Page 27 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
We were standing outside the brewery Quinn’s brothers owned, and thanks to my cousin Jesse putting in a good word for me, I was working for them this summer. More specifically, I was working for Holden, the head brewer. Lifting fifty-pound barrels, cleaning and sanitizing the tanks and equipment, and learning about the fermentation process of my favorite beverage.
It was a good gig, and her brothers were cool, so I didn’t want to lose it.
The party was just an elaborate ruse to get Evie in the same room as me.
Quinn laughed then chewed on her lip. “Are you sure you’re okay with doing this?” Her eyes darted around the field, checking to make sure her brothers weren’t eavesdropping. As if we were planning to smuggle drugs across the border instead of throwing a low-key party.
“I’m more than okay with it. In fact, I feel it’s my duty. You can’t go to college without having experienced a typical high school party. It’s a rite of passage.”
She laughed again. Clasping her hands, she rocked back on the heels of her lime green and pink Nikes. In the time I’d been working here, I’d never seen her wear the same pair twice.
“We just need to make sure nobody burns the house down or destroys anything. My mom would have a fit.”
“That’s why you have me. I’ll take care of everything,” I assured her.
CHAPTERTEN
Evie
Why didthose letters have to be from him?
I’d been intrigued from the very first one. Short and sweet but by no means superficial or meaningless.
Do you believe that nothing gold can stay? Or would you call yourself an optimist?
Dallas
He’d referenced my favorite line from the Robert Frost poem in my favorite book and signed it Dallas. I’d found a kindred spirit. Someone like me, but better.
Cherry,
Not so long ago, my brother told me that everyone needs to have a dream. He said it’s what gives people hope. At the time, I thought it was bullshit.
Life has a way of shitting all over your dreams. You know it, I know it, the neighbor’s dog knows it. So why even bother?
But I think he’s onto something.
The world is a fucked-up place. But if you don’t have a dream you might as well be taking a dirt nap.
Because what’s the point of living if all you’re really doing is surviving?
In other news, I started watching sunsets. I never used to give a shit about stuff like that. The simple things in life that dead white poets wrote about. Daffodils and sunsets and all that crap.
When I was a kid, I never trusted the sun. By the sun, I mean people. And the whole goddamn fucked-up world. But that sun must have set out to prove all the non-believers wrong… because, unlike most people I know, the sun drops out of the sky every night, but it always comes back the following day.
So yeah, you should watch more sunsets.
You gotta put your faith in something, right?
Dallas
And so it had begun. A love affair through letters. We’d exchanged our thoughts and our views on life. He made me laugh. He gave me hope. And best of all, it was safe.
He was never supposed to find out who I was. But he’d obviously known it was me all along. So, just like he did with everything, Ridge had played me.
I’d contemplated burning the letters but, in the end, I shoved the shoebox further into my closet and closed the door on it.
Then I’d spent the past four days obsessing about it. I felt so stupid for not figuring it out sooner. Not to mention all the ammunition I’d given him.
