Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“He wants to come meet us. Is that alright?”
“Duhhhh,” Maddy said. “Ask Daddy if he can bring more wine, please.”
“You’re ridic.” I rolled my eyes and did just that, typing away an enthusiastic response to his question.
To my boyfriend’s question.
The title made me all kind of giddy inside. I dropped a pin in the text chat so he could find us easier and sat back, chatting with Maddy about finding her a man while we waited. It only took Ryan about half an hour to get to us, his cheerful “Hey, guys!” making me turn and sit up.
Ryan walked into our bamboo-encased hangout spot. He wore a pair of light-washed jeans cuffed at the ankles and a tight black shirt, a thin gold chain shining around his neck. He had two bottles of wine in his hand, lifting them like he held the first-place trophy to one of his games.
“My savior!” Maddy said. She jumped to her feet and grabbed the bottles before hugging him. He came and sat next to me. We were completely shielded by the bamboo, and Maddy already knew, so I didn’t stop myself from leaning in to kiss him hello.
Damn did that feel good. My chest filled with a flurry of butterflies, their tiny wings smacking up against my heart and lungs. He smiled at me. I nearly toppled over.
“You look good today,” he said, kissing me again and earning a “woo” from a beaming Maddy. “Like you do every day,” he added.
He always knew what to say, even if he may not have been one hundred percent accurate.
“You sure about that?” I looked down at my “Save the Whales” T-shirt. It looked like something I got out of the prop department in the theater, stark white with a stock image of a whale on the front, the font chosen for the text likely done at random.
“A hundred percent.”
“Thanks.” I rested my head on his shoulder and reached for his hand. Having his fingers lock through mine felt new but familiar all at the same time. He had a rough, calloused palm that eclipsed my tinier hand. It was nice. So fucking nice.
“I was out yelling about the impact oil drilling and fracking has on the whale population. Oh—” I looked to Maddy. “I saw Everly from bio walk past. He smiled at me. He definitely supports the cause.”
“Yeah, I like him a lot.”
“Same, same. Also saw Dex. He’s showing up, too.”
Maddy smiled. “Awesome, we’ve got at least two people showing up.”
Ryan leaned forward. “What have you two been up to?” he asked, looking around at our private picnic.
Maddy unscrewed the cap to the new bottle of wine and started to pour herself a new glass. “Just figuring out how we can take over the world. Spread the gay agenda. You know, that kind of stuff.”
“Sounds like a good time,” Ryan said. He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes the way his smiles usually did. Now that the initial rush of his arrival started to dim, I saw something else in his expression. His mouth was tight, his bushy brown brows slightly furrowed.
He was stressed about something.
“It is,” I said. Before I could ask him what was wrong, Maddy jumped in.
“We were also trying to plan a big protest for the oil drilling project off of Beacon’s Bay. You should help out.” Her tone was exploratory. She looked down at my glass of wine as she poured me a refill. I glanced at Ryan. His expression looked extra tight. He stared off into empty space, somewhere in the bordering bamboo. His grip around my hand tightened.
Okay. What the hell was going on with him?
The butterflies in my chest swapped out for anxious little gnats, buzzing around and making my pulse spike.
“But, you know, I get if you don’t want to,” Maddy quickly added off the loaded silence.
“No, it’s not that…” His voice trailed off. He shifted, my hand falling from his. He adjusted himself so he sat cross-legged, his hands underneath him now.
Shit. I felt like I was on the edge of a cliff. There was a rocky and wave-laced shore underneath me, and all I needed to be pushed was a few words from Ryan.
Is he going to say he made a mistake?
If Ryan got buyer’s remorse this soon after we made it official, then I was sure my head would explode, and I’d be launched directly into orbit. The wine we’d been drinking all afternoon started catching up to me. I began to imagine a hundred different over-the-top and dramatic scenarios that could play out from this.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. There was another stretch of silence.
I braced myself. Whatever Ryan was about to say clearly couldn’t have been good.
Chapter Eighteen
Ryan
I was still pretty wound up after my argument with my dad. I tried walking it off around campus but kept thinking about what he told me.