My Heart for Yours by Jolene Perry, Stephanie Campbell Read Free Book Online

stand.
     
    “ Delia. Just go .” It’s all too much. I shouldn’t have invited her out.
     
    She shuts the door quietly. Neither her dad nor his minion looks up, so she must be in the clear. I don’t watch her walk away. I don’t want to see her touch him. I can’t. I turn around in the middle of the road and head back toward town, pleading with my own brain to block out the memory. Please, please don’t let it all come back to me today. But it’s too late. I’m right back there in my room with Eamon the afternoon that I knew I’d officially lost Delia.
     

     
    ***
     
    “ You hungry?” Eamon asked. “Let’s go into town and get something to eat. I don’t want to spend my entire day off sitting here staring at your ugly face.”
     
    “ Fine. Let me show you something first.”
     
    He sighed, but followed me from his room into mine, knowing that there would be something deep-fried in his near future if he just complied.
     
    “ All right, sit down,” I said, motioning to the chair. I turned my back to him and began digging furiously through my closet. You’d think I could keep track of something so important, but I’d always been the opposite of organized.
     
    “ Wait,” I said, momentarily halting my search. “Did you just get home? Who were you out with last night?”
     
    “ I wasn’t out,” he clarified, grinning.
     
    “ Ah, a little walk of shame action.”
     
    “ Nothing shameful about it, my brother.” Eamon laughed.
     
    I reached inside the pocket of a worn out pair of jeans and produced a small, black velvet box.
     
    “ Found it!” I said. The lid made a croaking noise as I opened it proudly. Inside was a thin, gold band inlayed with tiny, pin-prick diamonds. It wasn’t much. It wasn’t even close to what a girl like Delia deserved, but it was all I could do for now. I know you’re supposed to spend two months salary on a ring. Well, sadly, this is what two months worth of pay at Fontenot’s Welding bought. I just hoped it’d be enough for her.
     
    “ And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve lost my appetite,” Eamon said.
     
    “ Don’t be an asshole.”
     
    “ No, no, no,” Eamon said, furiously shaking his head.
     
    “ Yes, E! I’m going to ask Delia to marry me!”
     
    “ Are you fucking insane?” he asked.
     
    “ Nope. I’m so crazy about this girl.”
     
    “ Look at you, all glassy eyed and proud. You’re so ridiculous,” Eamon said.
     
    “ Eamon, come on. You know how much I miss her. I can’t do this for another year. I need to know she’s going to be in my life after her dad is done in D.C. I need her in my life forever.”
     
    Eamon was staring off into space as if he were trying to figure out some complicated equation.
     
    “ Is this because of what happened before she left? I mean, is it a guilt thing?” he asked.
     
    “ That’s it. That’s got to be it.”
     
    “ That’s not it at all,” I said, snapping the box shut. I wish he wouldn’t bring that up. There’s nothing in this world that I feel guiltier about than not being there the way I should have for Delia before she moved. I freaked. Panicked. I was a coward.
     
    But shit, she’d suddenly turned into this crazy, clingy girl that she’d never been before—at the exact time that I’d needed thinking space. It was too much.
     
    “ But, why? I really don’t understand.”
     
    “ I don’t want to be with anyone else,” I said. “She’s it. Delia’s it for me. It’s not over guilt. I love her.”
     
    Eamon rolled his eyes. I wanted to punch him in the teeth.
     
    “ Look, if you’re going to be a dick about it, you can just go.” I said. I shoved the ring box into my top dresser drawer.
     
    “ I don’t think I’m being a dick, Tobin, I think I’m being realistic. You’re only nineteen for Christ’s sake! I know this is the South, bro, but what the hell is the rush?”
     
    “ I don’t expect you to understand, but it’s really pretty damn