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He wasn’t going to answer me, so I had to assume they were trying to surprise me again. I slipped into the house, feeling a little creepy to be here when Nathan was asleep next door.
I went to Nathan’s bedroom, where on the dresser next to his stereo and a stack of CDs, sat the pickle jar Nathan had saved for me. Inside was a collection of change and cash, whatever North paid me from the drawer as my wage, plus whatever tips I was given. I rarely spent anything, so I had no idea how much was in there.
I grabbed all the bills. It was a really thick wad of cash, though mostly a lot of ones.
Gabriel emerged from the closet with underwear, a bra, skirt, top and a pair of boots I hadn’t worn yet. He looked at me with my wad of cash and chuckled. “Trouble, you need a purse. You can’t just carry that around.”
“I’ve never had a purse,” I said. I held out the cash to him. “Will you hold on to it?”
Gabriel groaned and then traded me the cash for the clothes. He separated the bills and then put two separate collections of them into his pants pockets. “Forget the purse. You need a bank account.”
He was probably right. A debit card would have been easier. “Maybe I should get one,” I said.
There was a flicker in his eyes and he shook his head. “Not right now,” he said and pushed me toward the door.
“Shouldn’t I get dressed?”
“No time. We’ll hit a diner on the way,” he said. “To grab some coffee and breakfast before we get there.”
I wanted to ask again where we were going, but he nudged me again toward the door.
I hurried out, hugging the clothes to my chest, trying not to let the bra slip to the ground before we got to the Jeep. Gabriel held open the front passenger door for me. I climbed in, put the clothes in my lap and then put my seatbelt on.
Gabriel got in the back and Luke took off.
“About time,” Luke said. “We’re getting slower at this.”
“It’s her first time,” Gabriel said. “You can’t expect her to be ready and get out the door quickly when she doesn’t even know.”
“It’s more fun when you don’t warn her. Didn’t I tell you she’d come out?”
“Yeah, you have a knack for talking her into whatever,” Gabriel said, waving his hand.
I looked back at Gabriel, at the blond locks of hair across his face and the brown ones bunched up in the back, like he’d been sleeping, too, and Luke had dragged him along. Luke had a sloppy mess of blond hair falling out of a pony tail, like he slept in it.
“Are you going to tell me now?” I asked.
“We’re going to grab some breakfast,” Gabriel said. “I’m starving.”
I’d eaten a whole lot the day before. My stomach was still feeling full.
When they’d said diner, I’d assumed they were talking about Bob’s Diner. Was it open already?
However, Luke drove out of the neighborhood, and down the road toward the interstate. After that, we were headed east.
“Are we going to Victor’s house?” I asked.
“Nope,” Luke said, a small smile playing on his lips.
“To...Dr. Green’s?”
“We probably should get him, but he’s at the hospital right now,” Luke said.
“And it’s too bad,” Gabriel said. “This’ll be the first one he’s going to miss since he started it.”
Poor Dr. Green. “They have him working right now?”
“He got stuck with a twelve hour shift that starts at midnight, but he got called in early because there were a lot of people going into the ER. It seems like all the emergencies happen around the holidays, but they have to rotate them so they get some downtime, too. He got all of Thanksgiving off, but he’ll spend probably two solid days at the hospital to make up for it.”
I considered sending a message to Dr. Green, but didn’t want to disturb him. Would he always be so busy as a doctor? It made me consider his choice to come to Ashley Waters and help the others with their job there. How did he ever find the time to teach during the week?
I’d expected the roads to be empty, but the further east we went, the more crowded the roads got. It wasn’t really bad, not like a morning traffic rush, but for a eleven at night drive, it was a lot busier than other late evening jaunts I’d had with the boys in the past. “What’s going on?” I asked. “Why is everyone out?”
“Sang,” Gabriel said, reaching out to put a hand on my shoulder. “Trouble. You sheltered creature. Please tell me you’ve heard of Black Friday.”
I meant to say yes, but I paused, because my brain hadn’t even registered it being Friday yet.
“It’s not like she’s ever gone out for one before,” Luke said. He let go of the wheel to wave Gabriel’s hand away from me. “Don’t pick on her.”
“I’m not picking on her. She just made it sound like she hadn’t even known it existed.”
“I knew about it,” I said quietly. “I’ve just never thought about it before.”
“You’re about to,” Luke said. “Only better.”
It surprised me that Kota had seemed to know what they were up to and was encouraging it. He knew this wasn’t a secret Academy job. I sighed in relief and sat back in the seat, looking out the window. At least it wasn’t dangerous, which was what I’d feared. “Do we have to do this now?” I asked. “In the middle of the night?”
“Are you kidding?” Gabriel asked. “We’ve been waiting all day for it to start.”
I choked and sat up again, peering back at him. “Didn’t you sleep at all?”
“We’ll sleep when we’re dead,” he said. “Or rather, tomorrow after we get back. We’ll probably have to make one more trip out, though, and then take everything to Dr. Green’s place so he can wrap them.”
I pressed a palm to my forehead, trying to take in the information, still not feeling fully alert. “Gifts?” I asked. “Dr. Green’s?”
“Sang,” Luke said, reaching for me, taking my arm and shaking it. “Are you even awake? What do you think we’re out here to get?”
“Not really awake, no,” I said. “I don’t need any gifts.”
“Sang, Christmas is around the corner,” Luke said. “Gabriel, Dr. Green and I use Black Friday as a way to get all of our Christmas shopping done in one night, especially with all those sales going on. One dark, terribly long night of shopping. Then we don’t have to go back to a store until January.”
“Dr. Green’s best at wrapping gifts,” Gabriel said. “He’ll wrap them all for us so they’re nice.”
“But isn’t he already so busy?” I asked.
“He doesn’t mind. He likes being nosy about what we all got for everyone, too,” Luke said. “He likes to tease everyone with hints as to what we got them. Sometimes he makes it completely wrong. Like he’ll tell Kota we got him a new computer desk.”
“And then Kota’ll fuss at us for weeks for buying him something new when his old one was just fine,” Gabriel said with an amused grumble. “But then we have to be quiet until Christmas so we don’t spoil the surprise for him.”
“Drives him crazy,” Luke said with a grin.
I gazed out the window, barely noticing the scenery through the fogged window. Christmas hadn’t been on my mind at all. Being in this family meant I was much more involved than I had ever been when it came to holidays.
I was glad they thought to bring me, when
I probably wouldn’t have considered shopping for gifts until the last minute.
Luke eventually pulled the Jeep into an IHOP—a pancake place halfway between Summerville and Charleston. At first, I was surprised it was open, but then I caught the sign out front saying it was open twenty-four hours.
Luke and Gabriel had me leave my spare clothes and brought me inside. “We can get changed after breakfast,” Luke said. “No need to risk getting syrup on your pretty stuff.”
I didn’t think to bring extra shoes with the boots I got from Nathan’s. When I took too long to even start undoing the laces, Luke let me borrow his flip-flops, while he put on normal shoes. I followed them inside. We were seated quickly and given menus in a rush by a tired-looking waitress.
Luke opened up the menu immediately to the breakfast page. “The only thing better than homemade chocolate chip pancakes are pancakes you don’t have to make yourself.” He peered at me from over the top of the menu. “How many cakes do you want this morning? And you don’t have to get bacon if you don’t want to. Or fruit. North isn’t here.”
Now that I was a little more awake, my stomach did have room. The menu was big, with many sections, but I was drawn to the eggs and bacon. “Is there something that has the pancakes with eggs?”
“You just get what you want and ask for the pancakes,” Luke said. “They’ll do it.”
When the waitress came over to ask about drinks, Luke told her we were already ready.
“Hang on,” Gabriel said, flipping the menu over with tired eyes. “I’m not ready yet.”
“You’re the one that wanted to hurry,” Luke said. He smiled sweetly at the waitress. “I want the big pile of chocolate chip cakes, with extra chocolate chips.”
“Do you want the chocolate batter?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, delight filling his eyes. “And the whipped cream.”
Whipped cream? I’d never tried that before. Was it to replace the syrup? I really liked the syrup.
The lady turned to me while Gabriel was still staring at the menu, his eyes darting around the pages.
It made me wish Victor was there, so he could order for me. I quietly pointed to one of the menu items with eggs, bacon, and hash browns. “With a side of chocolate chip pancakes?”
