looking, successful and full of themselves. Looking for another trophy girl. Well, it wasn't going to be me. I didn't trust him in the least. He was the last thing I needed in my life. I hated that I was attracted to him, and I would do everything in my power to fight it.

Later that day, Courtney had talked to me about going to Talladega. I knew it would be fun, but I was hesitant because it brought back so many memories of my dad. When Ryan and I had talked about it that morning, I had downplayed it. Sort of pretended that it wasn't that big a deal, and acted like I didn't remember it that well. The truth was, I remembered everything. I didn't just like it, I loved it. I don't even know why I had stopped watching, stopped going. I guess my life had just gotten too busy. It just seemed weird to go without my dad. In the end, I agreed to go with Courtney and Chase mainly because it seemed awkward not to, to stay at their house without them. I knew I was bound to run into Ryan. That was unavoidable since he was Chase's best friend. I just had to emotionally distance myself from him because dammit, I didn't want to like him.