Page 112 of Guarding Over You
“Do you really think someone would come here?” she whispered.
He was dressing quickly in the dark of her room. He’d offered to sleep on the couch and she’d told him he didn’t need to.
It wasn’t as if he slept much in her bed. More of it had to do with being on guard, the other was that Gracie might wake up and find him there.
Arden was going to tell Gracie tonight after work before he got home that he was more than their neighbor. They wouldn’t say he was spending the night here now, but that he was more than just a friend.
He’d like to be here for it, but he’d get home hours after her.
Clay was monitoring things like Clay always did. But it was all his one brother could do with no leads.
Maddy was coming in early and he was meeting her to talk in the parking lot without witnesses.
He hated to think this was on him, but his brother was right, and he had to be open-minded about it.
“I don’t know. They already did.”
“When no one was home,” she argued. “I think I would have known if someone had been here when I was.”
“And you would have thought that someone would notice a bike being taken off the porch and destroyed, then thrown out, and yet no one had.”
He was glad he’d never brought up Tina owning a gray car the days she’d heard the noise outside. It would have only worked her up and maybe caused another fight with Billy.
Since Tina was out of town when this happened, it couldn’t have been her.
And now it was weighing on him that it could have been about him all along.
They tried to keep it quiet in the neighborhood what had happened. There was no reason to alert anyone to any troubles just yet.
No one was getting hurt. Nothing other than everyone’s peace of mind.
Clay was right. Whoever this was almost acted as if they didn’t want to do it. At least not to Arden.
So was she caught in the crossfire of something he’d done? Something he couldn’t even think of?
She blew out a breath. “Give me a kiss. Will I talk to you at work at all or are we keeping things quiet there?”
“I’ll let you know.”
He gave her one more kiss, then snuck down the stairs as quietly as he could, her on his heels, out the back door and to his house while she locked up behind him.
He should have brought clothes with him, but it wasn’t as if he had far to go.
He let himself into his house, went to his room, showered, dressed, then got out. There was a text from Arden saying that Gracie was up, so he knew not to go back. Not this morning.
He made a cup of coffee, then found some food to eat, put his lunch together to bring with him, then shot off one more text to see if Arden was fine.
Go to work. We are good. I promise.
He sighed. Not much more he could do other than try to convince them to stay in the cabin next to Clay’s.
But then he’d have to tell his parents and they didn’t need to know what was going on.
Hadn’t they had their fill with first Ford, then Clay, and not that long ago Gale?
Here he thought maybe he could be the one kid who could slide into a peaceful relationship. Didn’t look as if it was going to be that way.
At a little after six, he left, drove by Arden’s, saw all the lights on and said a slight chant for her to stay safe. She knew to text him the minute she was at work.
