Free River's Return (River's End Series, #3) by Leanne Davis Page B

could you do to convince her you can do that? And change her life?”
    “Well… hell!” She ran her hands through her hair. “There are websites, videos, and seminars… there is proof everywhere of the successful treatments for what she’s got. If she’d give me a half hour, I could prove it to her.” Her face got red as she suddenly became worked up. She never swore, or nearly yelled like she was now at Shane.
    “Then do it,” he prodded her, his tone softer and more encouraging to her heated anger.
    “How? How do I possibly do that?”
    “You barge in there and demand it. Nice won’t get the job done, teacher. Nice won’t get Erin shit out of life. She needs you. You can help her and you’re going to deny it to her because you’re too nice? Does that seem logical to you? It sure as hell doesn’t to me.”
    She was breathing hard and her chest was rising and falling. He made her feel like Erin’s inability to read was somehow her fault. She didn’t refuse to teach Erin. She didn’t deny Erin help. Erin kept refusing her offers of help to teach her. It was Erin’s fault, not Allison’s.
    But still, a nagging voice in the back of her head reminded her she had never again, pursued Erin about it. She guessed what her problem was, but never pushed her to remedy it. She often saw Erin around town, or coming to get Charlie, and even counted Erin as a close, friendly acquaintance. But not the kind of close friend with whom she could comfortably just talk, or express herself as openly and forcibly as she did with Shane. She glanced up at him. That was kind of weird. Why was she so much… herself with him? He was not someone she could even call a friend or an acquaintance. He was… what? The man who was doing her neighbor? She shook her head. That didn’t matter. Shane was just Shane. 
    But Erin? She was always so polite and kind. Allison felt generic with her. She certainly couldn’t just start telling Erin what to do. That would be too controlling, too forward, and just freaking weird. They did not share that kind of relationship.
    But the things Shane said resonated with her, and soon made her stomach kind of twist. Yeah. It was that big of a deal. She might have been able to help Erin learn how to read. No small thing, not in today’s world. But did she have the right? To convince Erin just to hear her out, she’d have to go beyond their relationship. Erin might think she was bitchy, rude, forward… but she gathered Shane’s point was: so what? So what if Erin thought that? What if it really worked? It didn’t matter at that point how much Erin liked her. It only mattered that she could be helped.
    She stared at her fingers, which she laced together and then pulled apart. The bright red nails drew people’s eyes from the endless fabric of freckles that dotted her skin. Her skin underneath was ash white, never to be tanned. She finally sighed and licked her lips. “No, it doesn’t seem very logical. I’ve thought about it. I just don’t know what to do to get her to hear me out.”
    He stood up suddenly. “I know how. Come on.”
    Allison stared up at him, startled. “What? Now? What do you mean?”
    “I mean we go take care of this now. Three years is ridiculously too long. And if Erin could hear what I just did, I’m sure she’ll follow your advice. She’ll do it. Nice, be damned. Being effective? Changing her life? That shit needs to happen; and it needs to happen now.”
    She rose to her feet. “What did you hear?”
    He stopped at her sliding door and turned back to her. “I heard you. Not formal, polite, educated Mrs. Gray, but caring, passionate, wants-to-change-the-world Allison speaking. That’s who she needs to hear, down and gritty. She needs to hear the truth and have reality slapped in her face because otherwise, she’ll never commit to trying. She needs you. I believe it now, more than anything. She’ll never respond to anyone else. I know she will to you. Now come on,