Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Balancing on my crutches, I switched the ribbon to my hand farther away from him. “It’s going to take more than a few days to get things worked out with my dad. And Sir Hairy is mine, so back off.” I made a kissy sound, snapping the dog’s attention away from Ramsey’s pocket cheese. “Let’s go, boy.”
His tail wagged, and after stealing the last bit of cheese, he trotted after me.
Unfortunately, so did Ramsey. “Where ya going?”
“Somewhere.”
“Hang on. Let me put my bike up and I’ll come too.”
“No.”
“No? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I don’t want you to come with me.”
“Why not?” He kept following me, matching me step for step.
“Because I’m trying to get away from you.”
He barked a loud laugh that echoed off the houses on our quiet street. “No, you aren’t.”
I made a show of speeding up. “I’m pretty sure I am.”
“Then you’d be wrong.” He abandoned his bike on the curb and fell into place at my side in his usual spot in the grass.
It wasn’t lost on me that my dad didn’t have a usual anymore, but Ramsey did.
I just didn’t want Ramsey’s usual, at least not right then.
“Go away,” I grumbled, stopping at the end of the sidewalk.
There was an old dirt path that led through the woods to the Wynns’ farm. It was going to be a nightmare to navigate it on my crutches, but the pressure in my chest was building by the second. I needed to get out of there fast. Maybe go sit under the Wynns’ tree and hold my breath until I could convince the cruel universe to cut me some slack. I needed—
“All right, hop up,” Ramsey said, appearing in front of me. He squatted with his back to me as if he expected me to jump on for a piggyback ride.
I was about to have a nervous breakdown and he was offering a piggyback ride.
Fan-freaking-tastic.
“Go. Away,” I seethed.
He ignored me, backing up so he was only inches away. “Drop your crutches. We’ll get ’em when we come back.”
“Come back from where?”
“I don’t know. I figured the tree, but we can go wherever you want.”
Unable to hold it in any longer, I broke. On the one person who never deserved it.
“There is no we,” I snarled. “Why are you so stupid? Do you have mental problems? I’m trying to get away from you!”
His body went stiff as he stood up straight. I couldn’t see his face, but for the first time since I’d met him, I was positive he wasn’t smiling.
His hands fisted at his sides as he spun on a toe to face me. “Stop calling me stupid! If I wanted insults, I’d stay at home with my dad.”
“Well, maybe you should,” I fired back before his words had a chance to sink in. “I bet he at least likes you.”
If I hadn’t been so damn mad, I would have seen his flinch and taken a second to read the pain as it flashed across his face. But I was a volcano mid-eruption and poor, sweet Ramsey was in the path of destruction.
His jaw ticked as he stared at me. “You are such an asshole! You know that? I was trying to be nice to you. That’s all I’ve ever done. And you’re always so damn mean.”
“I don’t want you to be nice to me. I want you to go away and leave me alone!”
“Why?” he snapped, taking a giant step toward me. “So you can go hide, feeling sorry for yourself because your mom died? Oh poor, pitiful Thea. Wah, wah, wah.” He rubbed his eyes like a crying baby before slapping his hands on his thighs. “Well, you know what? I don’t feel sorry for you. She died. So fucking what.”
I loathed pity. Avoided it at all cost. But right then, from Ramsey of all people, the absence of it felt like a slap to the face. “Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about. I watched her die. Do you have any idea how hard that was?”
“Yeah!” he yelled back. “Probably a lot like watching my mom back out of the driveway knowing she was never coming back.”
My chest heaved as I opened my mouth, ready to scream exactly how much I hated him, but nothing came out.
Ramsey hadn’t mentioned his parents much. I’d seen his dad once in the driveway coming home from work, but I didn’t spend a lot of time outside. Ramsey was always so happy that I assumed he had a decent parent. Though I might have been too preoccupied with my own emotional turmoil to notice the signs of his. Or maybe whatever this was about had just happened.
My heart shattered as understanding suddenly dawned on me.
Tragedy and crap parents weren’t isolated to me.
“What happened?” I asked. It was quite possibly the first question I’d ever asked him—or at least the only one where I cared about the answer.