Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
I’d had a hankering, so went to the store to get my own, even though I’d hated that she stiffened when she saw me hop into my car.
I’d waved and tried to remember how to talk to her as Zander instead of X, just in case she said anything. But she scurried away in a rush.
I didn’t get it.
Apart from a bit of teasing and name-calling growing up, I hadn’t done anything to justify the mix of shame and fear in her blue eyes whenever she saw me.
If I was honest, it hurt.
No, it killed.
Especially because she seemed to like X—a faceless stranger she’d never met—over the man who’d been her neighbour her entire life.
What is it about me that’s so offensive?
My phone vibrated across the table.
Lori: Somehow, I don’t think that’s the truth. What happened to the promise of honesty?
I groaned and wedged my elbows on the table. Running my hands through my hair, I hung my head. I’d changed her contact from LL to Lori the same night I’d stood by her fence and watched her until dawn.
Unfortunately, thanks to that chosen nickname, I couldn’t get the past out of my head. The memories of her as a scrawny girl with pigtails or that time she came to visit and ended up with chicken pox. She’d looked atrocious, all spotty and sick yet…I’d spent more time over at Melody’s in those two weeks than I ever had, not so subtly trying to help her get better.
When Sailor and her parents had left, Melody hugged me so hard. She’d thanked me for taking such great care of her granddaughter then giggled that she couldn’t wait for us to grow up and fulfil her and Mary’s dream of marrying their offspring to each other.
I’d scoffed, stolen a brownie, and bolted.
I’d forgotten all about it by the time Sailor visited three years later.
X: Fine, I’m twenty-nine. And that’s all the personal information you’re getting.
I went to press send but stopped.
Whoops, close call.
She was good at this. Too good. And I knew my weaknesses when it came to outsmarting wily people. The more information I gave her, even tiny tidbits like my age, the more she’d start painting a picture of who I was.
She might one day look next door and put the pieces together.
Deleting my message, I retyped.
X: I’m thirty-four. Now stop asking personal questions.
Lori: Don’t you want to know how old I am?
I already know. Your birthday is on the 9th of May. You’re six years younger than me. Melody would bake you a lemon meringue cake each birthday with lemons from her own tree.
X: Let me guess, you’re sixteen, and I’m breaking yet another law just by talking to you.
Lori: Ha ha. It would serve you right if I was. But really? Do I look that young? That fragile?
I didn’t know how we’d become this familiar with each other so fast.
What was it about a screen and a keyboard that allowed an ease to form that never seemed to be this simple in person?
I just thanked every star in the galaxy that she’d never known my number as Zander because, thanks to the stupid decision to use my own details, she was far too close to the truth already.
Nausea suddenly filled me at the thought of never talking to her this way again.
Me: Fine. You look twenty-three.
Shit, unsend. Unsend!
Too late.
What was I thinking using her real age?
Lori: Have you been in my house?
Me: Why would you ask that?
Lori: Because you broke your rule about coming near me and gave me a blanket in the garden the other night.
Shit.
My hands shook.
Me: I couldn’t leave you uncovered. It just wasn’t possible.
Lori: I should follow through with my threat to make you regret coming near me.
Me: Will you?
Lori: I should be freaked out that you were close enough to touch me.
Me: But you’re not?
Lori: I shouldn’t admit this but no…I’m not.
Me: I would never touch you without your consent. I merely sheltered you.
Lori: I don’t know what this says about me but…I believe you. And thank you. And now, please answer my question. Have you broken another rule and been in my house? Because your answer about my age doesn’t feel like a lucky guess. Have you been snooping in my paperwork?
“Goddammit, Zan, you suck so badly at this—”
“Uh-oh, muttering to yourself is the first sign of insanity.” Colin chuckled as he barged through the door and filled the staff room with his blinding personality. Clipping over to me in his dress shoes, he eyed up my pasta, then swiped my phone straight out of my hand.
“Hey!” I stood, trying to snatch it back. Bracing against me, he curled himself over my phone and scrolled quickly through the text thread.
I snarled, “Do you mind?”
Tossing me the phone back, he smirked and headed to the coffee pot. “Just making sure you’re not going to jail. Yet.”