“How’s that for fast?” he asked, keeping her hand as he walked her to the door.
“You may just survive college football,” she said when they reached the landing.
“I was driving intentionally slow, you know.” He leaned into her, pulling her hand so it touched his waist.
Her heart pounding, Hailey held her breath as he brought his lips close to hers, but right before he kissed her, he stopped. Frozen in an unnatural lean, Tage stared dreamily into Hailey’s eyes, his lips partially puckered, as if he were stuck in some sort of trance.
Hailey shrunk away from him.
“Tage!” she barked.
He blinked several times, dropped her hand, and straightened up into a great stretch.
“Well,” he said yawning as he turned away from her, “I’ll see ya tomorrow, Hailey.”
With that, he shuffled down the walkway and left.
Once again Hailey stood slack-jawed as she watched his departure, trying tofigure out what just happened.
And to think—she left her rose on his dashboard almost completely unintentionally.
Chapter fourteen
Stolen
“Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.” - Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound
Shoulders hunched, Hailey unlocked what she thought was an empty house. All was quiet, and according to the note Uncle Pix left in the kitchen, he and his brothers would be at the pub all night, and she shouldn’t wait up.
She folded the note away and trudged into her bedroom, heavy-hearted and wishing her big sister were there to talk to her. Slumping onto Holly’s bed, Hailey stuck her face in the pillow and breathed, wondering how long Holly’s smell would stick around, before it, too, disappeared.
As she breathed it in again, a shrill crash rang out—breaking glass—and Hailey shot upright, catching her breath, staring rigidly at her closed bedroom door.
An image of Mrs. Lash holding a hatchet zipped through her head. Her eyes bounced around the room in search of a suitable weapon. Holly’s hairbrush on the dresser, pillow, shoe, stuffed dog—how come everything in her room was fluffy?! Hailey grabbed the only sharp object she could find (a pencil) and crawled out her window, closing it behind her and crouching low in the shadows as she listened.
Heaviness and hush flowed across the lawn and into the darkness where Hailey hid.
The neighbor’s dog, which should have sounded the alarm at the crash of breaking glass, looked down at Hailey in silent curiosity from the second-floor window next door.
It cocked its head at her.
If he’s not barking, it’s probably safe, she thought as she crept toward the front of the house and peeked around the corner.
Wielding the pencil with two hands, like a sword, she searched the darkness. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Hailey took off toward the pub and didn’t look back until she reached the door.
Frog snapped to attention as soon as she burst inside. Panting, Hailey leaned against the jamb.
He eyeballed her briefly. Then he moved her out of the way, puffed his chest out, opened the door, and surveyed the streets.
“Somebody bothering you, Hailey?” he asked in his breathy voice.
“I don’t know.” She swallowed as she caught her breath. “I thought I heard glass breaking, so I dove out my bedroom window and ran here.”
Frog continued looking outside as he stood in the doorway. “Your uncles are out,” he said.
“What? Where?”
“They didn’t say,” he told her, coming back inside the pub. “I can’t see anybody out there right now, but you should probably stay here till Pix gets back.”
