Surrender (Seaside Pictures #4) - Rachel Van Dyken Page 0,46

at me with those accepting, incredible eyes. “I’m scrappy. I’d win, and I’m beginning to think that I’d kill anything that tried to pull you down when you, Drew Amhurst, were meant to fly.”

She looked away.

So, she didn’t see the tears well in my eyes.

She was too far away to feel the way my heart pounded heavy in my chest.

And she didn’t know that with those poignant words — with that promise —that one of the bags I’d been carrying, the one that said, You’re worthless, fell from my body and was left in the dust.

We talked a bit more then rode stupid Will back to Dave, who still refused to look at Bronte like a person and not his next meal.

I was blasted with numerous calls from Skye, which I ignored, and texts from the guys asking about when I was coming back into the studio.

I’d been MIA for two days, and last time I had been missing… well, it wasn’t exactly a favorite memory, so they were probably worried.

So, before I showered the horse off me, I decided the guys needed an update on everything. They were going to give me hell, but at least they’d know I hadn’t spiraled with a bottle of Jack and line of coke.

No, my new addiction was Bronte, and I knew she would be impossible to quit.

I tapped the group text.

Me: I rode Will today.

Trevor responded right away.

Trevor: Does his wife know?

Will: THE HELL YOU DID! Wait; what? Did you mean to type that? Guys, I swear I was home all afternoon.

Ty: Laaaammmmeeeeee, and cool, bro, you do you!

I laughed. Of course, Ty would say that. The guys from the band AD2 who lived here too hadn’t responded yet, but I would put my money on Zane saying something next.

Zane: First, he can’t come up with any songs, and now he’s riding Will. I think we saw this coming, guys. Let’s be honest. Bro swinging both ways, not a bad thing, means you have more fish in the sea!

Will: For the last time. I. Was. Home.

Ty: So he came to you, then?

Zane: I have such an inappropriate response to what Ty just said.

Ty: Why else would I type it? I was baiting you, and you didn’t even take it! Being an adult has changed you, bro.

Me: As much fun as it was to scare Will shitless, I rode a horse named Will with Bronte today. And I didn’t die!

Will: Bummer.

Me: I’m flipping you off with both hands right now.

Will: I knew I felt some negative energy somewhere… :)

Me: Do you even know how hard it was to get on that thing?

Zane: Gotta be hard to be good… just sayin’.

Will: Oh shit. You hate horses! You cried at the fair when we were sixteen!

Me: Awesome, bring up my trauma.

Ty: I bought you a pretzel to make you feel better.

Trevor: Wait, didn’t you end up in the hospital?

I sighed and typed back, but before I could send, Demetri and Alec both chimed in.

Alec: This may be my favorite text exchange ever. Do tell how he ended up in the hospital after eating a pretzel, and you do know that horses are gentle creatures, right?

Demetri: It’s like I finally discovered I wasn’t alone in the world…

Me: Settle down, bird-hater. This is way different. Birds are small. Horses are big. And instead of hiding in a damn trashcan or shitting myself, I got on the beast and rode it like a fucking knight of the Round Table.

Braden had been added to the conversation…

Braden: I’m so glad I was added so I can send this…

He attached a picture of me clutching the reins without Bronte, riding, pale as a ghost, with the most awkward look on my face.

Demetri: Bro, that’s more white, puny, scared knight than Round Table, just in case you weren’t aware.

Will: Saving this picture…

Alec: Can we go back to the pretzel?

Trevor: He’s allergic to peanut butter, and it was next to one of the peanut butter cookies with peanut butter frosting. Got all over the pretzel. He shoved it in his mouth because, according to young Drew, pretzels are the shit. His face puffed up so bad he looked like a balloon.

Will: I, too, saved that picture.

Me: Don’t make me send you. The. Picture.

Will: Send it, and I will CHOKE YOU!

Ty: Send it, send it, send it.

Braden: What picture?

I clicked send and grinned.

It was the picture of Will with his zit on the Thermos in all his glory.

Zane: Can I just say I love