Page 106 of Take The Risk

​Abby waved me off. “Just like you, thinking everyone was being considerate of you. I’ll have you know they were so enraptured by my brilliance they were speechless.”

​“That’s it.” Delilah snorted. This set off a round of bickering, Abby proving she was just as looney as her sister, and Delilah proving teenage sass was a weapon of its own.

​The sounds of the party resumed, and I felt the first twist of my stomach, knowing they’d all been quiet for me to sleep. It was ironic. I’d nearly died, and when I thought about it, all I felt was sadness at what I’d almost lost. Inconvenience people at my own party, and the anxiety demon inside me woke up and started feeding.

​Ty gripped my head just firmly enough to force me to look at him. “I love you.” He leaned down and kissed me, his firm lips moving softly and sweetly against mine.

​A different hunger that needed feeding unfurled inside me, trumping all other feelings. Ty had done this every time I’d started to spiral since I’d woken up. I was coming to think that if they could bottle him, no one would ever be anxious again. But I was also a selfish bitch and refused to share, so the cure would only be mine.

​At the same time, another hunger, a more physiological one, decided to make its presence known with a loud vicious growl.

​“Hungry?” Ty murmured against my lips.

​The indelicate growl of my stomach was his answer. “I guess I should eat.”

​I sat up slowly with his help, wincing when the movement caused fire to break out in my chest. I breathed through the flames as they burned, until I was sure I wasn’t going to puke.

​Getting shot sucked. Yeah, but being dead is worse, so which would you prefer? the voice in my head asked.

​“Here.” My mom came over, handing me a glass of ginger ale. “Why don’t you get her some food, Ty?”

​Ty tensed.

​“What’s wrong?” I sipped the ginger ale, realizing there was an eerie quiet in the room. The whole house, actually. The only sounds I could hear were the kids playing in the backyard. A backyard that was finished along with the rest of the house thanks to Dalton and the people who’d volunteered to make Winterbourne Manor everything I’d ever dreamed. A home to come home to.

​“It will be fine,” my mom reassured Ty, using the tone of voice I knew as a child meant she wasn’t going to countenance any argument.

​“What will be—”

​She was standing in the doorway between the living room and the formal dining room.

​It all came rushing back. The confrontation on the front lawn, Daddy decking Jeremy, and Cady-Jo.

​“She doesn’t have to stay.” Ty’s hand rubbed my back. He cursed. “You know what, this isn’t a good idea. Mom, you need to go.”

​“She’s not going anywhere,” my mother proclaimed, giving Ty a look. It was a cross between amusement and stern authoritarianism.

​I fixated on Cady-Jo, and she met me head-on. We both remembered the last time she and I were in this room together. It was there between us. Something shifted in her hand, and I didn’t look at it. Everyone was gawking at us, some in curiosity, some in concern, others in confusion.

​Grabbing Ty’s hand, I squeezed, not taking my gaze off Cady-Jo. “It’s okay, Ty.” He fell silent at my quiet words.

​Cady-Jo didn’t look anywhere but directly at me. Not at the way Ty had his arm around me. Not at where my hand rested on his.

​“Baby, you don’t have to do this.”

​I could hear the tension in Ty’s voice, the fear. The anger.

​Finally, I broke away. Ty’s face was strained, his whole big body a mass of anxiety. For the first time, I realized the shoe was on the other foot. I was usually the anxious one, and he the one to offer comfort. I didn’t like seeing Ty like this, knowing how it felt.

​“I love you,” I repeated his words, the emotion behind them unmistakable. Leaning forward carefully—fast movements are a dumb idea, Phoebe—I kissed him. If there was one thing I wasn’t concerned with anymore, it was keeping my love for Ty hidden. My kissing him was a message to him and a message to Cady-Jo. “I’m hungry. Feed me?”

​Ty’s eyes softened, and I felt that happy little burst inside my chest whenever he looked at me like that explode.

​“I’ll be fine.” It was a promise I knew I could make. This time, I was the strong one.

​Ty looked like he wanted to argue, and Dalton came in. “Let’s get your girl some food, son.”

​Ty got up reluctantly. Everyone found reasons to be out of the living room, though I saw Ty didn’t go very far, ensuring he could see me at all times.