“Why’d you leave without me?” I asked once I’d finally caught my breath.
“Looked like you were busy,” he muttered, his back still toward me.
“Doesn’t mean you couldn’t have waited,” I argued. The only reason I was at the damn fair in the first place was because of him.
Dan shrugged and tried to brush my hold off of him, but I only held on tighter. I wasn’t going to let him run away this time, not when I saw the hurt in his eyes.
If he wanted to avoid me because I pissed him off, fine. But if he was running to suffer alone, I’d have to be dead before I ever allowed that to happen.
I hugged him. My front pressed toward his back, and my arms wrapped around the front of his neck so that he couldn’t get away.
“Clay, what are you doing?” he exclaimed. He looked to either side of us, probably at the people who were no doubt staring. They could look at us all they wanted. It didn’t bother me.
“People are staring,” Dan said and tried to break free. My arms tightened around him.
“Let them,” I replied. “We can give them something new to talk about.”
A small town wouldn’t be a small town without its little quirks. And if there was one thing residents of Kither Springs loved, it was their gossip.
Jones would love it if we finally managed to get our townsfolk to stop talking about him being a masochist. One comment at Hector’s diner a while back, and everyone wasstillmentioning “the kinky Denn boy” weeks later.
“Don’t push me away,” I whispered into his ear. I loved the way my breath had his eyelids fluttering closed for a second. “Tell me what’s going on in that pretty mind of yours.”
Dan huffed out a hot breath and gritted out, “Can we not do this here?” He tugged at the arm wrapped around his neck again, and I loosened my hold around him.
“Let’s go home, then,” I told him, and switched my position so that I was beside him, arm slung around his shoulders now.
Something told me that if I wasn’t careful, he’d slip out of my reach forever.
Like hell I was letting that happen, so I held on tight the entire walk home. The fairgrounds were only a twenty-minute walk from our house, and it didn’t matter how much Dan complained about how hot and sweaty he was with me plastered next to him, I clung to him like he was the only reprieve from this heat.
Once we made it back into our house, Dan shook me off. I let him go, since he couldn’t escape now that I had him home. I basked in the wonder of AC for a second before following Dan to the kitchen.
He pulled out a cold beer from the fridge, passing itto me, and grabbed another one for himself. He quickly chugged its contents, and a stream of liquid dribbled down his chin. I reached out to wipe it away for him.
He glared at me.
“You know you shouldn’t be doing things like that now that you have a girlfriend,” he spat out.
I was taken aback, having never heard him speak like that before.
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” I replied carefully.
“That’s not what it looked like to me,” he said with a snort. He opened the fridge and grabbed another beer, which he proceeded to drain as well.
“Whoa, why don’t you slow down there?” I said, which earned me another glare.
Dan had never been much of a drinker in the first place. At the rate he was going, plus having only a few fries in his stomach, he was gonna end up drunk before I could get some actual food in him. I stood between him and the fridge before he could grab another one.
Dan let out a frustrated growl, swiped a hand through his hair, and stormed out of the kitchen. I followed to find him pacing the living room.
Dan’s hair stood up every which way, probably from constantly running his hands through it. He didn’t even register me entering the room and continued his pacing.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter if she was your girlfriend. If not her, then it’ll be another girl. At the end of the day, you’re going to belong to someone else, and there’s nothing I can do about that,” he muttered. I had asuspicion he was saying it more to himself than anyone else.
I could see where he was coming from. I dreaded the day he found someone to marry. A bullet to the heart might be better than someone else taking my spot, but it was part of growing up. A part of life.
That’s what I told myself, but it never made me feel better. I didn’t think it’d comfort Dan either.
