by Amity Hope
“Grier?” Gabe asked as he turned to look at Ava.
“Her sister,” Julia informed him.
“Technically my foster-sister but she’s lived with us for several years so I pretty much just consider her my sister now. She came home right after you left. Or I guess, while you were leaving, actually,” Ava explained. “She mentioned what happened to my friends.”
“Do you always eat alone?” Julia interjected. She would never consider it and was immediately suspicious of someone who could not scrape up a single friend to eat with them.
Gabe gave her a curious once-over. “No. Not always. I came over from Granville, where I was working today, to pick up a few things over in the warehouse district. I got hungry. I stopped for some food. It happens.”
Julia didn’t look convinced. “What did you say your last name is?”
Gabe raised his eyebrows at her. “I didn’t, but it’s Castille.”
“You said you worked in Granville, where at?” Ava asked hoping to cut Julia off from asking anymore awkward questions. Like if he always wore tattered jeans on the job. Fashionably tattered, but too tattered for most jobs, Ava was sure.
“My dad just bought the radio station over there. I’ve been helping out some. Just, you know, organizing financial reports for him, figuring out where th“out whee station stands with supplies, that sort of thing.”
“Sounds like it would be kind of fun,” Ava noted. “Which station?”
Gabe told her as a waitress came to take their order.
When she left, Julia was quick to ask, “So you’re not in high school?”
“No,” Gabe said giving her a steady look. “I graduated two years ago. How about you? What year are you? Sophomore?”
Undeterred, Julia answered. “We’re seniors. So how old are you then, twenty?” Twenty, to Julia, was clearly too old to be hanging around with girls still in high school, regardless of the fact that they would be graduating in only a few months.
“Nineteen,” Gabe told her. “My birthday isn’t until the end of the summer. Anymore questions? Do you like, want to see my ID or something? Take a pint of blood? Check out my bellybutton to make sure I didn’t just beam in off my spaceship?”
“Wh-what?” Julia stammered.
Gabe shrugged. “For whatever reason, you are clearly not comfortable with me sitting here.” Julia’s face flushed and Gabe continued. “So, I can leave. It’s not a big deal. I can get my own table. It’s what I was planning on doing anyway.” He started to slide out of the booth but Ava grabbed him by the wrist.
“No its fine,” Ava said as she gave Julia a pleading look. Gabe frowned at her and tugged his wrist out of her grasp. He didn’t get out of the booth but he didn’t look convinced, either. “Please? Just stay?”
Julia was flushing furiously now. “Yes, please. Just sit down. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. Sometimes I just…” She looked helplessly at Ava. “You tell him!”
“Sometimes she just gets carried away. She really doesn’t mean anything by it. Honest,” Ava told him with a reassuring smile.
“Are you sure?” he asked Julia as he favored her with a skeptical look.
“Yes,” she said as she nodded emphatically. To accentuate her point she pantomimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.
Gabe looked at her as though maybe she had just been beamed in off of a space ship. “What the hell was that?” he asked.
“What?” Ava wondered as her gaze bounced between Gabe and her friend, wondering what she had missed.
“That…whatever she did. That freaky thing with her lips?”
“Locking her lips and throwing away the key?” Ava asked with a curious smile. “You’ve never seen that before?” Gabe shook his head. “Not even at school when you were a kid?”
“I was homeschooled,” Gabe explained.
“Oh, did your Mom teach you?” Ava asked. She knew she was being stereotypical but somehow Gabe just didn’t look like the homeschooled type.
“No,” Gabe said, his voice turning inexplicably icy. “I had a tutor.”
“That’s not the same as being homeschooled,” Julia blurted, instantly looking contrite.
“It’s not?” Gabe asked with a frown. “I was at home. I got schooled. How is it different?”
“It’s not,” Julia said as she shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s not.”
“Just tell me if it’s none of my business,” Ava said as she tried to take the attention away from her embarrassed friend, “but why did you have a tutor? Were you ill as a child or something?”
“No, nothing like that. We’ve always moved around a lot and my dad preferred a constant tutor as opposed to a new school maybe twice a year, sometimes more. He buys out businesses that are in trouble. At least ones he thinks he can make money off of. Once they’re running to his satisfaction, he either sells them or hires someone else to manage them and he moves on to the next one.”
“Is that what happened with the radio station?” Ava wondered and Gabe nodded. “Did you just move here?”
“A few months ago. We actually live about halfway between here and Granville. I was heading back out of town but I got hungry,” he said as he gave Julia a pointed look, “and thought I’d check this place out.”
“So if you just moved here, you’ll be around for a while?” Ava asked. She hadn’t meant for her voice to sound so hopeful. Perhaps the perfectly gorgeous creature beside her was oozing an intoxicating level of pheromones that were impairing her judgment.
Gabe smiled for the first time since he’d sat down, setting Ava’s butterflies aflutter once again. The look in his eyes made Ava panic for a moment, ridiculously afraid he’d actually heard her thoughts from just a moment ago. She felt her cheeks heat up as his smile lingered for a few moments before answering her question.
“Yeah. I’ll be around for a while. We’ve been pretty busy with the radio station so I haven’t had much of a chance to check out the town. Or I guess I should say towns. The business is over in Granville but I spend lot of time running stuff back and forth between here and there. Maybe you could show me around sometime?”
“Yes,” Ava said with a nod. “I could definitely do imefinitelthat.”
The waitress stopped by to deposit their food. The pretzel and a strawberry malt for Julia, the chicken strip basket with fries and a butterscotch malt for Ava and a bacon cheeseburger with a double side of onion rings and a large root beer for Gabe.
“So,” Gabe asked, eying everything up, “is the food usually pretty good?”
“Yes,” Julia answered, then looked embarrassed at doing so.
“Do you guys come here a lot?” he asked, deciding he would be nice if she could. “You must play often” he said, motioning to Julia’s dart case.
“Not too often,” Julia admitted. “I just have my own darts because it’s safer.”
Gabe quirked a questioning eyebrow at Ava.
“She means they’re cleaner. Safe from bacteria and whatnot.” Ava’s lips were twitching as she tried not to show her amusement.
“Other people’s filth,” Julia clarified as she wrinkled her nose in disgust. “I know I promised I was going to stop talking but you really shouldn’t be touching that ketchup bottle with your bare hand,” she warned. “Do you have any idea how many people touch those things without having ever washed their hands? It’s swarming with bacteria. We’re talking e coli, trachoma…”
Gabe lifted an eyebrow incredulously. He reached for an onion ring with the same hand that had been accosted by the multitude of bacterium that lived on the ketchup bottle.
“Fecal matter,” Julia blurted, needing to drive her point home before the boy across from her willfully contaminated himself with something so repugnant. His hand froze in place an inch from his plate.
“Here,” Julia said frantically as her hand disappeared inside of her purse. She whipped out a packet of wet wipes and proffered one to Gabe.
He took one, surpr
ised at himself, yet not quite able to touch his food when there was the possibility he may inadvertently contaminated it with fecal matter, of all God forsaken things.
“Thanks,” he said dryly as he scrubbed each offensive finger clean.
Ava bit her lip to hold back an amused smile. Gabe looked at her in disbelief. She gave him a lighthearted shrug. Then she used a napkin to grip the ketchup bottle before squeezing some into her own basket.
“That’s how it’s done,” she said with a smirk.
Julia had a look of immense relief that no one would be ingesting hazardous substances while sitting at the same table as her. “Okay then. I’m running to the girls’ room to wash my hands and you know…”
Ava thought Gabe looked relieved to see her go.
He turned to Ava and leaned in to her, as if asking something confidential. Her heart swirled in her chest as the smell of his cologne wafted her way.
“Seriously,” he asked, “she’s always like this? And it’s not just me? Because I have to say, I feel like that girl hates me and she doesn’t even know me.”
“She just takes a little getting used to but honestly, she is always like this. She worries a lot. About everything. I can guarantee that she just covered the seat in toilet paper. She’ll flush with her foot. Use a paper towel to turn the faucets on and off and another one to open the door. It’s a dangerous world that Julia lives in,” she said with a teasing, flirty smile.
“Dangerous? More like crazy,” he scoffed.
“I have to admit that knowing her has made me feel much safer. I’m sure I’ve reduced my risk of contracting e coli by at least ninety-nine percent,” she joked as she scooped out some of her malt and took a bite.
“Those look good,” Gabe said, eyeing up the girls’ ice-cream. “I should’ve gotten one.”
“You can have some of mine,” Ava said as she slid it toward him. The malts were huge. She truly did not need to eat the whole thing herself. “Or not. Is that weird? I mean, since we pretty much just met? Julia’s probably going to come out of the bathroom and give us a lecture on germs and infectious diseases or something.”
Gabe just grinned at her as he took the spoon from her hand and helped himself to her dessert.
***
“You’re supposed to keep me updated,” Rafe said as he stormed into the guest house. “Did things go well?”
“Of course they went well,” Gabe said as he stretched out on the couch. He kept his eyes on the television, not bothering to look at his brother. He’d chosen to stay in the guest house because he treasured his privacy. Also, because he and Rafe were under strict orders from their father to not kill each other. He was quite literally speaking when he made this request. They loathed each other and it did not please him that Rafe was invading his space.
“What, precisely, does that mean? Did you get her phone number? Do you have a date planned?” Rafe demanded when it became clear Gabe was not going to offer up any information unless he was forced to do so.
“No and no.” Despite his request that Ava show him around, he neglected to get her number. She had lherr. She ooked slightly disappointed and hesitant when they’d said goodbye. A sure sign, Gabe was convinced, that he’d left her wanting more.
Of him.
“I need you to find out where I can catch up to her next. Not that dump they were at tonight. The malts were fantastic but the place was a hole.” Gabe’s eyes never left the television.
Rafe stepped in front of him and shut it off. “I’ll track her down for you one more time. After that, you’re going to need to step it up. So far, I’m the one doing all of the work. Would you like to report to Father that you’ve only made contact twice with no further plans in place?”
“I couldn’t make contact before now. Remember the cuts on my face? The ones I didn’t have only a few hours later?” Gabe reminded him, unwilling to take any unnecessary blame.
“That excuses the past few weeks. It doesn’t excuse tonight,” Rafe insisted.
“Tonight, I left her lusting after me,” Gabe said with a smirk.
“Are you sure?” Rafe questioned.
“You have your talents, I have mine. There’s no doubt,” Gabe assured him.
“So which way does this chick blow?” Rafe asked.
“What?”
“Is she a total prude or is she the good girl totally gone wild?”
“I don’t know. She’s just nice,” Gabe said, mentally gagging on the word. He’d expected to hate the time he had to spend with Ava. The only thing he found he hated was that wretched girl, Julia. If she hadn’t been there the evening would’ve qualified as more than tolerable, perhaps even enjoyable. In the future, he planned on avoiding that girl at all costs. As it was, she’d sat in the booth, burning holes in his back with her imperious glare while Gabe had let Ava beat him at a game of darts. At least he thought he’d let her win. He wasn’t quite sure because toward the end, he tried to catch up and couldn’t quite manage to do so.
He had, however, totally annihilated her when they played a game of pool.
“You should’ve left her with plans for a date,” Rafe scolded him.
“I don’t do dating,” Gabe grumbled. “I’ve never actually dated a girl in my life. It’s too much work.”
“Just tell her she’s pretty, open the door for her, bring her to fancy restaurants and buy her things. How hard can that be?” Rafe scoffed.
“Dating is complicated and confusing with way too much potential for things to go wrong. I’ve decided we’re just going to be buddies instead. Pals,” he sarcastically clarified. “I’m the new guy in town in need of a friend to show him around. Dating leads to crap like meeting her parents and trying to keep her happy.”
“Did Father approve this?” Rafe asked.
He shrugged. “I didn’t ask but you have to admit it’s a good idea. It’s a better idea. We’ll still have constant access to her. I’m not boyfriend material. I have a lot better chance at pulling the friend thing off if I try. I’ll throw in some flirting to keep her feeling flattered.”
Gabe clenched his teeth, debating if he should admit his weakness to his brother. He finally decided this particular problem wasn’t something he could use against him.
“It’s not just that. She grabbed my wrist tonight and it was all I could do not to snap it right back out of her hand. She has this thing around her neck.”
“A thing?”
“Yeah, you know, a…”
“What?” Rafe demanded.
“A cross.”
Chapter 4
“Don’t punch me if this sounds like the worst pick up line ever, but it must be fate that I ran into you tonight,” Gabe said with a wicked grin on his face.
“Exactly who are you trying to pick up?” Molly asked. She unconsciously twirled her curls around her finger as she cocked her head to the side. She returned his wicked grin with one of her own. “Oh, please let it be me.”
Ava choked on a laugh. “Molly, this is Gabe. Gabe, this charming, flirty girl is my friend Molly.”
“I like this friend,” he told Ava as he gave her a playful wink.
Molly let out a girlish giggle. “I heard all about the other night when you met Julia.”
“Is she here?” he asked. He scanned the crowd that had piled into the gymnasium for the Hunter Falls Elementary School Carnival. Little munchkins were running around with plastic bags full of goodies and cheeks plastered with mediocre artwork.
“She’s with Grier. Our two favorite wackadoodles are restocking the booths with more prizes,” Molly told him as she shamelessly checked him out from the tips of his shiny blond hair to the soles of his severely scuffed motorcycle boots. “Dude! How tall are you?” she demanded after she’d made her full assessment.
“Six-five,” he admitted with a grin.
“The way Grier huffed on and on about you I was picturing you as some tall, dark and creepy stranger. But you’re more like tall, blond and pretty,” she admi
tted with a great amount of appreciation.
“Call me ‘pretty’ again and I may be tempted to cut out your tongue,” he said in a tone that may not have been entirely teasing.
“Right, that was rude,” Molly admitted. She turned to Ava. “Beautiful is more like it. I would kill for eyelashes and cheekbones like that. Amazing. Even his eyebrows are perfect.”
“Anyhow,” Ava began as she shook her head and turned away from Molly, “what are you doing here?”
“I just dropped off some donations from the radio station,” he told Ava. “Some prizes for a raffle, I think. What are you doing here? Don’t tell me that this town has so little to offer by way of entertainment that two girls as pretty as you live for elementary school carnivals?”
Ava felt the heat flood into her cheeks at the sound of his smooth, teasing tone. “I live for community events that will raise my Civics grade,” she said with a laugh.
“Explain,” Gabe commanded with raised eyebrows.
“It means Ava cannot wrap her pretty little head around concepts like the functionality of technological innovations in the global trading community. So instead, she gets to volunteer at the animal shelter and wrap ribbons around kittens,” Molly told Gabe with an unabashedly flirty smile.
“I’ve never wrapped a ribbon around a kitten in my life,” Ava told Molly as she gave her a playful nudge.
“Uh-huh, sure,” Molly teased. “Anyhow, Oliver just showed up. He promised to win me a box of cupcakes so I’ll see you two children later.”
She shamelessly checked Gabe over one more time. He grinned back at her like he really didn’t mind.
“What it means, is that I have spent almost my entire senior year wrapped up in whatever community service event Mr. Risland decides is worthy,” Ava replied when Gabe returned his questioning gaze to her.
“In other words, you do a lot of community service but you don’t really like it?” Gabe asked curiously. A herd of children and their frazzled parents were working their way toward him. He moved out of the gym to a quieter spot in the hallway and Ava followed.
“No, I do enjoy it. Mostly. I mean, I like the feeling I get when I make other people happy but it’s taken up a lot of my time. I’d never volunteer this much if my grade didn’t depend on it. This is my last event of the year and I couldn’t be more excited.”
