Seven Days by Josie Leigh Read Free Book Online Page A

fucking look at me,” he pleaded, prompting me to move my head to meet his eyes, which were wide with fear.
    “I’m okay,” I said, instantly, looking out the window to see we had stopped moving and were in the McDonald’s parking lot just inside Payson’s city limits. “How long was I out?” I wrinkled my brow because the last thing I remembered was turning onto the highway.
    “About an hour and a half,” he answered. “I don’t know where we are going, but I didn’t want to wake you, cause you looked so tired,” he explained.
    “Don’t do me any favors,” I barked, still trying to shake the images of my nightmare. “Next time, wake me up.”
    “You aren’t okay,” he said, scooting closer to me and looking at me so hard I swear he was looking inside me, like he could really see me.
    “We need to take the 260 East,” I said, “I’m gonna grab a coffee inside, you want anything?” I asked, pushing away from him and opening my door.
    His gaze turned disbelieving that I was going to avoid this conversation again, and then I watched it shift again to accepting. Closing his eyes and turning his head away from me, he answered, “No, I’m fine.”
    “Cool,” I nodded, hopping down from the truck and walking inside like nothing had happened, even though my heart was still racing. There was a reason why I didn’t sleep and I’d just gotten a fairly good reminder that I needed to stay caffeinated while I was on this trip with Ryan.
    **
     
    “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many stars in my life,” Ryan proclaimed as we watched the sky from the bed of his truck. After seeing where we were and getting an idea for where we were headed, he’d declared his desire to camp after I’d returned to the truck that morning.
    Ryan had never been camping before, and I thought a night counting the stars would be fun. Honestly, I hadn’t given much thought to where we would be spending the night, so I was grateful he had an idea. We decided to spread the brand new sleeping bags he’d bought in Payson out in the bed of the truck and laid back on the pillows that had been part of his impromptu shopping excursion after I agreed to camp. I think it was his way of trying to distract me from my nightmare and our subsequent disagreement, so I went with it.
    “Always been a city boy?” I inquired, keeping my eyes heavenward.
    “Something like that,” he mumbled, before clearing his throat and asking, “So, oh mighty tour guide, know anything about what we are looking at? Can we see any constellations?”
    “Um, well, let’s see,” I told him, rubbing my hands together and looking over the sky. “Well, that right there is Orion’s belt,” I pointed toward the sky and I felt his body heat against my arm as he scooted closer to see where I was pointing. His proximity was always distracting, but under the cover of darkness, it only made me that much more aware of him. “And that over there is, um, Libra?” I continued, stretching my arm over his body to point in the other direction.
    “Do you really know or are you trying to bull shit me right now?” he asked, his breath was hot against my ear and I had to fight the shiver it caused in my traitorous body. We’d shared moments like this all day. I knew that if I turned my head toward him, his golden brown eyes would be looking at me, at my lips; contemplating if now was the right time to take this flirtation to the next level.
    “Um,” I started, taking a deep breath to calm the chemistry pulsing through me. “Bullshitting mostly,” I confessed, scooting slightly closer to the wall of truck and away from him, “but I really do think that’s Orion. I remember learning about him being in the summer sky during an eighth grade field trip to the Science Center.”
    “Today has been more than I ever imagined,” Ryan said, shifting beside me again to lie down and changing the subject yet again.
    “Oh yeah?” I asked, honestly curious,