Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 213(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 142(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 213(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 142(@300wpm)
I stumbled on a tree root and tripped, falling into a headstone. Farell came out of nowhere to scoop me up, throwing me over his shoulder and running up the slope like I was a football. I screamed and slapped at his back.
“You’re gonna kill me!” I shouted. Farell laughed and his buddies cheered us on. Then Bryce caught Erin and it turned into a race. We reached the memorial at the same time to the sound of hooting and clapping. Farell lowered me to the ground and pulled me in for a kiss, tongue shoving deep into my mouth. He tasted like beer and the taquitos we’d eaten at his house during the reception.
I liked kissing Farell. Hell, I liked more than kissing him—we’d been sleeping together since I was sixteen and he was usually in tune with my needs. He pulled away and looked down at me, grinning like an idiot.
“Fuckin’ love you, Darce.”
Then he let me go and swaggered off, sharing high fives with the other football players before heading over to the keg. My eyes followed him, feeling that strange sense of loneliness that always came when he turned away. Farell was a bright, shining spotlight. When he focused on me it was like staring into the sun. When he left I found myself blinking, blinded and startled by the sudden loss of warmth.
I looked away, searching for Erin. Instead I saw Riley Boone watching me with those cold black eyes of his.
He leaned back against a tree just outside the circle of firelight. People swirled all around but Boonie stood apart, studying me with a scary intensity. Like always, the sight of him reminded me of that kiss we’d shared so many years ago. We’d hardly been more than kids, but they say you never forget your first.
Gave me chills every time I thought about it.
Boonie lifted his chin in silent greeting and I nodded in return. Then someone stumbled into me, breaking the spell. Good thing, too.
Riley Boone was nothing but trouble.
________
I’d hardly recognized him when he returned to Callup. I guess his stepdad ran off with a younger woman last summer, so his mom came running home to lick her wounds. Took her less than two weeks to hook up with one of the Silver Bastards, a member of the motorcycle club here in town. Boonie’s dad had been one, too, although he’d died when Boonie was just a baby.
I’d heard he was back, of course. Callup was the kind of place where everyone was up in each other’s business. Still, that didn’t prepare me to see him again in person.
He’d pulled up to the high school on a royal blue Harley Davidson, looking like the hero in a movie. You know, one of those teenage tragedies where the naive and foolish heroine falls in love with the gangster. Then she has to watch him get gunned down in the end, leaving her alone and pregnant because things can never work out with guys like that.
I hadn’t recognized him at first. I mean, Boonie had been cute as hell when he’d left, but for all his height, he’d still been a boy. Now he was all man. Six foot three, with a bulky, muscular body and dark hair. His eyes held secrets and he still walked like a conqueror, only now he was the kind of conqueror who’d cut off your head for crossing him. Farell and his friends learned that fast, too.
Until Boonie came home, Farell had been the king of the school. Now Boonie was, even if he wasn’t interested in taking on the role.
Farell hated him for that.
That was reason enough for me to avoid Boonie—Farell had an ugly temper. While I didn’t think it was reasonable for him to say I couldn’t talk to my old friend, I didn’t want to lose my boyfriend, either. I compromised by staying friendly toward Boonie, but distant. It’d been a tense year, made more tense by the fact that no matter where I went, Boonie’s eyes followed me.
I didn’t know for sure, but I think he and Farell even fought a couple of times—either that or Farell was running into an awful lot of doors. I couldn’t think of anyone else brave enough to take him on.
When they’d finally graduated I think half the town sighed in relief.
Now the party swirled around me in a blur of red Solo cups and cheap beer, punctuated by the occasional kiss or swat on the ass from my boyfriend. By two in the morning, I had a good buzz going. I also needed to pee. I hadn’t seen Farell for a while, but that didn’t mean much. I figured he was off smoking pot, which he seemed to think I didn’t know about. Not that I cared—compared to the pain pills my dad popped like candy, pot was nothing. That’s when I saw my old neighbor, Shanda Reed.