Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 214(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 214(@300wpm)
My heart lurches. “We can’t.”
His scowl becomes a valley cutting through the middle of his forehead. “What do you mean we can’t?”
“My cell fell in the toilet at the gas station about twenty miles back,” I say. “Wendy Ann accidentally grabbed mine instead of hers on her way to the bathroom and dropped it in the toilet.” He curses, and I wince. “Yeah, probably not an accident.”
“Obviously not an accident. It was deliberate. They planned this. They wanted us out here alone with no way to call for help.” He drags his hand through his hair, still damp from his morning shower.
And it’s going to get damper very soon…
The sky rumbles again, the clearing dimming as the clouds thicken, darken.
I glance up, biting my lip. “Okay, first things first. We should put our rain gear on and look for shelter. Maybe there’s something nearby, an old fire tower or abandoned ranger station. I know there used to be some out this way.”
“There’s nothing,” he says, shrugging off his pack and pulling his rain shell from the side pocket. “I know this area. We’re not far from the edge of my property, but until you reach my camp, there’s nothing out here but trees.”
I zip up my own shell, my heart lifting. “Oh, well, that’s not so bad, then. At least they gave us a way out. We can just head to your camp.”
“It’s twenty miles east through dense forest,” he counters, his expression grim. “And once we get there, there’s no landline to call for help.”
My heart sinks again. “Shit.”
“Yeah,” he agrees.
“We’ll be lucky to get through twenty miles of forest before dark. That’s a big day on rough trails, even without rain making the ground soft.”
“Yep,” he says, his lips popping on the “p.”
“And then it’s at least another fifty miles back into town.” My eyes narrow to slits as the urge to strangle my sister rises inside me. “We really are going to be stuck out here for three days. At least.”
“We are,” he says, his jaw clenching as he crouches to pull his rain guard over his pack. “And I only brought enough food for one.”
I squat beside my pack, shifting my glare his way as I do the same. “Oh, and you don’t plan to share? Is that what you’re saying? You not only ghost your friends now, but you also starve them, too?”
“I didn’t ghost you,” he mutters, dropping his gaze to his bungee cords as he ties the rain guard down.
“Oh, no? Sure seemed like ghosting to me.”
“I just needed a break, some time to think,” he says.
“Then, you should have said that,” I shoot back. “I’m not an asshole. I’ve always tried to be respectful of your boundaries. If you needed some time, all you had to do was ask for it.”
“You know it isn’t that simple,” he mutters as he swings his pack onto his shoulders and turns to study the woods behind him.
“Why not?” I demand, struggling with my tangled bungee cords as the wind starts to pick up. “Don’t you feel like you can be honest with me? If so, that doesn’t seem like a me problem, Seven. That seems like a—”
“Like a me problem?” He whirls on me, his eyes wide and wild. “Yeah, I know, Binx. It is a me problem. It’s a me problem that I can’t stop thinking about you, dreaming about you. It’s a me problem that you’re in my head all the fucking time and keeping my hands off you is becoming impossible. It’s my fault that I wanted to snap Pierce in half for standing too close to you, let alone daring to put his fucking hand on your body. I get that. Believe me, I’m fully fucking aware.”
I stand, gaping at him, my heart racing as another roll of thunder threatens to shake down the sky.
When it’s quiet again, my lips part, but I don’t know what to say, what to do. I only know that I don’t want to scare him away, and he’s clearly poised to bolt.
He was so scared of his feelings that he ghosted me, and that so isn’t Seven.
Maybe that’s why Bettie agreed to do this, because she knew it was the only way to keep her son from running away and ruining his second chance at love.
Love…
Seven might love me, too. Or at least want to touch me as desperately as I want to touch him.
Before I can fully assimilate the immensity of that, the sky opens up.
Hunching my shoulders against the stinging drops, I pull my hood up before hastily finishing securing the rain pouch onto my pack. By the time I stand, Seven is beside me, lifting my backpack into the air with one strong hand, holding it at shoulder height, so it’s easier for me to slip on.