Page 47 of Don't Love Me

I smirked. She always had to be a smartass about this shit. But the tightness in my chest had eased over the course of our conversation. She wasn’t mad at me officially. She sounded like herself and not some distraught young woman who’d been emotionally scarred from being stood up for the prom.

Me:We don’t kiss.

Ash:No, you don’t kiss me. Not the same thing at all.

I ended it there because I always ended it when she started talking about either sex, her virginity or kissing. She wouldn’t be upset at my non-response. She would be expecting it.

She was enjoying some time off. She wasn’t going to bother with graduation, but at least I could make up for the prom debacle on her birthday.

Everything was fine.

At least that’s what I tried to tell myself.

Ash being away from me…I meant, away from home…was no big deal. I got up from my perch, and, with a rare smile on my face, walked back to the carriage house to let George know Ash was fine.

As I had no invitation to enter the big house, I told Landen nothing.