Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
I shook my head. “I don’t… I mean, me and Ramsey, we don’t…talk about her to other people.”
She blew out a loud sigh. “You Stewarts and your secrets. You know Ramsey didn’t tell me at first, either. He just held it all in and then one day he blew up on me like a volcano.”
Boy, did that sound familiar.
I offered her a tight smile.
“Right. Okay. Well, Camden hasn’t left yet, has he?”
I shook my head. “Tomorrow.”
“Good. Then you have time.” She released me and looked at her watch. “You’ve got six hours, fourteen minutes, and thirty-five…no, thirty-four seconds left in today. I highly suggest you make the most of it. Is he the reason you’re going to the creek tonight?”
She was a sage thirteen, so I nodded, desperate for any and all advice she could give me.
Resting her hands on my shoulders, she looked me straight in the eye. “Okay, here’s what you’re going to do. Talk to him. Give him a chance to choose you. He can’t stay, Nora. And you can’t expect him to. Leaving is out of both of your control. But maybe he’s scared you won’t want him to come back. A lot can change in a year. But he’s going to Alberton, not Zimbabwe. Telephones exist. I know you guys don’t have one because your dad is the literal worst human being in history, but I have a phone at my house that you can use sometimes. And there’s letters. Maybe even a visit at Christmas. But you have to give him a chance. If for some stupid, idiotic reason he doesn’t choose you, that’s his loss. That is not on you though.”
“What’s not on her? Why are you crying?”
We both froze at the sound of my brother’s voice.
“Shit,” Thea mouthed.
I closed my eyes and dropped my chin to my chest.
It would only be a matter of time before Ramsey knew everything about not only Camden, but my little meltdown too. He and Thea shared everything from secrets to spit. Honestly, it was a miracle she hadn’t told him about Camden through telepathy the minute she’d seen me with him at the creek.
Filling my lungs, I prepared myself to spill it all.
Thea got there first. “Nora got her period.”
“What!” I shouted.
It was followed by my brother’s, “What the hell! Why would you tell me that?” He used a hand to block us from his view as if we were the blinding sun.
I hooked my arm through Thea’s and gave her a hard tug. “Yeah, Thea. Why would you tell him that?” I leveled her with a pointed glare and finished with a mumble only she could hear. “Especially since it’s not true.”
She kept her smile aimed at my brother but whispered to me out of the corner of her mouth, “Because you’re my friend, and I will always choose you.”
My throat got thick. Tears over Camden still streaked my cheeks, but a whole new set welled in my eyes.
“Is that why you’ve been sick?” Ramsey asked, devastating hope filling his voice.
“Yep,” Thea replied, popping the P.
His whole body relaxed, his relief almost palpable. “Oh, thank God.”
Yeah, it was safe to say my brother loved me something fierce. As much as I hated how he worried over me, his reaction filled my empty chest in unimaginable ways.
Patting over his heart, he tipped his chin at Thea. “You still can’t die from that, right?”
“Nope.” She winked. “Nothing to worry about. Nora and I were just having a girl chat about…things.”
He nodded at least a dozen times. “Do we, like…need to go to the store for you or anything? I mean, is there, uh, anything we should do? Or—”
I faked a gag. “Ew, God. Ramsey, stop. I’m not talking about this with you.”
He lifted his hands in surrender and backed up a few steps. “Yeah. No. Not talking about this totally works for me too. Forgotten. Done.”
Thea laughed, and to my oblivious brother, I’m sure it sounded sweet enough. To me, it was an evil cackle. I decided right then and there it was for the best she and Ramsey didn’t do secrets. He was not ready to play on that field with her.
Scrubbing my face with my hands to clear away any lingering emotion, I said, “I’m leaving. Thanks for making this awkward. I can always count on you guys.”
“Anytime,” Thea chirped.
Ramsey shook his head and handed her Hairy’s leash. Then he made quick work of scaling the tree and settling onto his branch.
“I’ll be right back,” Thea told him as she followed me toward the main road. There was a shortcut through Mr. Leonard’s property about half a mile up that was quicker than going back through the woods next to our house.
The grass crunched beneath our feet as we walked.
“Thanks for doing that back there. I’m totally embarrassed, but thanks for covering for me with him.”