AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mom, who is applying for the title of Captain Obvious, makes a production of this. “What were you doing on the ground?”
Owen watches me, the slightest trace of amusement behind his eyes.
I hold up the bag of coffee. “Dropped this.”
Mom looks at me like I’m one step away from being hauled off in a straitjacket, and I force myself to smile. I shove the bag of coffee in Reagan’s hand and lean toward her. “Traitor,” I whisper.
She responds with a smile.
“Honey, did you see? Owen’s here!”
“Yes, Mom, he’s six-foot-two and kind of hard to miss.” I give Owen a quick nod of acknowledgement. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“I was just telling him we wanted to invite him for dinner,” she says. “To thank him for saving your life.”
“Oh—” the fake smile freezes on my face. “Right! Dinner!”
“I’m making goulash,” she says. “Everyone loves goulash.”
“Maybe if everyone were British orphans in the 1830’s,” I mutter.
I glance at Owen and see him turn away. Was that a smile?
My mother frowns.
I point at the both of them, double pointer fingers. “I should—” but my brain shuts off before finishing that sentence. I point at them again, and then walk over behind the Book Smart book wagon and force myself to inhale the longest, deepest breath I’ve ever taken.
I wonder if there’s a paper bag around here because I might hyperventilate, and nearly dying twice in the same week is just a little bit too much excitement for one girl. I close my eyes and hold my arms over my head, shaking out my hands. I inhale again—this time even more deeply.
“Is this some new sort of meditation?”
Owen’s voice from behind me stuns my mouth shut, arms up, mid-breath. I spin around to face him without putting my arms down, like some lunatic sloth.
His eyes jump to my raised arms, and I quickly drop them to my sides.
“No,” I say, because I’m a whiz with snappy comebacks.
“So, you’re hiding,” he says.
“I’m working,” I say.
“You’re avoiding me.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You were squatting on the ground for like a minute and a half.”
“Picking up coffee.”
“In a bag.”
I stick out my chin.
His eyebrow quirks.
I look away. “Fine, yeah, I’m avoiding you.”
