Page 44 of In the Danger Zone
“You don’t want your daddy waking up with slashed tires, right?” murmured Asher, leaning over the desk. “Or a smashed window. Or a broken fucking hand. That’d make going into the next town to clean fucking bathrooms even harder, right? Don’t do that to him, D-D-Daisy.”
Asher chuckled at me. There must have been a look of fear on my face, because I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything he loved more than seeing me scared.
My breathing was shaky as he slowly straightened himself up. His tall form loomed over me as my hands trembled on the desk, doing my best to keep my lips pressed together tightly. I didn’t want him to hear a single whimper from me.
Asher kept his gaze on me for so much longer than he needed to. It felt like an hour went by before he finally moved away from the table and over to the exit of the library.
I closed my eyes, counted to three, and parted my lips. Finally, I exhaled. I repeated the process. One, two, three. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.
The only good news was that Asher didn’t reach over the desk and punch me. He wouldn’t have hesitated to do that back home. It also looked like he still had that stupid video of my dad where they got into that fight. But he hadn’t showed that to Evan. Asher could have done it so easily too. That video looked bad, but it didn’t show the whole story.
Still, though. Asher didn’t show Evan. He kept that dumb video to himself. He’d have to do a lot of explaining otherwise. We both knew that.
I wondered if maybe for once in his life, Asher Callaway was also scared of not being believed.
Chapter 22
DAISY
“What’s this?” My eyebrows furrowed at the pink box Evan was holding. It was a pretty big box, too.
“It’s a surprise. And I can’t ruin the surprise. So… open it.” Evan looked down at me, his perfect smile so bright.
I had just finished up my classes for the day when Evan ambushed me outside the room for my Modern Art and Cinema class. Before I even got the chance to say hello to him, he dragged me over to some of the seats in the hallway.
“I’m scared,” I joked, letting Evan set the box down on my lap as he took a seat next to me. The first thing I noticed was just how heavy it was. What the hell was inside it? “Is something gonna jump out at m-me?”
“No. Just open it,” laughed Evan.
It seemed there was no getting out of it. I pulled the lid off, setting it aside. Then my eyes narrowed upon what I was seeing. In the box was a pair of white as snow ice skates. My fingers traced along the smooth leather, not stopping until my digits got to the little, silver flower detailing that sat on the side of either skate. The skates looked so elegant and classic. And expensive.
“Evan, wait…” I turned to him. “How m-much did these cost?”
Evan shrugged. “I dunno. Doesn’t matter. I can’t remember.”
“Evan.”
“Just take ‘em. Please. I wanna hit the ice with you some more. And I don’t want you to have to borrow skates every time. It’s easier to have your own pair. Now you got some nice ones.” Evan waggled his eyebrows at me. “And you can’t avoid skating with me now. No excuses.”
“I n-never said Iwantedto avoid skating with you.” Grabbing the lid, I sat it back down on the box firmly, covering the skates up. Then I moved the heavy box over to Evan’s lap. “They’re really b-beautiful and I appreciate you going out of your way to get m-me something so n-nice. That’s super generous of you. B-But I can’t take them.”
“Why?” Evan frowned, putting the box back on my lap. “Just ‘cause they cost four hundred bucks?”
“F-Four hundred b-bucks?” My eyes widened, shoving the box back over to him. “Please take them b-back. Did you really have to pick the m-most expensive ones?”
“Yes,” he said simply.
My eyes rolled. “You’re so—” But my words were cut off when Evan gave the box back to me, placing it right back on my lap. “Evan!”
“I already threw the receipt out so I can’t return them, anyway,” Evan said quickly.
“I don’t b-believe that.”
“Okay, that was a lie. I lost the receipt the same day I bought them.”
“That I b-believe.”
“So I can’t take them back even if I wanted to!” Evan declared. “And Idon’twanna take them back. Keep them, Daisy. Please. It’s a gift from me to you, and I want you to keep ‘em forever.”
