Page 78 of Where Roads Lead

“Yeah?” She grinned, pleased by the achievement. “Well, I’m a writer. I live to shock and surprise with my word choices.”

“Mission accomplished.”

She smiled, the humor giving way to something more vulnerable.

“Thank you, Will. Really,” she said, meeting my eyes in a way that almost made me want to look away. “It means a lot to me that you went out of your way to do this for me tonight.”

“It’s not a big deal,” I told her, because really it wasn’t. “You deserve it after the night you had.”

She deflated before my very eyes.

“She hates me, doesn’t she?” she asked, looking torn up over the thought.

“No,” I said too quickly.

She gave a half-hearted smile.

“It’s okay, I kind of figured.”

“Look, Elsie. Trust me when I say that whatever it is, it has nothing to do with you.”

“Her hating me has nothing to do with me?” She arched a brow.

“Not really.”

“How do you figure that?”

“It’s complicated. I don’t really know how to explain Ava.” Or I didn’t want to. “It’s just something she has to work through on her own. Okay?”

Elsie paused, staring off into the distance.

“She said she was jealous of me,” Elsie admitted softly. “Why would she be jealous of me?”

Had Ava really said that?

I was surprised, being the perfectionist she was, it was rare for Ava to own up to possessing the uglier feelings in life. What shocked me even more was that it was Elsie she opened up to, of all people.

“I don’t know, maybe because you’re pretty.” I tried to make sense of it. “Or maybe—”

“Wait, what?!” Elsie nearly screeched. “Why would you say that?”

I stilled, realizing my mistake.

Had I just told her she was pretty? Why the hell would I say something like that?

“I don’t know!” I scrambled, wanting to get out of my seat and leave right then. “I just meant, isn’t that usually why girls are jealous of each other?”

Elsie scoffed. “You’re reducing us to very superficial creatures, William. Do better.”

“My bad,” I said, hoping the blip would go unmentioned any farther.

I flexed my hand against my thigh, wondering what the hell had gotten into me lately that I was even contemplating things like whether a girl was pretty or not. When was the last time I’d even noticed something like that?

Elsie broke me out of my reverie by her next admittance.

“She said she was jealous because she thinks I’m free and unrestrained by life.”

“If you knew, then why did you ask?” I mumbled, frustrated.