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“I try to do the right thing in most situations. Try to make my mom proud I guess.” My eyes flick to him at the sudden vulnerability in his voice. I barely catch his eyebrows furrow as if he didn’t mean to say that last part out loud.
He shakes his head and resumes looking out the window, cutting off my silent inspection.
Chapter Eight
Thea
“Are you in for the night?” He asks as I pull up to the curb in front of my house and park. This is an old historic area, so the houses don’t have driveways.
“Yeah. I don’t have any plans and I don’t want to run into Kyle anywhere in town.” I shudder even thinking about it.
“You can always call me if you have any trouble. Put my number in your phone as soon as you can.” His seriousness unsettles me. He’s concerned that Kyle is going to become a bigger issue, whereas I’m desperately hoping it disappears altogether.
I jump out of my car, needing away from the suffocating air of what ifs. Kyle normally parks in the ally behind my house, so I peek through my side yard, relieved when I don’t see his van. “He’s not here,” I say before Jay’s fully out of my car, not wanting to waste any more of his time.
“Go inside and flash the porch light once you lock the door behind you. Then I’ll leave and stop bothering you,” he says, jokingly.
A big part of me hopes that he’s not going to stop bothering me. It’s nice having someone show concern for my safety. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt cared about in that way. In any way.
I give him a mock salute as I trail up my sidewalk, making him cock his head at me. “How’d you know?” He asks frankly.
“Know what?”
He follows a few steps behind me up my sidewalk but stops as I reach my porch steps. He’s so much taller than me that despite my three-step advantage on the porch, I barely have the high ground. His face is below mine, but seems closer than it would be if I were standing on the ground in front of him.
“The salute,” he clarifies. His inquisitiveness about that casual gesture is serious. So serious that I can’t help the truth that spills from my lips while his eyes probe me.
“I read the bulletin board. I know you go to Coffee with Veterans.” Once again the air around us is suffocating. He’s looking at me so intensely that I’m afraid I might melt into a puddle at his feet.
“Ah.” It’s his only response to my nosiness while my face flames with embarrassment.
He nods his head toward my house not acknowledging my confession further, silently urging me to go inside. I take the queue, needing to get away from him before I make a fool of myself any further.
Using the spare key that I retrieved from the ground in the courtyard earlier, I attempt to unlock the door but it jams.
It’s the wrong key.
I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before, or bother to check, but this key is not my house key. I look at the door handle for a moment, contemplating what I should do. I have my own key, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that Kyle still has my spare key.
Curiosity gets the best of me and I twist the handle… The door gives.
It creaks open slowly on its own, but I take a step backward, then another until I’m on the edge of my porch.
“What’s wrong?” Again, I nearly have a heart attack when Jay speaks up from beside me.
“Good grief. Can you put a bell on your shirt or something,” I exclaim while I’m trying to calm my beating heart. He ignores my comment.
“What’s wrong?” He asks again, looking in through my front door.
“He gave me the wrong key. I’m an idiot. I should’ve checked sooner but I didn’t. It was unlocked already,” I explain, overburdened by this situation that I’ve found myself in.
“Stay here.” He pulls a gun out from under his shirt, making my jaw drop.
“Have you had that the whole time?” I shout, even though I should probably whisper since Jay is currently walking through my front door into God knows what.
“Yes.”
“The library is a no-gun zone.” We’re not in the library anymore, but I was also just in my car with a man who had a gun, and that alarms me.
