Chapter
One
Bodi
Moving is a pain in the ass.
Doing it twice in a twelve-month period sucks even more. Especially when you move to a different state both times. Get new roommates both times. Have to get a new freakin’ driver’s license both times.
The only thing I hate more than moving is going to the driver's license office. Every state calls it something different. Here in Georgia, it’s the DDS—Department of Driver Services—and even in this small Atlanta suburb, there’s a line. A really long line.
I’d leave and come back tomorrow, but there’s no guarantee that tomorrow will be any better and there’s a summer thunderstorm raging that makes me yearn for California.
I’ve been in Georgia for a week, and I’m already over the heat and humidity. I’ve spent most of my life in California and Arizona so walking outside and breathing in air so thick you can almost see it is new to me.
“—I’m getting my learner’s permit. Whether you like it or not. Stop babying me, for heaven’s sake.” A girl with a tousled, curly ponytail and tortoise shell glasses is on the phone, and she whirls, running right smack into my chest. “Oh! I’m so sorry.”
I reach out a hand to steady her, peering down into a pair of huge golden-brown eyes.
Wow. She’s pretty. Really pretty.
And blinking up at me in surprise.
I assumed she was a teenager from behind but the woman staring up at me apologetically is older than that. Not by a lot, maybe early twenties, but she’s not a kid either.
“No worries.” I smile.
Whoever’s on the phone is still talking to her, and she sighs, tapping her foot. “Fine… then I’ll find someone else to teach me. I’ll be home in an hour or so, okay? But I have to go.” She turns and stalks toward the elevator without another word.
Too bad.
I’m curious about what the person on the other line was saying, even though it’s none of my business. Apparently, I’m more than a little bored. Before I can decide whether or not I want to follow her—because she’s kind of cute, in a buttoned-up academic kind of way, and I could use a distraction after my week of moving hell?—
“Forty-seven!” someone yells out and I realize that’s me.
I head to the desk, turn in my paperwork, and wait as a harried-looking employee types frantically into her computer.
“Hmmm.” She frowns.
Uh oh.
“You’re going to have to go upstairs to get your picture taken. Our system is down.”
Great.
I glance over to where the pretty lady with the golden eyes is still waiting for the elevator.
Cool.
“Okay,” I say amiably, taking back the papers she proffers.
“Station four should have an operational camera.” She huffs again. “All the computers keep going down and I can’t finish anything. This damn storm is really messing up my day.”
“Yours and mine both.” I give her an understanding smile—she can’t do anything about the weather so there’s no reason to be a jerk.
But my goal now is to catch up with Gold Eyes before she disappears.
So, I hoof it to the elevator where she’s tapping her foot again, impatience and annoyance practically pouring out of her. I’d go out on a limb and venture to say that her day seems worse than mine, though I can’t possibly know that for sure.
