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I frowned. Who was this?
I opened the text to see what was so important that they would text me twice in a row.
And then everything stopped.
Really. It was like time froze, the universe stopped, and my brain halted.
Because I was looking at a picture of a boy with blonde hair and smiling brown eyes who was staring back uncomfortably. Sure, he looked older than the last time I saw him, with stubble now on his chin.
But it was unmistakable.
It was a picture of a grown-up Toby.
11
CHARLOTTE
“Casey, you ready?” I yelled out as I climbed the stairs leading to his room. It was officially Friday, the day I was supposed to take Casey to go and see Zane. He’d texted me his address as if I didn’t remember he was Sydney’s neighbor.
Speaking of which, I hadn’t seen Sydney at any of the practices anymore, and she was officially dropped from the team at the beginning of the week. Her dad hadn’t kept his end of the deal. The thought made me sad. I knew the girl probably still wanted to be on the team, but short of getting Zane to threaten the man again, there was nothing I could do about it.
“Almost,” Casey said as he zipped up his bag. Then he grabbed his baseball hat but seemed to think twice about putting it on.
“Do you think the hat makes me look stupid?” he asked.
I frowned. “No. Who told you that?”
“No one,” he said, slapping the hat on his head. I sighed. I knew I could pry it out of him if I pushed, but today wasn’t the day.
“Oh, and don’t forget we have to be back by eight, and we can’t mention this to Mom or Dad.” Luckily, the two of them had gone out to spend time with the Johnsons, who were old family friends.
“Don’t worry, Charlie.” He winked at me. “I’ll keep your secret. I like your boyfriend, and it’s good that you’re not lonely anymore.”
“I was never lonely,” I said defensively, and he rolled his eyes.
“Uh-huh,” he said as he brushed past me and headed down the stairs. Brat.
My parents had been picked up by the Johnsons, which meant we could use my dad’s truck to go to Zane’s.
The entire way there, my stomach was a trembling block of nerves. It wasn’t just the fact that we were seeing Zane again, although that was definitely part of it. Our last meeting had been strange, to say the least.
I’d sat on the couch, waiting for the doctor while he worked. The entire time, I could feel the awareness skittering over my skin even though he didn’t once look at me. I’d watched him, though—the way his cheekbones sliced through the air and the angry cut of his eyebrows when he was concentrating. It wasn’t fair for a man to be that attractive and angry at the same time. It made girls like me attracted to danger.
They said in church that the devil came in appealing packages, and no one proved that more than Zane.
Although, I didn’t know what kind of devil held you in their laps as they checked on your ankle and then insisted on calling the doctor to get it checked out too.
I’d watched him while the doctor was there too. Zane hadn’t said more than three words during the entire visit, but I got the feeling he was paying attention to every instruction the doctor gave. And then, once the doctor left, Zane got up and said, “Come on, I’m taking you home.”
And I couldn’t argue with him. I already knew it would be futile.
But the confusing part was that I didn’t get why he cared so much about me and my stupid ankle. I never pegged him as the nurturing type.
When I was young, he’d never seemed like the kind of person who would take care of my ankle or tell me to rest it. He also never seemed like the type to intervene, carry me up from the ground, and deliver me home. But then again, there were so many things about him that I didn’t understand, so many that didn’t make sense. Kelly was terrified of him. Sometimes, when she visited us, and he called her, her entire body would tense up. She always had to step out of the room to talk to him, and I once overheard some of the conversations.
“I’m coming, okay?” she’d hiss to him. “Just relax. I’m with my family. I’ll be over in a few hours.”
I knew he hated her spending time with us. It was what they said abusers did—separate the abused from others who loved them.
