Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 31942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 160(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 160(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
“We got a couple of good ones,” Brody finally mutters. Actually, we got a couple of great shots earlier. I felt it deep in my bones. But I kept letting him take the photos because it was intoxicating to be the sole focus of his attention, even if only through the lens of his camera.
I take the phone from his big hands. The oversized device looks so dainty when he’s holding it. Gesturing for him to get closer, I wait until Brody bends next to me then I press a kiss to his cheek. It’s a simple, friendly gesture that will get my stalker’s attention. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
“It’ll make him go nuts if he’s into me the way you seem to think he is,” I explain right as I text the photo to my phone. When I get home, I can print that one out. I can pretend that Brody is my boyfriend and that today was just a fun photoshoot together and wow, I’m really pathetic.
“That’s smart thinking,” Brody agrees before grabbing the phone. He opens the social media profile where he’s already logged into my account. He pastes in a description and passes the device to me again. His caption sounds exactly like I wrote it, even down to the hashtags and emojis that I would use.
When I open my mouth to question him, he shrugs. “Predictive text technology. I fed all of your previous captions and posts into an algorithm.”
“All of them?” I repeat, trying to think back to my profiles. I’ve had them for years. I hope he didn’t see that embarrassing phase I went through three years ago when I posted about the pain of unrequited love all the time.
He pockets his phone and glances across the farm. He points toward some trees in the distance. “I reckon it’ll take him a day or two to track you down even with the geo-tagging feature turned on. In the meantime, let’s go for a hike. I’ll show you the prettiest waterfall around here.”
“So remind me again how you ended up in Courage County,” I say to Brody as I walk down the dirt path beside him. We’ve been hiking for two hours now. I’d hoped he would have said something about the kiss. But of course, he hasn’t. As usual, he’s pretending that nothing amazing happened between us.
The birds are singing cheerful songs in the branches above me while the sun beats down on my head. It’s one of those endlessly blue-sky days with big, fluffy clouds lazily floating by.
I want to stop cataloging which trees would be good to hide behind and wondering if anyone would see me behind that boulder if I needed to take cover. I try to remind myself that I’m safe with Brody, but that’s the thing about it. It’s hard to feel safe when my mind is screaming at me that everything is a threat.
“I drove,” he drawls. He knows I hate it when he doesn’t answer a question I ask.
I resist the urge to roll my eyes as he holds up a tree branch, so it doesn’t smack me in the face. I shimmy under it and continue on the trail. Brody has never been good at talking about himself anyway. “Do you want to ask me about my life now?”
The little creek that we’ve been walking near widens and the gurgling noises only get louder. The water looks so pure and clean. I wonder if it would be as cold against my parched throat as I imagine it would be.
“Nope.” He doesn’t even spare me a glance as he adjusts one of the straps on his backpack. He packed enough supplies in there that we could probably get lost in these woods and comfortably survive for days. It’s got to be at least seventy pounds of gear and I can’t deny how hot it makes him that he’s carrying everything so easily. I have a backpack on that’s only twenty pounds and I’m already a sweaty mess.
I fight a wave of frustration at his one-word answer. He’s not exactly in the running for world’s best conversationalist but I’d hoped for something from him. “You’re not at least curious about what I do these days?”
“Nope.” His answer is quick and abrupt. Just once, I’d like to get under his skin. I’d like to test Brody’s control and watch it crumble. The man doesn’t even have a single speck of lint in his closet. What kind of monster lives like that?
“Really? Because I want to know everything about what you’ve been up to for the last three years.” I stop on the trail and gesture around me. The path grows blurry and I have to blink. “You ditched me, Brody.”
Looking back, I shouldn’t have kissed him. He’d never given me any indication that he felt the same way. But he didn’t have to be so mean about it and he didn’t have to stop talking to me. He didn’t have to ignore me, like all our previous years of friendship meant nothing to him.