Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“Do you know where your birth family is now?”
He paused, staring up at the sky. “No. But I was hoping there would be at least some genealogy stuff for me when we did that test in Audran’s class.”
“I’m guessing there wasn’t.”
“No. Nothing.”
She reached over, squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s what I was expecting, too,” she said, laughing wryly. “Nothing. And here we are.”
“I envied you,” he admitted, rolling to his side and propping his head on a hand. “But you know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“Now that I know you better, I’m surprised you did the test at all. I can’t imagine Gloria and Steve would’ve given the green light.”
“I’ve thought about that a lot—why I did it so readily.” She rolled to face him, too. “I never disobeyed my parents before, but with every day I’ve spent away from them at school, I started questioning more and more why so many of those rules were there in the first place. I started pushing, a little at a time. I did the interview with the school paper, I made friends in study groups, I did the test. I’ve wanted to experience everything, because deep down, part of me knows they won’t let me come back next fall. Once I’m home again over the summer, I think they’ll see how much I’ve changed. They definitely won’t let me finish out the semester if they find out about this trip.”
His stomach bottomed out. When he first met Ren, he didn’t think she’d last the week. Then, when she started to show him up, he wished he’d been right. The thought that her parents wouldn’t let her come back felt too real, if he let his thoughts linger on it. Given how controlling they were, Fitz wasn’t sure how she’d manage to keep any of this from them. Whether or not Ren found Christopher Koning, whether or not he was even her father, he knew it didn’t matter. She had already changed from this experience, and there was no universe in which her parents wouldn’t see that.
And another thought landed, and this time, his stomach twisted tightly and he let out a guilty groan. “I made so many rules,” he said quietly.
Ren frowned at him. “What?”
“For the trip. I made those rules. No bowing, no talking, no eating, no singing. All your life you’ve been living under Steve and Gloria’s rules. Then you were sent to college with more rules. And then you leave with me and—again, rules.” He closed his eyes, wincing. “I’m such a dick.”
“It’s okay,” she said immediately, instinctively.
“It isn’t.” He opened his eyes, met her gaze. “It’s shitty. I’m so sorry.”
Ren looked at him, really seemed to be trying to see him. “You do a lot of things to keep people out. The rules were about your boundaries, not about me. I got that.”
Edward stared at her, reeling.
“I would only be mad about them if you were still speaking to me in riddles,” she continued, smiling. “But you’re telling me about yourself. I know how hard that is.”
He let out a soundless laugh of disbelief. “I am so crazy for you.” Edward ran his hand down her arm, feeling the goose bumps there. “Cold?” he asked, reaching for the sweatshirt and draping it over her.
“Cold,” she said, and grinned in the darkness. “And crazy for you, too.”
“Are you nervous?” he asked. “About tomorrow?”
Ren laughed tightly. “Nervous doesn’t even cover it. It’s like I start to imagine it, and then my brain powers down and everything just turns to fog, and I can’t breathe.”
The words rolled out of him, finally. “Can I come with you?”
She went quiet, eyes wide, watching him. “To Atlanta?”
“Yeah.”
“What about your interview?”
“It’s only a four-hour drive. I’d just need to drive back up here Wednesday night.”
“You’d do that for me?”
He laughed because the surprise in her voice was so genuine. “I got naked in a freezing lake for you. You think I won’t drive a few hours to make sure you get to Atlanta sa—”
His words were cut off when she pushed forward, pressing her mouth to his and rolling him to his back so she hovered over him. Her hair had come loose and formed a soft curtain around them as they lay, alone on the hill, kissing and kissing and kissing.
It occurred to him later, when they were in the hotel brushing teeth side by side, that he’d been lucky three times in his life: The day he met Mary. The day he met Judge Iman. And the day he met Ren. Being there with her, he didn’t know how to go back to being Just Fitz. He hadn’t thought about his five-year plan in days. He’d had a whole spiel memorized for his interview on Thursday, but now he didn’t even know what he’d say. All he wanted was to run away with her.