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They’d switched hands when they’d turned around Lacey’s palht air He wanted to hold her To lie on the beach with her and lose hiot the bad parts of his world existed And hers, too

To help theet that people weren’t always kind to one another

In a perfect world, maybe they were

But in reality, everyone had a bad side Issues Hurts that didn’t heal as well as they could have

“When I grew taller than she was, stronger than she was, she resorted to tears,” he said, re out loud under the cover of the darkness that was falling “She’d use tears as a threat and point out toin to her every single time she cried”

“Was she right?”

“About Dad? Pretty le time Levi cried, it took a piece out of him

“After that I gave her whatever she wantedwith the muck she’d conjure up”

“Was she nicer to you?”

“Tressa’s words last night were kind cos JoAnne continued to say to me But they were only words I learned to deflect the barbs for the nonsense they were, and to pity her”

“Didn’t Levi say she’s co to stay with you?”

“Right Yes, she is Later this summer”

“Sothings have changed since you grew up?”

“Nope” He grinned Because life really was kind of a joke sometimes “She’s pretty much as bad as ever”

“Then why?”