Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
I cut the little plastic tie between Rebel’s new water shoes as soon as she had them on her feet then watched her walk gingerly around the room. After a few minutes, she glanced in my direction, but not directly at me, and nodded once.
I guessed they’d passed the test.
Within minutes, we were piled into my car and headed toward the river. It was still pretty early in the summer, so we probably wouldn’t swim, but the sun felt nice after the gloomy winter and spring we’d had. A light on my dash flashed on, and I debated how far I could drive before I ran out of gas, deciding at the last minute to pull into a gas station.
“I’m only putting ten bucks in,” I warned Mel as she took off her seatbelt. “Don’t take forever.”
“I won’t!” she protested, even though we both knew that it would take her a solid ten minutes in the store. She had the hardest time deciding on what to buy, it didn’t matter what she was shopping for. “You want something to drink?”
“We’ve got soda in the cooler,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, but that’s not gas station soda. That’s grocery store soda.” She climbed out of the car, then leaned back in the open window. “I’ll get you fountain drink.”
She blew me a kiss and sauntered into the gas station just as the attendant came to my window. He took my wrinkled ten dollar bill and started the pump as I tried to get more comfortable in my seat. My thighs were sticking to the fake leather, but my air conditioner was broken so it didn’t matter how much I moved, they were still going to sweat and stick.
I’d just tugged my shorts a little lower on my hips when the sound of a Harley’s pipes filtered in my window, making me freeze. They always made me freeze.
Over the past year and a half, I’d only seen Will four times, and only because I kept my eye out for him. Once at the grocery store, twice when I was driving to work, and once when Reb and I had been walking out of her speech therapist’s office and he’d been going into the building across the street. I never talked to him. I practically hid.
The attendant was unhooking the pump from my car when the bike rolled to a stop just fifty feet from us in a parking spot. A man and a woman got off, and my stomach sunk in realization.
Will’s hair was longer than it had been when we were together, and it was tied back in a super short ponytail at the base of his neck. A few strands fell forward as he pulled off his helmet, and he unconsciously brushed them behind his ears as he laughed at something the woman said. I glanced at her and my stomach rolled. She was pretty. Long brown hair that looked tangled from the ride, and light eyes, either blue or green. I couldn’t tell the color when she moved her sunglasses to the top of her head.
I sat frozen as Will fiddled with something in his saddlebags, and I contemplated just leaving Mel in the store and taking off, but I was too afraid to turn my car on and bring attention to myself.
Will was turned away from us when Mel finally walked out of the glass doors carrying a couple of fountain drinks and a little bag, but her eyes widened in recognition when she glanced toward him. She practically sprinted across the parking lot.
My eyes were glued to Will as Mel jumped into the car, taking in the easy way he set his hand on the woman’s hip as she messed with the front of her shirt, the way his head tilted toward her like maybe he couldn’t hear her or he just wanted to be a little closer. My throat grew tight as I watched his fingers squeeze for a second and pull her toward him.
“Molly,” Mel said quietly. “Let’s go.”
I jolted out of the weird space I’d been in, and turned the key, breathing a small huff of relief when Will’s head didn’t move in our direction.
But then I heard something in the back seat. A tentative word. Rebel said it again a little louder, like she was getting used to it, like she was making sure it sounded right. Then she was yelling it at the top of her lungs, and it was flying out her open window and across the parking lot.
“Will!” Reb yelled excitedly, kicking her legs and pulling at her seat buckle. “Will!”
I watched in horror as Will’s eyes jerked to my car, his jaw dropping as he pulled the sunglasses off his face.
“Will!”
His smile was the widest I’d ever seen it in the entire seventeen years I’d known him.