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Chapter Forty-five
Absorbed with their new sport fixation, both Mellie and Leanne worked hard at their classes, clock watching, and waiting to be free to go to practice. Mellie dreamed of performing on a world stage like the Olympics and grinned at her silliness.
The ambiance of appearing in front of a crowd had drawn Leanne to the sport in the first place and not wanting to enter the team alone, she’d begged Mellie to come along. Now, she blessed the day she’d agreed. One never knows when an aptitude for an activity will appear until they stumble on it, only to find they had a natural ability. As in her case.
While raving over her new love with her mother, she found out that Rachel had actually prevailed in badminton in her earlier years. In fact, their high school team had won the state finals. “I must get my talent from you then.”
She noticed a faraway look enter Rachel’s expression, the same stare she sometimes got when the past was brought into the conversation and wished her mother would explain. But she knew that wouldn’t happen and so she rambled on about their exploits. “We’ve drawn a crowd lately. There’s one guy that’s at most of the games. He’s dope… but shy.”
“So, you break the ice. Go and talk to him.”
“Can’t. The minute I head in his direction, he disappears. I asked Leanne about him, but she never sees him or that’s what she says. She’s only got eyes for Ryan York. He’s on the boy’s team.”
“What’s he like? This Ryan York.”
“He’s cool. Talks a lot of nonsense. He’s not in any of my classes so I don’t really know him.” Mellie started to leave the kitchen to set the table and then stopped. “Right, before I forget, there’s a game on Friday. Beau said he’d come so I wanted to make sure you and Dad will be there too.”
“Of course. When did you see Beau?”
Uh oh! Mouth!Mellie nonchalantly lied. “Can’t remember. Just ran into him, and he asked what I’ve been up to, so I told him about playing basketball. He said he’d come to my games.”
“I’m sure he did. He starred in that sport back in the day.”
“You mean in prehistoric times?” Mellie loved to tease and got the result she wanted. Rather than continue to plague her about her meeting with Beau, her mom swiped the towel in her direction giving Mellie the chance to laugh and disappear.
***
Mellie went to every practice hoping to see the boy who stared at her with such desire. His gorgeous eyes reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t place the person. All she knew was she wished he’d talk to her one day.
Lately, she noticed Raven Olander’s appearance in the one class they shared because the girl had inched closer as if she wanted to say something. Mellie had waited, thinking maybe it was about the school shooting, but the other girl, eyes always looking at the floor, turned away at the last minute, almost running in the other direction. What a weirdo!
Yet darned if she didn’t appear at practice today. Her shorter, dark hair messy and hanging in her face, slumped shoulders, and piercing glances gave Mellie the creeps. And that made her feel ashamed for her unkind thoughts.
Chapter Forty-six
Beau’s next days were chock full of completing reports and updating files that Marc had been remiss to handle. His sickness had obviously made it difficult for him to keep up with his time-consuming job.
Being posted on the various ongoing cases and others ready to close, he got involved in so many files, he thought his head would explode. He’d known this job would be mind-consuming but hadn’t fully realized just how much it would take out of a person used to dealing with a few situations at a time.
Thankfully, as the days passed, the school shootings hadn’t started again, and everyone involved breathed a sigh of relief.
Having no idea where Jess had disappeared to, he suggested both Larry and Lori work on Tyler Jonas to try to dig whatever they could from his memory.
Revealing their newest information about Rae being a female, they had hoped to shake something loose. Other than his shock at finding out that a girl had used him, the kid was less than useless. He knew nothing of any importance, and feeling inept, Lori had finally given up.
Her and Larry had also returned to the center where they knew Jessi had stayed previously and found Lucy just waking up, a couch with blankets and a pillow proof of where she’d spent the night.
Worried, Lori looked at the sweet lady and then at the obvious. “You sleeping here now?”
Lucy seemed embarrassed as she self-consciously admitted, “Got tossed by the landlord. I’d promised not to bring any more strays home with me and then he caught me giving a bed to one of the kids whose parents had kicked her out. She couldn’t be on the streets. There were others bullying her and… well, never mind. Long story.”
“Why couldn’t she stay here?”
“Oh, no. There are strict laws about letting anyone but me use this place and even I’m notreallysupposed to do so. I’ll find another apartment.” She brushed off her own worries to ask about why they’d come to see her.
Lori let her change the subject but a huge discomfort on behalf of the other woman remained. “We wondered if you’d seen or heard from Jessica Boland?”
Lucy’s cheerful expression filled with worry. “Now what’s that girl gone and gotten herself mixed up with? I can assure you, she hasn’t got in touch with me.”
