Guardian (14 page)

“You already saw them,” Rafael continued in the same steady, deep voice. It was so calm and soothing I half believed him myself. “Everything is fine. You were just going back to your car.”

The cop, a chubby, balding man with pitch-black aviator sunglasses and a walrus mustache, hesitated for just a moment. “You folks have a nice day,” he said, patting the side of the car. And then he left.

I stared at Rafael, my jaw dropping open. “What was that about? Did you just glow a bit, right then?”

Rafael blinked owlishly at me. “Start the car, Lyla, there’s nobody coming.”

I was so shocked by such an ordinary command that I did what he asked. I was so preoccupied with trying to figure out what had just taken place that my earlier fear of driving and subsequent worry about breaking the law were totally forgotten, and before I knew it, we were pulling into the cramped driveway of my house. We all unloaded from the Hummer and I unlocked the front door to let Grace and Colton run inside. Then I stood in front of the door with my hands on my hips, blocking Rafael from entering.

“I don’t think I’ll invite you in today,” I told him loftily.

Rafael frowned at me in puzzlement. “You never invite me in. You’re uncomfortable when I’m in the house.”

I frowned at him. “How did you – never mind. What did you do to that cop? Why did he let us go?”

Rafael shook his head and retreated down the uneven porch steps, pausing only to turn and level a finger at me. “We’re practicing again tomorrow,” he told me.

I sniffed. “Not until I have a proper learners permit. We can go get one tomorrow.”

Rafael only continued to shake his head at me as he got into the car and backed out into the street. I waited in the doorway and caught his wave as he drove away, tossing him back one of my own. Then I went into my house, wondering, not for the first time, where Rafael went after we parted ways. Where he called home. Today he had left me with even more to think about than usual.

I watched greedily as the butter drizzled over our popcorn, ignoring Rafael as he looked on in disgust.

“It’s so unhealthy!” he groaned.

“You were outvoted,” I said tartly, handing the half-full tub back to him. “Go have them top it off, please, so we can put more on the top.”

Grumbling, Rafael went back to the counter as requested, Colton and Grace tailing after him like baby ducks. I smiled after them, leaning my hip against the counter as I waited.

“Lyla?”

I whirled around at the sound of my name, only to see Austin. “Austin, hey!” I waved, and then stiffened as he threw his arms around me in a hug. It was the first time he and I had been alone without having Natalie there as a buffer. I didn’t like his touch, innocent though it was, and was glad for the excuse to slip quickly away when I saw his parents approaching us.

“Mr. and Mrs. Parks, it’s so great to see you again!” I shook hands with both of them. Being friends with someone since second grade gave you the advantage of knowing their parents well. They asked me about school and my parents, who I assured them were ‘working hard’, and then they left to find seats in their movie.

“I didn’t even think to ask what you were doing today when you said you had plans,” Austin said, looking excited. “What movie are you seeing? Is it the same as me? Who are you here with? We should sit together!”

I was saved from having to come up with an awkwardly worded explanation by the sight of Rafael walking up to us, Colton and Grace hanging off him like monkeys, already eating the candy he had bought for us. Only when he looked up and saw both Austin and me staring at him did he quicken his pace, his long legs gobbling the distance between us. He stood calmly next to me, looking intently, almost menacingly, at Austin. I elbowed him surreptitiously.

Austin looked between the two of us several times in shock before he finally recovered himself, holding out his hand for Rafael to shake. “I-I’m sorry, but I don’t believe we’ve ever been introduced. I’m Austin Parks.”

Another discreet elbow jab and Rafael shook Austin’s hand, grunting his own name. I wanted to roll my eyes. Why was he always so
moody
?

Austin kept staring at Rafael, and then shook his head, laughing self depreciatively. “I’m sorry for staring, it’s just, have we met before? You seem so familiar.”

A prickle of unease set the hairs on the back of my neck on end, and I glanced at Rafael. He was staring at Austin, his gaze oddly intent.

“I don’t see how we could have met before,” he said in a calm voice.

And there! The glow, I was sure of it. Rafael had
glowed
for just a moment when he had been speaking, just like when the cop had pulled us over and we had mysteriously been let go, completely scot-free.

Austin grinned, a little uneasily in my eyes. “Of course, I’m sorry. It’s not really possible, is it? You must have one of those faces. Lyla…” he paused, “I, um, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at youth group.” He walked away into the hallway of theatre doors, and I turned to Rafael, slugging him in the arm. It hurt my fist more than his rock-hard bicep, I was sure, but it got my point across.

He glared down at me. “What was that for?”

“Would it kill you to be polite sometimes?” I asked, frowning at him. “Austin was being perfectly nice, and you had to act like a total grump.”

“He didn’t have to hug you like that,” Rafael muttered.

A little thrill went through me. Was Rafael jealous? Could he possibly have any kind of feelings for me too? “Why not?” I asked, a little breathless as I waited for the answer.

“He came out of the bathroom without washing his hands,” Rafael said promptly.

“Oh,” I said in equal tones of disappointment and disgust. I remembered Rafael heading to the bathroom with Colton as soon as we had entered the theatre. It was entirely possible he had seen Austin in there. Not a very romance-inspiring thought.

“Ew,” Colton and Grace chorused from somewhere around my elbow.

I sighed. “Let’s go into our movie,” I said, herding my siblings in the proper direction. Once we were all seated and situated, I looked to Rafael once more. “I
know
that this time I saw you-”

“Lyla,” Rafael interrupted quietly. “Let’s just watch our movie.”

“But I know I saw you-” I tried again, but Rafael stopped me once more.

“Lyla,” he said gently, smiling at me with just his eyes. I felt my insides melt like butter, and turned to watch the screen.
Later
, I promised myself. I would bug him about it later.

I didn’t realize right away that Rafael was becoming more and more unpredictable. He gradually began arriving at the park a few minutes later every day. I hardly noticed until one day it was four-twenty when I checked my cell phone in response to a text alert. It was even more surprising to find the text was from Rafael:
Can’t make it today. Sorry. Be there tomorrow, promise.

I gathered up Colton and Grace in confusion and disappointment. Rafael had never cancelled on me before. I couldn’t help but be worried and sent a text back before leaving the park,
Everything okay?
I waited anxiously all evening for a reply, though it didn’t come until about nine o’clock:
Fine. Work.
As I didn’t even know what Rafael’s work was, except that it apparently was slightly dangerous, having something to do with ‘hunting’, this wasn’t very reassuring.

I spent what felt like an impossibly long evening with Colton and Grace, doing homework and tidying the house, wondering how to occupy the empty hours before me. I couldn’t remember what I had done with my time before Rafael had filled it.

The next day I kept an eye on the time, and it was nearly four-thirty by the time Rafael strolled up, his hands deep in the pockets of his dark jeans. My breath caught in my chest, and I realized then how worried I had been that he wouldn’t come back today. He approached the bench and I stood quickly.

“Hey,” I said, awkwardly.

“Hey,” he replied, collected as ever.

“Where were you yesterday?” I had previously decided not to ask, but the question was out before I could help myself. After all, if he couldn’t make it one day, what did it really matter? One day, out of dozens of others where he spent his entire afternoon with Colton, and Grace and me.

He shrugged, looking maddeningly unconcerned. “I had some… things to look into, take care of.”

“What kind of things?”

“Austin.”

I gave a growl of aggravation, and switched tactics. “Why are you late? You were late texting me yesterday, too.”

Rafael sat on the bench with a sigh of relief, as though he had been on his feet all day and the night before, and raised his eyebrows at me.

I gave a disgusted sigh. “Let me guess: Austin.”

“You really are a sharp one,” Rafael said, grinning mischievously at me, though he soon turned somber. “I am sorry, though. For not texting you sooner, for making you wait so long. I’ll try to do better in the future.”

And for a while, he did. The next day he was perfectly on time, the day after he was only ten minutes late. On the third day, he was only a few minutes late and offered to take us to tour the
Santa Maria
, the actual replica of Christopher Columbus’s boat that sat on the Scioto River downtown, near St. Rose of Lima church. I readily agreed, since Colton and Grace needed a day away from both our house and the park, and we headed off.

Midway through our tour, however, Rafael’s cell phone rang and he answered the call, wandering slightly apart from us on the deck toward the opposite rail. I watched him discreetly, keeping my other eye on Colton and Grace as they ran from barrel to main mast, port to starboard, exploring everything. Presently, Rafael returned to me, his expression grim and his hands once more buried in the pockets of his jeans.

“Is everything all right?” I asked, concerned.

“Yes. But I have to leave.”

“Leave?” I echoed, and it was then that I noticed the tense set to his shoulders, how rigidly he held his body.

“Yes. I need to go help my friends. Here.” He held out his hand and let the keys to the Hummer dangle from it. “It’s only a few miles to your house, you’ll be perfectly safe driving. But I don’t want you walking. It’s getting late.”

“I only have my learners permit,” I argued, though it was really in an effort to keep him here longer.
Leaving
. He had never just
left
me before. It felt so odd and strange, though I would have driven myself home regardless; ever since the pawn shop I had been extra wary of strangers and going out on my own.

“Don’t worry. You drive well, so they’ll have no reason to pull you over. I’ll come and get the car later tonight, just park it in the street and leave the keys on the front porch.”

“It could get stolen,” I complained lamely, and Rafael favored me with a grin.

“It will be fine, and so will you. I’ll see you tomorrow, at the park. Goodbye, Lyla.”

I watched him walk off the ship and sighed heavily when he was out of sight, then went to explore with Colton and Grace. We had plenty of evening left, and I wasn’t going to cut their adventure short just because my heart was no longer in it now that Rafael had left.

The next day, Rafael was late once again to our meeting place. I didn’t mind, not really. These days it was like walking out of the rain and into the sunshine, he had become such a fixed part of my days. But I could tell that this time, something was different. We stayed in the park at my request, Rafael able to explain the finer points of why the rough draft of my Latin paper was tattooed in endless red marks. But the whole time I could tell he was on edge; he sat at the edge of the bench, stood and paced often, and kept running his hands through his hair, a gesture I knew meant something was bothering him.

Finally, I set my paper aside and stared intently at him as he paced, until he paused to face me questioningly. “Is everything okay?” I asked, leaning forward so my elbows were resting on my knees. “You seem a little, well, tense. Did something happen yesterday when you went to help your friends?”

Rafael was shaking his head even before I finished asking. “Everything is fine,” he said shortly, and so of course, I knew it wasn’t. But no amount of prodding or hinting or even joking would coax forth an answer from him. In fact, he hardly seemed in the mood to take any jokes. This was a somber, too-serious and literal Rafael, and I found I didn’t like him much.

I doubt I ever would have begun to question Rafael about anything, would have gone my whole life in blissful ignorance, if that evening had gone differently. As it was, that day opened the door on all of my unanswered questions about Rafael, and this time, I refused to close it. It began with Grace.

My little sister suddenly stopped short on the walk home and began to cry that she had dropped her favorite bracelet in the sandbox, the bracelet that belonged to her best friend. I sighed but gamely turned us back to the park and began pawing through the sand. Colton and Grace soon grew bored with the whole idea and went to the swings. I didn’t protest since really, they were making it harder to look through the sand by flinging it clumsily everywhere I’d already looked.

I worked doggedly – until I heard the voices. I never sanctioned eavesdropping, and I would have kept right on going if I hadn’t recognized one of the voices as belonging to Rafael. I knew his voice instantly, the familiar trickle it sent winding down my spine. I straightened immediately, looking over at the tall hedges where Rafael and I had been sitting just twenty minutes ago. The bench we always sat at was empty, and I carefully crept along the hedges that blocked the rest of the sitting area from the playground of the park, and there, standing in front of the fountain, was Rafael and another man with chestnut hair.