Curvy Girls Can't Date Cowboys - Kelsie Stelting Page 0,61
laugh, or I won’t get the story out!”
With a pretend zipper, he shut his mouth and waited.
I sighed. “At the end of eighth grade, I got a really bad respiratory infection, and between that and asthma, it was a pretty serious condition and eventually led to pneumonia.” Pain crushed my chest, just thinking about how hard it had been to get even a gasp of air—the fear that had settled over our household during that time. “I was in the hospital for six weeks, and when they brought me home, I couldn’t leave the house, had to keep away from allergens or other triggers that would make my asthma worse and put me back in the ICU on a ventilator. I watched movie after movie because that was all I could do. Exercise made my asthma worse, so I was pretty much bedridden for an entire summer except to use the bathroom and eat.”
Sympathy melted Ray’s blue eyes, letting me know he was hearing each word and feeling the memory with me.
“My parents were always worried about me, and when they thought I was sleeping, I heard them crying instead. Arguing about what to do with me. I got so depressed I stopped watching movies altogether. I just lay in the dark, and I thought...” I shuddered. “I thought about what it would be like if the lights never came on.”
Understanding crossed Ray’s expression, and he moved closer, rubbing my shoulder.
I didn’t like to think about that time, how close I had been to giving up on life. But I needed to get through this. Some part of me needed Ray to know it all, like if he could see the darkest parts of me, maybe he’d understand the light.
Taking a deep breath, I said, “One day, my mom could see how depressed I was getting, and so she got me a video camera. I took home videos of everyone, made videos on the computer, and when Dad got home from work, we’d all sit on the couch together and watch what I had made. It made me feel like my life mattered because people looked forward to seeing how I experienced it. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked.”
“I’m sorry you went through that,” Ray said. “I can’t imagine being cooped up a whole summer.”
I nodded. “But I’m thankful for it too, because if I hadn’t gotten sick, I wouldn’t have learned about videography, and I wouldn’t have started on the path that got me accepted to one of the most prestigious film schools in the country.”
“Where is that?” he asked.
“UCLA, where else?”
“It’s so crowded in LA,” he commented.
That was the one downside, along with the dirty streets and the rush everyone seemed to be in. “But it will be worth it.”
Ray nodded. “That video you did on the ranch was amazing. You have some real talent.”
“You mean I had some talent to work with.” I winked at him.
Laughing, he shook his head. “Really. Not many people can tell the story of agriculture and tell it well. They’re either too close to it and can’t be unbiased or they look at it through a critical lens. You just told the truth.”
But it wasn’t unbiased. The more time I spent with Ray and his siblings, the more I appreciated the work they put in, and I wondered if my parents knew what they were doing, pushing the organic over conventional groceries. Ray wasn’t the money-hungry businessman running cattle through a dirty factory like I’d come to expect from PETA’s videos. He cared about his animals, and more than that, he cared about sustaining a farm that would last for generations to come.
“I’m glad it did your story justice,” I finally said.
“Now all there is to do is wait for our A+.”
I laughed. “So cocky.”
“Confident. There’s a difference.”
There was. And I was coming to appreciate it the more time I spent around Ray. There were plenty of things I wanted to try and see and do, but right now, all I could think about was Ray sitting in front of me, muscular legs framing the back of the chair, deep blue eyes studying me.
“What else do I need to know about you, Ginger Nash?”
I bit my lip. “That I’m scared.”
“Of what? I thought you were fearless.”
Maybe I had been, but knowing what I had to lose changed things. “What if we’re just going to go back to being strangers and this night is all we have?”