AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or maybe I won’t.
And that is the key difference between Ruby and the only other serious relationship I’ve had: I’m willing to accept that there might be something shitty in the future, that things with Ruby might not end up working out. We might try to take this back to Boston and eventually watch it collapse into a rubbish heap of misery.
I’m willing to accept those things as a possibility, and yet I’m still wanting to move forward anyway, still want to get to know her anyway. Because the idea of not getting that, not understanding her at her most base level, not sharing with her the things I didn’t even know I wanted to share…that sounds far more horrible than any kind of breakup could ever be.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Ruby says as she hops up next to me on the back of my lowered tailgate, bumping me with her shoulder.
“Fancy indeed,” I reply, calling back to our meeting in front of Ken’s when I picked her up yesterday.
Bellamy gives me a little wave then walks straight past me, heading over to a group of her old high school friends parked a few vehicles away.
“So what is this place?” Ruby asks, her eyes searching the area, though it’s too dark for her to really see anything that would tell her where she is.
“Smith Campground.”
“It’s just a campground?”
I nod. “It’s a closed campground, though, has been for about fifteen years, and the park service hasn’t ever come through to do the repairs needed to get it back in working order. So, the hooligans have taken it over.”
“Why is it called Forks?”
“Ah, local nickname. It’s a small-town thing. We nickname everything so when we’re talking about spots with friends and tourists overhear us, we don’t actually give anything away.”
“So sneaky,” she jokes. “Does everything really have a nickname?”
“Not everything, but a lot of places, yes.”
“Will you tell them to me? Even though I’m a tourist?”
I pretend to mull it over for a second. “I’ll tell you, but you should know that failure to keep these secrets will result in a swift and untimely death.”
Ruby bites her lip to keep from laughing then marks an X across her heart like she did last night with Bishop.
“Well, the tourist bar is called Dock 7, but we call it Lucky’s.”
She tilts her head to the side and thinks about it for a second. “Because locals get lucky there?”
I hold up my beer bottle as if to cheers her. “Bingo.”
“Does the grocery store have a nickname?”
I shake my head. “Nah. Everyone needs groceries, so there’s no fun in giving that spot a secret name.”
Ruby nods.
“Smith Campground is Forks,” I continue, “because it’s at the spot with the fork in the road, between the lake and the exit out of town. The resort on the south bank has a road behind it that leads up to a lookout over the water, and we call that Easy Street, because that’s where a lot of high schoolers drive to when they want to hook up.”
“Really?” she says, her tone conveying her skepticism. “I would have assumed bonfire nights would be a better choice. Drinks, music, a glowing fire.” She shrugs a shoulder. “Sounds like the best place to hook up to me.”
Even though the light from the bonfire is glowing with varying hues of red, I can still see the flush that creeps from her cheeks down through her neck.
“I…I mean…like, for high school kids, you know?” She bumbles her words and puts a hand over her face.
“Just high school kids?” I ask, knowing I’m poking at her when she’s embarrassed but not wanting to let this slide.
The woman has teased me more than enough times for me to make sure I return the favor.
She narrows her eyes and glares at me, her lips pouted and her body leaning toward mine.
