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Is this a sign of rabies? Or…heartworm or something? Is he in pain?

That’s probably the first thing Felicity would have searched for. She would’ve run him down to the only vet in town, despite him telling her multiple times to stop picking up stray animals.

Maybe that should have been my first thought—had it been our duck babies or Lottie’s dog, that certainly would’ve crossed my mind, but with this guy, my initial thought was how he keeps staring at me like he wants me to tell him a secret.

“You’re not sick, are you? You’re just nosy. That it, huh?” I fold my arms. “If I tell you about her, will you go?”

Again, he doesn’t answer, but at this point, what do I have to lose?

“Well. The first time I met her she was stealing water from the creek. She’ll tell you she was borrowing it, but we both know that’s not true, right?”

I give him a sideways glance and he leans, practically melts, into the concrete floor near me while I ramble on about the girl taking up the majority of my headspace.

Chapter Fourteen Flick

“Go fish.” I point to the deck of cards between Lottie and me.

She hesitates to pick one out of the pile. “That’s…not what we’re playing.”

“Then why did you ask if I had the three of clubs?”

“Because I was testing to see if you were even paying attention, and clearly you weren’t.” She grabs the deck and the cards in my hand before shuffling them and arching them back together. “You’ve been distracted since you got here. What is going on?”

I look over to the open door. Knox’s room is right down the hall, and I’m almost positive their mom is just downstairs.

“Is Knox home?” I whisper low.

“If he was, he would be in here with you.”

Fair point, but I can’t risk Mrs. Turner listening in on this, so I rise up from her bed and shut the door anyway.

Lottie stares from me to the door. “What could you possibly have to tell me that Knox can’t know?”

“He does know…kind of. He doesn’t know that he doesn’t know, though.”

“I need you to start all of this over.”

“Okay.” I walk back to her and spread my hands across the bedspread like I’m wiping the slate clean. “So, last week, right before I came over to you and Walker defiling your bed—”

“We were just kissing,”

“I don’t need details. Regardless, that afternoon, I was at work and Mom reached out.”

“Your mom?”

“Who else’s mom?”

“Anyone else’s would make more sense considering she reaches out on an annual basis for money and that’s about it.”

“Well, she isn’t doing that anymore. She reached out and we kind of talked a little, and she said she might be able to make it to the Winter Formal this year.” I try so hard to keep the excitement out of my voice, but it’s useless.

“Oh, Flick…” Lottie’s eyes are filled with the sympathy I know she hates to receive, too, so she tightens it up as fast as she can. “I just don’t know if that’s a good idea. Remember last Thanksgiving?”

My cheeks heat up at the memory of waiting by the windows facing the front porch the entire day, my breath fogging up the glass as I searched for her little red car to slide into the driveway. She couldn’t make it, which totally makes sense in retrospect because she had a massive shoot the day before and was exhausted. You can’t blame her; she works all the time. She didn’t even realize the date. It was merely an accident; everyone makes them.

Heck, just today I put the bunny feed scoop into the dog feed container. Mistakes are an inevitable way of life, some people…just make more of them than others.

“Look, this time is different, I swear,” I defend.