CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
N
ot only were the usual suspects assembled around the island, but Manuel sat at the table as well, making me forget my train of thought.
“Manuel?” I questioned.
The conversation cut off as everyone turned in my direction. Nick didn’t, but his thumbs slowed on the screen of his handheld game.
Detritus of shredded cheese and cracker dust lined the counter as if the fixings had animated and done the macarena in lilting trails to their bowls.
“Oh, good,” Dad remarked, gesturing at a prepared bowl of chili someone had set aside. “The guys suggested that you knew him, but you’ve never mentioned him before.”
Bury me alive.
Manuel held a hand to his chest. “Ouch.”
“No offense,” Dad added.
“None taken.” Manuel’s expression projected “Help me” vibes.
I grabbed the saved serving and stood there to eat it rather than sit down. With Dad on one end, Nick on the other, and the four guys fanned out across from me, I found myself inadvertently at the head of this misfit gathering. The spoon froze halfway to my mouth. “Uh…”
My dad laughed, his eyes mischievous. “Eat your dinner, Willa. There’s plenty, despite your friends’ best efforts.”
“Hmm?” I mumbled around my bite, unable to wait after getting permission, spotlight or not.
“I mean these boys can pack some food away—almost as much as you, kiddo.”
Oh, could the floor swallow me up now?
Manuel grinned, watching me squirm like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
He wasn’t the only one either, but I was more familiar with the others.
My impossible appetite was old news to them.
Likewise, they had been around my dad enough that I didn’t overanalyze and nitpick every little nugget of knowledge Dad deigned to share.
“So…” Dad gestured with his spoon to encompass Ralph, Hunter, and Kolton. “I’ve met you guys.” Because he couldn’t seem to help himself when it came to dad jokes, he pointed at Nick and me as well. “And you two seem familiar as well.”
I groaned. “Dad.”
Thankfully, Manuel laughed, stepping in to put me out of my misery. “No, it’s fine. I get it, Mr. Walker. I work in the office and helped Willa find her classes the first few days, so I guess that makes me a tour guide.”
“A tour guide? It must have been quite the tour to earn her phone number.”
I screeched, “Dad!”
“What? I’m just saying.” He adopted his most innocent expression.
Yeah, him and serial killer clowns.
Innocent as could be.
Kolton shifted, his spoon clanking as he scraped his porcelain bowl and shoveled in a heap of food. His jaw clenched more than normal, but that could have been from chewing.
Enough mysteries looped on repeat that I didn’t pay it much attention. Conversation continued, even though an undercurrent of being watched very carefully prevailed.
With Dad’s quips, every person in this room now knew how much food I could pack away, so I ate freely.
However, it got me on the topic of who all knew what. Dad must have come upstairs, saw me passed out, and let me sleep rather than drag me awake to talk about… school for one. Had they called my parents because I’d gone missing? Did they tell them a lot more?
My head tilted in thought.
Now that pure exhaustion and fumes weren’t dragging me along, it seemed odd that their opening statements had been about my whereabouts and not the fact that the FBI and chief of police had both stormed the school, asking—read demanding—an audience.
As a parent, that would have been the most pressing issue.
Did they even know?
It kind of felt like they didn’t. Had Veritas whipped out some ironclad confidentiality clause that gagged the admin?
My eyes rounded. If my parents hadn’t heard about the federal interrogation from the principal, should I tell them?
Oh, God.
What if I had no choice? What if—
My gaze cut to Manuel. He’d been in a discussion with Ralph, but he looked up at my attention.
What if he unknowingly spilled the beans?
“Manuel!” I blurted, making Nick and Dad jump. “Sorry, I just realized, can I talk to you on the porch? There was something I meant to ask about our science homework that I missed.”
Since he’d ditched class right alongside me, he quickly recognized the charade to get some privacy. “Oh, right. Of course!”
Dad watched the two of us. “You don’t have to go outside to talk. It’s just schoolwork.”
“Yeah, but this one is very boring—beyond tedious. You’d be bored with the details. Honest. So—”
Dawning realization melted onto Dad’s face, and his eyes bounced between Manuel and me—well, less realization and more assumption.
I wanted to scream out that it wasn’t what he thought, but Dad thinking we were secretly together played right into my hand.
Dad cleared his throat. “Oh! I see. Yeah, you two go ahead. We’ll just clean up here. Won’t we, boys?”
Boys? The only boy here was Nick. Did the guys take exception to my dad calling them that?
A blind person couldn’t mistake Hunter for anything but a man, for one. Even if they couldn’t see Hunter’s resting killer face and his massive size, his words and gruff manner spoke volumes to the fact that he didn’t have time for childish antics.
“Of course we will,” Ralph agreed, standing.
Manuel joined me, and the burning sensation between my shoulder blades screamed that at least one person watched our departure.
Not a mystery you need to solve, my inner voice chided, and she was right. I had enough mysteries on my plate without taking on nonlethal ones.
Outside, I ushered Manuel to the side, the opposite direction of the swing.
How many times had Ben and I sat there talking for hours?
With an open layout living room, a dad who worked from home, and a bedroom shared with my younger brother, the white-washed seat had been about the closest semblance of privacy we got any time we hung out here.
Sometimes, I still saw us, happier, lighter, laughing, and getting to know each other like we had all the time in the world.
My heart twinged, and I rubbed it.
Manuel glanced from my face to the swing and back twice before he joined me leaning against the column. “So your parents don’t know about today?”
“I don’t think so. Skipping school? Most definitely.
Before their fight and Mom leaving, they only brought up ditching.
If Mr. Richards had mentioned anything else, they would have led with that, right?
” My teeth tugged my lip and bit, something I did when I was stressed. If Ben were here, he would have—
Manuel’s hand cupped my chin, and he used his thumb to pull my abused flesh free. “Don’t bite your lip like that, mouse.”
The sun was setting over the treetops. True sunset wouldn’t be for another twenty minutes, but isolated like this in the middle of a clearing, dark fell earlier at our house.
His eyes reflected the dying embers of the sunlight, and those twin orange orbs studied me. He looked like a Greek god, lit from within by an infernal fire.
I cleared my throat and glanced away, breaking the moment and burying anything messy. My brain picked up on a distraction. “How did you get here?”
Only Hunter’s Jeep and Ralph’s truck were parked in the driveway, framing my vehicle with a physical manifestation of their protective nature.
“Ah, my mom’s fiancé dropped me off.”
Right, both his dad and cousin had died, presumably in a car accident, and now his mom was remarrying. That had to be rough. Was it the first time he’d gain a stepdad?
Was this my future as well? At least, what was left of my future?
I would graduate in May. Maybe I’d go off to college, but Nick…
Nick didn’t have to deal with ghosts. He could handle an evil stepparent or two.
I pushed aside the issue. If I survived to my eighteenth birthday, I’d revisit the topic then.
It felt a bit too much like tempting the universe to count any eggs before they’d hatched.
“So…” Manuel cleared his throat and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “No talking about anything that happened today in front of your dad? I can do that. It’s not like we’re going to be texting buddies, especially not if he thinks we’re dating.”
I choked on air and coughed to the background soundtrack of him laughing. “You noticed that?”
“Your dad’s not exactly subtle,” he teased.
Some of the embarrassment waned, yielding to a grin. “No, he’s not. So why’d you come over anyway?”
He held his hands up. “I’m not a stalker.”
“I didn’t say you were, but now I’m wondering if I should be concerned. What’s the saying about people who deny something too much?”
“Trust me. This boot does not fit.” He scratched the back of his neck. “In all seriousness, I was worried about you. You didn’t answer any of my texts, and I didn’t have another number or way to reach you. Yes, okay, I realize you warned me about that, but since you shared your address—”
“You stole it.”
“—I figured I’d make the trip. Well, my future stepdad did, but you get the idea. It’s not weird, is it?”
Walking downstairs with Ralph and seeing Manuel sitting around the island with my friends and family shocked me to my core, but once the surreality wore off, it fit.
“No, it wasn’t weird. You looked like you belonged there.” At his smug grin, I jumped to add, “I mean, everyone appeared to get along well, and you didn’t seem to mind my dad’s lame jokes or Nick’s weirdness—”
He shushed me. “Willa, calm down. Your family is cool, and your brother is not weird. I have four little brothers. It’s just how they are sometimes, and your dad is actually hilarious. Scary, but hilarious.”
“Scary?”
He waved off my concern. “It’s a guy thing, but trust me. You won the lotto with them.”
My heart warmed at his praising words. “Thanks.”