“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “Chandler asked me to tell you.”
That’s weird. Who the heck would be here to seeme, specifically?
“Thank you. I’ll be right up.”
After I guzzle down some water, I make my way to the front. Rounding the corner, my eyebrows pinch with confusion as I take in the empty lobby, save for Chandler, who’s sitting behind the desk.
“Hey, Stetson said someone was here to see me?”
“Yeah, Lukas Murphy,” she says. “He wanted to wait for you outside.”
Lukas… What would he be doing here?
Walking through the front doors, I find him sitting on the steps. “Hey, kid. Surprised to see you here.”
He stands immediately and turns to face me. “Oh, h-hi.” Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he meekly says, “Sorry for buggin’ you at work.”
“Nah, it’s cool.” I wave him off, unable to miss how uncomfortable he looks, from his stiff posture to the way he won’t make eye contact with me. “What’s up? Is everythin’ okay?”
“Um… Yeah, things are fine, I guess.”
“Then why do you look so nervous?” I ask before another, more important question pops into my head. “How did you get here?”
“I took the bus.”
My eyebrows shoot to my hairline. “From Wilbur?”
“No.” He shakes his head, finally meeting my gaze. “From near the middle school.”
Because Wolf Creek and Wilbur are such small towns, they share schools, but the middle school is clear on the other side of town, basically inside Wilbur city limits.
“That’s, like, a thirty-minute bus ride,” I point out.
Lukas shrugs. “Twenty-five, but yeah.”
“You’re thirteen.”
“And?”
“Does your grandma know you’re out here frolicking around town?”
After the funeral, I did some digging—and by digging, I mean asking Ford—and found out that the only living family Ricky had was his mom, so Lukas automatically went into her care after his dad died. I guess Lukas’s mom took off right after he was born, leaving Ricky to raise a newborn all by himself.
His face screws up before he chuckles. “Who says frolicking?”
“Me. Now, answer the question.”
“Yes, she knows I’m here.” He huffs. “Are you done with the twenty questions?”
His ability to go from awkward to sassy is impressive.
“Yeah, kid.” I chuckle. “I’m done, but first you gotta tell me why you bussed it the whole way to the fire station.”
Lukas clears his throat and squares his shoulders. “After my dad’s funeral, you said if I needed anythin’, I could come find you here. Did you mean that?”
My answer is immediate. “Of course, I did.”
There’s a pregnant pause before he finally says, “Okay, well, I need somethin’.”
