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“Won’t he just go back to Kota’s house? Or mine?”
“We need him to not see us unloading the car, and take this car back to Kota’s house,” he said. “The less he sees of you, the better.”
“Why me?” I asked. “Why aren’t we making sure Kota isn’t being followed? Isn’t that why he’s following this car? Because he thinks Kota is here?”
Nathan trapped my chin with his fingers, ensuring I focused on him. “Kota’s the most boring person on the planet to follow around. If Mr. Hendricks is looking for dirt, he’s following the wrong person.”
“He’s the distraction?” I asked.
Nathan grinned. “He’s an interest to them because they think he’ll be at the heart of whatever they think we’re doing. If all he does is mow the lawn and walk the dog, they’re going to have to give up.”
“And they’ll start following you or me,” I said.
Nathan shook his head. “If they had the resources to follow more than a couple of people, they would have followed all of us and Mr. Hendricks wouldn’t be asking you for help. He won’t follow you since you’re not in the Academy. If he does decide to, we’ll change tactics.”
Luke sighed, making a turn back onto a main road on the way to Sunnyvale Court. “I’d still like to know who’s following us.”
“It’s not too important right now,” Nathan said. “We have orders to pretend we don’t notice it. If we can’t figure it out just by looking at the outside of the car, we’ll just have to wait this thing out.”
I leaned against Nathan, staring off out the front at the road, and glancing at all the mirrors. Despite what he said, it left me uncomfortable. If whoever was following Kota happened to notice my parents never showed up and never came around, they could use that to their advantage somehow.
I couldn’t imagine what he’d ask of me if Mr. Hendricks ever discovered the truth.
SECRET DREAMS
When we got back, we told Kota everything. Kota had us unload the car quickly. He drove it back to his house and remained there.
Nathan had wanted to stay, too, but Kota had him go home.
“We want to fall into routines and only give them something of interest when we feel like it,” Kota said. “I don’t know how much they’re paying attention, but he can see your house from mine. You need to go home and pretend to be boring like me, too. At least for tonight.”
Luke stayed with me, though. I was in the attic space, picking out clothes for the next day for school, and wondering what to wear to the football game and party afterward. I almost wished Gabriel was there so I could have his help with that. It occurred to me I should ask if he wanted to go, too.
“Luke?” I called to the open door.
Luke appeared a moment later, his blond hair was down, hanging around his shoulders. He’d replaced the school uniform with a pair of dark pajama bottoms and was bare chested. “Yeah?”
“Did you want to go to the game tomorrow?”
“You want a date?”
My face radiated. He’d said it like it was something he was waiting for but he wasn’t expecting the question right that second. Him, too? Now it suddenly felt like they all wanted to go on a date and they were trying to figure out where I stood with them. How did this became more complicated than ever? “Kota and Nathan are taking me. I was wondering if you wanted to go.”
His smile softened. “Oh. Well I can’t go. Uncle wants me at the restaurant tomorrow afternoon.”
“Working already?”
“Gabriel is coming with me. He wants to do last minute decor stuff.”
That brought the smile back to my lips. They were busy anyway. That relieved some guilt about not asking earlier. “That sounds like something he’d do.”
“I didn’t know you liked football.”
“Your brother is playing,” I said, trying to suggest he should be interested for the same reason, to support North. “But if you’re going to be at the diner, maybe we can stop by after. I can’t wait to see it.”
“Oh,” he said, but the tone had dropped enough that it surprised me. When I looked back at him, he was frowning, but he tried to mask it, forcing a smile.
“Unless you’ll be busy,” I said, unsure if that’s what he meant. Did he think I’d be in the way? Or did he want to wait to show me later? “Should we wait until it opens up?”
The smile warmed a little, but only a touch. “If you want.”
It broke my heart. I wasn’t sure what I’d said that made him unhappy. “Luke? What’s wrong?”
“What? Nothing.”
I frowned. I held out a hand to him, inviting him inside.
He seemed surprised by this, but his hand drifted out toward mine, wrapping around my fingers and holding. I tugged him into the attic. He followed me to the back, where there was a platform and the bean bag chair and the collection of pictures glued to the wall. I nudged him up into the two person chair first. He climbed up, sitting back. I climbed in after him, sitting next to him but tucking my legs underneath me, and my knees ended up in his lap.
Even next to him like this, sitting back and looking at him, he seemed uncomfortable, distant.
“Luke?” I wasn’t sure where to start.
He sighed, tilted his head around until his dark eyes met mine. The moment he looked at me, I was struck dumb by his beautiful face, the perfect mouth and angles, and also by the waves of emotion he shifted toward me. “Sang,” he said quietly. His fingers found my cheek in the dark, and he traced the outside of my jaw.
His touch forced a shiver through me. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Don’t ask me that,” he whispered.
“But ...” I didn’t understand. Was it that he didn’t want me to know? He didn’t trust me?
His mouth dipped in the corner and he sighed. “Would you be offended if I told you I didn’t want you to come to the diner?”
This wasn’t what I was expecting. “What do you mean? I thought you wanted me to work there with you.”
“I do. I mean I did ...” He grunted, pulling his hand back and he pushed both palms to his face. “Forget I said anything. It’s stupid.”
“Luke, just tell me.”
He drew his hands away from his face, wrapping one arm around my back and gazing down at me. “I was just thinking I barely get to see you now. I mean I see you every day but we’re always so busy. It’s like the first time in a while I’ve been with you without having Kota bark at us about homework or needing to be quiet so we don’t let your mom know we’re here. And if you start working at the diner ...”
“But if I’m working at the diner, I’ll spend a lot more time with you, won’t I?”
“Yeah, that,” he said. “But we’ll be working. But it isn’t only that. There will be other people there, too.”
I laughed. “Yeah. They’re called customers.”
“And other people working.”
“Like your uncle?”
He pursed his lips, his eyes losing their playful spark. “I’m not supposed to tell you.”
This struck me, and I instantly knew what he was saying without him telling me. I supposed I shouldn’t talk about what I knew out loud but it surprised me so much that my lips were flying. “Other Academy people?”
He grunted, but nodded. “Yeah.”
It should have been obvious to me that there were more Academy students, some who knew Luke and the others, and they’d also like a chance to work in a place that understood Academy business sometimes meant disappearing. Academy people might even stop by as customers. “What’s wrong with that?” I asked. “Is that bad? Do you not like them?”
“No, I like them,” he said. “But we haven’t really told them about you yet.”
“Oh,” I said, almost disappointed. “Am I a secret?”
“Not really,” he said. His gaze lifted from his hand in his lap to me. “I wish I could keep you a secret, though. I want to.”
The longing in his eyes struck me th
at I whispered. “Luke ...”
“Sang,” he said. His hand in his lap slid over until it captured one of mine. He held it, squeezing my palm. “I don’t want you to meet them because I don’t want you to leave us.”
It was like a wash of cool water struck my thudding heart, stopping it dead. I didn’t know how to formulate the question his response had me pondering. “Would ... would the Academy keep me from you if they knew about me?”
Luke’s eyes widened. He shook his head. “No, sweetie, no. It doesn’t work like that.”
My heart released itself, starting to thunder again. “I don’t understand. You made it sound like if they knew, they’d take me away or order us to stop seeing each other. I don’t want to be taken.”
