Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 130673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 523(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 523(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Rhyland’s phone danced on the counter of the bar. His mother again.
I sighed. “You’re going to have to deal with your parents sooner or later.”
“Wanna bet?” he drawled sarcastically, taking a pull of his beer. “They fucked me over real good and nice. Now it’s my turn. Whatever they want, it’s a favor. And I’m fresh out of fucks when it comes to their problems.”
“What if one of them has health issues?”
Rhyland shook his head, holding his beer by its neck between his index and middle fingers, eyes wandering to the football game on the screen above our heads. A rerun. “If one of them was about to kick the bucket, they’d spend all their time together and not invite me to say goodbye. Ever since I was a kid, they’ve always had this…possessiveness toward each other. I remember Dad always butting into our hugs every time I embraced my mother. He wouldn’t really let me touch her. And as I grew up, I think he kind of…almost competed with me for her. Teaching me his craft, passing along his skills, was mainly to keep me busy and away from her.”
“That’s sick,” I said quietly.
He nodded. “I grew up feeling like a voyeur in my own home. Love and affection were a currency, and I was hella poor.” No wonder, then, that he’d grown up becoming richer from that very same coinage.
Three beers in, we called it a night and stumbled back to our waiting car.
“I could get used to this.” I put my head on Rhyland’s shoulder and closed my eyes, only for a few seconds. When I opened them again, we were parked in front of the ranch.
I moaned groggily and scooted out of the back seat of the Escalade, murmuring my thanks to the driver. Rhyland snatched my hand in his and led the way. At first, I thought we were heading for the door, but then he took a sharp turn left, and we were stomping on dry summer land and mostly eaten grass.
“Where are you taking me?” I yawned into the back of my hand.
“You’ll see.” His voice sounded strangely strained, and that woke me up from my power nap.
We trudged in the pitch-black, Rhy lighting the way with his phone flashlight. Then I saw it, like a beacon in a sea of nothing.
The wishing well.
Rhyland’s grip tightened on my hand. Then we were right next to it, the now-cold stones pressing against the front of my thighs. The metal jug jingled softly to the swoosh of the wind.
He placed his phone screen down on the lip of the well so that the light touched the silhouettes of our faces. There was urgency in his expression.
“Bruce was right,” he said solemnly.
“About me being the perfect woman?” I purred. He’d said that earlier today when I helped Jolene do the dishes after dinner while Gravity hung from my neck like a little monkey.
“That too.” Rhy palmed the coin pendent on the chain around his neck, ripping it from his skin in one go and flattening the pad of his thumb over it. “You have to believe in something, and I believe in nothing, so I might as well take a leap of faith. Here.” He grabbed my hands and squeezed, brushing his thumbs back and forth over my skins soothingly. “It’s the only coin I have.”
“I’m pretty sure this thing is a part of your DNA.” I tried to inject some laughter into my voice, but the truth was I was choked up with emotion. He had one wish to spare, and he was giving it to me? “I’ve never seen you take this thing off.”
“Silver Washington quarter. Rare coin.” He smirked, ignoring my rush of incoherent words. “My grandfather gave it to me before he passed away. I used to spend summers with him. We were close.”
I shook my head vehemently, gulping. “I’m not throwing that away, you psycho.”
“If you won’t, I will. And I’ll wish for something really spiteful.” He assessed me for a moment. “That your perky boobs will go saggy or something.”
“You wouldn’t.” My eyes tapered.
“You know I would. It’s classic me.”
True. Rhyland was that level of stubborn, just like me. We weren’t yin and yang; we were two fucking yins that still managed to complete each other.
He dangled the coin in front of my face slowly, mock hypnotizing me. “You’re getting very sleepy, and you want to use this to make a wish, because I decided that’s what needs to happen, and I always get my way.”
“Ugh.” I snatched the pendant from his hand.
Clutching it, I peered down at the dark nothingness of the well and took a deep breath. The summer air hit the bottom of my lungs. I knew what I wanted, but I was afraid to ask for it. I’d spent the past four years training myself so well not to want, not to wish, not to dream, that it was hard to admit I wasn’t happy. That my sweet, bright child wasn’t enough.