Page 33 (2/2)

"I had a science teacher in high school, Mr Kelly, as keeping an eye on h I uess he saw the wasted potential, the girl trapped by circumstance, and I think he had dealt with Asa a few years earlier, so he knehat my brother was capable of He threatened to call the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Faet her act together, and I guess it was enough to get her motivated to have Asa back off Mr Kelly forced me to fill out scholarship application after scholarship application, and hounded ot a perfect sixteen-hundred on the SAT I guess I kneas et out of Woodward and if I didn’t do it, I was going to end up strung out and paying rent on my back, just like my mama"

I shifted uncomfortably in the seat and shot a look around toin on our conversation I was embarrassed to have all my dirty laundry out there Not that I didn’t trust Shaw; it was just a wound that had never healed co soain

"I got a partial scholarship to DU Not enough to cover everything, but room and board were included and Mr Kelly was so desperate for et away from Woodward and Asa’s influence that he pulled money out of his retirement account to make up the difference Once I qualified for student loans, I paid hiot the Jeep at a junkyard and souys who took auto shop fixed it up for some weed I stole from Asa I hit the road and never looked back When we ether, and I saw you all proper and elegant, I toldto be fro I didn’t want to do, no one was going to questionto doubt that I was intelligent and driven I was going to be all the things no one had ever givenback to Woodward Asa was effectively dead to et out from under the cloud of what I had let myself become"

I blew out a breath and sa raise an eyebrow at me This is where the favor I asked for came in

"Only Asa isn’t dead or in jail He’s here in Denver and he brought all the crap frouy nas for really terrible people back home He’s the one who tried to break into the house when Cora was ho--so and they want it back, bad Silas will do whatever it takes to get the gang’s book, and I know Asa well enough to know he’ll do whatever he has to in order to keep it, if he thinks he can make money off of it Asa has always counted on me to fix all his problems and I have no doubt my mom sent him out here for ernails on the table and tilted her head to one side

"All right, Ayd That sucks, really sucks, and I’lad you finally told me all of it I could kill the people who’ve hurt you But I just don’t understand what any of this terrible story has to do with you breaking up with Jet, when you are clearly head over heels for hied, because there wasn’t anything in this world that was ever going to erase the look on his face when I dropped hiht that circled the outside of thoseblack

"We weren’t together, so I didn’t really break up with hie even if it was a blatant lie I hadn’t just walked away froether, I had done what I do best--run

I was startled because even though Shaas tiny, when she wanted to, she had enough attitude to see her to push away frolare down at me like I had just kicked her puppy across the rooreed on the truth, Ayd If you can’t do that, then I’ to this anymore I’m already pretty pissed that you think any of that stuff in your past would have mattered to me You know for a fact Rule was a manwhore, probably more of a slut than anyone really knows, and I loved him anyway I would like to think that after our friendship took root, you would have known that I would have looked past anything to see all the wonderful things thatto leave She was actually walking away from me in a huff when I reached out a hand and cla around the fact she was angry about Jet, about how I had treated hirand and the fact ly and that I had kept it fro to find the words but she was on a roll

"No, Ayd, you listen to ht Hell, I’ve seen the way you’ve watched hi to work in a cubicle and push paper around for a set salary He is the guy ill turn you inside out, and et about all those stupid boundaries you’ve set for yourself because you’re scared Jet isn’t going to care about your past; he has one of his own that isn’t pretty But, like a coward, instead of talking to him about it, you ran away fro ready to go on tour for three months, and practically dared hiroupie who looks his way, just to get you off his mind"

I pulled her back into the seat across froarnered died down My heart already felt like a heavy stone in the center of ht, every worst-case scenario I could coh my head on an endless loop for hours For the first time in forever, I criedhis shirt and wishing he were there to make it better