“Fine… Let’s run.”
“Cool—”
“On one condition.”
“Boo.” I gave her a thumbs down.
“Hey!” She stood abruptly. “You haven’t even heard my condition!”
“Okay, fine. You have five seconds.”
“Patient, aren’t you?”
“One…”
“Fine!” Kiersten grabbed a piece of paper from the desk and thrust it in my face.
I was just about to say two when the paper landed on my lap. With a sigh I picked it up and started to read.
Ways to live, I read.
My heart clenched in my chest. Did she know about me?
1. Kiss a hot guy. 2. Go skinny dipping. 3. Finish one fruity drink with the little umbrella. 4. Read Pride and Prejudice all the way through. 5. Learn how to swim. I paused. “You don’t know how to swim?”
Kiersten’s eyes flickered to the ground so I kept reading.
6. Make two real friends. 7. Get off my antidepressants. So I’d been right about one thing. She was depressed, but why? What girl, as perfect as Kiersten, would be depressed?
8. Go bungee jumping. 9. Eat cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and try to eat a beet. 10. Fall in love. 11. Get heart broken. 12. Fall in love anyway. I could help her! Oh, not with all of them. I mean, she couldn’t fall in love with me. I wouldn’t let her. It wouldn’t be fair to either of us, and she was eighteen. I sighed and folded the paper back in half.
“So?” She twisted that glorious red hair around her fingers. “What do you think?”
“Let’s do it.”
Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. Before I knew what was happening, she’d charged toward me and wrapped her arms around my neck. Um, if that was the response I was going to get for helping her with a silly list, I was going to freaking buy her her own island before I… The thought died in my head. Ironic.
“You mean it? It’s not weird? I’m not weird?”
I kissed her cheek. “Not weird, and I did tell you I wanted to help you with all things crazy, right?”
She nodded. A piece of lush red hair fell across her face meeting her flushed cheek like a caress.
“Good.” I kissed her cheek again. Mainly because I could. “I say we can get most of this done before Thanksgiving.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely.” I helped her stand. “You know… minus the whole falling in love part.”
Kiersten laughed. Damn, I loved that sound. “Right, well, I figured go big or go home.”
“My kinda girl.” With a wink, I put the paper back on her desk. “Now put on a shirt so guys don’t lust after you. We, my dear, are going for a run.”
Chapter Sixteen
At least running next to him meant I wasn’t running from him, that was progress… right?
Kiersten