Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths as he shook his head. “Your mom didn’t choose to leave you. She’d still be here fighting if she could. And not everyone’s that lucky. Maybe you should think about that before you go around treating everyone like dog crap.”
I kept my voice low and firm. “Ramsey, what happened?”
He cocked his head to the side and stared at me. “What do you care, Thea?”
My stomach twisted.
I hated that he thought I didn’t care.
I hated that up, until that moment, I had thought I didn’t care.
But it was Ramsey. How could I not?
“Because we’re friends,” I whispered.
He scoffed, but I didn’t take it to heart. I deserved that.
I inched closer until the foot of my crutch was almost touching his shoe. “I’m sorry, okay? You’re right. I wasn’t thinking. I had a bad night and… Well, you’re always there when I need you. And I think tonight you might need me.”
“I don’t need you,” he told the ground.
I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or not. But after everything he’d done for me, even when I hadn’t wanted him to, I owed Ramsey something huge. However, when you’re ten, options for payback are limited. So, dropping one crutch and balancing on my good foot, I gave him the only thing I had. The one thing I’d truly needed over the last few months.
His tall, lanky frame went solid as I wrapped my arms around his waist and pinned his arms to his sides.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Hugging you,” I mumbled into his chest.
“Yeah, I got that. But why?”
“Because you won’t tell me what’s going on, so I’m just doing it and hoping it will help.”
He squirmed in my grip. “Let me go.”
“Nope.”
“Thea, I’m serious.”
“I am too. You need a hug. I’m giving you a hug. Just accept it.”
He blew out a ragged breath, but after a second, his body sagged. “You would have punched me in the balls if I hugged you tonight.”
“Probably.”
“Any chance you’ll let go if I tell you what happened?”
What I wanted to say was: Absolutely not. After the initial shock of contact had worn off, I liked hugging Ramsey. He smelled like dirt and sweat, but he was warm and comfortable, his heart playing a soothing melody in my ear.
Unfortunately, I was really curious about what had caused some Freaky Friday attitude switch between the two of us. I was the cranky friend. Not him.
“Promise you’ll tell me the truth?”
He sighed. “I promise.”
Reluctantly, I released him. The loss was staggering as the cool night air stole his warmth.
He backed away, but not before leaning down to retrieve my crutch. I hated when he helped me, but it was so classically Ramsey that I couldn’t help but smile.
His eyes narrowed on my mouth. “Did your dad give you some booze tonight? You’re acting weird.”
I rolled my eyes. “Nope. That would have required him talking to me.”
“Your dad sucks too, huh?”
“He’s the worst.”
Ramsey kept his voice low, but there was a jagged edge to it I’d never heard before. “He hit you when he drinks?”
“What? No. He just ignores me.”
Ramsey hummed in acknowledgement and then squatted to pet Sir Hairy, who had long since given up on our walk and curled into a ball at our feet.
“It could always be worse,” he said. “He could hate you.”
“Is that what happened tonight? You get in a fight with your dad too?”
His eyes lifted to mine and for the first time I recognized the torment brewing within them. “No. Tonight he got into a fight with my mom. She left over a month ago and called to tell him she was sending over the divorce papers.”
My heart stopped. “A month ago?”
“Yep. On Nora’s birthday, she told us she was going out to get Happy Meals, took our order and everything, and then never came back.”
Oh, God. Suddenly his explosion about my mother made a lot more sense.
“Ramsey, I—”
He wedged his hands inside the pockets of his jeans. “I knew something was wrong, but you should have seen Nora’s face. It was like the kid had never tasted a chicken nugget in her life.” His smile returned, but this wasn’t the Ramsey Stewart special I’d grown accustomed to. It was a lot sad and entirely heartbreaking. “One month, two weeks, and four days later and Nora’s still waiting for her to come back. I don’t have the heart to tell her it’s never gonna happen. She and my dad were fighting on the phone tonight about who had to keep us. Not who got to keep us. But who had to. From what I could gather, she’s in Texas with a soldier she met online. I don’t know. And I honestly don’t care, either.”
My.
Heart.
Stopped.
I glanced at my watch. One month, two weeks, and four days was the exact amount of time since my mother had died. Which meant…