Page 11 of Don't Take the Girl
I rifle through the first aid box in search of the supplies I need to patch her up until I can get her home. I have nothing to say to Riley, and the things I want to say are awful. I knew she could be an arrogant brat, but this…this is a new low, even for her. All this time, I thought I owed Riley something, but I didn't. She's a big girl; she knew what the deal was the second she answered my call. There was a mutual benefit to our arrangement, but that's gone.
"Are you really choosing her over me?"
My hands find my intended target: an Ace bandage. I squeeze it in one hand before closing the box and setting it on the floor. I raise off my knee and turn around slowly.
"Am I serious? Are you?" Her mouth opens slightly. "Laney almost died back there in an incident you caused."
I may not have seen it, but I can combine two and two. Riley stormed that dock and found Laney. A few seconds later, Laney was in the water.
"I didn't push her in the lake," she counters coldly, hand settling on her hip in practiced innocence, her eyes flicking over everyone gathered around as she calculates the impact of her words as though the fact that she caused the fall is merely an inconvenient technicality.
"I'm not doing this with you." I shake my head and turn back to Laney.
Riley grasps my wrist. "London..." she says my name as one last plea.
My eyes lock on where her hand touches my skin, her touch igniting a fire in my veins. I never liked it, but now I hate it.
"If you want me to choose between her and you, fine…" I pluck her hand off my wrist. "HER. It will be her every time."
"You're going to regret those words, London Hale."
"Not possible." I turn back to Laney, immediately tending to her knee and avoiding her eyes. I don't have time to analyzewhatever I do or don't see there. I have things I want to say but not here. "Go home, Donovan. I'll be taking Laney home, no one else," I say, knowing he's still at my back, waiting to swoop in.
"Is that what you want, Laney?" he asks.
She's quiet, and it's that silence that has my heart rate spiking and my eyes drifting to hers. I just chose her in front of everyone without hesitation or regret, but her choice remains unspoken, hanging in the air between us. I want her to choose me with the same fierce certainty that drove me into the water for her. Not because I'm standing here dripping and desperate, not because I saved her, but because something in her recognizes something in me that makes all other options impossible.
"London can take me home," she says, her eyes pinned on mine with what feels like recognition, until they're gone, and I'm downgraded to a convenience when she adds, "We're neighbors, and you live on the other side of town. Thank you for helping me tonight. I'm sorry you had to get wet."
"Okay…" Noah stutters out dejectedly. "Call me later."
"Yeah." She nods in agreement. "I'll call you tomorrow."
"Well, if you're leaving, so am I," Sydney says, stepping up to the side of the truck.
"You should stay. The night is still young, and Cooper is your cousin. I'm wet, and my knee hurts. I'll be fine," Laney offers.
I finish wrapping her knee, and Sydney jams her finger into my chest. "Get my best friend home safe, Hale, or I'll have my brother kick your ass."
I grab her finger. "I'm pretty sure your invite is the reason she's in this situation to begin with."
"You know what I mean, Hale."
My eyes narrow slightly before releasing her finger. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Sydney," I dismiss her pointed comment. Any ownership of feelings I have for Laney will be given to her first. They won't be acknowledged in a flippant comment, because she deserves more than that. I open the frontdoor of the truck and reach across, grabbing my football hoodie before returning to Laney and tossing it on her lap. "It's all I have. I figure it's better than being wet."
I watch as she clutches the fabric in her fists, staring at it in her lap before her big brown eyes latch onto mine. "Thanks."
"Call me when you get home," Sydney says before retreating to her boyfriend's side. "Let's go, Justin. I'll say hi to Cooper, and then we can leave."
I watch them return to the house, my gaze lingering a little longer than it should as I take a minute to collect my thoughts. It's not until my skin starts to prickle with that unmistakable electricity—that sixth sense of being observed—that I turn back to find Laney curiously staring at me.
Her fingers nervously twist in the drawstrings of my hoodie. "You didn't have to?—"
"Don't even think about finishing that sentence. There's no alternate ending where I let anything other than you coming out of that lake alive happen."
"Right." She nods in agreement before dropping her gaze to her lap. "What I was going to say is, Noah would have?—"
"Would have been too late." I tip her chin up until my eyes are on hers. "He didn't have the chief with him." I pat my pocket. Standing here, staring into her eyes, unravels me. I swear I can almost feel the ground shift beneath my feet. It's that off-balance feeling that pulls me back. "Do you need help?" Her eyebrows rise in surprise, and I close my eyes, realizing my mistake. "I didn't mean with the shirt. I meant turning forward in the seat." I gesture to her knee.
