Page 43 of Fall for Me

This was why I’d barely left my apartment. Seamus had given me unreasonable expectations about what people outside my family would think of my looks.

But seeing that man unable to stop himself from staring made my stomach tie into a knot. I pulled Lola around the corner, keeping my chin up. She barked, and when I looked down at her, she cocked her head at me as if to say who cares about that guy anyway?

As we turned onto Indigo, I let out a breath. I’d forgotten how lovely this street was—it was lined with trees, their leaves orange and yellow and fluttering prettily in the wind. I scanned the storefronts—there were a couple of offices, a little boutique, and a new coffee shop I didn’t recognize.

But no Reilly and Sons.

“Ow!” I exclaimed. Lola had pulled hard this time, yanking my arm in my socket. I almost lost hold of the leash. “Lola, chill!”

She cocked her head at me and I laughed. In response, she jumped on me, her paws on my waist, her happy, tongue-hanging-out mouth open.

“Hey!” I said, trying not to keep laughing. I didn’t want to encourage this—but she was so cute.

But when she dropped to the ground, she froze. Her whole body was in a tense line. She was staring at a tree on the next block—another orange-leaved maple.

It was fine. She’d probably seen a leaf flutter to the ground. Still, I took the leash off my wrist, intending to wrap it tightly around my right hand.

But Lola chose that moment to explode into a run, and before I could register what was happening, the leash burned through my fingers and popped free.

“Lola!” I exclaimed as she took off like a shot. It wasn’t a leaf she was after. She was bounding for the flash of gray twisting up the tree trunk. A squirrel.

My heart flew to my throat. The tree was across the street up ahead.

“Lola wait!” I yelled. “Stop her!” I cried to a couple at the end of the block. But instead of reaching for the dog, their eyes were glued to me, the freakish girl running down the street.

I didn’t have time to care. My heart pounded as I sprinted after the dog. The street up ahead was bigger than this one, cars going at speed across Indigo, and Lola was headed straight for it.

I wasn’t going to make it. I needed to go faster. I threw off the heavy bag of dog accouterments, vaguely aware of the sound of a thousand pellets of pressed dog food spilling across the sidewalk.

The people stared, bewildered, as I ran by. “Why didn’t you stop her?!” I screamed.

“Lola, stop!” I screamed. I heard the jingle of bells as shop doors opened behind me.

Someone shouted behind me, telling me to stop.

I knew what an image I made, with my bandaged head, wild hair, and open, screaming mouth. But all I cared about at that moment was Lola. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. It wasn’t just because she wasn’t my dog, but because I needed her to be okay.

Lola leaped into the street without a second thought and I held my breath as I ran, cringing, waiting for the thud. I squeezed my eyes shut, even as I kept running, and when I did, I saw Seamus’s face, lit up in the cab of his truck. An ungodly crunch behind me.

Blackness.

I screamed, coming to a stop, my hands over my face.

But when I opened my eyes, peeking through my fingers, I saw Lola had made it through. She was at the tree now, her paws on the trunk, barking madly.

Relief flooded through me and I laughed wildly. I wanted to cheer.

Then a horn blared. I turned. A car was coming toward me, fast. Screeching as it braked.

I was in the road. Frozen.

The car was going to hit me.

Then I was shoved, hard, from behind. I flew onto the sidewalk, my hands and knees scraping against the asphalt.

But I wasn’t alone. Someone else had fallen with me, and I didn’t have time to see who it was before I heard the voice. “Chelsea!”

Rolling gravel. Only loud.

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