Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
“Please be careful,” she whispered.
In that moment, all I could think of was the number of times I’d hurt her. When I left her behind because I thought it was the right thing to do. The only thing I could do.
“Won’t let anything happen to me. Not when I need to be here to end this for you.”
Ending that threat was the only thing that mattered.
Absolutely not the way it felt seeing her with my mother’s ring on her finger, a fool to think that maybe it had belonged there all along.
TWENTY-FOUR
DAISY
SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD
Daisy slipped out her bedroom window and into the night. It was still warm out, summer just giving way to fall.
A buzz ran through her veins as she looked around to make sure she was in the clear before she hurried down the drive to the road. She kept just off to the side of it the way she always did, concealed in the shadows of the trees as she basically skipped the quarter of a mile to the fourth house down the street.
Two stories and white and set back from the road. It might as well have a big neon welcome sign hanging from the rafters with the way the sight of it made her feel.
With the way it made her glow.
She attempted to suck down the butterflies that fluttered frantically in her belly, to school the excitement she was pretty sure was plastered on her face, though she figured that was the way Cash was used to seeing her, anyway.
Smitten, even though he seemed oblivious to it.
Hadley teased her that she was basically a puppy dog following the popular boy around school, but it wasn’t like Daisy was going to stop.
No matter what, he was her best friend.
After their mother died, she thought Hadley would take that spot. Thought they’d come to rely on each other. Take care of each other. But Hadley had lost herself in the grief.
Daisy had barely seen her last year during Hadley’s senior year, her sister sneaking out most nights, not that Daisy hadn’t done the same thing.
But in it, Hadley had spiraled, had moved out the second she turned eighteen and was living with some guy she claimed to be in love with. A guy Daisy was sure was nothing but trouble. Luring her sister into a lurid world that would only cause her harm.
Daisy shoved the sadness off as she tiptoed along the side of Cash’s house. Tucked down the constant worry she had for her sister because as hard as she tried, she didn’t know how to fix it.
Taking in a deep breath, Daisy began to scale what had become her favorite tree.
A whole lot more adept than the first time she did it. Her toes finding all the perfect notches as she climbed up the strong branches that easily lifted her to her destination.
The window was already open wide, and the blue curtains flapped in the breeze.
She came to a crouch in the sill.
Cash was across the room at the closet, facing away, already dressed in jeans and pulling a fresh tee over his head.
Heat spread through her body and crawled up to her cheeks, and she swallowed around the reaction as he turned and found her in the window.
“Hey, you,” he said with a soft smile that tweaked one side of his plush mouth. His hair was damp from a shower and his feet were bare.
Those butterflies in her belly scattered.
Soared to the greatest heights.
“Hi.” It was breathy and light.
“Are you going to come in or sit there staring all night?” It was an easy tease.
“Oh, um, yeah, of course.” She fumbled the rest of the way into his room. Her feet landed with a light thud on the floor, but she doubted it was loud enough to alert anyone to her presence.
“What’s been going on tonight, Little Wallflower?” He plopped down on his bed. Laid out on it casually the way he always did.
Ease in his demeanor and playfulness ridging his obscenely handsome face.
He was kind of ridiculous, how perfect he was.
She chewed at the inside of her cheek, contemplating, before she moved to his bed and tentatively sat down on her spot. She definitely shouldn’t be thinking of it that way, but sometimes she couldn’t help it.
“Not a lot. Ms. Lopez made lasagna, then I studied for a bit.”
He arched a brow. “For our Algebra 2 test? And you needed to study why, Miss Freaking Smarty Pants?”
“Why do you think I have an A in that class? Because I actually study.” Soft laughter came out with it.
Cash narrowed his eyes. “Are you implying something here?”
Her heart pattered.
“Well, you probably could spend a little extra time studying rather than playing football every extra second of your life.” That time it was her turn to arch her brow.