“I’m checking in on your mom,” I tell the teenager.
“She has me. She’s fine.”
“Ifyouneed someone—”
“I just talked to my dad and my grandma. They’re both on the way. Thank you.”
I’m just off my game enough that I almost miss the subtle hint that she’s lying. And if she’d left it atMy dad’s on his way, I might’ve believed it.
Definitely would’ve had some fun body twitches while I believed it too.
Or maybe I’mhopingshe’s lying.
Does Maisey have a good relationship with June’s paternal grandmother? I haven’t heard anything about her.
“Your mom’s mom is on the way?” I ask.
“Yep.”
I frown at her.
She doesn’t budge in her story. “Isn’t she, Ms.Charlotte?”
Charlotte looks at me, then back at June. “Was that your mom calling for me? I think it was. Hold that thought, kiddo. I’ll be right back.”
She dashes deeper into the house.
June lets her pass, then takes a wide-legged stance in the entryway from the foyer into the living room, her expression telegraphing thatshe doesn’t appreciate being abandoned by the only other adult in the house.
I lift my brows at June. “You’re pissed at me.”
Her eyes narrow.
I slouch and lean in the doorway, going for nonthreatening, which is a challenge but necessary. “Not gonna flunk you or tell you that you can’t be our extra on the team if you don’t like me. Talk to me. What’s on your mind?”
“I don’t like it when you come to my house. My teachers never come to my house.”
Fair. I wouldn’t have liked it when I was her age either. “I live in your gatehouse. Used to come up here to hang out with your great-uncle all the time.”
“Did you look at him the way you look at my mom?”
I have a love-hate relationship with teenage brains. So much potential. So much intelligence. And when we want them to aim it at things like math and learning to drive and mastering the art of power tools, instead, they get up in our business. “Usually worse. He thought he was handy around the house, but unlike your mom, he tended to cause more problems than he fixed.”
“Abigail says she saw you two hiding out while you were supposed to be coaching practice a few weeks ago.”
Fuck.Also,phew. I have zero doubt if they’d seen us kissing, this story would be bigger thanSomeone saw you two hiding. “Ran into her right after she got off a call with your grandmother and wasn’t too happy about me overhearing any part of it.”
June freezes, and her dark eyes go momentarily wide, then narrow into tiny slits.
I lift my hands. “Not gonna do anything to hurt either one of you,” I say quietly.
Charlotte has to be listening in.
Not a soul in town that wouldn’t be.
“How would that hurt me?” June’s coiled tighter than a rattlesnake facing a honey badger.
“I ever tell you I was about your age when I moved here and had to finish high school in a new place too?”
