Free Inbetween (Kissed by Death, #1) by Tara Fuller

him.
    “Emma…” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
    “What if there is some sprit following me around?” I sat up on my knees and tugged his hand away from his face so he’d have to look at me. “If there is, they’d probably talk to us, right?”
    “A spirit . Seriously?” Cash shook his head. “Maybe we should wait until I’m drunk to have this conversation.”
    My throat ached, but I had to get the words out. “What if it’s Dad?”
    He grabbed my hand and folded it between his warm fingers. I could smell Red Hots on his breath and the leftover paint on his hands. The only sound was the rattle and swish of the washing machine on the other side of the house.
    “It’s not your dad,” he whispered.
    I blinked back a tear. “How do you know?”
    “Because your dad was a good guy.” Cash squeezed my hand. “He was too good not to go to Heaven. If there’s a God, and I know you believe there is, he wouldn’t let your dad wander around down here all alone.”
    “Then what if it’s something else? Someone else?” My voice trembled like glass ready to shatter. “What if it’s whatever has been trying to hurt me the past two years?”
    “Those were accidents,” Cash said gently. “When you got home from Brookhaven, you said you understood that.”
    I’d said whatever they wanted me to say to get out of that place.
    Cash let go of my hand and folded his hands in his lap. He had that worried look on his face. It was the same look he had when he visited me at Brookhaven. When I told him about the memories that didn’t belong to me. When I told him I knew I was going to die. God, I hated the way he was looking at me.
    “I’m not crazy,” I whispered. “I just want to try it.”
    He sighed and his shoulders slumped. “I know you’re not crazy, but I don’t want you to give your mom any more ammunition. I can’t lose you like that again.”
    I nodded, but the emotions crawling around inside me made me want to scream. Cash was my person. He was supposed to be the one who believed me when the rest of the world thought I was nuts. But maybe I was. Maybe he was right to say the words that came next. The words I didn’t want to hear. The words he didn’t want to have to say.
    “Did you take your pill today?”
    I picked up my remote and turned on the TV so I’d have somewhere else to look. So that there would be something but this god-awful silence between us and the resentment brewing in my gut.
    “Stop it.” Cash grabbed the remote from me and pointed it over his shoulder to turn it off.
    “Stop what?” I grabbed my pillow and tucked it against my chest so he wouldn’t see me shaking. “It was a stupid idea. We’re done talking about it.”
    His dark eyes burned into me. “Don’t do this.” He stared down at me, jaw clenched. “Don’t shut me out.”
    “You don’t want to hear what I have to say,” I said.
    “It’s not that! I just—”
    “You just what?”
    Cash stopped and looked at me like he knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere. He was right. He shook his head and slipped off the bed the way I wanted to slip out of my skin. He was going to be able to walk out my door and leave all this behind. But I couldn’t. Not when it was my life. Not when it was going to be my death.
    “It’s happening all over again, isn’t it?”
    I felt like I was being analyzed under a microscope. Diagnosed all over again. I wanted to scream at him to stop looking at me like that. I squeezed the pillow tighter. “I’m fine. Just go home. Please.”
    Cash sighed. “If you’re so fine, come with me to the bonfire.”
    “You don’t need me there.”
    “I do need you there.” He hesitated for a moment, then kicked the side of my bed and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Who else will talk me out of making a complete ass of myself?”
    This. This was why I loved Cash. Why he was the one stable thing in my life while the rest of the world spun out of control around me. He always knew