Piecing Together Sydney (A Sydney West Novel Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

better with him gone, but I didn’t. I felt like a hole was inside me that would never fill, but I grew used to it. Jason was a good distraction, only I wish I knew more about his father. I poured my entire heart and soul to Jason, and he never told me his father was abusive before he went MIA. I learned that from his mother right before he proposed to me. Talk about a whirlwind.
    We bonded over having fathers absent from our lives and badass moms, but part of me felt like he was hiding something. Some kind of shame or secret that he didn’t think I could handle. I gave him everything, and I wanted to feel like he was doing the same, only I didn’t know how to say it. He locked up at the mention of his father, more so than I ever did. I’d finally cave and tell someone how much I hated him, though I’d later regret it once they gave me the look of disgust, like I was the worst person alive.
    Amelia and Hunter took their marshmallows out of the fire and built their s’mores with chocolate and graham crackers. Amelia liked hers barely brown and it appeared Hunter was the same way. Jason kept his in the flames for a few more seconds and removed it. His marshmallow had a dark coating over it.
    As he smeared the marshmallow on a graham cracker and built his sandwich, he looked over at me. His face became a question mark, seeing my marshmallow still in the fire.
    “You like it burnt to hell?”
    A giggle escaped from me. “No.” I took my stick out and held it between us. The marshmallow was still on fire. “I like to burn the fuck out of them and toss them.” I blew the fire out. Smoke curled toward the heavens.
    Jason wrinkled his forehead. “What?”
    Amelia smacked her lips, then swallowed her bite. “It’s true. She did that in Girl Scouts all the time and freaked out the other girls. They thought she was morbid and avoided us afterwards.”
    Three pairs of eyes bored into me. I shrugged, replacing the black thing on my stick with a fresh white marshmallow. We moved past my habit of burning fluffy marshmallows and talked about surfing while sitting under the stars.
    Spending the night with three friends having fun was better than being VIP to the hottest club on the Sunset Strip.
    After a couple hours we packed up and put out the fire. Amelia and Hunter headed to the shower together. A burst of giggles came from the bathroom every so often.
    Jason and I had to wait for the shower. I put my board away on the rack hanging on the far wall of the living room. Everyone else had theirs leaning against the wall.
    “We never picked this up.” Jason bent down and held my summer photo album in his hand.
    “We had better things to do.” I glanced over at the couch, remembering how much I loved having him inside me.
    He sat down on said couch, flipping through my summers. “Damn, you were wild. Do you remember half of these?”
    I moved across the room, planting myself right next to him. I pointed to the photo of my old high school friend, Gaby, and me at some concert. “This picture was two summers ago, but I received it last summer from my friend.” I pointed to Gaby. “We were fucked up on acid or E, I don’t remember, and this concert I have no knowledge of whatsoever. I asked her about it last year, and she doesn’t remember it either.”
    He cocked his head to the side, studying the past me I saw more as a ghost now. “That’s intense. The only thing I tried was pot.”
    I ran my hands up and down my thighs, not comfortable with the topic of drugs. “I tried more than I should have, but never meth. That shit ruined my father and I swore I’d never touch it.”
    He nodded. “Yeah, that shit is bad. I’m glad you kept that oath to yourself.”
    “Yeah.” I touched his knee. “Speaking of messed up fathers, you can talk to me about yours if—”
    “Shower is open!” Hunter held Amelia close to his chest, they were only wearing towels.
    “We’re going to bed. Night!” He towed her to their bedroom.