Page 54 of Stealing Sunshine

I lift a coy brow. “And if I am?”

“I’d say not to get your hopes up for more juicy details. The cheerleaders are my dirtiest secret.”

She quickens her step, like she’s trying to leave me behind, and I huff a silent laugh while matching her pace.

“I don’t believe that.”

The setting sun casts a glow over her face, reflecting the soft sense of longing in her eyes. “Johnny is the twin that got the risk-taker trait. I sat back and let him run loose most of the time. Majority of the stories from my teen years are the ones I told our moms to cover for him when he got home late or not at all.”

“You don’t have to do those things for him anymore. There’s time for you to make some stories of your own,” I state.

Daisy’s steps falter, the curled pieces of hair framing her face whipping when a gust of wind drags over us. “Why does that matter?”

I stall. The idea that slammed into my subconscious just seconds ago refuses to flutter away. We’re close to the bar, and any minute now, we won’t be alone. Someone will pop up, and we’ll have to drop this conversation. I’ll be let off the hook.

I speak anyway. “Is there anything that you’ve always wanted to do but never did?”

“Of course. Most of them are small and kind of stupid, though.”

Doubtful. “Like what?”

She tucks the loose hairs behind her ears. “I’ve never gotten the chance to hike up the side of a mountain and dip my toe in a glacial runoff.”

“That’s not stupid.”

“Have you forgotten where we live? There are mountains everywhere.”

To emphasize her point, she reaches out and points at the peaks towering over the edge of town. They’re snow-capped right now, but in a couple of months, they’ll be painted white from the narrow tops to the thickly treed bottoms.

“I’ll hike with you,” I offer, launching the words off my tongue. “I told you that you didn’t owe me anything more than rent money for letting you stay with me. So, if you insist on helping me with my parents, then I’m going to help you with this to make us even.”

“What?”

“Just say yes so we can go inside.”

She stares at me, looking from one eye to the next, as if she’s searching for the hidden meaning behind my impulse offer. Frustration lines her face when she doesn’t find it. I like the sight of her pouting.

“You’ll really go hiking with me?” she asks softly.

“I will.”

“Then you have yourself a deal, Frosty.”

17

BRYCE

It’slike something out of my worst nightmare, the way everyone turns to look at us when we walk in. The gawking eyes feel like sandpaper rubbing up and down my skin, but I keep myself in check instead of telling them all to fuck off the way I want to.

I touch Daisy’s lower back with a firm hand and guide her through the bar. It’s not the first time I’ve witnessed people staring at her, but it’s for an entirely different reason this time. While I’m used to them pausing to take a look at her breathtaking beauty whenever she steps into a room, this time, they’re pausing to wonder why she’s here with me.

Smug isn’t an emotion I’m familiar with, but maybe I’ll have to get used to it. I think I might like it after all.

Daisy scoffs under her breath and rolls her eyes at a couple I recognize from the town office as they observe us from their booth without a care. The woman tugs her phone from her purse before we’ve even made it past them, and my gut tells me that it isn’t the babysitter she’s texting.

“I’ll never get used to how nosey everyone is here,” Daisy says beneath her breath, words just for me. “In Calgary, youcould walk into any busy spot, and nobody would know who you were or care why you were there.”

“You forgot how small a small town really is, Sunshine. It’s spending a night out drinking and constantly reminding yourself not to get crazy out of fear of waking up the next morning to every single person in town knowing and judging you.”

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