Page 112 of The Outsider

He felt like a tight band was squeezing his chest. “Well. If I’ve done anything, I hope... Good. Good.”

But when they went to sleep, he had the strangest swirl of emotions going through his chest. Contentment, desire, anger.

Because he wanted to throttle her family. The people who had been entrusted with taking care of her, and who hadn’t.

He was glad that Bix was so resilient. Angry that she should have had to be.

Mad that she seemed to not understand how extraordinarily awful it was that she had been treated that way.

He really hated that.

He had another day off tomorrow, which was good. He intended to spend it with her.

Because it wasn’t permanent. So there was no point holding himself back at all. Because it wasn’t permanent, and there would be a natural conclusion one way or another.

And it was supposed to be something he was enjoying. Not something that tore his guts out. But then, nothing was supposed to be able to tear his guts out. Not quite like this. And here he was.

He looked down at Bix. Sleeping soundly. She was so small. She wasn’t fragile. And it didn’t matter that life had treated her in a particularly harsh fashion; shejust seemed to get up and get on with it. She was feisty and resilient in a way that...

Well, his response to the things he’d been through had been to shut himself down. But then, Bix wasn’t like her dad.

And Daughtry would always have to worry that he was like his.

Because he could remember. He could remember enjoying going and threatening people. Being tougher than them. Smarter than them.

Bix had never gloried in that.

The world had very few people like Bix. That was the truth. People who had been through hell, and who had come out like this. The world had too many people like his father. Like her father. Too many people like him.

And all he could do was hold himself back. While Bix...

Bix deserved to be free.

Chapter Twenty

Bix realized that she needed to do something with her van. It had been sitting there for too long, and it needed to be started at least. Plus, she had a few things in it that she could probably stand to bring back to the house.

And then she would decide what she wanted to do.

Maybe she would sell it. She could use another vehicle. Something that would be a little bit easier to drive around in.

“Will you give me a jump, Daughtry?” she asked the next day when they were eating lunch together.

“Excuse me?”

“Give me a jump,” she said. “My van. You absolute pervert.” She elbowed him.

They hadn’t made any pronouncements about their relationship, but they were not hiding it. And she had a feeling that pretty much everybody knew.

He drove her over to where they had left the van, still concealed in the bushes, and with his help, she got it started. She drove it around to the edge of the back access road to Four Corners, near the farm store, and parked it there in a turnout.

“We can put a for-sale sign up in it,” she said.

“You’re gonna sell it?”

“Yeah. I don’t really want to drive a big orange camper van into my new life, you know? I mean, I also don’t want to drive it around town. I’m not driving into my new life immediately.” She looked at him, unable to get a gauge on what he was thinking. “That’s okay, right?”

“It’s more than okay. You know you can stay as long as... As long as it’s all working.”

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