AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Worse, her tiredness hadn’t been on the bad end of the normal fatigue that came along with her HIV and as a side effect of the meds. This exhaustion was different, sucking energy out of her toes and making her ears feel as droopy as she was certain her eyes looked.
When Hellie finished talking, Mina told her how interesting it was, then slipped out the door at the back of the room and to her car before anyone else could talk to her. She started the engine, rolled her windows down and turned the New Found Glory album she was listening to up as high as it would go. The punk music was barely enough to keep her eyes open and her mind alert until she pulled into her driveway. Once in her house, she stripped down to her panties and climbed into bed. Pulling out a pair of pajamas wasn’t worth it.
Her eyes closed, and she was asleep immediately.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ECHO WAS WALKING past his house with her irritating little dog tugging on the leash when Levi pulled into his driveway. He didn’t think anything of it until his neighbor stopped, and her dog began digging at his grass. When he got out of the car, he slipped under the garage door and went to the road to talk to Echo.
“Hey,” he said. That one word was the extent of his interaction with Echo in the three years he’d lived in that house.
“Hey.” The dog barked at him with the same enthusiasm with which it had been digging in his yard. “Have you seen Mina?”
“She stayed over last night. Isn’t she at some talk this afternoon?”
“She was. We were supposed to take a walk this afternoon. We’d made plans, but she didn’t answer her door. I think she’s home. I saw her car drive past.”
“Oh, right. She mentioned your walk.” He looked over at her house, scratching his chin while he thought about what else she had said over breakfast. “You know, she did seem a little out of it this morning. Like talking was a struggle.”
“Do you have a key to her house? It’s not like Mina to miss one of our walks.” The dog barked in agreement.
“I don’t. But if you’re really worried, I can get into her house without one.”
“Could you? I don’t know. Maybe I’m worried about nothing, but...” Echo trailed off with a shrug.
“I get it.” Levi knew worry like he knew how it felt to hold a hammer while he hit a nail. And how it felt when he missed the nail and hit his thumb. “Let me get some tools.”
When he came back out of his house with a lock kit in hand, Echo was shifting her weight back and forth, her little dog momentarily distracted from his attack on Levi’s lawn by her movements. She was also chewing on her thumbnail.
“Do you know something I don’t?” he asked after she caught up to him on Mina’s lawn. Levi was worried, but Echo seemed on the edge of panicked.
“I don’t think so.” She took her thumb out of her mouth. “I jump to bad conclusions. You know, slipped in the shower, fallen down the stairs, that sort of thing.”
His surprise at his chipper neighbor’s macabre outlook must have shown on his face, because she shrugged. “I’ve only been right once. My ex-husband was really leaving me.”
“What else have you considered, so we can rule those out?”
“Something involving a fall has been the major one.”
They were both standing on Mina’s porch, the dog staring at her front door, wagging its tail eagerly.
“Do you have your phone on you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Call her again. And text her. I don’t want to break into her house if she just forgot your plans or something.” They were...more than dating...but breaking into a woman’s house was a violation, more or not.
Echo nodded and started dialing. With the speakerphone on, they could both hear the ring before it went to Mina’s voice mail. Echo ended the call and started texting. She looked up after hitting Send.
“We’ve got to give her some time to answer,” he said to Echo’s expectant look. Both she and her dog had the same tilt to their heads. Like he was supposed to do something. Or say something. “You’re sure you saw her come home?”
“I’m sure.” She sighed. “Look, I jump to terrible conclusions, but Mina and I have become pretty good friends. She’s not the type to forget a date, even something as simple as a walk. She’d text or call if she was held up.”
