Page 19 of 10 Rings I Hate About You
“You know what they say about working closely with someone …” She waggled her eyebrows.
Actual eyebrow waggling.
At me.
About Marc Kingsley.
I was going to die. Right here.
“I should probably—” I gestured vaguely toward nothing.
“Oh, of course! You two will need tocoordinate.” She said “coordinate” like it was a euphemism for something R-rated. I just about threw up in my mouth. “I’ll leave you to it.” She winked.
Oh, dear God. This was not happening.
Adele and Cheryl still sat next to me. Adele bit her lip so hard I worried about permanent damage, and Cheryl the jerk was silently shaking with laughter.
I hated both of them.
“Not. One. Word,” I hissed.
“I didn’t say anything,” Adele squeaked, a chuckle slipped through that she tried to turn into a cough. She didn’t succeed.
“Your face is saying plenty,” I grumbled.
I turned my back on them, and instead of stalking out of there with my dignity sort of intact, I had to put on a smile and respond to people stopping by to tell me how excited they werefor the upcoming animal yoga classes. Their enthusiasm pricked like needles under my skin. Others gave me a polite nod— the kind that seemed to say,we’ll see how well this turns out.
People in Ruby River were friendly and welcoming, but I wasn’t one of their own. Not yet, anyway.
I’d spent my whole childhood in my hometown outside Seattle being the weird kid who disappeared every summer, who talked about a town no one had heard of on the East Coast, who belonged completely nowhere. Ruby River was supposed to be different now that I was living here, and in some ways it was.
Adele and Cheryl stayed by my side and waited for me to speak.
Glamma, the traitor, still hadn’t come by this way.
She’d known I’d never defy her in public. Once she uttered the words “animal yoga,” that was it. It was like she knew my secret desire to feel like a Ruby River resident would stop me from uttering the word “no.”
I lifted a hand to push my hair behind my ear, my fingers trembling like I’d mainlined a hundred espressos on an empty stomach. I shoved my hand into my pocket before anyone could see, the warmth of my thigh doing nothing to stop the shaking. Shock spread through me with a thread of anger. What had Glamma been thinking? Why would she ambush me like that?
And Marc, too. Even if a deep dislike of him simmered just beneath my skin—because that man was the absolute worst human being ever—he didn’t deserve to be thrown under the bus in that way.
I sighed. Okay, maybe he wasn’t the worst, but he wasn’t the best, either. He’d humiliated me in front of everyone tonight. Made it seem like I couldn’t handle this task. A task I’d gotten roped into doing, by the way.
While Marc might not know how badly I wanted to be accepted by this town, his words hadn’t helped. For once,I wanted to feel like I belonged. Like I waswanted.Each pushback from him tonight was a swing of a hammer, driving the nail that was me further into where I’d come from and away from where I wanted to be.
The last thing I could or should do was to turn down this opportunity that Glamma had tossed into my lap like a hand grenade into a hole. Now I was just waiting to see what the fallout would be once it exploded.
I gathered my bag from under my chair and stood slowly, similar to a newborn foal testing their legs for the first time. Irrationally, it was as if I moved too fast, something else bad might happen.
No one else seemed to be in distress or nervous about what Glamma had proposed. Around me, conversation continued as normal. Of course it did—no one else’s world had been upended. This time though, as I focused on the fear of screwing up, I forced myself to breathe through it. Each stuttering breath calmed me slightly.
You wanted this, I reminded myself.
A way to really become a part of this town.
This is how it starts.
A hand brushed my elbow and I flinched before I could stop myself.
