“I couldn’t find anything,” he calls out as he climbs off the bike and idles towards me. “I think maybe you saw a raccoon or something.”
I hesitate, trying to picture the animal I’d seen.
“It seemed too small to be a raccoon,” I offer.
“Maybe it was a baby,” he suggests.
Or maybe I’ve gone nuts and it wasn’t anything at all. But of course, I don’t say that.
“Thank you for looking,” I finally say, my gaze dropping to his feet. His boots are covered in dew and tiny bits of leaves. He really did trek out into the mountain to look.
“Want to go get your groceries now?”
I nod reluctantly, for some reason dreading the idea of driving down the mountain again.
Dare looks at me. “Want me to drive you?”
My head snaps up. “You want to come?”
He grins. “I need some shampoo. I’ll be happy to drive if you want.”
“Weren’t you wanting to read or something?”
He rolls his eyes. “I read at night when I’m trying to go to sleep. I’m perfectly free at the moment. In fact, I’ll be free tonight, too.”
The mere thought of Dare in his bed, sprawled out, naked, his muscles gleaming in the moonlight, it spreads heat to my cheeks and I yank my eyes back up to his, focusing on reality, not on Dare in his bed.
He grins. Dare me.
“Perhaps we should focus on the now,” he suggests lightly, as if he knows that he was just undressed in my mind. I internally combust, then nod.
“Yeah. I’d better get some groceries.”
I toss him my keys and we drive down the mountain.
We.
Dare and me.
It’s an exhilarating thought, and one that for the moment, distracts me from sadness.
That’s a miracle in itself.
10
DECEM
Finn
You’reAMiserableMiseraleMiserableExcuse, the voices hiss and I clench my teeth and draw around them, drawing faces and then scratching them out every time a voice says something. Before long, the page is covered in scribble.
Calla’s gone and I don’t know where she is, and for the first time in weeks, I’m alone.
I don’t like it.
I don’t like it.
A motor roars through the yard and I go to the window, looking down. The new guy stands on the edge of the grass. Calla stares up at him, her hand so close to the guy’s chest.