Contents (57)
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sharon Gosling
Gilly stormed past her, heading for the back door. Edie watched her go, feeling weighted by defeat. She’d thought they were getting somewhere. The future looked good in so many ways, for all of them. But Gilly absolutely refused to fill in the college application. They’d all asked her about it, to no avail. It seemed she’d changed her mind about wanting to go to college, and that was that. Edie just couldn’t work out why.
Ezra appeared in the print room window. Edie heard him call after Gilly as she crashed through the garden gate, but the girl didn’t stop. He watched her go and then opened the door to the print room.
‘What’s all that about?’ he asked as he came in.
Edie shook her head. ‘I was trying to get to the bottom of why she’s suddenly decided she doesn’t want to go to college, but she won’t tell me. She’s going to miss out on this huge opportunity, Ezra, and she may never get another.’
Ezra came close enough to run the backs of his fingers down her arm, and Edie’s heart stuttered both at the touch and the implication of care behind it. It was still so new, this closeness between them. She felt it as a fragile thing, a breakable thing. Was that how Gilly felt about the future they had all been urging her towards? Something so delicate that even reaching out to take it could cause it to shatter, so that it was better not to try at all? Edie didn’t know how to ask her that, or even if she could help, were this true.
‘Maybe we should go ahead and fill it in for her ourselves?’ Ezra suggested, and Edie loved the deep rumble of his voice so close to her. Not that she’d tell him that, obviously. He was already spending enough time grinning at her like a fool. ‘Have you got spare copies of the forms?’
‘I can print them out,’ Edie said. ‘I’m not sure how ethical that would be, though. We’d have to answer for her and that doesn’t feel right.’
‘I thought you said she had actually started filling in the first lot you got her?’ Ezra asked, as he followed her through the living room and into the kitchen. It was surprising, she thought, how comfortable they had become in each other’s company, and so quickly. The thought made her anxious, as if she were leaving herself open to something.
‘She did,’ Edie told him, opening the fridge and taking out the bottle of wine they hadn’t finished the evening before. She reached for two glasses, and swallowed the little pulse of anxiety that sparked through her as her fingers struggled with the grip. She stepped in front of Ezra, hoping he hadn’t seen her hesitation. ‘I saw her working on it for a few days before she suddenly decided she wasn’t going to go through with it. This is what I don’t understand.’