Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 45210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Surprise registers on her face, but she nods. “Thanks, Kanan.”
I keep walking and stumble when she says the next words. ”Elias asked me to go to the drive-in in Jasper with him tonight.”
I knew it was happening. Hell, I put him up to it, but it still hurts. And why the fuck did he pick the drive-in? I obviously didn’t think this through. Of course Elias would take her somewhere where they would be secluded. “Oh yeah?” I answer her, trying to act uninterested.
She reaches for my arm, and we both stop. “It’s just a movie, but I told him I wanted to ask you what you thought first.”
I bite my tongue until I’m sure it’s bleeding.
“Kanan, what do you think?”
Through gritted teeth, I tell her, “You should go. You haven’t had a night out since you got here.”
Her eyes widen and darken in pain. “You want me to go out with him?”
I nod. “Yeah, sure. Elias is a great guy.” And I’ll fuckin’ kill him if he touches you, I say to myself.
This time, she’s the one that starts walking away. “Okay, I’ll be out late tonight then, but I’ll be sure to be quiet when I get home so I don’t wake you.”
I jog to catch up with her. “You have to work early in the morning.”
There’s anger in her voice. “I won’t be late.”
“You’ll call me if you need anything.”
She picks up her pace. “I get it, Kanan. I’m not dumb.”
“You get what?” I ask her.
She comes to a stop and glares at me. “I know you think I’m too young to understand, but I get it. Somewhere between last night and this morning, you decided you’re done with me, and you’re pawning me off on your friend.”
I reach for her, and she jerks away. I move to block her path. “It’s not like that.”
Her laugh is filled with anger. “Yeah, right. Whatever. You could have just let me go, Kanan. You could have just told me it was time for me to move on. You didn’t have to get your friend to ask me out. I’ll start looking for a place to live, Kanan. Then you won’t have to deal with me anymore.”
She pushes me to the side and starts jogging away.
I not only hurt her, I fuckin’ demolished her. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I fucked up. And this time, I don’t know if I’ll ever come back from it.
CHAPTER 18
EMERSON
After work, I get ready for my date with Elias. I take extra time to look my best mostly because I need a pick-me-up. It’s been a shitty day. I went out of my way to avoid Kanan, even working with crews I’ve never worked on before. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t completely get away from him. He kept popping up, giving me bottles of water, electrolyte tabs, and then even showing up at the garden at lunchtime to make sure I was eating.
It’s like everywhere I turned, he was there. It makes it really hard to be mad at him when he is going out of his way to be nice to me.
Last night and this morning is all a big jumble to me, and it’s very confusing. I probably shouldn’t be even going out tonight, I should be looking for a place to live, but I already told Elias I would go with him, and I refuse to back out. If Kanan wants to play games, I’ll play them.
Kanan had some kind of meeting, and I make sure to leave the cabin before he gets home. I’m pacing around the parking lot when Elias comes walking from the path I just came from. “Hey,” he says.
I nod my head and cross my arms over my chest. “So what did he have to do to get you to ask me out? This whole thing is embarrassing, and if you’d rather not go, I’m fine with it.”
It all comes out in a ramble, and I have no doubt my face is red from embarrassment. He has to think I’m so hard up that his friend had to ask him to take me off his hands.
Elias has his head turned to the side, but I’m used to it. He talks like this to most people. He thinks his scars are worse than they are. I swear I don’t even notice them anymore. He stops in front of me. “My friend is a dumbass.”
I’m shaking my head, about to defend Kanan, when I stop myself. He literally asked his friend to ask me out… so yeah, he’s a dumbass.
“Anyway, I think we should go out. I’ll be happy to teach him a lesson.”
I put my hands on my hips. “What kind of lesson?”
He holds his arm out, and instead of answering me, he asks, “You game?”