The playful wink he throws me over his shoulder has heat flaring across my chest and up my throat. I bolt down the side of the trailer to the truck, hoping like hell he didn’t notice me blushing like a teenager. Fuck, he’d be unbearable if he did.
And I’m already too close to losing my mind as it is.
22
ROWE
October 30th
Dear Rowe,
I kept a copy of the picture, don’t worry. At the risk of sounding like a total sucker, I used to carry it around with me. I’ve stayed a few nights in the bunkhouse, and Otis has given me my own space for when I’m not feeling up to going home. I keep the picture tacked up on the wall.
Whatever happened wasn’t bad enough for you to get hurt, right? I didn’t hear anything from your parents, but I don’t know how anything works in prison. Maybe they don’t contact family over small injuries. Still, can you just let me know you really are okay?
I told Ash that you’ve been making plans and he told me to demand you write him back instead. Have you notbeen sending him letters? If you want, you can just write two and put them into the same envelope and I can give him his that way.
It’s Halloween tomorrow. Maybe you already know that . . . I don’t know how the days work in there. Do you remember when the five of us dressed up like the Scooby gang? Those were the days.
I miss you, Rowe. We all do. Try not to get into any more fights. Our letters are the only things keeping me going right now, and I don’t want to go so long without them again.
Tilly x
It would bea bad idea to put my hand on her thigh.
I debate doing it anyway. It’s fucking impossible not to think about it when she’s sitting in the passenger seat of my truck with those tight jeans wrapped around a thigh that won’t stop bouncing. She’s been fidgeting since we left the motel, and it hasn’t helped my insistent need to do the same.
Before I went away, I didn’t know what I felt when it came to her. We were the same age, but she was completely off limits. My friendship with her brother was too strong to consider ruining over chasing a girl who would have eaten me alive.
Things began to really change when I was in prison, and they’re still evolving now. It’s worse with her here now than it ever was when I was locked up, waiting for one of her lettersto arrive. She’s a grown-ass fucking woman, and I’m not the same kid who didn’t know where to draw the line between protectiveness and desire.
I knew she’d be the type of woman to make a man bow at her feet and beg for attention, but I was too fucking blind to see that I was staring at my own future.
“Is that a lake?” she asks, twisting to get closer to the window. “A midnight swim would be fun.”
Leaning forward, I look past her head at the dark water up ahead. The moonlight isn’t nearly bright enough to illuminate the area. My truck’s headlights flare out across the highway and into the ditch, but I can’t be completely sure if there’s a turnoff to get where she’s talking about without getting closer.
“It looks like water.”
“Pull off. I want to see.”
“If there’s no real entrance, it’s probably for a reason. You’ll get leeches stuck to your feet if you go in that water.”
“Don’t be such a worrywart. Come on. It wouldn’t be the first time we had to burn leeches off each other.”
I’ve flicked the blinker on and pressed the brake without realizing it. Tilly claps, returning her gaze out the window. What she spotted is definitely a lake, but I’m not sure the true size or state of it. With the colour of the water, I don’t think it’s dirty, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe. Especially not at night where I can’t get a good look.
“You’re not still scared of them, then?” I ask, then swallow to clear the gruffness from my voice.
“I haven’t been since I was sixteen. And nobody could blame me for not liking them back then! Ash threw one at me, and it stuck to my shoulder.”
“Oh, I remember. You screamed until you were blue in the face.”
“And then you tried to burn it off but ended up melting the strap of my favourite bathing suit instead.”
“Don’t put that on me. You were wiggling like a fucking snake in the grass,” I grunt, pulling carefully onto a narrow dirt road.
“Well, yeah. I just hit puberty, and you were touching my bare back with your sweaty, grubby hands.”
