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She gaveinside

At the bottoain “I can’t take her ht”

“She’s a proud wos if she felt like she took advantage of you”

He groaned and relented, allowing me to slip the money in his pocket “I didn’t do much”

His wary gaze darted down the street and I realized he was probably antsy to get back to the house

“Do you need to be home earlier than usual?”

“No one said so But after last night, I don’t want to do anything to call attention to myself”

My throat tightened and maybe it looked like I was about to cry because he squeezedto be okay,” he promised

“I don’t want anything bad to happen to you”

He sighed and took ht was that I ain I didn’t want to disappear on you Especially after we had such a nice day together”

Disappear That’s ould happen, wasn’t it? One day, he’d just be gone Maybe I’d gather bits and pieces of gossip from the other kids

As if he heard hts, he brushed his knuckles over my cheek “I’ll always find my way to you, Juliet I promise The rest doesn’t matter”

“You matter to me”

His jaw flexed and he sed hard before nodding once “I haven’ttime”

“Well, you matter to me,” I repeated

I’d say it a hundred more times until he believed me

Chapter Twenty-Two

Roman

I hated like hell taking money from anyone But the money from Mrs Shields provided me with a way to buy Juliet a birthday present

Sometimes on the weekends, the hoerous probably Only level tere allowed on these special trips The counselors were supposed to stick with us, but more often, they’d hand us a couple dollars and tell us to meet them in the food court in an hour or two

Pip always stuck with me This trip was no different His curious eyes were full of questions when I ventured into the small world crafts store

“What do you want in here?” he sputtered

“I’m not sure yet”

As soon as the words left reen leather bracelet with daisies embossed into the leather