Page 19 of Abduction
“Well, if you change your mind...” I added, but trailing off before I could do anything. It wasn’t like I could just tell her to get in touch with me. She didn’t have my number, and she might have thought I was trying to hit on her if I attempted anything. I didn’t want her to think I was using this to turn this into something more than it was.
“Thanks,” she replied, offering me a smile. Even though she seemed like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders right now, her smile was gorgeous, strikingly so. I wondered if she could tell how beautiful I thought she was. How much I wanted to lean over and kiss her right now.
I kept my mouth shut, even though I wished I could tell her I was sure she was making a mistake. A guy like that, with a woman like this, he should have been doing everything he could to make sure she knew how much he loved her, how much he valued her.
But that was none of my business. Whatever was going on between them, it was between them, and I couldn’t do much to tip her hand, no matter how much I thought she should have listened to me.
“I should get going,” she told me, rising to her feet once more. “See if I’ve heard from him or anything.”
“Good luck with it all,” I told her. She nodded.
“Thank you,” she murmured. And even though she didn’t say it out loud, I could tell I had managed to make a bit of a difference in her life. I didn’t know where she was going to go after this, if she was going to dump that deadbeat who clearly didn’t deserve her, but that was on her.
I had done what I could. Good deed for the year. I was out now.
Chapter Eleven
Amber
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AS I RAN MY HAND THROUGHthe dresses on the rack, I wondered what Aaron was doing right at that moment.
He had told me he was at work, but I was starting to doubt there was anything to it at all. The way he had been acting lately, I had been getting more and more suspicious about what he was actually up to, and I knew he would be doing everything he could to keep the truth from me. He knew I was suspicious, and he knew I had reason to be, too.
Kimmy had insisted on taking me out for some retail therapy—she had taken me down to the thrift stores in the fancy bit of town, where there were nice clothes we could actually afford. But I couldn’t get my head out of the mess it was in right now, and she could tell.
“What about this?” Kimmy asked, holding up a bright yellow dress with cut-outs around the stomach and chest.
“Yeah, you’ll look amazing in that,” I replied vaguely. She would. She had the body and the confidence to pull it off, but I knew I didn’t.
“I was talking about you,” she laughed, holding it up to me. “See? It would look so cool with your hair...”
“Nah, I don’t think it’s my kind of thing,” I muttered, my voice dropping. I was trying my best to muster up some level of excitement and gratefulness, for her putting in the effort to get me out of the house and out of my head, but I couldn’t manage it. I had become more and more stressed since the night he had come home stinking of booze, and I was sure he was out doing something he shouldn’t have been.
“You should be more adventurous,” she told me. “Do something for yourself. You’ve been so caught up in studying for your exams—”
