Page 138 of Coco and the Misfits

“I don’t think it’s that.” Ryder frowns down at his drink.

“Oh, yeah? Then what?” Zach has one leg crossed over the other at the ankle and his foot has been bouncing for the past half hour. I’ve never seen him so nervous before.

I feel the same way. I only hide it better. The thought of losing Coco is inconceivable. The void she’d leave in my life would be a black hole in space, sucking away all the light.

“I think she’s struggling with something,” Ryder says.

“With what?” I’ve seen that shard of darkness in her, too, but I haven’t figured out what causes it.

“That phoenix I put on Zach? I’d like to put the same on her. To help her with her rebirth.”

“What are you talking about?” Zach grouses. “And for the record, I still don’t see why you put that bird on me.”

“Children.” Ryder rolls his eyes. “You’ve been hiding your true desires all your life, pup. You want a pack and a family, but your parents’ divorce scarred you. Just like something scarred our girl.” He frowns. “I’ll talk to her.”

“You?” I mutter.

His lips peel back. “Got a problem with that?”

“No, it’s just that…”

“I never seemed the chatty type?”

I shrug. “Something like that.”

“I speak when I have something to say. And Coco and I… we have unfinished business.”

“Meaning?”

“An unfinished conversation,” Ryder says. “I think I know what’s eating at her and I need to confront her.”

“What is it, then?”

“She doesn’t feel right in her skin.”

“She, what? Why?” Zach protests. “She’s the prettiest, cleverest, sweetest girl?—”

“She’s perfect,” I mutter.

“That’s what I hope she’ll tell me.” Ryder takes a drink from his glass. “She’s shining bright, but she has a dark splinter in her. It shapes her, molds her, makes her even more fascinating, but like every splinter, it hurts and can kill.”

“Goddammit, Ryder,” Zach grunts. “That’s too dark for me.”

“I didn’t know you were a poet,” I put in, more uneasy than I care to admit at his words and going for flippant. “Go and get that splinter out, will ya? I want our girl back.”

50

RYDER

Nobody ever takes me for a soft-spoken, contemplative, talkative guy. And they’re right. I’m not.

Not normally.

She brings something out in me, a quality I didn’t think I owned. She brings out a softness and openness in me I wasn’t aware I possessed.

She brings out the best in me and I want to help her heal, no matter the outcome.

I remember how she listened to my awful story and didn’t judge me. Didn’t accuse me of anything. Didn’t become my judge and executioner but treated me like a human.

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