The Complete Irreparable Boxed Set: Irreparable #1-2
Page 42
His gaze moves away from me to the swing, still swaying ever so slightly. “Your dad used to bring you out here when you were younger, didn’t he?”
I nod, but I’m not sure how much to say. I would’ve expected Raj to be happy to see me—I had loved him when I was a kid, and even into my teens we had remained friendly, always joking around when I visited the shop, which was admittedly less with every year that passed. He has a son a little younger than me, sometimes he’d bring him and we’d play baseball in the open grass out by the tree.
This Raj still seems tense though, on his guard, not the same Raj I joked around with back then.
“Well, I should probably go,” I say. “I’m sorry to have caused a whole… incident,” I add, gesturing around to the armed giants.
“Yes, I’m sorry about that.” He pauses, as if unsure whether or not to go on. “But, Annabelle? It’s not a good idea for you to come back here.”
I frown, taken off guard. Ordinarily I’m good at dodging undesirable feelings, but this is so unexpected that I am slightly offended. “Oh.”
“Nothing personal.”
“It seems personal. I only come…” I want to continue, but stop short. No. This isn’t the Raj I knew, I’m not going to share anything vulnerable with him.
He ages another year or so in front of me. He sighs, looking like he has to put down his favorite dog. “Go home, Annabelle. And don’t come back.”