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“It’s nothing. I was just thinking about some stuff.” He stares at me perplexedly before spinning around toward his SUV where Rhyland is waiting for us. “Come on; let’s head back to school before we end up being late.”
While I want to press him further, I don’t want to be late to class again, so I drop the subject and climb into the passenger seat of his SUV.
The moment I get in, my thoughts drift back to the SUV I saw earlier, then to the bags I need to find, then to what I have to do for August tonight. It makes me aware that, for a brief moment, Blaise distracted me enough that I forgot about my problems. It’s something I have a hard time accepting—that someone else can temporarily take my stress away. How is that possible? After years of dealing with problem after problem all by myself, I was getting really good at handling stuff on my own. Now, though, with the temporary breaks Blaise has been giving me …
I peek at him from the corner of my eye.
His head is lowered as he checks a message on his phone, wisps of blond hair hanging in his eyes. His pretty boy lips are curved downward into a frown. What has him worried is beyond me, but he erases the look when he notices me staring at him.
His brows dip as he starts up the engine. “What’s up?”
I fix my gaze on the window. “Nothing. I was just dazing.”
“Liar,” Rhyland coughs loudly.
I throw him a dirty look from over my shoulder. He just grins.
I could argue with him, put up a good protest, but all this denial is starting to get exhausting. I’m tired of arguing, tired of the stress, tired of trying not to be friends with these guys.
Maybe it’s time to change.
Just let go.
Let go.
But it’s not easy to break a habit I’ve had for years. And the idea of doing so, of letting go of my rules, freaks the hell out of me. I wonder, though, with all the crap piling on my plate, just how much more stuff I can deal with before I break.
* * *
The restof the school day feels long and exhausting. By the time the final bell rings and I’m rounding up my sisters, I’m more than ready to go home. Of course, when we get there, I’ll have to break into our dad’s room and deal with whatever he’s been hiding in there. Then, after that, I have to inform my sisters of what’s going on with August and Axel. But I’m not going to tell them everything. They’re too young to be dealing with this shit. I just need to make them aware of the situation so they’ll be on guard. And then, after all that, I’ll have to go down to the docks with the box and do who knows what for August.
It’s frustrating that he hasn’t told me much about what he’s going to have me do. And I have no clue what time I’ll be done, leaving me to cross my fingers that I’ll have enough time left before sunrise to go play treasure hunter, to see if Austin did give me the locations of the bags my dad stole.
So, yeah, to say I’m becoming slightly worried over whether or not I’m going to be able to pull this off is a bit of an understatement.
The ride home from school is pretty silent. Bailey spends most of her time texting someone, while Londyn works on an assignment and Payton just stares out the window, reminding me of yet another thing I need to deal with—figuring out what’s going on with her.
When I pull the car into the driveway, I put the shifter into park but leave the engine on.
“Hey, Lon. Can you do me a favor?”
She closes her textbook and stuffs it into her bag. “Sure. What’s up?”
“Can you go pick up some takeout from this diner on the corner of Main Grove and Peach Hollow?” I ask. “I ate there for lunch, and the food was good, so I thought maybe you could go pick us up an early dinner, and then we can sit down and talk about some stuff.”
“Sounds like a great idea to me.” She smiles at me. “So, how did your lunch with Blaise go?”
I shrug. “Fine. We ate. We talked … Rhyland was with us, so it wasn’t a date like I know you guys think it was.”
“Sure it wasn’t,” Bailey remarks with a grin. “We know you think Blaise is hot. I don’t know why you keep denying it.”
Londyn grins in amusement, but I just shake my head. I don’t have time right now to discuss whether or not I think Blaise is hot. I mean, yeah, he is … Like really hot …
Anyway …
“Do you guys want to go with Londyn to get some food?” I ask, glancing at Bailey and Payton. “That way you can look over the menu.”
Bailey stuffs her phone into her pocket. “Sure. I’ve got nothing better to do right now.”
