Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
I lean in and sneer, “Apologize.”
He glances at something over his shoulder and then smiles at me.
“You lost …”
I narrow my eyes.
Lost what? What is he going on about?
“And I’m not fucking sorry.”
The grin that follows makes me want to beat his ass. When he attempts to walk past me, I grab his arm and squeeze, but my eyes immediately find the same eyes he was staring at just a second ago.
Aspen Caruso, sitting on the grass, staring right back at me.
And something about those goddamn eyes makes me feeble. Weak.
“Not to me.”
“What?” he retorts.
“Apologize to her,” I grit. “For walking away.”
He scoffs but then says, “Sorry I left her with her friends. She’s fine. She can take care of herself.” His blue eyes bore into my head like a stray bullet. “She doesn’t need you looking after her.”
I throw him a murderous glare. “You offend her or her friends again, and I’m going to pull that tongue out of your throat and wrap it around your neck. Do you understand?”
He smiles like a maniac. “Yes. Totally.”
Is he taking that … as a challenge?
Whatever.
I release him from my grip and shove him away. He straightens his jacket, then waltzes off all annoyed. But my gaze remains fixated on hers, until finally she averts her eyes again.
That’s it, Aspen.
Know that I will always be watching you.
Even when you want to curse me, even if you want to throw me off a cliff.
I will always look at you …
The way you once looked at me.
Years ago
I run around the table trying to catch her, but she’s much faster than I anticipated.
“C’mon, Aspen, you gotta give me something,” I say.
“No! Catch me if you can doesn’t mean I help you!” She sticks out her tongue and keeps running through the living room and the kitchen, darting from left to right, across the furniture.
She’s so quick I can barely catch up, and she nearly knocks over her own mom.
“Jesus, watch it,” her mom says.
“Sorry!” she squeals, before darting off again.
I chase her through the back door and into their lavish backyard, which stretches out for miles into a forest. That’s where we always end up playing until the sun sets and the moon begins to rise. I love seeing the darkness settle in the sky because the whole place gets incredibly spooky. A perfect place to scare a girl who’s got it in her head that she can always evade me.
“Come chase me then!” Aspen yells through the woods, and I follow the sound of her voice.
Her giggles fill the air like a bird’s song, and I grin at the thought of finally getting my hands on her and making her pay for stealing my earbuds just so she could listen to the songs I have on my phone.
“Ooh, I like this one,” she mutters.
“I’m gonna turn off my phone soon if you don’t come out,” I growl back.
“That’s cheating!” she shouts.
“Who’s laughing now?” I retort, throwing in a menacing cackle for good measure.
I make my way through the forest, skimming past all the trees, searching behind each rock and around each creek until I finally find her sneaking a peek from behind a tree.
My eyes widen as do hers, and I race after her through the woods, into a clearing, where I finally grab her legs and fall to the ground with her.
“Gotcha!”
“Not fair!”
I crawl on top of her and grip her wrists, pinning them above her head. Suddenly, she’s gone all quiet and stuff, which is so unlike her. She normally talks so much that it nearly makes me want to tear my ears off my head.
“What do you mean not fair?” I retort.
Her breaths are short, and her entire skin begins to turn red.
Is she getting an allergic reaction to something? Or did she hurt herself?
“You’re …” she says, all flustered. “Cheating.”
“I don’t cheat.” I scoff. “I caught you. Fair and square.”
“You wanted to turn off the phone. Did you use it to locate me?”
“No.” I frown. “Remember, I always know how to find you.”
“How?” she asks.
“Because you’re like a firefly in the night. I can’t take my eyes off you until I find you.”
She sucks in her red lips as I rake my fingers through her brown hair. I take out the twig that was stuck in her hair and hold it in front of me, but only when I throw it away do I realize she’s been staring at me this entire time.
But we do these games all the time. I don’t get why she’d suddenly be scared of me.
“A firefly with brown hair,” I murmur, then laugh.
“What?” Suddenly, she begins fighting back. “I swear to God, Levi, you’d better not be insulting my hair. I’m so going to light your goddamn ass on fire.”
I grin as I release her from my grip. “I’d love to see you try.” I crawl off her and get up. “If you can catch me.”