Page 6 of Butch

No.

She was never going to do something like that again. And she didn’t want to stay with Butch and find out that he or any of his friends were the same as him. There were a lot more of them here, which meant she wasn’t going to survive one night if they all came at her or took turns.

Raelynn had been scarred too many times in the past eight years. She knew better than anyone else not to trust people, even if she had known them for years and years. People could change in a split second, and she didn’t want her memory of Butch to be ruined.

She could hear mumbles but couldn’t make out any words. All of a sudden, a piece of paper was thrust in front of her face, and she gingerly took it, her eyes tracking over the words.

What’s wrong? The doctor said you just have a minor infection and fever.

Her eyebrows drew together as she looked up at Butch. He didn’t know? But she swore she heard him say something about hearing and if she could. Her gaze connected with his, and he smiled at her, the same smile she had seen eight years ago before he’d left and promised he would be back for her.

Such a lie.

Not once did he visit during the year she had been at their parents’ house while she finished up her senior year of high school.

He raised an eyebrow, almost expecting her to give him an answer. Tears dripped down her face as she looked at him.

“Nothing is wrong with me,” she whispered. If he didn’t know then, she wasn’t going to tell him. “I need to go. Please, let me go.”

Butch shook his head and took the piece of paper, writing once again.

The doctor has been asking you questions. Can you answer them?

Her head flew over to where the doctor was standing. He had been asking her questions? The doctor handed her a second piece of paper.

You are deaf. Fully or partially?

She squeezed her eyes shut. It wasn’t a question of whether she was deaf or not. The doctor already knew.

“Fully in my right ear,” she found herself saying. “I’m fully deaf in my right ear and can hear some in my left ear. It’s normally better than this.”

Rae snuck a glance at Butch, whose mouth was hanging open as he stared at her. So much for trying to keep it from him.

CHAPTER 3

RAELYNN

It had been a couple of hours since Butch had found out Rae was partially deaf. Things hadn’t changed much at all. He was still looking at her with the most tender eyes, like he had when they were in high school.

I don’t care that you’re deaf in one ear and partially in the other.

That was what the note he had given her had said when she asked to leave again. How he knew what she was thinking was beyond her. But Rae still needed to leave so Edmund didn’t find her and him together, and Butch ended up dead.

She needed to protect him at all costs.

Butch waved his hand in the air, gaining her attention. He held a whiteboard and quickly wrote on it before turning it around.

You always wear your emotions on your face. Me finding out about this doesn’t change anything. I still want you.

Raelynn re-read those last four words over and over. Did he mean he still wanted her like they had been when they were in high school?

They had dated back then in secret. She had been the happiest girl ever, but then he had given the news that he was joining the Springfield Sinners and would come back to visit and take her away when she graduated from high school.

A bunch of horse shit, if anyone asked her. He never did, and she had been thankful when she had broken up with him before he left, no matter how much it had hurt.

But she hadn’t done it for herself, but for him. He was about to be on the road a ton, and she didn’t want him to be tied down to her. No matter how much he explained that it didn’t matter, and he would always want her, she had still broken up with him.

That was when he’d promised he would come back in a year to take her home with him, whether or not she had a boyfriend.