“I’d like to try skiing one day. I’ve always wanted to go sledding,” I told him. “Did you grow up here?” It was hard to picture him small in the first place, but when I did, I imagined him as an emo kid in all black. Maybe one day I could get away with asking him.
He tipped that handsome head back toward the sky, and I watched as a few snowflakes landed on his cheeks. “We moved here when I was four. We lived in California until Kilis broke that kid’s arm; then our parents moved us out here. I’ve never tried sledding. What do you need?”
He’d never….
I kept my lips pressed together to not make a face of disbelief that he’d never gone sledding before, or that he’d given me another sliver of knowledge about himself. “I don’t know,” I told him. “A trash can lid maybe? Cardboard?”
He thought about it. “I’ve got cardboard boxes in the garage.”
I brightened as he got up, dusted off his pants, and reached for the boot that had fallen off my foot. Without missing a beat, he bent over, lifted my leg up by the heel, tugged it on, tied the shoelace, and held his hand out to me, pulling me straight up to standing.
It took everything in me to just smile at him a little—almost shyly—and he gave me a weird look before turning. I followed him around the house toward the massive garage I’d only walked by, set off to the side of the house. It took me longer to follow because it was hard to walk in his boots without them getting stuck and falling off.
“Are you all right?” he asked as he opened the side door to the building and waited.
“Yeah, I’m tired and a little icky, but so much better thanks to you and your healing vibes,” I confirmed, going through the doorway, trying not to huff and puff so much. “I’m not exhausted enough to skip out on having fun.”
Inside, he stopped by the right wall where there were indeed a few flattened boxes leaning against it. There were two cars covered in tan canvas material, and enough room for at least another car or two. He always left his out.
He picked a box up, set it aside, and grabbed a bigger one behind it. Alex held it, then looked at it in a different angle, then held it by me before leaning it against his hip. Then he started picking through the rest of them. He was quiet for a while, so I wasn’t expecting him to casually ask, his attention still on the cardboard, “Why haven’t you told me what my grandmother showed you?”
I reached over to take the box he’d set aside and held it up, fake inspecting it. It was stiff and sturdy.Keep it cool. Keep it cool, Gracie.
Could I get away with ignoring him? Feign being hard of hearing? Maybe I could….
I started wandering off to the side, pretending to see something in the corner of the garage.
“Gracie,” he called out in his too-calm voice. “What did she show you?”
Shit.
I didn’t want to tell him, that was a fact. Part of me wanted to talk to Agatha about it first, even though we’d only met once. I wanted… I wanted to make sure I hadn’t imagined what I’d seen.
Even though I was certain I hadn’t. It had been too vivid. Too real.
It was fucking troubling.
And it explained way too much.
“She’s shown me two things,” Alex added almost softly, at least for him.
“What?” I broke my silence to ask, even though I knew damn well his comment was bait.
He didn’t hesitate. “Your house,” he actually replied.
I moved to the side and looked at him. “Really?”
He was still facing away, picking up another box and inspecting it. “The cat clock on your wall. The print of your couch. I told you about the cat.”
He had? When? My throat went dry. The skin on the back of my neck prickled. It took me two tries to talk again. “You were so mad….”
“I told you I was in a lot of pain, but some part of me must have remembered.” He didn’t look at me as he picked up another big piece of cardboard. “It’s why I didn’t ask you to contact anyone for me. I knew I was supposed to be there.”
The hair on the back of my neck rose. “When? Did she show you that, I mean?”
“A few years ago. That’s when I learned about you,” he answered easily.
Goose bumps rose on my arms too, but I wanted to tell myself it was because my pants were soaked through and I was cold. But that wasn’t the case. I swallowed hard. “If your grandma is so powerful, why didn’t you call for her?” I asked him. “When we were in the cell?”
