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She folded her arms across her stomach and sighed. Her voice came out very small, warring with the crickets and water. “Taylor told me that she’d talked to you and that you hoped to see me there. My friend Kara picked my clothes.”
Oh.
Suddenly he felt like he’d had a hand in this, though he hadn’t known anything about it. “Layne,” he said. “Taylor never talked to me. I swear ”
“I know! I figured it out, okay? That’s why I feel like such an idiot.”
Navigating this conversation made controlling fire seem easy.
“But I would have ”
“Don’t. Please don’t.”
“Layne, let me ”
“Your turn!”
He drew back and sighed. “Truth.”
“How did your parents die?”
The words felt like a weapon, as if she were trying to hurt him for asking her something that obviously left her off balance.
But his parents’ deaths were just another bolt of guilt that struck him on a daily basis.
“In a fire,” he said flatly. “They were arguing with the parents of some kids who used to hassle us. The house burned down. Not everyone got out.”
She stared at him for the longest moment. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. Why would I make that up?”
Her mouth worked like she wanted to say something, but the words couldn’t quite make it out. He knew that expression, and he couldn’t take one more ounce of pity. So he made his voice hard. “Your turn.”
She licked her lips. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Truth.”
He wanted to fire an arrow back, something to make her flinch, too. “Why did Ryan Stacey say you were deformed?”
Of course it did make her flinch, but it made him feel like an ass.
She didn’t look at him, but she answered. “Because I have scars all the way up the right side of my body.”
“Yeah? From what?”
“From a house fire,” she said. “My house burned down when I was five.”
Shit.
Now he was the one staring. “Layne,” he ground out. “Layne, I’m ”
“I really don’t like this game.” Her legs swung off the tailgate, and her feet crunched on the rough pavement.
“Stop,” he said. “Layne ”
“See, Gabriel?” she called over her shoulder. “I’m not perfect either, right?”
Then she was running, and the darkness swallowed her up.
CHAPTER 24
