Miss Trailerhood, Carina Taylor [ebooks that read to you TXT] 📗

inside. White wood paneling, a cream table with bench seats, and light-green—what my mother would call mint—kitchen cabinets.

This was not your grandparents’ travel trailer. This was some place I could comfortably live—and, apparently, so could Riley.

I saw that she had a first aid kit sitting out on the counter already. I grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the kitchen after me. It took two steps to get there, and her movements were stiff and delayed. “Let me look at that foot.”

“No, really, it’s okay.”

I looked up and met her eyes. There were tears there.

“Hey,” I said, my voice softening toward her. “It’s okay. You don’t have to cry. I’ve missed you, too.”

She swiped at her tears with the back of her hand and clenched her jaw. “I’m not crying because of that, you idiot. My toe hurts.”

I laughed and shook my head. Some things never changed. “Fine. Be that way.”

I placed my hands around her narrow hips and lifted her to sit on the little table with wood chairs surrounding it. She squawked and latched onto my wrists.

“No—“

I released her and turned to grab the first aid kit. A loud crash had me spinning around quickly.

Riley was sitting on the floor, and the small table was on its side.

“I told you to stop!” she scolded me as she climbed to her feet.

“Well, excuse me for trying to help.” I yanked the box from the counter and righted the table with a little more force than necessary.

“You’re always crashing everything down around me!”

“Oh, yeah? When?”

“Sophomore year, you—“ She stopped herself as if she’d said too much.

I knew exactly what she was referring to. We’d been backstage for a high school pep rally. She’d been sitting on a tower of chairs. I’d tried to scare her, but it ended up being like every other prank a kid has pulled in high school—not very well thought out. She didn’t get away unscathed. I’d accidentally toppled the entire stack of chairs over. She’d been covered in bruises.

I hadn’t slept for a week out of guilt and fear. I still slept with one eye open, worried she’d pay me back for that stunt. I guessed her revenge-less revenge was well thought out. It had been nine years, and I was still waiting for her to pay me back.

“You know I didn’t mean for that to happen. I also didn’t mean to cause your table to crash down. I’m trying to help bandage your toe. You’re dripping blood everywhere. You’re making a mess.” I pointed to the drips of blood on the floor.

She cleared her throat and folded her arms across her chest. “That’s okay.”

I looked at her in surprise. “It is?”

“Yes, it is. Thank you for your help, but you should go.”

I didn’t roll my eyes, even though I wanted to. It would have been immature. And I was trying my best to not appear like the same annoying best friend’s little brother she was used to me being.

It was hard to undo the damage of someone witnessing you go through puberty. I didn’t know if it was something you could recover from, but I was definitely willing to try.

I pulled a chair away from the table. “Sit down.”

She looked at me with wide eyes. Much to my surprise, she sat down and held her foot out toward me.

I knelt down and guided her dainty foot to rest on my thigh. She’d always been on the shorter side, and her shoe size was laughable next to Nola’s. Her foot looked like a child’s next to mine.

She let out a surprised squeak when my thumb dragged along the arch of her foot. “Still ticklish, I see.”

I smiled, remembering all the times I’d tortured her by pinning her on the couch and tickling her feet. I’d reserved those times for when she teased me about girls in high school.

I grabbed the alcohol swabs from the first aid kit and roughly held her ankle while I wiped away the blood. She hissed when the alcohol hit the scuffed part of her toe. It wasn’t that bad of an injury—only a skinned-up toe—but it gave me an odd sense of satisfaction to hear her hiss.

I was a terrible person, and I wasn’t afraid to admit it.

She’d put me through a lot of pain over the past two years. I was pretty sure she was due a little payback.

“You left.”

Silence. I opened another alcohol wipe.

“You didn’t say anything. To anyone.” I scrubbed away the debris from the skinned toe then taped the gauze on. I wrapped it about three layers too thick, making it look like she had broken her toe and it was swollen excessively. I remained kneeling and released her ankle then planted my hands on either side of her chair. There was nowhere for her to escape to this time.

“You’re alive.”

Riley sighed as she looked down at her lap. Her thick blonde lashes shuttered her eyes. “Yes, I’m alive.”

“You’re not dead in a ditch somewhere. You haven’t been kidnapped or trafficked. You are in Burnside, of all places.”

“Yes, your point?” Her eyes sparkled dangerously.

“You could have called! You could’ve let us know that you were okay. Nola and I have searched everywhere for you. Why did you disappear without a word?” I gripped the chair hard enough that it creaked.

She held my gaze, not even remotely intimidated by my anger. “I can’t tell you, Nate.”

“Why not?”

“There are things that you don’t understand,” she explained. “You should go. Please don’t tell Nola you’ve seen me; it’d break her heart.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek, trying to keep myself from lashing out at her. She was right; I didn’t know why she left. I didn’t know what circumstances had caused her to run and not tell anyone where she went.

But it still hurt. It didn’t matter if she had a reason. She’d left a gaping hole in our lives. I hadn’t realized how much a part of our lives she was...until now, having her close again. It