“I know, I just can’t stay in here. I need to walk around.”
I looked at him closer. He didn’t look good. Despite just walking in from the cold, he had a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead and upper lip. “Are you okay?”
“Maybe not to the park, then. We could go walk around the track at school.”
“Donnie, they don’t let people use the track during school hours.”
“Oh yeah. Of course.” He looked around as if worried that someone was about to sneak up on him. “Anywhere. You pick.”
“The park’s fine. Let me just get a coat. I’ll get you one too. Jed has an extra one.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“You have a T-shirt on, and the trees are covered in ice. You’re not even wearing a jacket.”
“Fine. Fine.”
He didn’t say anything on the short drive to the park. I had never seen him like this. His handsome face was always smooth and uncreased with worry. The only wrinkles he was beginning to show in the slightest were laugh lines around his mouth and eyes.
When he parked by the rock wall, he started getting out of the truck before he had the keys all the way out ofthe ignition. He caught his finger in the keychain as the key didn’t pull all the way out. “Fuck!”
“Whoa! Donnie! Now I know something’s for sure wrong. You never cuss.” Not even as a teenager had Donnie used bad language. In fact, I had never heard any of the Durkes utter a foul word.
Donnie’s face flushed, seemingly embarrassed by his slip. “Sorry.” He managed to get the keys out, and he shut the door. His cursing seemed to have shocked him into slowing down, and he looked at me guiltily as he walked toward me. “Come on.”
“I don’t care if you cuss. I was just teasing.”
“I know.” He walked through the park’s gate. I had to rush but splayed my arms out for better balance, worried about slipping on the ice.
Unconcerned by the slickness, Donnie made it to the bandstand before he turned around and waited for me to catch up. The sight of me running daintily on the ice made him laugh in spite of himself. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get gayer!”
“Shut up. You’re the one dragging me out in weather too cold for penguins.”
“It’ll just give you an excuse to have tea with Maudra and gossip when you get back.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Glad to know whatever is going on isn’t serious enough to make you not be a smartass.”
I instantly regretted my words as his smile fell and his brow creased again. “Come on. Let’s go to the playground.”
I looked at him in exasperation.
“Come on,” he repeated.
By the time we made it up the steep hill to the playground, I’d fallen twice and my jeans were wet. “There is no one else in the world I would do this for.”
I was expecting a smart retort, but he just looked at me. “I know. Thank you.”
“All right. Out with it. What’s going on? You’ve got me completely freaked out.”
“I don’t want you to think less of me, Brooklyn. There will be enough of that. I can’t stand it if I let you down too.”
His words caused my blood pressure to elevate, and I looked at him warily. “Did you kill someone?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Get serious.”
“What? You’re freaking me out here. What am I supposed to think?”
He sat on one of the swings without wiping the snow off. After using my coat sleeve to clear it off, I sat on the one next to him. “Donnie, whatever it is, even if you did kill someone, actually, there’s nothing you can say that will change how I see you. You’re the best person I’ve ever met. Tied with Jed, even.”
