She arches an eyebrow. “Seriously, Lollipop Rainbow, don’t you have anything better to do right now?”
“You okay?”
Rolling her eyes, she pulls her purse back onto her shoulder and hops down the steps. Her arm brushes mine when she passes, moving toward her car. “Of course I’m okay. I’m going out.”
She’s in her Jetta within seconds, the door slamming and music blaring, then she disappears down the street.
“Kimmie—” Tim barrels down the front steps holding out a brown paper bag. He scans both ends of the now-empty street, and his face falls.
“You just missed her.”
“Ah, shoot.” He sighs and looks at the lunch bag in his hand. “I saved some of last night’s banana bread for her. She usually likes eating the leftovers the next morning.” Scratching his head, he glances up at me. “Guess she can have it when she gets back.”
I smile, and his lips lift. It’s really sweet, the way he is with her. Even if it does hurt my heart that he doesn’t know little things like that about me.
“What are you up to this weekend?” he asks.
“Tomorrow, I’m going back to the nursing home, but no plans for today. Actually, I was kinda hoping to catch Joshua. Looks like he already left though.”
“Who, Hunt?”
I nod. I’m quickly learning I’m the only one who calls him by his first name.
Tim cocks his head. “You two been hanging out?”
“Kind of.” A blush warms my cheeks, and Tim chuckles.
“Well ... he’s a good kid. Or,young man, I should say.”
“Do you know where he is?”
He shakes his head. “He’s always out on Saturdays. Not sure where he goes, but he’s had the same routine since he moved here. He’s usually back by dinnertime.”
“Oh, okay—” The loud rumble of an engine yanks my hopeful gaze over my shoulder, toward the street, but I frown when a truck I don’t recognize zips past us.
Joshua’s gone every Saturday? The bruises and scrapes hiding under his clothes flicker through my mind, and I wonder if that has anything to do with where he goes. Except it was a school night when I cleaned him up a couple weeks ago. If fighting isn’t reserved for Saturdays, where does he go?
My stomach tightens, questions flooding me. I wish he would let me in more.
“Everything all right, Blue?”
“Hmm? Yeah, sorry.” I turn back around, chewing the inside of my cheek as I stare at Tim. Thinking of him asTim, though, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. “Um, do you want to hang out?” I’m glad the question spills out before I have time to overthink it.
“Oh, man, I’d love to. Unfortunately, I still have so much work to catch up on, and it’s already ...” He lifts his arm, pulling his sleeve up and checking his watch. When he glances back at me, the corners of his eyes wrinkle. “You know what?” He drops his arm. “Yeah. Of course. I’d love to hang out with you. Let me just put this banana bread back inside, and we’ll do something.”
I grin. “Really?”
“Really. I wasn’t always the uptight workaholic you see now, you know?”
I laugh, lifting a brow. “No?”
“Nope.” He sucks in a breath and pulls his shoulders back, reminding me of a puffed-up penguin. “In fact, I was pretty cool once. Your mom might even say I had a bit of a wild side.”
That only makes me laugh harder, and I shake my head, looking at him more closely. I hardly know him, but sometimes, like right now, it feels like we were never apart.
“Come on,” he says, turning and heading into the house.
I race up the steps behind him. I’m kind of curious about this wild side he claims to have. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to pull it out of him. My lips quirk, and I follow him into the kitchen, where he sets the lunch bag in the fridge.
