Page 144 of Holding On To Good

“You know what?” she said. “I should probably just go home. So you don’t catch whatever it is I’ve got.”

“Are you sure?” Emory asked quietly and while Verity wasn’t sure about Emory’s sincerity level, she knew that even though Emory might not want to leave, she totally would if she thought Verity needed her.

But the truth was, Verity wanted to be alone. She hadn’t even told Emory that she’d gone to see Reed earlier, that they’d had ice cream and she’d told him about the party tonight. She hadn’t told her best friend how she’d texted him last week and had kept the story of his helping her get her car out of the ditch short and to-the-point, leaving out all the tingly feelings and unexpected attraction.

Not because she didn’t trust Emory, but because she had no idea how to even explain her thoughts and feelings toward Reed.

And trying would only make those thoughts and feelings more real.

“I’m sure,” she said. “Are you going to be okay if I go?”

Emory nodded, smiling dreamily as she glanced at Michael again. “I’m good.”

Verity had cut Emory off over two hours ago so while she might still be slightly buzzed, she wasn’t drunk. And she hadn’t incorporated their safe words—pineapple milkshake—into the conversation which meant she didn’t want or need to be saved from either herself or Michael.

Verity leaned to the side, looking behind Emory. “You’ll take her home?” she asked Michael.

He nodded like a bobblehead, all quick and jerky and eager. “Yeah,” he said, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat. Tried again, this time going two octaves deeper. “No problem.”

“Love you,” Verity told Emory as she leaned in for a hug.

“Love you, too. Text me when you get home.”

“I will.”

Using her phone as a flashlight, Verity rounded the front of the truck and made her way through the wooded area between the water and a parking lot. Michael might not have any problem boonying through the brush with his four-wheel-drive truck, but the last time she’d tried it, she’d ended up with a tree branch wedged into the undercarriage and a mind-numbingly boring twenty-minute lecture from Miles about responsible car ownership.

And she didn’t even own her car as was pointed out to her just two weeks ago.

Except she wasn’t going to think about anything that happened two weeks ago. Not about getting busted for coming home late after graduation. Not about her ill-advised decision to go to Jeremy’s party anyway.

Not about how this walk, in the dark, alone, feeling extremely sorry for herself, was almost exactly like the one she’d taken that night down Reed’s driveway.

Nope. Wasn’t going to think about any of that or how these annoying, confusing feelings for Reed were her own fault.

Karmic payback for disobeying Urban. A lesson sent down from the fates to ensure she stays in her lane.

Her own stubborn determination to believe there was more to Reed than his heartbreaker looks, bad boy tattoos and hardass reputation.

If only because she wanted there to be.

There wasn’t. She got that now. And while it’d taken fourteen days to get through her head, the irrevocable truth that Miles had told her just yesterday but she’d brushed aside was now front and center and so firmly lodged in her brain, it’d take nothing short of a few sticks of dynamite to move it.

Reed Walsh wasn’t for her.

Which was good. Great, even. The only reasons she’d thought he maybe, possibly could be had been an internal, previously hidden yen for adventure, a way to test the boundaries of adulthood while still safely surrounded by the love and support of her family.

Or maybe she’d just been taken in by a pretty face.

Didn’t matter. All that mattered was what she did from here on out.

Stay as far away from him as possible.

That new grand plan had her stomping into the clearing like some red-haired Godzilla, ticked off with life and ready to rip a town apart.

So what? She was allowed to be disappointed when she didn’t get something she wanted.

Even when what she wanted was no good for her and would probably cause her no little amount of heartache and pain in the end.

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