Run Away with Me
Page 27
Plenty of emphasis on the lot. I make a mental note to kill her later. Kit glances over at me, clearly struggling to contain his amusement, before turning his attention fully back to Didi. He shakes her hand, introducing himself properly, and it gives me a chance to mentally pull myself together and really get a look at him. He’s six foot but he seems taller, maybe because he’s standing so straight. I recognize the ink marking on his arm, poking out from beneath his sleeve. It’s the same tattoo that Riley has. A Marine Corps emblem. My fingers itch to trace it. Oh God. For months I’ve been telling myself to get over Kit, ordering myself to forget him. Didi rolls her eyes at me every time I mention his name. She’s even added my name on Urban Dictionary under the word pathetic. But now, as I watch Kit casting his spell over her, I can see she may finally be ready to cut me a break.
She’s firing questions at him like she’s a Chinese matchmaker, asking all about his job and his uniform. I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts asking him next how much he earns and whether he has a girlfriend. I would interrupt, but I’m still trying to gather my wits and formulate a sentence, and, truth be told, I’m kind of hoping she does ask him whether he has a girlfriend. Though another, bigger part of me doesn’t want to hear the answer. Because what if he does? Taking a breath, I remind myself he’s been in Sudan for the last nine months living with a bunch of guys, sleeping in a room with a dozen other men, eating in a mess hall. It’s not like he’s been going to parties or out clubbing every night, so it’s highly unlikely he’s managed to find himself a girlfriend in that time.
Kit answers Didi’s questions politely, nodding and giving the standard-issue responses that they’re trained to. In other words, no detail whatsoever. All I know is that he and Riley have been in Sudan along with the rest of their marine detachment, protecting the US embassy in Khartoum. That’s all. They only got back yesterday.
As I listen to Didi and Kit talking, Didi telling him all about how she only moved to Oceanside six months ago and how her big ambition is to finish school and move to LA (thankfully she omits to mention her other big ambition—to lose her virginity), I realize I’m fixating on Kit’s lips, imagining what it would be like to kiss him.
About the Author
Author photograph by Heather Bonker
MILA GRAY is the pseudonym for Sarah Alderson. Having spent most of her life in London, Sarah quit her job in the nonprofit sector in 2009 and took off on an around-the-world trip with her husband and tutu-wearing daughter, on a mission to find a new place to call home. They are currently located somewhere between India, London, Canada, and the US. Sarah is the author of several YA novels, including Out of Control, The Sound, Hunting Lila, and its sequel, Losing Lila, plus the paranormal trilogy Fated, Severed, and Shadowed—all published by Simon & Schuster UK. Visit her online at sarahalderson.com.
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Simon Pulse
Simon & Schuster, New York
Also by Mila Gray
Come Back to Me
Stay with Me
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Simon Pulse hardcover edition November 2017
Text copyright © 2017 by Mila Gray
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ISBN 978-1-4814-9096-2 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-9098-6 (eBook)