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Now, I’ for the keys to her Jeep I had my mechanic put a new alternator on it this afternoon, then stupidly invited her inside to give her the keys back I say stupidly, because every ounce of ainstin her presence I locate the keys and turn around to hand the the down at them I’m not sure what she expected me to hand her, but she seems disappointed that it’s just her keys
"It’s running fine now," I say "You should be able to drive it hoht now and just leave I can’t bring myself to walk her back to the door, so Iroom and sit on the couch The conversation at her Jeep this afternoon lingers silent and thick in the air between us
"What? You fixed it?" she says, followingroouy as able to put an alternator on it this afternoon"
"Will, you didn’t have to do that," she says Rather than leave like we both know she should, she sits on the couch besideraze elboithoutto reach over and kiss the hell out of her
"Thanks, though I’ll pay you back"
"Don’t worry about it You guys have helped me a lot with Caulder lately, it’s the least I can do"
She looks down at her hand and twirls the keys around She runs her thumb over the Texas-shaped keychain and I can’t help but wonder if she’d still rather be there right now
"So, can we finish our conversation fro down at the keychain
I already regret having said what I said at her Jeep today I confessed way too much I can’t believe I told her I would have quit my job if it weren’t for Caulder I mean, it’s the truth As crazy and desperate as it sounds, I would have quit in a heartbeat I’m not so sure I still wouldn’t if she would just ask me to
"That depends," I say "Did you come up with a solution?"
She shakes her head and looks up at me "Well, no," she says She tosses her keys onto the coffee table and pulls her knee up, turning to face hs, alers over the throw pilloeen us and traces the pattern without looking up at et morecomplex" She hesitates for aa GED"
Her plan is so absurd I alh "That’s ridiculous," I say, shooting a look in her direction "Don’t even think like that There’s no way you’re quitting school, Lake"
She tosses the pillow aside "It was just an idea," she says
"Well, it was a durow quiet between us The way she’s turned toward me on the couch causes everyso hard not to turn toward her, to take her in my arms This entire situation isn’t fair If ere in any other circumstances, a relationship between us would be absolutely fine Accepted Nor us apart is a da to hide how I feel about her when it’s just the two of us It would be so easy to just say "To hell with it," and do what I want to do I know if I could just get past the ht, I’d do it in a heartbeat I’d take her infor the past three weeks I’d kiss her mouth, I’d kiss her cheek, I’d kiss that line fro at She’d let me, too I kno hard this has been on her; I can see it in the way she carries herself now She’s depressed I’m almost tempted to s If neither of us says anything, no one would know We could do this secretly until she graduated If ere careful, we could even keep it from Julia and the boys
I pop my knuckles behindherabout the possibility of kissing her again I inhale throughto physically cal stupid Or s when I’ht and what’s right feels so wrong
Her finger grazes across my neck and the unexpected touch causes er to showcrearab her hand to wipe it ontoers touch hers, whatever conscious thoughts re cream My hand remains clasped on top of hers and she relaxes it onto my chest
I’ve reached the threshold of , o of her hand and I can’t stop looking into her eyes In this ain everything is happening Every single second I silently look at her, holding on to her hand, erases days of willpower and detery I’ve put into doing the right thing has all been in vain
"Will?" she whispers without breaking her gaze The way o haywire She strokes her thuhtly across my chest--a movement she may not have even been aware of, but one that I feel all the way to raduate"