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“Reece,” my mom says, giving me a bemused look. “He’s always been handy with cars.”
“He fixed up the car in exchange for what?”
And then I feel—I actually feel—the air change around me as the side door to the garage opens, and a new presence sucks all the air out of the space.
I don’t turn around. I don’t move. But I feel his eyes on me. Over me.
“Reece is headed out to California too,” my oblivious mother chatters on. “It worked out perfectly actually. Now you two can ride together, and your dad and I don’t have to worry about you alone in the middle of nowhere with a twenty-something-year-old car.”
They think the car is going to be the problem here? It’s not the car that’s toxic to me. It’s him.
Reece Sullivan. My brother’s best friend. My parents’ “other son.”
Slowly I force myself to turn, and even though I’m prepped, the force of that ice-blue gaze still does something dangerous to me.
He winks, quick and cocky, and I suck in a breath, and I have to wonder…
I wonder if my parents would feel differently about their little plan if they knew that their makeshift mechanic is the same guy that popped my cherry six years earlier under their very roof.
And then broke my heart twenty-four hours later.
Chapter 2
LUCY, EIGHT, REECE, NINE
The little boy hurriedly wiped the back of his hand over his sniffling nose as he heard someone climbing up the Big Toy, fingers swiping quickly at his wet eyes.
He tried to stifle the surge of anger at the intrusion. Craig was probably just trying to help. But he’d heard Mrs. Hawkins tell Craig that Reece needed space right now, and Reece had been grateful his best friend hadn’t followed him into the backyard and onto the top of the Big Toy. Hadn’t been there to watch him cry.
As far as Big Toys went, this one sucked. It just had one stupid little slide, and a swing that creaked. But the Big Toy was more than Reece had at his house, and the first time Reece had come over, he and Craig had used some boards and sheets to create a pretty cool fort.
He didn’t feel like building a fort today.
Reece sniffled. It sure was taking his friend a long time to climb up the short ladder. He turned his head just as a dark head came into view, and Reece blinked in annoyed shock at the girl invading his privacy.
He’d only met Craig’s little sister once. He’d seen her around school and on the bus, but fourth graders didn’t have much to do with third graders.
And every time he’d come over to Craig’s house, Lucy was always on her way to Brownies or soccer practice or ballet.
But she was here now. Of all the rotten timing…
Lucy crawled on her hands and knees over to him, and he noticed the smashed Kleenex box in her hand. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, she sat beside him on the platform, swinging her legs around to dangle like his, and handed Reece the Kleenex box.
He pushed it back at her.
She blinked at him with green eyes, the blue tissue box smashed against her chest.
He thought maybe he’d hurt her feelings, but he didn’t care. Not today.
Lucy turned and stared straight ahead, still clutching the tissue box. “My mom told me your mom went to heaven.”
Fresh tears immediately filled his eyes, but he refused to reach for the Kleenex as he blinked them away. Boys don’t cry.
Except, Reece’s dad had. Yesterday, he’d cried and cried and cried when the policeman had come by their house.
There was an accident….
Reece swallowed a sob, sniffing in dramatically before turning and glaring at the girl beside him. “Can you go away? I don’t like you.”
