Page 119 of Betting on You

“Fuckme,” Austin muttered in disgust. “I can’t believe you’re doing this. Is this about Becca?”

“What?” I asked, watching the play of emotion on Austin’s face. He knew he was out of line with that comment, but I could tell he meant it. “What would it have to do withher?”

He shrugged and said in a quieter voice, “You tell me.”

“She texts, and you jump,” Eli said, holding up his hands in the universalI’m innocentpose. “I’m not trying to be the asshole here, but it’s what you do.”

I kind of wanted to hit him, because hewasbeing the asshole, but he was also not wrong.

“I really have to go,” I said, walking past them as I headed for the front door. “Come on. I’ll give you money for alternate plans and we’ll do it tomorrow.”

“This is such bullshit,” Eli growled, sounding almost pouty as he opened the fridge, presumably to grab his beer. “Where the hell am I supposed to take Dana now?”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREEBailey

Charlie pulled up in front of Walgreens, and when I got into his car, he immediately gave me a pitying smile. “Awww, Glasses, your face breaks my heart.”

I knew my makeup was a little smudged, but his reaction told me how much worse it was than I’d imagined. I’d been so numb as I’d killed time in the pharmacy, waiting for him, that it hadn’t occurred to me to pull out my phone and check my face.

“Thank you for coming to get me,” I said, closing the door and staring out the window as it started raining.

“Thank you for getting me out of the house,” he replied, putting the car in drive. “I was bored as hell, but now I have someone to play with.”

“Wait—weren’t you having people over tonight?”

“Tomorrow,” he said, turning up the radio.

We went to his apartment, and I was glad he let me be silenton the drive there. I knew I was being irrational and emotionally childish, and I’d maybe spoiled what should’ve been an amazing moment for my mom by leaving, but I didn’t want to have a logical discussion about it.

I felt crushed. It was silly, because the world wasn’t ending and no one was dying; people’s parents got remarried all the time.

But I was devastated.

It probably meant that I was an immature child, but every time I thought about the fact that my mother was getting married, a heavy weight settled on my chest. It was suffocating, this panic that I had about the life changes I could no longer avoid.

I looked out at the night through the wiper blades moving across the windshield and wondered how long I had before everything started, before the tiny fragment that was left of my family was going to be erased and changed into something new.

I took in a shaky breath as I remembered that my dad was moving. On top of this, my dad and his new person were moving out of the old and into the new. It felt like the world was crumbling and changing under my feet, and there was nothing I could do to slow it down.

I wasn’t a child; I knew I’d adjust to leaving the old behind.

But dammit, I wasn’t ready to let go of it.

Ofus.

Of life as I knew it.

Very soon—it might’ve happened tonight, actually—the roles would shift. It would no longer be her and me, with the rest of the world as something we navigated. It would be her andhim, and Iwould be part of whattheynavigated together, as partners.

When we pulled up in front of the building, Charlie came around to my side of the car and crouched down to the ground.

“What’re you doing?” I asked, not really in the mood for silliness.

“Giving you a piggyback ride.” He looked at me over his shoulder, his face earnest and sweet, and said, “Hop on, Bay.”

I hesitated, but then I thought,What the hell.

I climbed onto his back, and it felt good. Wrapping myself around Charlie’s big body felt comforting because it was like he literally—and emotionally—hadme. He hauled me up the stairs, and I closed my eyes, resting my cheek on his strong back.

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