Free Before You Go (YA Romance) by Ella James Page A

can’t go back.”
“Why not?” she asked, feeling the tension in his arm around her waist.
“Oh, you know. ‘You can never go home.’” He sounded almost flippant, and even through her pain, Margo could tell he was being evasive.
“I’d go home if I could,” she offered.
“I wouldn’t.”
  “Why not?”
If she thought he was tense before, now he was miming a brick wall. His body tightened, inanimate and hard. His fingers around the reigns were clenched into a fist.   He let his breath out, a long, painful-sounding sigh, and Margo wished again she could take her question back.
God. He wasn’t going to answer her. They were going to ride all the way back in total silence, with her head throbbing, and her—
“Going back there is…I don’t know. Stifling. I probably should go home more, see my mom and little sister, but I don’t make the time.”
For a while, she thought that was all he was going to say. Then he sighed, like just thinking about home made it hard for him to breathe, and in a quiet voice, he said, “I don’t think home’s the same for everybody.”
“You have your college place,” she offered.
“The good ole dorm.”
“I bet you’re a pro at cooking Ramen.”
He chuckled. “I’m surprised you know of Ramen.”
“I wasn’t reared as a Zhu. We only had three houses.”
“Just three.”
“One of them was a beach house, and the other was a townhouse in Washington. Isn’t that normal enough?”
“Normal enough,” he agreed.
She was trying to be light, and she could sense that he was, too, but there was sadness in his tone. She glanced over her shoulder to meet his eyes; they seemed flat, more grey than blue. “You’re not exactly Mr. Normal, either, are you?”
He snorted. “Not quite.”
She’d meant to tease. She figured he must be fine with being some kind of super genius, but the subject quieted him. She tried again.
“Tell me about your sister. Are you close?”
“I thought I told you to talk.” But he answered anyway. “Yeah. We always have been. Even though I’ve lived pretty far away, Maggie and I keep up.” His chest expanded, and she could sense his silent pride. “She’s a great girl. Smart and funny.”
She knew that instant that she was going to ask. She waited a couple of heartbeats to get her courage up, gauging the distance between where they were, passing between two spindly trees, and the barn, a couple of dozen yards ahead. Deciding it was short enough to walk if she had to, Margo took the plunge.
“Could you do me a favor…please?”
“What?”
“Tell me the truth: Why don’t you like me?”
“ Wh —”
  “I understand you wouldn’t be thrilled that you have to…be so close to me, but you seemed to get pretty pissed about the room, and eating dinner with me. Like, overly. So, is it something about me? It doesn’t make any sense unless it’s that. Or…I don’t know…you’ve got a girlfriend?” She blushed as she said it. “I feel like we get along well right now. Is there a reason why we can’t be…friendlier?”
Her words hung in the muggy air, and the only thing Margo could hear over the pounding of her heart was Gamma’s hooves thumping against the grass. She leaned slightly forward; her head throbbed, distracting from the suspense of his answer.
She needed it quick, like snatching off a Band-Aid, but Logan just sat there…like a mannequin. Just as she opened her mouth to say, forget about it , he took a deep breath.
“So…um, what was the question again?”
She shut her eyes, and kept her own voice dead neutral. His arm around her waist had gone to stone. “The question was , what did I do to make you dislike me?”
She felt him nod, and she thought her head might explode. “You didn’t do anything to make me dislike you, and I don’t.”
“Then what was up with the room, or that dinner on the porch, and you avoiding me the last two days. And you refused to show me around the barn. Refused rudely. Or maybe I imagined