Free Falling (29 page)

I snorted and chuckled at the absurdity of his suggestion.
“Zach?”

He nodded, his nose crinkling with distaste. “Yeah, I don’t
like that guy. There’s something majorly wrong about him,” he muttered.

I grinned and rolled my eyes, already knowing what this was
about. “You’re just being jealous.”

“No I’m not,” he scoffed, shaking his head in rejection.

I snuggled up against him again, laying my arm across his
chest. “Yes you are,” I mused.

It was quiet again for a few seconds as he obviously
pondered on that thought. Finally, he sighed. “Okay, I’m jealous,” he admitted.
“I don’t like him. I don’t like the way he’s just waltzed in here and carved
out a place in your life. I don’t like you spending time with him.”

I sighed deeply, knowing he was being honest and that I
should appreciate that rather than scolding him for it. “You don’t need to be
jealous,” I assured him truthfully. There was nothing romantic between me and
Zach at all.

He frowned, wrapping a lock of my hair around his finger.
“This isn’t just about me being jealous though, I was being serious. I mean,
how much do you even know about him? He came out of nowhere, and everything was
fine before he showed up. This all started after he arrived. That can’t just be
a coincidence,” he countered. His brown eyes bore into mine, reasoning with me
silently. I gulped, swallowing the lump that was rapidly forming in my throat
as Luke carried on speaking. “You told the police that you didn’t go to Zach’s
place until four and that you were in the library before that. Well, what was
he doing while you were there? He could have,” he swallowed loudly, “poisoned
Chester, and then came back to pick you up after. He had time to do that,” he
explained. “Did he know about your spare key?” he asked, raising an inquisitive
eyebrow.

My mind was racing. Luke was right, Zach had said that there
was something he needed to do straight after school and that our tutoring would
have to wait. What was so important? Was it poisoning my dog? And the key
question… he
did
know about the key because I’d used it while I was with
him on Friday night. Luke’s question was ringing in my ears – how much did I
know about Zach? The answer was not much. He was an incredibly mysterious
person; he was sometimes a little weird and evasive. And yes, he did have the
time and the knowhow to get into my house…

But even as I was thinking about it and reasoning it out, I
was already dismissing it. Zach wasn’t like that. Sure he was a bit of a
badass, but he was a good guy at heart, I was sure of it. I wasn’t going to let
Luke’s jealousy and bias judgement alter my opinion of someone.

“Well, did he know about the key or not?” Luke repeated.

I shrugged, not wanting to add fuel to the fire by
confirming his theory. “I don’t know,” I muttered, hoping that would suffice.
Apparently it did. Luke nodded thoughtfully, his arm tightening on me. I
decided I needed to quash his suspicions before he got all caught up trying to
link Zach to something just because he didn’t like the guy. “Look, it’s not
Zach. I know you don’t like him, but he’s an alright guy. He wouldn’t do that,”
I said confidently. “You’re just assuming things because you don’t like him
hanging out with me,” I teased, hoping to lighten the mood.

He grinned sheepishly. “Maybe,” he admitted. “Because of
everything going on though, until the police catch whoever is sending you this
stuff, I don’t want you going anywhere on your own. Make sure you always have
me or Alex with you.”

“Yes, Dad,” I joked, wriggling to get closer.

He chuckled. “I’m not quite that bad.”

“Yeah you are,” I countered.

He grinned, bending forward and putting his forehead against
mine. His breath blew across my lips as he spoke, “Okay, yeah, maybe I am that
bad. But it’s only because I love you so much.”

My heart melted at his words as the hair on the nape of my
neck prickled. “I love you too.”

His finger brushed across my cheek as his lips touched mine,
so softly I could barely feel it. The kiss was so soft and chaste, sweet and
tender, yet held a passion that made my heart rate spike. He pulled back and
smiled sadly. “Let’s get some sleep, huh?”

I nodded in agreement, not knowing what to say. When I was
alone with Luke like this, cuddled up in his arms, it seemed so silly that we
weren’t together. When we were alone everything just seemed so right and
perfect. It was a shame that the outside world just made everything more
difficult. When other people were around it just served as a reminder that
everything wasn’t, in fact, as perfect as it seemed when it was just the two of
us.

He guided my head back against his neck, and his body
relaxed as he pulled the covers up around us.

Just asleep was about to pull me under, I realised that I
needed to say something. “Luke?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you for tonight. You were amazing. I don’t know what
I would have done without you there,” I admitted. He just made everything
easier for me. He took over with Chester, and also was incredible with the
police questions. He really was my rock tonight.

A soft kiss was planted on the top of my head. “You don’t
need to thank me, baby. I’ll always be here when you need me. Always.”

I smiled at his words and drifted off into a dreamless
sleep.

Chapter 19

Without needing to open my eyes I already knew where I was.
I was in Luke’s arms, his warm breath blew across the top of my head, and his
heart beat steadily under my ear. It was nice waking up to this again. At one
point I was convinced that I’d wake up like this for the rest of my life, but
after the Sandy indiscretion I wasn’t so sure. I wanted to forgive and forget,
I really did, but there was still a small part of my brain that was fighting
it. That small part of my mind seemed to think that breaking my heart was
unforgivable, and that I didn’t need him. That small part of my brain was wrong
though. I
did
need him. Everything that had happened recently, all of
it, just served to prove that I needed him. I probably wouldn’t have gotten
through it all without Luke. I just had to take another chance on him and admit
it.

I frowned, squeezing my eyes shut as my thoughts turned to
last night. I silently prayed that Chester was doing okay. I hadn’t been called
by the vets, so I took that as a good sign. After all, they do say that no news
is good news. I tried desperately not to think of Sandy, or some other faceless
person, sneaking into my house and up to my bedroom. I didn’t want to think
about it at all because I could already feel the anger and fear gripping my
stomach.

I snuggled closer to Luke while he slept, finally opening my
eyes and looking up at his handsome face. What I saw made my heart stutter, it
always did, and I wasn’t sure anything would change that. He looked so peaceful
while he slept, his muscles relaxed, his lips slightly parted as he breathed
heavily. There was no denying it, I just loved being in Luke’s arms.

After a few minutes of my just lying there, enjoying the
closeness, his cell phone quietly started playing some bird chirping melody,
gradually getting louder. He shifted slightly, gently holding my head to his
chest with one hand while he reached out and silenced his phone with the other.
He groaned quietly, obviously not pleased with having to wake up.

“Baby?” he crooned in his sleepy voice that never failed to
make me smile.

“Mmm?”

“Time for school,” he answered, gently running his fingers
through my tangled hair.

School. I really didn’t want to go to school today.
“Actually I might skip school and go and see Chester,” I muttered, chewing on
my lip with anticipation. Would he be better today? Would his breathing have
returned to normal instead of that raspy, shallow panting? Will he still be
lying motionless, with just his limbs twitching? All of those thoughts shot
through my mind instantly making me almost not want to go because I was
frightened of what I could see there.

Luke’s forehead creased with a frown. “They don’t allow
visitors until the afternoons. Plus they said you should call and see how he is
first. Look, why don’t we give them a call and see what they say, if they say
that he’s up to visitors then I’ll come with you,” he suggested, smiling sadly.

I shook my head in rejection. “No. You’ll get into trouble
for skipping classes, you know you will. Besides, I can just borrow Alex’s car
or something.” Or maybe I could ask Luke to drop me back home and I’d use my
mom’s car for the day, she wouldn’t mind, she wasn’t even here anyway.

Luke raised one eyebrow at that. “You’re not going on your
own. Not after last night. Not until the police have caught whoever sent you
that card and those flowers and stuff.” His voice was stern, so I knew there
was no arguing with him. Luke was just as overprotective of me as the other two
males in my life were.

I sighed in defeat. “Fine. I’ll call them now and maybe
leave it until lunchtime or something so we don’t have to skip classes,” I
reluctantly agreed.

A sad smile pulled at the corners of his lips as he reached
out and brushed the back of his knuckles against my cheek. “You okay today? You
slept fine. I was expecting nightmares,” he said softly.

I shrugged in answer. “I’m okay. Hopefully the police will
find some evidence or something and then this will all be over in a few hours.”
I didn’t feel particularly hopeful of that happening though. Somehow I knew,
deep down, that whoever had left the card in my room wouldn’t have been stupid
enough to leave fingerprints. Again my thoughts turned to Sandy. Hopefully the
police would question her and she’d slip up and admit it. They hadn’t seemed
too convinced last night when I mentioned her, but they were duty bound to look
into her. Maybe she’d left some DNA in my house or something, a hair, a
fingerprint, anything to prove that she was the one behind this hate campaign.
Or maybe she’d be bragging about it to her friends today – how she snuck into
my house and poisoned my dog. Part of me hoped that it would be that easy, that
she wouldn’t be able to contain her delight at having gotten one over on me.

“Hopefully,” Luke agreed, bending forward and planting a
tender kiss on the tip of my nose. “Let’s get dressed and then I’ll make you
some breakfast.”

Thankfully, Alex was blissfully unaware that I’d snuck into
Luke’s bed last night. I knew he wouldn’t be happy about it, even if it was
innocent. By the time we got to school, I’d already called the veterinary
clinic and was told that Chester had had a stable night. There were still
monitoring him closely, but agreed Alex and I could visit after school.

It was hard to leave the warmth and comfort of Alex’s car as
he cut the engine in the parking lot. My eyes wandered over the front of the
building, settling on Charlotte and Beth who were sat on the grass outside,
chatting animatedly. I hadn’t spoken to them since school finished yesterday,
so they didn’t know about the dramatic twist of events from last night.

Today was going to be hard. Not only was I going to have to
rake it all up again and tell my friends what had happened, I was also going to
see
her
. I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle the last part at all. I
was sure it was her, but the police where the ones that needed to do something
about it now, I couldn’t get involved. How was I going to just ignore her
though? I didn’t think I could.

Just as I gripped the handle of the car, Alex touched my
arm. “Maisie, I know you said you think this is Sandy doing all of this, but
you can’t know that for sure. You can’t just go accusing her in the middle of
school, you know that, right?” he said softly.

I nodded slowly. “I know. The police will sort everything.
I’m just going to stay out of her way and ignore her completely.”

His eyes studied my face, as if he was trying to see if I
was telling the truth or if I was going to go in there all guns blazing.
“That’s good because if you go shouting accusations at her then you’ll probably
be in trouble for harassment or something.” He raised one eyebrow in warning,
his stern expression telling me exactly how much he meant his words. “I don’t
think it’s her. For one thing she’s too much of an airhead to think through all
of this stuff. Just let the police do their jobs and investigate it.”

I sighed, rolling my eyes. No one believed me about what a
vindictive little witch she really was. She had everyone fooled with her
butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-the-head-cheerleader’s-mouth act. “Fine,” I grunted,
shoving open the door and swinging my legs out.
Today is going to be hard
enough without starting my morning off with a brotherly lecture!

I marched up to my friends, ignoring the way that Alex and
Luke both followed closely behind me. It was almost as if I had gained two
bodyguards or something. Both girls smiled as I got up to them. “Morning,” Beth
chirped before her smile faded and her head cocked to the side. “You okay?”

I sighed. Obviously my frustration was showing on my face
clear as day. I sank down next to them, shook my head and then proceeded to
tell them everything that had happened last night – leaving out the fact that I
had snuck into Luke’s bed for comfort. I had a feeling they wouldn’t like that too
much either, especially Charlotte who still wanted to seek revenge on him for
hurting me. By the time I finished telling them about Chester, the card on my
bed and the police visit, Charlotte was frowning angrily, and Beth looked a
little confused.

“That’s sick, who poisons a dog?” Charlotte cried.

“Shh!” I hissed, shaking my head quickly and looking around
to make sure no one had heard. I didn’t want everyone talking about it today
and gossiping about me all over again. I had enough of that because people were
still entertained with stories of mine and Luke’s break up.