Safe and Sound (17 page)

 
The wind picked up, blowing Lola’s hair around her head. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
An
owl hooted and Lola jumped.

 
Jack laughed softly.
“Nervous?”

 
You have no idea.
“No. I’m fine.”

 
“
Do you think he meant to hurt you?”

 
Lola nodded, swallowing.

 
Out of her corner of her eye she saw Jack’s jaw clench.
He
looked away and Lola watched his chest rise and fall.
He exhaled deeply.

 
“You don’t have to go back.”

 
Lola’s eyes burned. “Yes. I do. I was going to leave. I was going to take all of my savings and I was going to leave this town, Jack.
Today
.
”
She took a shuddering breath. “He took my money.
All of it.
Now I’m stuck.”

 
“There’s
gotta
be somewhere you can go, Lola. Someone you can stay with.” He paused. “I wish…I wish it was me. I wish I could help you.”

 
Lola touched his arm. “You do, Jack. You have no idea
how
much
just being with you helps me.”

 
“I think I do
, actually
,” he quietly replied.

 
She looked away from the intensity of his gaze
, frightened by the depth of emotion she’d glimpsed in his eyes
.

 
They didn’t speak for a long time as they walked.

 
Jack
finally
glanced at her
. “I want you to meet someone.”

 
Curious, Lola asked, “Who?”

 
“What’s your favorite color?”

 
She opened her mouth, paused, and answered, “Orange.
Yours?
Let me guess.
Black?
Who am I meeting?
”

 
“Blue. Like your eyes. The same exact shade, actually.
Periwinkle blue.
And I’m not telling.
”

 
Lola stopp
ed walking. Her chest squeezed. No one had ever paid such attention to the color of her eyes before.

 
Jack kept his steady pace and she had no choice but
to
catch up.
A smile kept fighting to the surface, and eventually, Lola let it.

 
“If you
could
go anywhere in the world, where would it be?”

 
Lola tilted her head. “Australia.”

 
“Really?
G-day, mate
,
and all that?
”

 
“
Why not?
I like the way Aussies talk.
What about you?”

 
Jack kicked at a loose rock with his boot. “I’d go to Mississippi.”

 
“Talk about adventurous. What’s so great about Mississippi?”

 
“My mom was born there. I have distant relatives there.”

 
Something in his voice was off. Lola reached over and grabbed his hand. “Where is your mom?” she asked quietly.

 
Jack’s profile was grim.
“Dead.”

 
His pace picked up and Lola knew he wouldn’t be sharing anymore with her on that subject.
Her heart ached. One more thing they
had in common
.

 
“My dad di
ed when I was four
.”

 
Jack didn’t respond, but she felt the light squeeze of her fingers. She tightened her grip on his hand.
They continued in silence.

 
A mile down
the road
there was an old farmhouse
set in a rambling lawn of trees
.
In the dark Lola could see the peeling white paint, the shingles rising up, and the overgrown lawn.
Jack
walked up
two
cement steps and looked over his shoulder
at her
.

 
“
I know it’s not a palace, but…” Jack shrugged.

 
When Lola didn’t move, he motioned to her.
Jack went inside, the door banging shut behind him.

 
The lingering smells of garlic were strong in the kitchen. The room had white walls, old appliances, and a
battered
table with three
mismatched
chairs. But it was clean.
There was not a speck of dirt in the room, no
t a cobweb on a wall. The refrigerator hummed and she heard a television from another room in the house.

 
Lola left the kitchen and found herself in the living room.
‘The Golden Girls’ was on the TV.
The room was
long and narrow. Shelves that held knickknacks took up one wall. Pictures hung
from
another.
There was a potted plant under a window.

 
The walls were paneled. A
burgundy
couch took up a wall; a
brown
recliner was in one corner, and a tan one in another. A
girl slept on the tan recliner, a purple blanket wrapped around her.

 
She was beautiful. Long blond curls, thick eyelashes, bow-
shap
ed mouth. She was a softer, more innocent version of her brother.
Isabelle.
She was the person Jack wanted to protect most in the world; she was the one he
forfeited
himself for.

 
There was a closed door to her left. The sound of running water could be heard through the thin door. Lola noted the staircase to the right. That must be where the bedrooms were.

 
The water shut off. Lola’s heartbeat irrationally picked up as she waited for the door to open.

 
Jack stepped out
, jacket gone
.
He wore a red shirt that read ‘Stone Temple Pilots’. It was tight and she could see his well-defined chest through it.
His jeans were low on his waist. Lola felt something
deep
in her belly and looked away.

 
“She fell asleep waiting up for me. She does every night. I tell her not to, but…” Jack looked down at his sister, tenderness softening his features. At that moment he was the most handsome boy she’d ever seen.

 
Jack leaned down and gently shook his sister. “Isabelle. Wake up.”

 
Isabelle mumbled something and swatted at her brother.

 
“Isabelle. Come on. There’s someone here to meet you.”

 
It was like a switch was flipped. Isabelle jerked upright, blinking her sleepy eyes. She looked at Jack and turned her head
to face Lola.
Her pretty face was wary, suspicious.

 
“Hi,” Lola said, hands clasped in front of her.

 
“Hi.”

 
Lola felt awkward and unsure
of
what to say. Isabelle didn’t seem particularly happy to meet her. She wondered why. What did she know about her, or
think
she knew about her?
Lola knew she hadn’t been a snob last year, even though Jack insinuated such. Had she unknowingly snubbed the younger girl at some point?

 
Jack nudged his sister and she scowled at him. “Get up.”

 
Isabelle set the blanket aside and slowly got to her feet, glaring defiantly at her brother the whole time.
She had a blue pajama top on and matching bottoms.
“Happy?”

 
“Maybe I should go,” Lola said and edged toward the door.

 
“No.” Jack narrowed his eyes at his sister. “Isabelle has been anxious to meet you. She must
just
be tired and crabby, right,
Is
?”

 
Isabelle crossed her arms and pouted. “Well, I
was
excited to meet you
.
Until you ditched my brother for Sebastian
Jones
.”

 
Lola reared back. “Excuse me?”

 
“What are you talking about, Is?” Jack demanded.

 
With great attitude, Isabelle informed them, “I saw you guys today. I saw Lola ride off with Sebastian Jones and I saw you, Jack. I saw you after they left.”

 
“Shut up, Isabelle,” Jack warned, eyes trained on her face.

 
Lola stared at Jack as she asked, “Saw what?”

 
Isabelle shot her a look of animosity and faced her brother. “Don’t tell me to shut up. You were sad. You know I hate it when you’re sad. She doesn’t deserve you, not if she’s going to make you sad.”
Her lower lip trembled and tears formed in her eyes.

 
She didn’t know what to think of that. It made her upset to know she’d hurt Jack’s feelings,
unintentional as it had been,
but it also made her happy or something to know he
had
feelings for her
that could be hurt
.

 
Jack glanced at Lola. Then he directed his gaze on Isabelle. “I wasn’t sad.
I don’t get sad.
You imagined it. Drop it.”

 
“Liar!”

 
His hands fisted at his sides and Jack’s face went blank
as he stared his sister down
.

 
“I just want you to be happy
. You’re never happy
,” Isabelle cried. She covered her mouth as a sob left
her
and thundered up the stairs. A bedroom door slammed.

 
The silence
after that
was maddening.

 
Jack avoided her eyes as he said, “She exaggerates. I wasn’t sad.” He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and faced the television.
“I had no reason to be. He was just taking you to the doctor, right? And it’s not like we’re anything. I mean—“

 
Lola rushed to him and pulled Jack around to face her.
Their eyes met for one brief, charge-filled moment.
They moved at the same time, lips slamming against lips,
arms around one another, hands touching everywhere.
Lola inhaled his scent, her body reacting.

 
Jack leaned her back and Lola lost her balance and fell onto the
coffee table. Jack went with her
, grunting as his knee hit the wood.
Lola laughed and Jack kissed her laughter away.

 
He straddled her against the coffee table
; holding her up against him
,
and looked
at
her
with something like wonder on his face. “I remember the first time I saw you,
really
saw you.
”

 
She smiled.
“Detention?”

 
Jack’s eyes clouded over and he pushed away
from her
. He sat down on the carpet. “No. Not detention. It was over the summer, Lola, last summer.”
Jack frowned at her.
He seemed to search her expression for something and was disappointed by what he found.
“How can you not remember?
How can you not r
emember me?”

 
Lola felt sick.
She sat with her back against the coffee table and looked at the television. There were holes in
her
brain, in her memory.
Had she suppressed things too terrible to think of? And what did that mean about Jack?
Was he part of the bad memories?

 
Even as Lola thought it, she knew it wasn’t that.
It was
Bob
. What had he done or said so horrific Lola had blocked it from her mind?
And what did it have to do with Sebastian and Jack?

 
“I have to go.”
She struggled to her feet, hot and clammy
at the same time.
Lola need
ed
fresh air
.