He let me go but kept pace, walking beside me as I continued down the road. “Is this because I kissed you?”
I couldn’t look at him. My entire body had gone numb. Except my lips. They tingled with memory, my taste buds dancing and alive. I focused on a spot in the distance and didn’t speak, putting one foot in front of the other.
“Gale, stop.” He grabbed my arm again. “I thought… I thought you wouldn’t mind. I thought, maybe, you wanted me to kiss you because…”
Because he’d sat on my lap. Because he’d felt my erection and guessed my secret. Because he knew.
He knew he knew he knew.
And no one was supposed to know.
“I won’t tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about. I promise.”
I didn’t acknowledge him and waited for him to let go of my arm. When he did, I continued down the road. Every step was a struggle. My legs quivered and refused to cooperate. I felt drunk. Uncoordinated. Inside out.
Ozrik didn’t follow.
I walked half a mile before flashing lights in the distance caught my attention. The power company must have arrived to deal with the hazard. I squinted at a barrier they had set up with bright orange cones.
Instead of continuing straight—I couldn’t be around people—I veered off-road, passed through a flooded ditch toward a swamped farmer’s field. A wooden fence marked the property line. I sat in the mud and leaned against one of the supportposts. Burying my face in my arms, I did all I could to hold myself together as the past and the present collided.
It took three hours for the road to reopen.
Three hours of obsessive thinking. Three hours reliving Ozrik’s kiss over and over and over again. Three hours of praying and crying and tormenting myself with what was to come. Three hours of rain that soaked into my soul and made me shiver. Three hours of flashbacks.
Three hours until my sister found me, tugged me to my feet, and wrapped me in her arms. Olivia didn’t let go until I was ready, and maybe that took three hours too, but I’d lost track of time by then. Olivia didn’t ask what was wrong or why I’d left the Jeep and was sitting in the rain.
If she knew, she gave no indication.
Without a word, she took me by the hand and walked me to the Jeep. It was parked on the road. A tow truck had come and gone. There was no sign of Ozrik.
She handed me the keys, and I stared at them with incomprehension. I’d left them in the ignition.
“Ozrik said he put your camera and backpack in the footwell of the back seat so it wasn’t in sight.”
I stiffened. She’d talked to Ozrik. My backpack. Did he go through it? Did he find the pictures?
“He also said he’s sorry. What does that mean? Why is he sorry?”
I dodged the question and asked one of my own. “How much do I owe you for the tow?”
“Nothing. CineVision’s covering it.”
I nodded robotically and aimed for the Jeep.
Olivia snagged my arm before I got far. “Gale.”
I stopped but refused to face her.
“What happened with Ozrik?”
Every muscle in my body tensed. My lips hummed and buzzed with the memory of his kiss. “Nothing.”
Could she see it on my face? Was I projecting all that had happened? Would our twin link allow her access to my mind?
“Gale.”
“I have to go.”
