Page 35 of Hate Wrecked

Riley squints into the distance. “What? More ocean? I’ve seen enough of that.”

I laugh despite my best effort not to. Something about Riley always makes me want to smile or laugh when she isn’t pissing me off. And she isn’t pissing me off right now.

“No. Something else.”

She grabs the map from my hands. “Is it on there?” she asks.

I shake my head. “No, in here,” I answer, pointing to my head.

“You obsess when you obsess, huh?”

I don’t know what to say. What else have I been passionate about besides stories, protecting people, and wanting her? Nothing.

I move to the other side of her, and she eyes me. I want her to be on the side where the plane wreckage is. I want to point it out to her. But instead, she observes the tree line, looking at me, then at the sky when the birdsong gets too loud. It’s like they’re telling us to go or warning us this place isn’t safe for us.

I will write our time here into permanence. No matter what happens, I will write a happy ending for this, even if the papers get washed away in the waves.

When I see the plane, every other thought flies out of my head.

And when I look at Riley, when I see her eyes take it in, I can’t help but reach for her hand.

“Follow me.”

THEN

ROWAN

“Follow me.”

I didn’t often allow myself to be alone with Riley Williams. We had places we could go when we wanted to spend time together without prying eyes or eavesdropping ears. The laundry room with the door open. The pool. The cliffside where we screamed into the sky when life became too much.

And the garden, where I followed her.Follow me.

It was a fine line, and I was towing it. I knew that. And I knew she was off-limits. Taken…kind of. Barry Waterstone liked to get around, and Riley wasn’t the only one who warmed his bed.

I wanted to tell Riley that, but I didn’t know how to say it in a way that didn’t scream jealousy. Because it wasn’t just that. It was the intense need inside of me to take care of her. I couldn’t turn it off. I needed to make sure she was okay. Always.

Riley sat next to me on the bench in the garden, her head on my shoulder. It was new, and the way she touched me made me wonder where her feelings were. She was pushing boundaries, too.

“I think I'm going to Italy with my dad this summer. He’s shooting a movie there, and I can’t stand being around my mom right now.”

“That might be good,” I said, running my palms over my jeans. It would be good for her to get away from Barry. That’s what I was thinking, but I wouldn’t say it.

“Yeah. I need a change of scenery. I’ll miss this, though,” she said, leaning her head back so I could see her eyes. I shifted, and her head fell into my lap. It was intimate, not what friends did, and I resisted the urge to brush the dark hair from her eyes. She fluttered her eyelashes and smiled at me. “Won’t you?”

I cocked my head, already forgetting what she had said.

“Won’t you miss this?” she asked again.

“Yes. I’ll miss you,” I ruffled her hair like she was a little sister. Because that's what I needed to do at that moment. I also needed her to move her head before I got hard, and she noticed.

Instead, she turned, pressing her face into my stomach.

“What are you doing?” I laughed.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled as she wrapped her arms around my waist. Riley was touch. She needed touch. I could see it in how she and her sisters interacted. They had touchy feelings, touchy love. But the rift between their mother and them meant they weren’t getting that at the house Desi shared with Asa. They were getting air kisses, andI missed you girlsbefore being ignored by the shiny object in the room. Their stepfather.

I let my palm rest on Riley’s head and stroked her hair. It was long and soft, shiny in the fading dusk light. And when she sighed, it made me feel like she was content there, that I could make her happy in some way.

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