“And beef jerky, Pringles, Combos—original, of course—and some peanut M&M’s for dessert. We can lie in bed and stuff our faces with junk food.”
I wasn’t the type for snacks. I worked hard. I ate real food. Tonight, I had fucked hard and probably needed more than beef jerky, but I wasn’t about to disappoint her. Instead I dropped my jeans, left the boxer briefs on because I thought she would be more comfortable with that, and laid myself out on the bed.
She kicked off her boots, wiggled out of her jeans and joined me wearing only my Henley and holding onto her bag of loot.
“I get the beef jerky and the Combos,” I told her.
“You get the beef jerky, because I’m convinced it’s a food source only a man can appreciate, and we share the Combos.”
I grunted. Sharing wasn’t usually my thing. But it wasn’t like I had a choice when it came to Shelby. She’d already ripped open the bag and was stuffing the cheese-filled pretzel nuggets into her mouth.
Since my hands were bigger, I was able to pull more out in one grasp. She called it cheating, I told her it was evolution.
“This reminds me of summer when I was a little girl,” Shelby said as she now crunched away on Doritos. “My mom and I would be done with school and she would plan these little retreats where it would just be her and me and some junk food. She used to tell me that sometimes womenfolk needed a holiday from healthy living.”
Done with school. “I thought you said your mom was a nurse.”
She glanced at me. “She was. She spent a few years as a school nurse, though.”
She was.Something in my chest tightened and I could feel Shelby pulling away from me, even though she was still pressed against me from foot to chest.
“Shelby—”
“I know,” she said. “I didn’t tell you. I made it seem like…in my profile that my life was perfect and normal. I guess I thought I had to be seen that way. That you wouldn’t have wanted someone who was…not perfect. I lost my momma when I was twelve. It was a car wreck. I haven’t been perfect since then. If anything, I’ve been the opposite.”
I tightened my arm around her and brought her closer so I could kiss to top of her head. “I’m sorry about your mother. But you know I never want you to feel like you have to lie about anything to me.”
I heard the heavy sigh and felt her nod against my chin. “I’m sorry I lied about it. She wouldn’t have liked that. It’s just that none of this seemed real. Now, it’s like I need you to know. I need you to understand what losing her meant to me because it’s part of who I am.”
“I want to know every part of who you are, Shelby. All of it. The good, the bad and the ugly. I’ve never told anyone about my mother before, never wanted someone to know that much about me. To knowmethat much. So I need the same from you. If I’m going to do this, then I need you to be right there with me. That means no more lies.”
She tilted her head back on my shoulder so she could see my face.
“What isthis?” she asked.
“You don’t know?”
I wasn’t ready to say the words. They seemed too ridiculous. Too fast. Too out of reach for someone who had been as closed down as I had been for so long. No, I didn’t want to say the words, but I wanted her to understand.
She nodded. “I think I do. Which makes me scared again.”
Good, I thought. That made us even. Because I knew I was scared, too.
* * *
Hope’s Point
Eli
Doogie had picked us up from Nome on schedule. We’d grabbed my truck from where I had left it parked by the runway. Now, we were driving to Bud’s to grab some real food before heading to Shelby’s cabin.
Suddenly something started to ding, and I realized what might be happening.
“Is that my phone?” Shelby said, reaching down between her legs to root through her satchel to get her phone.
“We must be passing one of those hot spots I told you about,” I said.
I glanced over at her. Thing was going off like crazy in her hands. No doubt her father was worried as shit about her. “You want me to pull over? See if you can call your dad?”
