Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
I guess I thought I owed it to them, especially to Jordan. But love is unconditional. Family is forever. Those things aren't contingent upon whether or not I toe the line. Jordan may be worried about me, but I know deep down, that's not the life he'd want for me, either. He's just stubborn and overprotective and unwilling to admit that maybe I don't need him hovering over me anymore.
I think if he admits that I'm grown up, he has to face the fact that Hollie is too. And that's what really scares him. He's in love with my best friend, and he has no clue what to do about it. She was only eighteen when they met. In his eyes, she was just a kid, too young for him. So long as he can continue to convince himself that I'm too young to date, he doesn't have to deal with the fact that she's the same age I am.
I don't envy him. He's one of the most honorable people I know. Grappling with the fact that he's in love with someone so much younger than him is messing with his head. But that's their problem to solve, not mine. And I can't carry that cross for them.
I roll to a stop at a fork in the road, shifting my gaze from the road to the GPS. Dismay courses through me when, instead of directions, all I get is a spinning wheel that says rerouting. My gaze drifts to the corner of the screen, only to see a line slashed through the car's connectivity icon.
We no longer have signal.
I chew on my bottom lip, unsure which way to go. Neither road offers any clues. One looks just as good as the other, which is to say they're both pitted gravel lanes exactly like every other pitted lane I've been on for the last couple of hours.
But we've been going south and west for most of the ride, so I turn the car in that direction and set out. Every few minutes, my gaze drifts back to the navigation screen to see if we've gotten signal back, but it remains completely blocked out.
The sun sinks into its cradle, the last few rays dwindling quickly. The road gradually shifts from cement to gravel, the potholes growing larger. Trees press in closer as the gas gauge slips below a quarter of a tank, branches hanging over the road like spindly little arms reaching down from the inky blackness overhead.
"Please don't scratch his car," I whisper as if they're really listening. Out here, maybe they are. We're certainly far enough from civilization for magic to happen. Or to be eaten by a chupacabra.
The car descends into a pothole, the bottom scraping.
I grit my teeth, slowing to a crawl as I inch forward, trying not to damage anything as I work our way through it. When we get back to something resembling civilization, I'm writing a sternly worded letter to the GPS people.
Except…halfway through the pothole, I push the gas and the tires just spin. The car won't move. I give it more gas, sending up a prayer that I didn't just get us stuck in the middle of nowhere.
The engine purrs. The tires spin. We don't go anywhere.
"Crap."
Naturally, Atlas decides now is the perfect time to jolt awake. He sits up, scrubbing his hand down his face. "Where the fuck are we?"
"Um, in the forest?"
I feel more than see him turn toward me.
"Please don't freak out," I say, fumbling to find the overhead light. "But I think we might be stuck."
"Stuck?"
"Yes, stuck." I press the gas to emphasize the point.
He listens to the engine purr and the tires spin without us going anywhere.
"Fuck," he mumbles. "Can you reach the flashlight tucked right under the lip of your seat, Temptation?"
I put the car in park and unlatch my seatbelt to feel for the light. My hand closes around it and I fumble it out, passing it over to him. "Be careful. We're in a pothole."
He nods and carefully steps out, losing a good foot of height when he does.
Good grief. Maybe I drove us into a crater instead of a pothole.
"Stay in the car, Temptation. It's muddy."
The knot in my stomach grows five sizes.
"Okay," I whisper.
He carefully makes his way around the car, assessing the situation, before he comes back to me. "If we can get traction under the back tires, you should be able to drive out. They're stuck in a mudhole inside the pothole."
"Okay."
"Can you pop the trunk for me? I should have some litter in there we can use."
I fish around for the trunk release before he directs me to it. He rummages around for a few minutes before I lose track of him in the darkness. I peer all around, keeping an eye on the forest around us. It no longer seems idyllic and peaceful, but ominous and threatening, as if a thousand hidden dangers lurk in the tree line, watching us.