Phantoms of Fall (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and I wasn’t sure it could ever be
possible again. But at least we could try.
    “Take me home—I need to change my clothes—then
take me to The Hideout. I want to be alone with you.” Bad
things didn’t happen when we were alone. We never fought
when we were alone.
    “Anything you want, Ruby, anything to make you
happy.” He pulled the car back out onto the road and said
nothing more.
    Once we got to The Hideout, I realized he was still
wearing the same clothes he was wearing when he jumped
into the pool to rescue me. “Zach, you should really go home
and change first—you’re going to freeze.” While the days
were still hot, the nights had started to take on the chill of fall.
“I’m fine—I needed to cool off anyway,” he laughed
awkwardly, like he wasn’t sure I would find his joke funny.
    I didn’t laugh. “Yeah…about that.…” I didn’t know
where to start. I never had to have a conversation like that
with anyone. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. He
behaved like a monster, but I still loved him.
Some girls
would have been impressed by a guy getting into fights over
her, but not me.
He had to know I wasn’t cool with his
behavior. Not cool at all.
“Go ahead—let me have it. Tell me what a jerk I am!
    Tell me I’m the worst boyfriend in the world. Just please, please give me a chance to make this up to you. I can’t live
without you, Ruby.” The desperate pleading in his voice
almost stopped me in my tracks, almost made me change my
mind and tell him all was forgiven.
But I had to stand my
ground with him—this had to be the last time he lost all
control like that.
    “Why didn’t you tell me it was a pool party?
Why
didn’t you tell me every other girl there would be in a
swimsuit?” I could tell by his reaction that whatever he
thought I was going to say, that certainly wasn’t it.
“Chloe was dressed like you….” he answered quietly.
    “Zach, you know what I mean! Tell me why.” I was
pretty sure I knew the answer already but I needed him to say
it.
    “I didn’t tell you about the pool because I figured if
you knew, you wouldn’t want to go. But I wanted everyone to
see us together, so they would know you were mine. I never
thought you would fall in, honest I didn’t.”
“What about my second question?” I wasn’t going to
go easy on him.
    He fell back onto the grass and stared at the sky. “I
didn’t want the other guys to see you dressed like that. Ryan
was all over you as it was—I can’t even imagine what would
have happened if he’d seen you in a bikini.”
    Ryan was all over me?
He offered a couple of crude
comments but that was all.
Zach was reading between the
lines—lines I wasn’t even sure were there in the first place.
“He wasn’t all over me. He never even touched me.”
“But I knew what he was thinking. You’re too special
to be treated like a piece of meat.”
     
“And you’re not?” Misty wanted him as much if not more than Ryan wanted me.
     
“What do you mean?”
    “Misty can say the same basic things to you and you
expect me to just blow it off. She even touched you at Open
House and I wasn’t supposed to be mad.” I could hear the
anger growing in my voice.
I was about to be handed the
double standard—I could just feel it.
I was prepared to hand
it right back.
“Yeah, but that’s different,” he said with confidence.
    “No, it’s the same thing! If I punched Misty in the
teeth, you would wonder what was wrong with me! Why is it
okay for you but not for me?”
“Guys are different—they just are. I’m supposed to
protect you.”
    I could see that
line
of questioning
was
going
nowhere. “But you lost control Zach. You went too far! You
sat there and promised me it would never happen again and
then you went after him a few minutes later.” I couldn’t look
him in the eyes when I said, “How can I trust you won’t do it
again?”
    Zach sat up and reached for my hand.
Placing it
squarely over his