I played innocent, but I knew what he was getting at. “What! Why would you say that?”
“Come on, Eden, I know you may have everyone else fooled, but you have a mean streak when you want to. You can’t tell me for one second that Echo would be cool with you destroying a box that meant so much to her, and that it wouldn’t give you at least a little satisfaction after everything she’s put you through lately.”
I tucked my tongue in my cheek to keep from admitting such a petty truth. He was right though, I knew it and so did he. I was aware that those kinds of feelings were nothing to be proud of, but right or wrong, the idea definitely had its appeal. Drew threw his hands up with dramatic flair.
“This isn’t going to work,” he said. “Do you mind if I take it home with me? At least there, I have the right tools and will be able to crack this pain in the ass wide open.”
“Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem, and to be honest, I’m over it for today anyway.” I was ready for a distraction. “If I don’t see that damn box for the next forty-eight hours, I’d be okay with it. By the way, do I want to know why you know so much about breaking into things that aren’t yours?”
He chuckled and set the heavy wooden box on the bed next to him. Standing, he stretched with his hands only centimeters from being slapped by the blades of my ceiling fan. I guess it was one of the potential hazards of being so tall, not that I would ever have that problem. He ambled over to the bed’s headboard and fiddled with one of my volleyball medals that hung on the wall above it. Before he got a chance to answer my question about picking locks, I realized I’d forgotten something important.
“Crap!” I shouted, “PRACTICE, today is the first day of Volleyball Practice! What time is it?”
A grin spread across Drew’s face, amused and genuine, as he pulled his phone out of the front pocket of his jeans.
“It’s precisely eleven forty-seven in the morning.”
“Shit! I’m gonna be late!” I scurried over to my closet. “Damn it,” I muttered under my breath as I looked up at the top shelf where my volleyball uniform was folded neatly.
Sucks being short, doesn’t it? Echo giggled at my expense. We can thank our heritage for that. Our Chickasaw Indian gene didn’t get a voice on anything where height is concerned. Hell, the only say it got at all was in our mixed hair type and lighter skin, well your's anyway.
Hmmm never thought about it like that. I told her as I scrambled to the vanity in search of something to use as a stool. I ignored whatever else she was carrying on about and grabbed the chair from underneath the vanity to stand on, but when I turned around, Drew was already pulling the uniform down from the shelf. He stood there and examined the number on the back of my jersey.
“Why’d you pick number twelve?”
I set the chair back under the vanity and grabbed the car keys. Sauntering over to the closet, I took the uniform from him and bent to get my sneakers. As I headed toward the door, I glanced at him over my shoulder.
“Because that’s how old I was when I joined my first club team. Thanks for getting it down for me.”
Taking the stairs two at a time was not a regular thing for me to do, but in my hurry, I did just that, and then zipped into the dark garage. Drew slipped into the passenger seat with no complaint, just as I was closing the driver’s door. Light flooded the garage as the outer door rolled up, and I had to resist the urge to gun it out into the road. I hated feeling like I was in a hurry, which was why I was always so punctual. Leaving an hour before I was due to arrive somewhere was how I ensured myself I’d be on time. As one of the potential team captains for the upcoming season, being late was not an option I wanted to toy around with. I’d set my personal standard to a level that left me with zero room for setting a bad example where the rest of the team was concerned.
“Eden, do you want me to drive?”
There was the slightest hint of apprehension in his voice. When I glanced over at him out of the corner of my eye, I noticed he had a white-knuckled death grip on the “Oh Shit” handle. I couldn’t help it, I laughed because, for a guy who wasn’t easily ruffled, he looked seriously uncomfortable.
“Awe, what’s wrong Drew? Does my driving make you nervous?”
“No, but right now—yeah, you’re freaking me out a little bit.”
I fought down the urge to screw with him further by purposely swerving and running up on the curb. That didn’t make me slow down any, though, so when the sound of a police car caught my ear and was joined by flashing lights in my rearview mirror, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dad would kill me if I got a ticket. I pulled into the local, family-owned grocery store’s parking lot and cursed under my breath. I felt Echo’s fear spike when I looked in my side-view mirror and saw the officer step out of his car.
Echo, why are you so scared? It’s not like you can go to jail—you’re technically dead.
I knew it wasn’t the nicest thing to say, but it did make her fear disappear almost entirely. I didn’t need her fear compiling on my own. I reached over and opened the glove box to pull out the insurance card and then rifled through
