“Okay, tell me about the version of her you’ve gotten to know,” I say. Maybe that will help me see her the way he sees her.
“Well… she likes horses and listens to country music.” He’s forgotten about the pizza box andis now staring off toward my closet with heart eyes. It makes me feel like a jerk for not catching how into this girl he already is. “She moved here with her grandparents, and she’s really sweet with dogs.” He blushes and I chuckle.
“Youhavealways been a sucker for an animal lover.”
“So, what is it then?” he asks.
“If you like being around girls like her, sometimes I worry you don’t know me very well,” I answer.
“Try me.”
“Do you know why I called you tonight?” I ask.
He paws his slice of pizza around his plate as he thinks on it. “Because your dad didn’t come home again?”
“Close. He came home for ten minutes, packed his camping supplies, and took off for the weekend.”
He frowns at me. The genuine kind that makes me regret ever questioning if he knew me. “I’m sorry, Hayes.”
I shake my head, willing the waterworks back where they belong.
“It’s fine. He has to go back to his stupid job on Monday anyway.”
Dean’s eyebrows crinkle.
“What?” I pry.
He bites his cheek. “I mean, I wouldn’t call it stupid.”
I huff. “He has a teenager without a mother, Dean, and a job that takes him away from me for weeks at a time.”
“Maybe he really loves it,” he says with a shrug.
“Exactly! More than me. Are you really defending him?”
Dean’s always the first one to comfort me when it comes to my dad. But then sometimes he’ll say things like that, and it makes me feel like an overreacting brat.
He squeezes my knee. “No, I’m sorry. I think he should be around more on his time off. There’s no excuse for that. But I also think his job is pretty great, ya know?”
I don’t love the look in Dean’s eyes as he says it. Like he’s daydreaming about what it would be like to be him.
I know he’s not wrong. I’m proud thathis job is fighting forest fires—he’s a hero in a lot of people’s eyes. I can’t dispute that fact no matter how hard I try.
“Just promise me we’ll always have each other,” I beg him. “That nothing will come between our friendship?”
He rolls onto his side so he can look at me. Then he sticks out his pinky for me to latch on to. I twist them together and squeeze tight.
“I promise,” he says.
Present Day
I toss and turn alone in my empty room. I don’t know if it’s the reality of being back here sinking in or the fact that it’s below freezing in this ice box. I found an extra quilt in the storage cabinet I’m supposed to call a closet, but between the cement floors and the massive air vent beneath the bed, I couldn’t get warm.
I pull on a pair of workout shorts and a sports bra, hoping a sunrise hike will help. A little blood flow to warm these numb extremities and clear my head.
I take the long hallway past Reed’s room. The temptation to invite him worms its way from my subconscious. The place where I’ve fought to keep my thoughts of him until now.
The warmth of his skin as I took care of him, the heat in his eyes as he watched me. Reed Morgan ignited a fire within me that’s proving hard to put out.
