Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
I stop at Serena Oliver’s classroom to make sure she’s taken care of sending out the details of the field trip tomorrow, but the room is dark. Santiago empties her garbage can into his cart, tipping his chin at me.
Did she leave already?
I guess I’ll see her tomorrow. I don’t really want to see the caverns—again. Some babysitter took us when we were kids and Macon was off in the Marines.
But I would love to not be accessible to Callum for twenty-four hours.
I sigh and head back to my classroom, the irony not escaping me. I’m thinking about him in order to work out ways for him to think about me.
Stepping into my room, I spot Anna-Katherine sitting on the window ledge, playing with…
I peer closer, resisting turning on the lights, because she likes the candles. She twists a blade in her hand, touching the tip with her other finger.
Is that the pocketknife I gave her? I’d forgotten about it.
She must sense me, because she looks over, perking up.
I walk to my desk.
“Do you want this back?” she asks.
I open a drawer and remove my phone from the charger. “Do you want it?” I ask.
She seems enamored, and hey, I’m not against her having a weapon on her. Not at all.
Right away, she nods. “Peter Pan had a blade.”
Turning my ringer back on, I swipe for notifications. “Thieves, spies, assassins, ninjas…” I chime in.
“Pirates,” she adds.
Students aren’t allowed to carry anything dangerous on campus, but a pocketknife is a tool. And she’s not a student.
I don’t know how often her “episodes” happen or what she might do with a knife, but I don’t think I want to take it away from her. The world has taken enough.
“You seem even happier than usual,” I tease.
“Did you see Milo Price leave earlier?” she asks, studying the blade in front of her face. “Looked like his hands were broken.”
Milo Price? The muscles in my neck tense. Callum had him here?
But then the second part of what she said registers. His hands were broken?
“He hurts girls with his hands, you know?” she whispers.
I would’ve known if the police were here, which means they weren’t.
“My brother is so cool,” she coos, smiling at the blade.
Callum attacked him? Hm, looks like he has some balls, after all. Giving himself enemies on two fronts is stupid, though.
Anna-Katherine inhales a big breath and jumps off the ledge. “He says you’re supposed to give me a ride.”
She picks up her backpack and water bottle.
I tilt my head. “I am?”
Asshole knew better than to ask me, at least.
She takes my hand, tugging. “Come on.” I grab my car keys and slide my phone into my pocket. “Hurricane’s coming, didn’t you hear? He had to go tee off one more time, and the lady bartender at Fox Hill makes me the best virgin banana daiquiris.”
I follow her, confused, though. She knows the Wolfe Room is at Fox Hill Country Club. Perhaps she separates them in her head. Or maybe she forgot.
In no time, we’re coasting through the town, toward the golf course. She lays her head out the window, letting out all of my air conditioning, but I can’t help smiling. Her eyes are closed, her hair blows out of her ponytail, and it’s been ages since I did that. In fact, I can’t remember ever doing that. Maybe I just saw Trace doing it when we were growing up.
“Did you have fun with the girls yesterday?” I ask her.
“Uh-huh.” She pops her head up. “They made me laugh.”
Good. Not that I was worried when I came home and she asked if she could have the day off to go paint shopping with Liv, Clay, and Krisjen.
I thought maybe she’d feel out of place, though. Only rarely do I get glimpses of the woman she’s buried within herself, so I wondered if she’d related to the conversation.
“I wish you all lived here.” She lays her head back down. “I wish we lived there.”
“Do you have friends in St. Carmen?” I ask. “Or are they all at college?”
I know the answer without asking. Any friends she had, she lost. Another level to the suffering that wasn’t her fault. I just don’t want to think that she has no one.
But she smiles to herself. “I have you,” she states. “And Callum.”
As if we’re a team. A family.
I’ll grant her that, though. When it comes to her, I’ll be on his side, now that I know what he does to the people closest to him who hurt her. I can’t wait to see what happens to his father.
When I glance back over at her, her eyes are open, gazing at me.
I cruise up the drive to the country club. “What?”
“You have a nice family,” she tells me. “I wish Callum and I had that.”
“You have each other.”