One eyebrow shot up, and a cocky grin danced across his face. “Not as long as you keep askin’ me about it. Better to stand out for something than nothin’ at all.”
I pursed my lips, digging deeper into his hard chest.
“And as for the other stuff, you’ll get through. You’re the toughest girl I know, Augusta Belle.”
“Toughest?” I tried to keep any ounce of desperate hope out of my voice. “You once said I was the saddest girl you’ve ever met. That still true?”
“Truer now than it ever was.” Fallon held a fingertip to my hairline at my temple, a sad grin settling on his lips. “I’d save you if I could.”
“You already have,” I whispered, tears pricking at the backs of my eyelids as I sucked in a breath of the cool night air, praying for at least the thousandth time that something would happen to make my parents see that all the fighting wasn’t just destroying the other, it was destroying me too.
And then Fallon Gentry had shown up.
Sometimes I thought God sent him to be the answer to my prayers.
I didn’t even know if I believed in God, but maybe I should start if it meant more good things like Fallon would start popping up in my life.
“Saving you is the pleasure of my life, Augusta Belle.”
A stubborn trail of salty hope fell down my cheek as I focused on the soft rising and falling of Fallon’s chest.
“Love you, Fallon Gentry. One of these days you’re gonna be a star and leave this town, and I’ll still be sitting here, under this tree, wondering where my white knight went.”
“Enough daydreaming, you’ve got school in the morning. What kinda boyfriend would I be if I didn’t get you to school on time?”
“Boyfriend?” I swallowed the sudden ball of nerves in my throat. “Really?”
“Well…” His fingers stroked the underside of my wrist and sent goose bumps skittering in every direction. “Figure we’ve been actin’ like it…”
“Does that mean I have to wash your laundry or anything?” He shook his head, awkward grin slipping into the familiar crooked one I was used to. “You make me want to skip school.”
“You can’t. If you’re not there, you can’t graduate, which means you can’t move out of that house, which would make you doomed to hell forever.”
I huffed, hating how right he always was. “What kinda girl would I be anyway if I accepted an offer from the first guy who came along, one who didn’t even know my birthday?” I countered.
“Fine.” His fingers threaded through mine, cementing our physical connection. “Does this mean you’re finally going to tell me how old you are?”
I pressed my teeth into my bottom lip, eyes glinting as our gazes held. “July nineteenth.”
His face turned into a scowl. “You know, in a few keystrokes I could find out everything you never wanted me to know.”
“But you won’t.” My breaths began to match his, eyelids growing heavier with each passing moment.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because,” I yawned. “You like me too much to piss me off. And where’s the fun in me telling you everything anyway?”
“I swear, Augusta Belle…”
SIX
Fallon
“I swear, Augusta Belle, if you don’t make me madder than a goddamn hatter.” I stomped across the parking lot, hand pushing through my hair and dead set on the last swallows of a nearly dry bottle of Jack that I knew was kicking around the back of my truck.
“Agh! That’s not even what that means!” she screamed. “You mean—”
I spun, retracing my bootsteps and catching her chin between my fingers before she could finish her sentence. “You lost the right to tell me what I meanten years ago.”
