Page 24 of Tutored By the Smart Girl

Her face is serious. “I won’t laugh.” She taps her finger on her chin. “The dark?”

Another bolt of lightning strikes and she winces in my arms.

“No.” I chuckle and wag my eyebrows. “Actually, I do some of my best work in the dark.”

She rolls her eyes. “Spiders?”

“Keep guessing.”

Another lightning strike illuminates the summer sky, and a roll of thunder pushes her body even closer to mine.

“Snakes?”

“I thought you’d get it by now.”

“I give up.”

“Clowns.”

“What?”

“Clowns. I’m afraid of clowns.”

“Clowns? Like clowns with a red nose? The ones that make balloon animals?” Adison laughs. “No way. You’re making it up.”

“I’m not. Just ask my brother.”

“I don’t know your brother.”

“True.”

“What happened? You have some bad experience with a clown or something?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. Ever since I was a kid, they just creep me out.”

I rub her back. She shakes and clings to me.

A loud pop rocks the room and everything goes black.

I close my eyes tightly and let out a groan. It’s been torture having her this close to me all day and not touching her, but now that we’re on my bed.

Alone.

In the dark.

My hands coil into tight balls. I want to touch her, hold her, make everything right in her world.

The only sound in the room is Adison’s ragged breathing.

“Oh shit,” she whispers. “That can’t be good.”

8

Adison

One minute it’s raining, I’m slipping into my sandals and the next minute, I’m enveloped in Rush’s arms.

I slip off the bed and peer out the window into the darkness. A few power lines are draped onto the street.

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