Renegade Path

“What if someone mugs you?”

He snorted. “Good luck to them.”

He had a point. I felt sorry for anyone who thought they could take Roman on. All the manual work around the movie theater had added a lot of muscle to his already large frame.

Still, I worried. I ran up to my room and watched him walk down the street until I couldn’t see him anymore.

As soon as he was able to, he always sent me a text.

Home safe.

“Are you still hanging around with that boy after I told you not to?” Uncle Jared’s voice reminded me that in my eagerness to watch Roman walking home, I’d forgotten to close and lock my bedroom door.

I turned and faced my uncle. “Yes. He’s good to me.” I wouldn’t bother explaining that I loved Roman. Or that we were soul mates. Or that after high school we planned to get married. He didn’t deserve to know those things.

He stepped into my room and fear knotted my stomach. He hadn’t been in here in a very long time.

“Where’s Aunt Susan?” I asked, backing up against the window.

The corners of his mouth twitched. “Asleep.” He jerked his head toward the window. “You fucking him?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Like fuck it’s not. I’ve been taking care of you for years. You owe me some damn respect, girl.”

I braced my hand against my nightstand, my fingers brushing against a pair of scissors I’d left there earlier. I curled my hand around them and brought them to my side.

Uncle Jared didn’t miss the movement. He smirked. “What are you gonna do with those?”

I straightened my spine and stared back. “Do you really want to find out?”

That seemed to give him second thoughts.

I’m not a scared little girl you can bully and trick anymore.

Slowly, he backed out the door. As soon as he was gone, I raced over, closed, and locked it. Still not feeling it was enough, I tucked my desk chair under the door handle.

I needed out of this house. Where could I go? I couldn’t confide in Roman. Not about this. I had no doubt he’d go after my uncle if he knew the truth about how he treated me. And I wouldn’t be responsible for Roman getting in trouble.

Mrs. Shields might let me move in with her. But if Aunt Susan made an issue of it, Mrs. Shields might have to go to court and I didn’t know if I could ask her to make that kind of commitment.

My eighteenth birthday had never seemed so far away.

Chapter Thirty

Roman

The summer was ours. Juliet and I worked as many shifts together at the movie theater as possible. Ulfric put me in charge of collecting money at the gate. He said I was scary looking enough that no one would try to sneak in any extra people on my watch. I think it was supposed to be a compliment.

After a few weeks, Juliet was promoted to night manager of the ice cream shop. She had a knack for handling multiple orders with speed, grace, and a sweet smile for every customer.

Once the first movie started and the carloads of people entering slowed, someone else took over at the gate for me. My job was to walk the grounds. Make sure nothing nefarious was happening in one of the drive-in’s many dark corners. When that was finished, I was supposed to help clean up in the ice cream shop.

My favorite part of the night.

Juliet and I raced to get the work done so we could sneak over to the darkest corner of the lot where her car was parked. We’d slip inside and frantically tear off our uniforms, sighing and groaning as we came together.

We fogged those windows up every night. Even left handprints on the back windows. Maybe a footprint on the ceiling of the car.

When we were spent, we’d crawl out of the steamy interior, spread a blanket over the grass, and watch the end of whatever movie was playing second that week. Some nights, Juliet fell asleep in my arms, and I hated when it was time to wake her.

It was almost the perfect fantasy life. Except for the end of the night when we had to go to separate homes.

One night, near the end of the summer, we talked about how we’d change up our shifts once school started back up. After Labor Day, the theater would only be open on the weekends. The ice cream shop was still open every afternoon, so Juliet’s job was safe. I’d have to look for something else though.

“Chris is leaving to go back to college. Maybe you can take his shifts,” she suggested.

“Maybe.” I hated that guy. He’d tried asking Juliet out right in front of me on his first day. Never did it again once I’d made it clear who she belonged to.