Page 16 of Stealing Sunshine

The headlights are tinted blue when they fan over me and then illuminate the street. I wait for him to put the car in park before trying to stand.

A car door slams. “Christ, Bryce. You’re going to get sick.”

“Yeah, Dad. I am.”

He holds me up with an arm around my middle before we’re moving. I lean against him and keep my protests hidden when he lifts me off my feet and carries me to the passenger door.

“I was going to follow you, but Poppy told me to leave you be. Clearly, I should have listened to her,” he says.

I roll my eyes and tuck myself into the seat once the door is open. He reaches in to help with the seat belt, but I push his hand away.

“She was right. I called you, didn’t I?”

He sighs, backing up. “Yeah, you did.”

The door shuts, and I close my eyes, leaning my head back. It smells faintly like the cologne he always wears, but it doesn’t irritate me. Probably because I bought it for him.

I keep my eyes shut as he slides in beside me and clicks in his seat belt. The radio goes so quiet I can barely hear the song playing before he asks, “What’s up with you?”

“Not you too, D. Not right now.”

“You called me to pick you up in the middle of the night, drunk off goddamn vodka when you know it has this effect on your body, and you don’t want me to ask what’s wrong?”

I swipe a hand down my face and look at him. He’s waitingfor me to speak, two eyebrows lifted expectantly and lips slightly parted as if he’s got a rebuttal at the ready.

“I don’t want to share my place with someone I hardly know.”

The words feel sticky coming up, and they sound the same. I’m a pathetic liar on a regular day, but under the influence, I’m just plain ridiculous.

“You sure it has nothing to do with who you’ll be sharing a place with? Daisy is?—”

“Yeah, I know what Daisy is, Darren,” I hiss before he can finish. “Just take me home, please.”

“It might help to say it out loud, Ry. It’s only a matter of time before everyone else pieces it together. My sister already has an idea.”

I tense, whipping my head to scowl at him. “Don’t tell anyone if you want to live.”

“Not planning on it. I’m just saying, maybe you wouldn’t get into these moods if you weren’t?—”

I stick my hand out and tug at his beard hair. When he curses and shoves me off, I smirk, crossing my arms.

“Take me home, D.”

He does, and in a town the size of Cherry Peak, I’m being tucked into bed in ten minutes flat. With a kiss to my forehead that I wipe off immediately, he leaves, locking up as he goes.

The last thing I think about before I crash isfuck vodka.

6

DAISY

“So. . . you would really rather stay with Bryce Lemieux than me? I’m trying not to be offended here, but damn.”

Kristen—Kiki to me—kicks her legs out in front of her and sighs. She’s lying beside me on the football field, both of us staring up at the clouds in the sky. The grass is thick beneath our backs, groomed to perfection by the old man who runs the rec centre in town. Cherry Peak might be small by design, but it doesn’t lack the necessities.

There’s a fire station, town hall, small RCMP office, and locally owned supermarket to start. Add in the coffee shop, diner, bar, Poppy’s pole studio, and Anna’s salon, and I’ve never felt like I didn’t have what I needed here.

Well, other than a university or a single decent rental.

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