“You’re changing me, too,” I said. “I want you, Johnny. Every part of you. Your whole entire self. Now, start at the beginning and tell me everything that happened tonight.
Tucked safely together on his soft bed, in between comforting kisses and reassuring touches, he did.
Chapter 26
Johnny
I sat on the end of Clay’s bed, my weight dipping the mattress. He cursed under his breath. “Get off, man. You’re jostling me.”
I stood quickly, which was probably a mistake because he groaned in pain at the movement. “Sorry.” There was nowhere else to sit, so I leaned against his wall. “Why are you in bed, anyway?” I teased. “I heard it was just a minor flesh wound.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, well, flesh wounds don’t tickle. I got no sleep last night. I always thought hospitals were supposed to be places of healing, but it felt like those nurses came in every ten minutes to poke at me.”
“You want me to leave so you can take a nap?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “In a minute.”
I looked at his face, something I’d been avoiding, and took in the swollen and purple left eye socket, split lip, and the long scratch down his right cheek. He shouldn’t have charged in like he did. I’d lain awake a long time last night, thinking through the things Audrey and I had said. We were both a little bit right, and there had to be a balance between getting the proper help and taking action. Looking at my friend lying hurt in his bed, I was sure I should have called the police sooner, and I should have convinced Clay to stay away.
“I can’t believe I actually got stabbed,” Clay said, half smiling at me. “I can’t believe this is my real life.”
I stayed silent, not returning his smile.
“I’ll get to tell my grandkids I got stabbed. I’ll be the cool uncle.”
That brought my anger to the surface. “Yeah, it’s real cool, Clay. You could be dead right now. We shouldn’t have gone. You can’t save Adam. He’s his own person and he’s not listening to you. You can’t fix everything. You have to give this up.”
He averted his gaze, staring out the window. I expected him to push back. Instead, he said, “Looks like I won’t have a choice.”
“What do you mean? Are they sending him to juvenile detention?”
“I don’t know. There’s a lot to settle and he’ll have to show up in court, of course. But he’s not here. Mom came this morning and took him.”
I tensed. “Oh.”
“Yeah. There was a lot of yelling. Nobody seems all that happy about the arrangement. Except me.”
“You’re glad?” He wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on his brother anymore. I thought that would upset him, but maybe it was a relief.
“He’ll be away from Rick. New school, a chance to start over, that kind of thing.”
“I hope he makes the most of it instead of fighting your mom over everything.”
He laughed. “We can hope.”
Clay yawned long and loud, and I pushed off the wall. “I’ll let you rest. And Clay?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
Dr. Sparrow stood on the other side of the threshold wearing a look of surprise. “Good afternoon, Johnny.”
“I’m here to apologize for last night, sir.”
He cocked his head to the side. “I was under the impression that you weren’t the cause of the trouble.”
I clasped my hands in front of myself so I wouldn’t fidget, and tried to figure out how to best explain. “No, but if my friends and I hadn’t gone there, I don’t think there would have been a fire.”
Dr. Sparrow’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Would my daughter want you to be here, Johnny?”
Nervous, I said, “I think she would, sir.”
“Then come into my office and we’ll discuss this.”
He opened the door fully and I walked inside. He led me down the hallway with the photos on the wall, and opened a door on the left I hadn’t noticed last time I was here. His office looked like it could have been cut from a magazine. Full bookshelves lined the wall behind a huge wooden desk. Leather chairs sat in front of it, and there was even a globe in a stand by the window. The desk had a multicolored glass lamp and a large calendar with writing all over it.
Dr. Sparrow sat in the chair behind the desk, and I sat in one of the chairs in front of it. From this vantage point I could see that it wasn’t notes or appointments written on the calendar, it was doodles. There were some abstract designs and some plant life, but it was mostly various doodles of dogs. I looked at Dr. Sparrow to find him smiling at me. “I have to do something with my hands when I’m on the phone.”
I sat back in the chair, ashamed of my snooping. I rested my hands on my thighs, met his eyes, and said, “I’m sorry sir, for my part in what happened last night.”
Dr. Sparrow nodded. “What exactly was your part?”
I explained my relationship with Clay, and how we’d been trying to keep Adam out of trouble. I confessed that it had been me who called the police, but that I hadn’t even tried to talk Clay and Graham out of going to Dr. Sparrow’s medical office.
“You thought if you got Adam out of there quickly enough, he wouldn’t get in trouble with the law, but Rick and the others would,” Dr. Sparrow summarized.
I looked down, the guilt pressing on my shoulders. “Yes.”
“And then what happened?”
I forced myself to continue the story. I told him about the fight, and the stabbing, and how if we hadn’t been there to egg them on, Will might not have set the place on fire.
Dr. Sparrow steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them. “So you don’t think they planned to burn the place down from the start? To erase fingerprint evidence?”
“I guess they probably planned to. They had a gas can. But things escalated quickly. Rick’s cousin had a gun, and Rick pulled out his knife, and then Will lit the match and taunted us with it. I didn’t think he was going to do it. I thought it was all just threats, from all three of them. They talk big but they don’t do half of what they threaten. They wanted to scare us off. But Clay wasn’t leaving without Adam. So I told Will to do it—to drop the match. I really didn’t think he would. I was trying to distract him, so we had a chance of getting out of there without getting shot or stabbed. It didn’t work on all counts, obviously, but the gun wasn’t fired, at least.”
Dr. Sparrow nodded. He tapped his fingers on the calendar. “Did you light the match, Johnny?”
I frowned. “No. But I regret that my presence there, with my friends, escalated things so much that it ended with my friend getting stabbed and your office being half burned. I’m not a one-man police squad, and I’m sorry I acted like it. I’m really sorry your office was the casualty.”
He considered me for a long moment. “Thank you for that. I appreciate you coming here and telling me these things.” He regarded me thoughtfully. “I’m different from you. I have a tendency to step back and allow people to make their mistakes. My wife is more like you, though. She wants to protect people, to keep them safe and help them stay on the right path. But I find constantly shepherding people to be exhausting. I find the most I can do is provide a listening ear, and an open mind. Don’t feel guilty for not being able to save Adam. Maybe he needed to get in trouble last night in order for his path to become clear to him.”
I nodded, and sat mulling over the things he said. I didn’t feel absolved, because that would have to come from inside myself, but I did feel better.
A soft knock came on the door. It opened and Audrey peeked her head in. When she saw me, her eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“He came to see the wise counsel,” Dr. Sparrow said.
Her eyes twinkled as she scanned the room. “Oh? Where is she? I don’t see her.”
Dr. Sparrow laughed.
“Mom wants you to help in the garden.”
He stood and held out his hand for me
to shake. “Thank you for coming by, Johnny. If you’re willing to help snap beans, we’d love to have you stay for dinner.”
I snapped off the ends of the green bean and tossed them into a bucket, and then split the bean into three sections and tossed them into the huge metal bowl between Audrey and me. I reached into the five gallon bucket for another handful and set them on the deck in front of me. We were on her back deck snapping beans, because Dr. Sparrow hadn’t been joking.
Apparently Mrs. Sparrow’s garden produced enough to stock a grocery store, and it required a lot of man hours to keep up. Audrey told me that just picking the ripe tomatoes and zucchini and delivering them to neighbors was enough work to be a part-time job.
“Does your mom work tonight?” Audrey asked.
“No, she has the night off.”
“Will you call her and invite her to dinner? I need a do-over.”
“You don’t need a do-over. She loves you already.”
She shook her head. “I was a mess that night. I cried on her shoulder. She probably thinks I’m weak and dramatic.”
I reached across the bean bowl and tipped her chin up so she’d meet my gaze. “She thinks you’re real. Honest, and emotional, and not afraid to be vulnerable.”
She blinked. “I’m terrified to be vulnerable.”
I stared into her wide, blue eyes. “Are you terrified to be vulnerable with me?”
“I’m getting used to it.”
I smiled and leaned forward, capturing her mouth with mine.
When I pulled away, she smiled. “Aren’t you afraid my parents will see?”
I shook my head. “I’m getting used to some things, too.”
“Call your mom.”
“Okay.” I wiped my dirty hands on my jeans and pulled out my phone. After a short conversation, because Mom was at the store, I grinned at Audrey. “She’s going to come.”
Audrey beamed at me. “Good. Now maybe things can settle down and be normal for a while.”
I tilted my head to the side. “But not boring.”
She scooted closer and grabbed the fabric of my T-shirt over my heart. She fisted the material and dragged me to her, kissing me again. “Never boring.”
Chapter 27
Audrey
Johnny reached across the center console and took my hand from my lap, pulling it into his own. As my hand rested on his thigh, I admitted there were some perks to taking his mom’s car instead of his motorcycle. I’d lobbied hard for the motorcycle, but since it was a six hour drive, he wanted to be on the safe side and take the car in case of rain.
“I love this song,” Johnny said, and turned the volume up. We’d been in the car for four hours, and I’d already learned at least thirty new things about him, the most surprising being that he liked to sing along to the radio. Loudly and with zero shame in spite of his inability to match any key at all.
The song was an older one I didn’t know, but I recognized the singer’s voice. “Is this Johnny Cash?”
He nodded. “I’m named after him, you know.”
He belted out a sad song about one love and one life, adding that bit of information to the tally of things I’d learned about him today. When the song was over, he turned the volume down again, and smiled at me. “When it’s Johnny Cash, I have to sing along. Those are the rules.”
“Was it your mom or your dad who wanted to name you after him?”
“My mom. She has all his music on old vinyl albums. Her mother’s record player is in our living room. When she cleans or cooks, she puts one on and sings.”
“I can picture that.” I’d spent some time with his mom in the last couple weeks. She and I went out for lunch by ourselves one day last week, and last Sunday she had me over for dinner. Whatever she did that didn’t require much thought, such as making a salad or setting the table, was punctuated by low, sweet humming. “It’s clear you didn’t inherit her musical ability.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “I did not. Doesn’t stop me from enjoying it, though.” He rubbed small circles on the back of my hand with his thumb. “You, on the other hand, have a beautiful singing voice.”
I poked him in the side. “You’ve never heard me sing.”
I watched as his cheeks slowly turned pink. Johnny was blushing? A terrible thought occurred to me. “Johnny? You’ve never heard me sing, right?”
He cleared his throat, glanced at me with shifty eyes, then looked back to the road. “Once.”
I narrowed my eyes and leaned closer. “I do not sing in front of people. Ever. Even at church I only mouth the words.”
He smiled then, and tried to change the subject. “Really? Are you afraid the angels will judge you?”
“More like the choir and all the church ladies, but when did you hear me sing?”
He licked his lips, and tucked the bottom one in between his teeth.
“Johnny.”
“Did your parents name you after anyone?” he asked, trying valiantly to drop the topic. I glared at him, and he grinned. “Well, did they?”
I turned to fully face him. “Not that I know of. I’ll ask later. Now tell me when you heard me sing and don’t change the subject again.”
He was quiet until I tickled his knee. “Fine, I’ll tell you!” I eased up on his knee, but kept my hand there just in case. “About a year ago. I was at the creek behind Gladiola Park, sitting there on my lunch break trying to get a moment of peace, and there you were.”
Feeling exposed, I tried to pull my hand out of his grasp, but he tightened his grip, lifting my hand to kiss my knuckles.
“You were right in the stream, wearing shorts and splashing through the water. You found a crawdad and sang to him.”
“Her.”
He glanced at me quizzically.
“Just because they're called crawdads doesn’t mean they’re all boys. That one was a girl. My dad taught me how to tell the difference.”
“So you remember that day?”
My cheeks burned, but not for the reason he thought. “Yes.”
“I wasn’t spying on you. I swear. I was sitting there, minding my own business, when you showed up.”
I wanted to tell him that he should have announced himself, that it would have been the polite thing to do, but… “I didn’t know you heard me singing. I’d have run away screaming if I’d known that. But I saw you that day. After my moment with the crawdad.”
He blinked, startled. “You did?”
“Yeah. I could feel you watching me. I wondered if you’d say hello. I was...curious about you.”
“You were?”
“You sound shocked.”
“I am. I didn’t know you even knew I existed.”
I scoffed. “Of course I knew. Every girl in a hundred mile radius knows who you are.”
He looked at me like I was crazy, but I just laughed. “I knew you were watching, and I didn’t want to leave. I sat on a big rock in the sun.”
“I know. I remember.”
“I kept trying to sneak a peek at you, but I was afraid you’d see me looking.”
He growled low in his throat and pulled off the road into a gravel driveway. He gave me a heated look before grabbing the base of my head and pulling my mouth to his. My hair prickled on my scalp and my toes curled in my sandals. It was a full-body experience.
When he pulled away with a pop of our lips, I smiled slowly. “That day in the creek, I never imagined you’d ever kiss me.”
He laughed and put the car into reverse, getting us back on the road.
Another hour passed. “Are you ever going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked.
“I thought you liked surprises.”
“I do, but it’s been hours, Johnny. I got up at four in the morning for this. I’m dying to know.”
“It won’t be long now.”
Another half an hour later, we arrived at the entrance gate of Indiana Dunes State Park.
I bounced on my seat, thrilled with this destinati
on. “I’ve heard of the dunes. I’ve always wanted to come here.” I grinned at Johnny, and he beamed.
Hours later, exhausted after a long day of hiking trails, climbing the sand dunes, taking pictures of the scenery and of each other, and wading in Lake Michigan, we sat on the beach eating sandwiches Johnny packed into a cooler, watching the sunset.
“Thank you for bringing me here,” I said.
He leaned in and kissed me on the forehead. “I want to take you places, Audrey. I want to explore the world together.” He gestured to the lake. “Even if we have to start small.”
I shook my head, looking out at the huge lake, which looked more like an ocean, feeling frustrated by the inability to put my feelings into words. Here we were, on this beautiful beach with this gorgeous sunset around us, and my heart full to overflowing. “This isn’t small, Johnny. Days like today make me think nothing is small. You’ve shown me secret places in our own little town, places I had no idea existed. There’s so much to explore, even in places we think we know.”
He took my face gently in his hands and pressed a soft kiss to my lips, and in that moment I knew people were the same way, and that we’d never stop discovering new things within each other.
The story continues in Broken Outsider, Sparrow Sisters Book 3!
Want more romance?
Other Books By Lora Richardson
The Juniper Series
The Edge of Juniper
Juniper Limits
Juniper Skies
The Unexpected Love Series
Vanishing Summer
Awakening Autumn
Trusting Winter
Anticipating Spring
The Sparrow Sisters Series
Broken Hollywood
Broken Rebel
Broken Outsider
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Broken Rebel (Sparrow Sisters Book 2) Page 18
