She wasn’t wrong. He knew his place was built on a ridiculous scale, especially for a single guy. It was plenty big enough for the family he’d always secretly wanted.
Big enough for all my ghosts…
“I’m sorry,” Evangeline said, pulling him back out of that particular hole before he had a chance to fall too far. “I didn’t mean it was excessive or anything. It’s a beautiful home.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I had in mind that my parents would be spending time here. Itisa bit excessive just for me.”
“It’snotjust for you,” she said right away. “This is Leo’s home and he’s going to be able to have his whole class over for birthday parties. You could do scavenger hunts and everything, just like on TV. And you can have a nice big Christmas tree.”
Grayson found himself smiling again. What was it about this girl? Her spirit was practically buoyant. It was lifting him up in spite of himself.
“Oh,” she said suddenly, pulling her phone out of her pocket.
The warm, joyful expression on her face was gone as soon as she looked at the screen.
“I, um, I have to take this,” she said, rising from her chair.
“Sure,” he said.
But she was already scurrying down the hall toward her room, as if she couldn’t even pick up the call in front of him.
It reminded Grayson that no matter how he felt about Evangeline, he really didn’t know her at all.
At least not yet.
12
EVANGELINE
Evangeline’s heart pounded as she closed the door to her room behind her and picked up the call.
“Hello?” she gasped, desperately wanting to shout her brother’s name, but not wanting to give herself away if someone else had his phone. “Henhouse Extended Car and Truck Warranties.”
“Do you have a warranty for a worn-out pair of Sketchers?” her brother’s familiar voice asked.
“Rory,”she sighed in relief. “Thank goodness. What’s going on? How are you?”
“Easy, tiger,” he teased her. “I’m just fine. And it’s going to be okay here.”
“What happened?” she asked, remembering to whisper now as she crawled into bed, cradling the phone by her ear.
“The cops had a warrant,” he told her. “That bike was used in a crime, I think.”
“Youthink?” she echoed.
“They didn’t exactly tell me everything,” he said. “They were going to take me in, but André Washington reminded them about Grandpa and said I was a good kid.”
André was the uncle of one of Rory’s friends. He had joined the force years ago and clearly Rory had been lucky that he was on the scene.
“They took everything I had in the shop as potential evidence, except my tools,” Rory went on. “And they told me I can’t do anything more for the Vagabonds.”
“Obviously,” Evangeline agreed.
There was a moment of silence.
“What does that mean for you?” she asked. “Doesn’t the gang understand that you can’t work on their bikes anymore? They can’t expect you to go to jail just to keep the peace?”
“One of their bikes was taken,” Rory reminded her. “Now they say I owe them for the bike.”
