Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“You could do better than Dayton, Zepp.”
He took another drag from his cigarette, then chucked it over the edge, sparks skittering the platform. Then he glanced at me, his eyes soft. “Put hope in whatever you need to. But don’t put hope like that in me.”
“What if I want to?” I whispered, my words barely carrying above the distant hum of traffic.
“Don’t.”
“You once said I was broken. But you’re only really broken when you lose hope.” Which made him the damaged one of the two of us, but didn’t I already know that?
He was the guy I told myself I didn’t want to save. Yet here I was, suddenly wishing I could save him. And I didn’t know what that meant.
His fingers trailed my jaw while a deep frown set on his face. “The way I see it, only broken people need hope.”
“So what does that make us?” Seconds ticked by.
“Fucked up?” Zepp finally said.
No, it made us both broken. And in that moment, I didn’t care if I was. I wanted Zepp to fix me as much as I needed to fix him.
“If you could go anywhere, where would you go?” I asked, staring down at the littered ground feet below.
He took a handful of leaves from the platform, tossing them over the edge. “Don’t know.”
I wasn’t sure if he genuinely hadn’t thought about it, or he simply wouldn’t voice it.
“What about you?” he asked.
“I just want to go to a beach. Have you ever been?”
He laughed, grabbing a twig from the metal ledge and flinging it into the trees. “Yeah, right. You?”
“No.” As if my mom would ever spend her drug money on vacation. I took a sip of my drink. “I imagine it feels like the end of the earth.”
“Kinda is.”
“It’s pretty pathetic that I’ve never left this shithole town.”
He stared at me for several moments before grabbing my hand and pulling us both to our feet. I followed him down the ladder, and when I reached the bottom and turned around, Zepp was standing at the driver’s side door of my Pinto, palm out.
“Toss me the keys.”
“Why?” I gave them to him. “Where are we going?”
“For a drive.”
We climbed in, and Zepp pulled onto the highway, heading the opposite direction from Dayton. A little ball of excitement settled in my chest. I had no idea where we were going, but it felt like I’d been waiting my whole life to just drive in the opposite direction of that damn town.
We drove for hours through country back roads, only stopping once for Zepp to run into a Wal-E-Mart. At some point, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the headlights shining over dunes of sand.
The dim glow from the dashboard played over Zepp’s features. My heart thumped awkwardly in my chest like it had forgotten how to work for a second. “You brought me to the beach?”
“Pretty sure that’s what this is,” he said with a smart-ass smirk
He brought me to the beach. On a whim. Because I’d never been. No one had ever done anything for me the way Zepp had. And he’d done a lot, expecting nothing in return. He may have been a bad boy, but he was the best person I had ever known.
Grabbing his face, I slammed my lips over his. “I don’t deserve you,” I breathed against his mouth.
His fingers swept my cheek. “You deserve better.”
“There is no one better.”
He kissed me again, then turned off the ignition, plunging us into darkness for a moment before he opened his door. “You coming?” He rounded the back and popped the trunk, grabbing a Wal-E-Mart bag before slamming it.
We made our way to the wooden boardwalk. The gentle wash of waves against the shore made me smile. It sounded so much better in person than in the movies. A warm breeze touched my face, whipping through my hair and bringing with it a scent I had never before smelled. Something thick and fresh and inviting that soothed me instantly—salt air.
The worn planks gave way to sand, and I kicked off my boots, sinking my feet into the soft surface, relishing the way it seeped between my toes.
Zepp nearly disappeared in the darkness as he headed toward the water and dropped the bags onto the sand. He pulled out a blanket, fighting against the wind as he spread it out. Before he’d even finished, I pulled my shirt over my head, stepped out of my skirt, and took off to the water.
Warm water rushed around my legs. I waded out thigh-deep before Zepp snatched me around the waist.
His lips brushed my ear. “Does it feel like the end of the world?”
“No.” I turned and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Far from it.”
“Good.” He covered my mouth with his in a kiss, soft and slow. Waves crashed around us, and the kiss grew deeper. “Does it make you happy?” he asked.