Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 150878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 754(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 503(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 150878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 754(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 503(@300wpm)
“Will we, Tuck?”
“I promised you I’d keep you safe, didn’t I?”
I felt the ghost of a smile hover over my mouth. “Yeah, but even you can’t protect me from everything.”
My words blended together. I couldn’t feel my lips anymore. And the last thing I heard before I drifted off to sleep was, “Watch me.”
Day Nine
I’d woken tangled with Tuck, his breath soft against my temple, and something decidedly hard against my belly. My body had come instantly awake even if my mind was still half-asleep. I’d felt Tuck stir, and I’d known the moment he realized the situation, scooting out of bed so quickly he’d practically fallen off the side. I’d felt momentarily offended, and definitely frustrated, and pretended to keep sleeping until he’d shaken me “awake,” saying we needed to get on the road.
We left the Pritchards before the sun had fully risen, our breath pluming in the chilly morning air. I looked back only once, trying to memorize the place where, for a moment in time, I’d felt safe and welcomed. And I said a silent prayer that their family would be okay.
Around midday, Tuck scored us a bag of almonds from an abandoned car, and we counted them out by the side of the road, Tuck pouring my half into my open palm. I popped one in my mouth, moaning as I chewed. Tuck’s eyes lowered slightly and then he looked away. He’d been quiet for much of the day so far, and perhaps a little tense. It was fine. I had a lot on my mind too, and I lost myself in the music in my head, melodies and lyrics flowing through me like a waterfall. Part of me wished I had something—anything—to write them down on, but another part knew that I wouldn’t forget. These weren’t fleeting notes that I was trying desperately to catch. These songs were already deeply ingrained as if they’d existed inside me all along, and it’d only taken a worldwide catastrophe and a multistate walk to jar them loose.
Plus, the slight hangover I had didn’t exactly make me feel chatty. As much as taking the edge off my current circumstances had felt good in the moment, I decided I wasn’t going to drink my way through this.
We finished the almonds and drank some water and started walking again. Hours later, the sun drifting low, Tuck stopped and held the map up, swearing softly.
“Please don’t tell me we’re lost,” I said, looking around. We’d walked through a small town earlier and then into a park that had dog-walking paths and bike trails. But it seemed that we’d suddenly found ourselves in a stretch of woods that I’d hoped would let out onto a main road, but as of yet, had not. I put my hand on my forehead. “Oh my God, you got us lost.”
Tuck turned toward me, jaw tight. “Emily, do you want to lead the way? Maybe you could do a better job.”
“Maybe I could,” I bit back. I was hungry and thirsty, and I just wanted to lie down in a cozy bed again and instead I was tromping through some muddy woods. And I’d woken up pressed against Tuck and wanting him to kiss me so badly I still ached with it. And he hadn’t spared me more than a few words over the course of an entire day. And to add insult to injury, now he’d gotten us lost. Wonderful.
He turned, focusing his full attention on me. “Yes, you probably could,” he said. “Hell, if you don’t need me anymore, then maybe we should part ways.”
“It’s probably for the best,” I shot back, even if the very idea of parting from Tuck practically turned my insides to water. We came together, the heat of our sudden fight drawing me, and seeming to do the same to him.
He turned his head slightly, shutting one eye as though in consideration. “Then again, you have something I want and so I’m not going to let you go quite yet.”
Our breath mingled, bodies so close I could feel his heat. I wanted to be tangled with him again. I wanted to feel his hardness pressed against my stomach. And I wanted him to want me with the same white-hot intensity.
“I do?” I asked breathily.
He brought his face close to mine and then leaned toward my ear. “I want that almond you saved in your pocket.” He drew back and then his face blossomed in a grin, and though I was hyped up on anger and sexual frustration, I couldn’t help bursting out in laughter.
I pushed him away and dug the almond from my pocket. “Never,” I said, beginning to bring it to my mouth, my tongue extended. But he caught my wrist, and I let out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a scream as he spun me around, fake fighting for the singular almond.