Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Van?” Remi mumbles, confused. But I don’t look over my shoulder. I just keep walking. “Sullivan!” She sounds more urgent now. Not mad, but louder. “Where do you think you’re going?” I can’t look back. I just can’t. I have to get out of here and save her from making any further bad decisions that involve me. I hit the sidewalk and make an abrupt turn. “Van!” Remi calls again, her voice echoing through the rain-soaked night. “Come back! It’s horrible out! Let me drive you!” I keep going. “There’s lightning, Van! You could get killed!”
I have this horrible image of her coming after me and trying to make things better for me, offering more of her kindness that I want so badly to accept, so I break into a run. I don’t want her to catch up with me. I don’t want her to have to get in her car and come out into the night to find me. I don’t want her to be nice to me. I’ve already made a mess of things as it is, and I don’t need to give Kimmy another reason to hate and mistrust me. I came back to try and make things right with my family, and this isn’t the way to do it. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Eventually, Remi’s voice fades into the night, blocks behind me. I take a few turns down other streets, just in case, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t come out after me. The rain comes down harder and colder, driving into me as the wind picks up. Great. I only have twelve or so more miles to go like this. I shouldn’t have kissed Remi. If I hadn’t done that, maybe I could have accepted a ride. If I hadn’t sprinted out of there like a frantic teenager, maybe I still could have accepted a ride after offering her a sincere apology. It’s what I wanted, but when I realized she wasn’t coming after me, I felt strangely hollow. Like everyone else, she’s probably given me up as a lost cause.
CHAPTER 8
Remi
If Van thinks I’ve given him up as a lost cause, he’s dead freaking wrong with sugar on top.
I show up the next afternoon at Nanny’s because I have flower beds to plant. I made a promise, and I’m not going back on it. Alright, so it’s obviously not just about the flowers. Van kissed me last night. It might have been just a teeth clash, and then after that, the softest brush of his lips against mine, the taste of rainwater, night air, salt, and man overwhelming me as he opened his mouth to me, but then he was gone. And I want…more. Obviously. I’ve only spent…umm…a pathetically long time hoping for a kiss like that. Even if I shouldn’t have, I did. Even though I shouldn’t hope now, I do. I know Kimmy said she would approve of any methods I used to get information, but I know that deep down, in her heart of best friend’s heart, she would never want me to cross any lines with Van. She doesn’t want either of us to get hurt, and things are already complicated.
The kiss wasn’t the only reason I showed up at Nanny’s. Van had no idea what it meant to me. To him, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing that he immediately regretted and was clearly embarrassed by. He freaking ran from me—straight out into the night. I circled the block, the adjacent blocks, and then the neighborhood for an hour trying to find him, but it was raining hard, and he’d obviously taken a different route back home so that if I tried to follow him out there like a fool in my car, I wouldn’t be able to locate him. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts, memories, and the horrible storm, and I had to let him.
But it doesn’t mean I’ll let him get away with it today.
No, he owes me a rototilling and some yard work. He also owes me an explanation, and if not that, then he owes me something. Okay, okay, so maybe I just want to make sure he’s okay. I don’t really think he owes me anything. He already gave me my life’s desire with that kiss.
Wait, hold up, let’s not get pathetic here.
“Hey, Nanny.” As usual, she lets me into the house before I can knock on the door, and she pushes an ice-cold glass of lemonade into my hands before I can ask for something to drink. She’s rocking a bright green wig that she’s tied back with a huge, bright pink bow at the back of her head, a leopard print mini dress, and hot pink spandex leggings underneath. She doesn’t go a day without spandex. Honestly, she should be an influencer. I’d definitely go out and buy them after seeing how she styles them.