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I watched the poor soul’s eyes sith ean to rake up all the glass clippings, not speaking another word my way

People in town called him an asshole, and I could see why He wasn’t nice, he wasn’t stable, and he was broken in all of the wrong and right places, but I couldn’t blame him for his coldness Truth was I sort of envied Tristan’s ability to escape reality, to shut himself off from the world around him It must have been nice to feel e myself daily, but I had Emma to keepmy mind of all emotion, of all the hurt

When he finished with his work, his feet stoppedhard He turned toward hts probably scattered His hand wiped against his brow and he cleared his throat "Done"

"Do you want soh for you"

He blinked once before he began to push the laer back towardfrom my view As I stood there alone I closed my eyes, placed my hands over my heart, and for a small moment, I lost , I knew I had to stop by Tanner’s auto shop for the surprise he’d mentioned to me earlier that week E her own version of the Frozen soundtrack,a pleasantly silent stuffed ani Tanner, whose head was looking under the hood of a car Tanner turned around, his white shirt covered in oil stains, and his face dressed with the same substance

He lifted her in his ar "Hey, munchkin What’s that behind your ear?" he asked her

"I don’t have anything behind " He pulled his faithful quarter froh, which in turn made me smile "How have you been?"

E story about how I let her dress herself that day, which ended with a purple tutu, rainbow socks, and a T-shirt with zouins

I smiled Tanner stared her way as if truly interested in her story After a few o attack the candy machine with one of his workers, Gary The whole way, I could hear E the story of how her outfit had come to life to poor Gary

"She’s cuter than I rerinned and thanked hih her s for you, come here" He leda car When he pulled it off,around the jeep, running ers across it Steven’s jeep looked newer than ever "It was totaled"

"Ah, bumps and bruises can always be healed"

"This had to cost you a fortune"

He shrugged "Steven was my best friend You’re one offamiliar to come home to"

"You always kneould come back?"