This is a disaster.
A complete and total nuclear meltdown.
Tristan sighs, removing his hat and tossing it back. “Can you hand me the Kit Kat?”
My jaw drops. “How can you think about food?”
He glances over. “Because I’m hungry.”
“You’re not worried about us being caught?”
His fingers slide through his thick hair. “Nope. We weren’t caught. You’re freaking out for nothing. It’s not a big deal.”
“Easy for you to say when you’re not the one who is going to have to deal with my family!”
“You’re not, either, because no one saw us.”
“You don’t get it. If she saw us, and if she tells my mother, there will be no going back. My family will kill me. Maybe not literally, but I’ll be shunned. They’ll never forgive me. They’ll never understand, and…this is…”
Tristan reaches over, taking my hand. “A moot point, Lark. Just relax, and we’ll deal with it if it comes to that, okay?”
Deal with it how? He and I are never going to be together. What’s he going to do? Deny us being together? Well, if someone saw us, a lot of good that’ll do. I’ll be on my own dealing with it.
I look out the window, feeling the pain of a hundred possibilities slice through me. I could walk away now, leave him behind and never see him again. That might be the best idea, but the one that will hurt the most. I refuse to do it. Not yet. Not after what we’ve shared.
Another option is to lie to everyone.
I turn my gaze back to Tristan, to his strong jawline, beautiful face, and perfect nose. His warm eyes meet mine.
That’s the only option for me, if word gets out. To lie, keep him as long as I can, and pray we are never caught, so I don’t have to give him up.
“Okay,” I say, and rest my head on his arm, holding the tears at bay.
“Can you go in the other aisle and grab snack options for Carter? I need to get some produce, and I saw Claribel bringing in her bushels,” Momma says.
Claribel is my mother’s favorite produce vendor. She definitely won’t want to miss getting first dibs.
“Sure thing.”
The last two days have passed by without incident. When I first got back, I literally felt like I was on the edge of a cliff. Each time the phone rang, I worried it was Mrs. Canta, calling to tellmy mother she saw me kissing some guy, and that guy happened to be a Stone.
I didn’t realize just how much it was making me sick until this morning, when she did call.
I answered, and she was her normal, talkative, and inquisitive self, but she didn’t say a word about Tristan or ask if I was in Utah when she was.
The breath of relief I let out was probably heard across town.
We weren’t caught.
Now my whole family’s in preparation mode for Carter to come for a visit. Which is a whole other type of stress.
I’m in the grocery store’s snack aisle, looking foroptions, not having a clue what the hell he likes. What does someone who hates everything, thinks this town is dumb, and believes he’s smarter than all of us put together eat?
“Stay away from my niece,” I hear a feminine voice, cold as ice, say from beside me.
I glance up, confused at who the hell could be saying some stupid shit to me, and then I see who. Well, there goes my day. “Hello, Fallon. I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, fuck right off, Lark. Stay away from Sadie.”
