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I nodded. “Okay.” I wasn’t too certain what I had agreed to until Ryder took the phone again.
“Do you know her number?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No.” And man, my throat was really starting to burn.
“I’ll call Cory and ask him.” After a few more clicks on the keypad, Ryder pressed his phone to his ear and waited a second before he winced. Slapping it closed, he sighed, sending me an apologetic look. “Everyone must turn off their phones at night.”
I wilted, shoulders slumping, head falling. What was I going to do now? The next person I wanted was my mother. But how could I explain anything to her?
Oh, dear Lord, how was I going to tell my mother?
Could I tell my mother?
Would she even believe me?
I kind of thought not. We were on the outs. I’d been treating her awful lately. What if she believed I was attempting some stupid melodramatic teenage stunt, hoping to break her up with her new husband?
No. I couldn’t tell her. A month ago, there’s no doubt in my mind, she would’ve already known by now. But everything had changed since then. Barry had made certain of it.
After that, what I wanted to seek were my Hillsburg friends. But I hadn’t heard from them in forever. Adam’s explanation of why they’d shied away from me sort of made sense, but it still hurt to be abandoned. Plus, they were too far away tonight.
Laina would’ve been my next choice, but I suddenly realized I didn’t know her last name to even begin researching how to get a hold of her.
“Look,” Ryder said, cutting into my thoughts. “Why don’t I just take you over to Mindy’s house?”
I wasn’t sure Mindy was the person I wanted, either. We spoke at school, and I liked her better than I liked anyone else in their group, yet I’d never confided anything personal to her. And this would be the biggest confidence I would place with anyone. But what else was there to do? I couldn’t just stand around Ryder’s bedroom all night, huddling under his blankets.
I mutely nodded, accepting his suggestion.
When I met Ryder’s gaze, he opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but then he thought better of it and turned away.
“Let me throw some shoes on.”
He strode to a door and opened it, momentarily disappearing into his closet. When he returned, he held a pair of shoes in one hand and a couple thick coats in the other.
“Coat,” he called, tossing one toward me so it would land on his bed just to my left.
I glanced down and stared stupidly at the thick black leather jacket. When I lifted my face, I found Ryder already wearing both shoes and buttoning his letterman’s jacket up to his throat, bundling himself warm and snug.
Noticing my confused expression, he lifted his eyebrows. “As much as I’d do anything to help you right now, you can’t wear my blanket out into the snow.
Shifting my attention back to the coat he’d offered me to wear, I licked my cold, dry lips. “Why…why haven’t you asked me what happened yet?”
Pausing as he slipped on a pair of really warm-looking gloves, Ryder lifted his face. “Would you tell me?”
I thought about it, then shook my head.
He almost smiled; his lips tightened as if he wanted to but knew he probably shouldn’t. “That’s what I thought.”
Dressed and ready to go, he strode toward me and gently took a handful of his bed cover. I let him tug it away. After tossing the blank
et onto the bed, he dug out the leather jacket and held it open for me to slip my arms into the sleeves.
If I’d been in my right frame of mind, I would’ve sent him a get-real look and jerked the coat from his grasp, putting it on myself. Actually, I would’ve declined to wear a piece of his clothing altogether. Talk about the level of my crush shooting through the roof. Being surrounded by his coat, his smell cloaking me, it was way too dangerous.
But being as shaken as I was, I stiffly followed his prompting and lifted my fingers, putting them into the armholes.
Once my hands poked through the ends, Ryder turned me to face him so he could zip the coat closed. Then he stepped back to give me an encouraging smile. “If you’re lucky, you might find an extra pair of gloves in the pockets.”
