These Unquiet Bones Read Online Free PDF

head-on collision with a Volvo. “Shit,” he muttered, swerving to the right
    Amy climbed back into her seat. “You trying to kill me?”
    He looked at her and grinned. “Not yet. Not today.”
    Amy frowned in what might have been disapproval had her big, slinky brown eyes not twinkled with laughter. “Goober.”
    “Nerd girl.” Pulling into her driveway, Layne indicated the empty carport. “You lucky your dad didn’t see you do that.”
    “I was pretty sure he wouldn’t home,” Amy said, grabbing her CD and backpack. “Otherwise, I’d be crazy to try it.”
    Layne braked to a stop. “You only do crazy things when he’s not around. Why is that?”
    Amy opened the passenger door. “Because I can.”
    He felt there was more to it than that, but he let it slide. “What if your dad won’t let you go to that party?”
    “Then Cat will have to throw it without me being there. Thanks again from the present. I’ll call you later.”
    “Yeah, see ya. Happy birth—”
    She closed the door before he could finish.
    Layne sighed, and watched her stroll along the broken concrete path leading to a small, red brick ranch house decked with light-blue siding and window shudders.
    He watched her climb three brick steps to a short rectangle of concrete that passed for a porch and dig around her backpack, presumably for a key. When she found it, she held it up with a smile and unlocked the front door. Layne sat sullenly behind the steering wheel as Amy stepped into the gloomy house and swung the door shut locking herself away from the outside world like a fairy-tale princess in a decrepit old tower, held prisoner by the brutish tyrant she called Daddy.
    Michael was right about one thing— it was fucked up how Amy’s father controlled her life, and kept her enslaved with his authoritative rules. Layne wanted to be her knight in shining armor and rescue her from captivity.
    But he was no knight. He was no hero.
    He was just a seventeen-year-old loser. A zero.
    No! Don’t go there. Don’t even think that word!
    He thought instead of the person he wanted more than anyone else in the world— his best friend, Amy Elizabeth Snow.
    Now if only she wanted me, too.
    Though he never asked her whether she did or not, he knew what the answer would be.
    She mentioned to him before why she didn’t date. He knew how she felt about going steady in high school— she thought it was a stupid and foolish thing to do.
    But he didn’t care about that. All he cared about was finding a way to change her mind and win her heart.
    Like you did with Marianne Weber? Remember her?
    Yes, but Amy wasn’t Marianne Weber. Amy was different. Amy was just like him.
    Damaged.
    But what if it gets out again?
    Layne shook his head.
    You know you’ll have no control over it. You know what it will do.
    Gritting his teeth, Layne slapped himself across the face. Hard.
    Stop thinking about it like it still exists. It doesn’t!
    Layne thought he heard the sound of distant laughter but quickly dismissed it. His imagination was simply running wild with scenarios in which he finally had Amy, his one and only. He knew she was The One the moment he first laid eyes on her over a year ago, but she didn’t know how he felt.
    He never told her. His fear of rejection— and fear of what it might do to her— was too great.
    But he has reached the boiling point. He couldn’t keep his feelings inside anymore. He had to tell her about his love for her, consequences be damned. It was driving him crazy.
    Layne gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles blanched. But he had made his decision.
    He was going to tell her, and soon. He had no other choice. His sanity was on the line.
    Realizing he was still parked in the driveway, Layne shifted into reverse, pulled onto the road. He opened the center console, and pulled out a lighter and a soft pack of Marlboros.
    Cigarette in hand, he lit up and wondered what he his first step would be.
     

Chapter 7
    Amy stepped into