Maddie and Wyn by Cameron Dane Read Free Book Online Page A

alone the proper tools to help. Still— he looks so painfully alone —she had to try.
    Facing Wyn, looking up at him from her lower position, Maddie blurted, “I saw you answer your phone inside,” deciding to attack with the truth. He immediately pushed back into the bench, and she went on, “I saw you look for Ethan after you took that call. Whoever you talked to, whatever it was about, your instinct was to have the comfort of your brother. Now I know I’m not Ethan, and I know you don’t think of me as an equal or an adult, but maybe just for tonight I can be an ear for you and help.”
    With that said, Maddie waited quietly, each second that ticked by feeling like an hour, watching Wyn for the slightest response. Wyn remained stoic, unblinking, his focus averted from eye contact, like stone.
    It’s not working. Worrying the edge of her lower lip, rubbing the tips of her fingers together through her gloves, Maddie stared down at the snow-covered ground as her heart and her mind battled over which could race the fastest. She dug the toes of her heavy winter boots into the mix of snow and dirt, creating little circles, and fought an internal battle to hide, a sensation akin to how she felt five days a week when she entered the school cafeteria, knowing she would always sit alone to eat. Wait. Maddie’s chest seized, but her head had already formed the thought: Be vulnerable. Give him something personal; tell him about some of your life.
    Even as the follow-up thought was, no, don’t , Maddie’s blood pumped much too fast, and she looked up at him before she could chicken out. “I don’t have a lot of friends.” With those words, he jerked his attention to her, and Maddie employed every ounce of willpower in her not to duck her head and hide. “I don’t really have any friends in school, if you want the truth. Ever since Aidan ran away, when I was so little, I’ve been kind of different. After he left, I became super attached to Dev, poor guy. I guess I figured if I stayed close to the one brother I did still have, and if I liked what he liked, and basically never let him be alone, he wouldn’t get the chance to disappear the way Aidan did.”
    Memories of losing Aidan for over a dozen years, of waking up one day and having her big brother gone, at a time when she was wasn’t even old enough to go to kindergarten yet, let alone comprehend the complex reasons for a brother disappearing in the middle of the night, filled Maddie with as much anxiety at eighteen as it had those many years ago.
    Maddie wiped sweat off her upper lip, even though the temperature was cold enough to make the liquid freeze. Still, she held onto Wyn’s stare and let him see what she’d never exposed to another soul. “Doing what I did, attaching myself to Devlin, isolated me from other kids my age. I can comprehend that now, but as a little kid I didn’t really know what the effect would be on my life. By the time I got into middle school and then high school it was too late to change; my interests were set in place, they were real, and they didn’t coincide with what most kids in high school are into, especially other girls. I couldn’t find a way in—at least not one I felt right or good doing—so I stayed on the fringes, and Devlin remained my rock, even though at that point I figured I was probably cramping his style and his ability to make friends too.”
    Maddie smiled then and even rolled her eyes heavenward, although the unintentional humor was aimed at herself rather than God or fate. “Then I started working for Mr. Corsini, and I started getting interested in cars. It didn’t take long before I realized having a job at an auto body shop while most teens have jobs at the mall was another thing that made me different. And even though at that point I was getting to know Mr. Corsini, and the other guys around the garage were sweet to me, it was still just another thing that made me different and odd to the other kids