Saving Sloan (Sloan Series Book 2) (18 page)

Where had she been that she didn’t know this? “Why didn’t you tell me? You said not to pick.”

“I didn’t want you to feel pressure because of what you’ve been through, but I think you’ve made your mind up, right? You’re going to pick Aaron. My late husband was a tall, dark, and handsome man too.” Donna smiled at the memory.

Sloan had to think about it. Was she picking Aaron? And would Aaron even want her if he thought she was crazy? Did he believe her about the notes, or was he just confused? None of it mattered at the moment anyway. It sure wasn’t the time to choose.

“I’m going to the prom with Ray on Friday,” Sloan said.

“Good for you. He’s a nice young man. Would you go with Aaron if you could?”

It didn’t take long to think about that. “Yeah. I think I would. I do love Ray. I do. I love him, but…”

“But…”

Sloan’s phone vibrated, and she grabbed it from her pocket. It was her mom.

Where are you?

Where are you?
Sloan answered back. She’d been the one home first.

Home. You aren’t here. Worried.

Sloan checked the time and sure enough it was after three. Time flew with Donna.

At Donna’s be home in a second.

Good. Ray and Aaron are here. So is Mackenzie. Waiting on you. I got some food.

K.

Sloan put her phone in her pocket. Her mom always had to feed the guests. Guess it was smart. Harder to think on an empty stomach.

“I think I’d better go,” she told Donna as she stood. “Mom’s waiting for me at home. Time to talk about this and figure out what’s going on.”

Donna stood too and gave Sloan a big hug. Why couldn’t she just stay with Donna while all this blew over? It was a nice place, and she and Donna could chat about boys. For an eighty year old, she liked chatting about the boys.

After patting her on the back, Donna kissed Sloan on her forehead. “I know this is hard for you. It would be hard for me. It’s scary and confusing. But know that it’ll be okay. God will take care of you. He’ll let you figure it out.”

Sloan knew it was true, but it still scared her. Bad things happened to church-going people all the time. Just because she believed in God and Jesus didn’t mean she was immune from bad things or psychos. She already had proof of that. Instead of telling her doubts to Donna, she smiled warmly and kissed her on the cheek. “Talk to you tomorrow.”

“You’d better,” Donna ordered. “I need to know the answer to the mystery. It’s like a crime novel or an episode of that older lady detective. You know… the writer? Mrs.… something? Angela?”

Sloan had no idea what she was talking about. “Yeah, TV crime drama. Seems to be my life,” she mumbled with a half-grin. No sense in Donna knowing how much that sort of hurt her heart to hear. She didn’t want to be in a crime drama. A nice comedy would be good. Or a romance would be ideal. But when did things in movies or TV ever go smoothly?

After a few more goodbyes, Sloan left Donna’s and made her way home. Sure enough, Aaron’s Mustang, Mackenzie’s Honda, and Ray’s old Charger sat behind hers in the driveway. Her mom’s car was pulled in the yard, she supposed so the others would have a place to park.

Nerves started to get the better of her. This could either go really bad or really good, depending on whether they believed she hadn’t sent those roses to herself.

And, by the way, how Ray answered the burning question. Boyd said Ray hadn’t come to see him. Had he been lying, or was Ray the liar? Would everyone in her house, everyone who were supposed to be her friends, be telling her the truth?

“God… let’s do this,” she prayed with a sigh and opened her front door.

“Sloan?” her mom yelled. She could hear her but not see her.

“Yeah. It’s me. Sorry. I was at Donna’s.” Sloan tossed her keys in the bowl next to the door and laid her backpack down.

“In the kitchen. Everyone’s here,” her mom called again.

Sloan took just a second to get her nerves together before she stepped down the single step into the off-white kitchen. The kitchen hadn’t changed much since her dad had left with the younger woman, or as Sloan called it, Tiffani-gate. It was still off-white and still had a huge island in the middle. The trashcan sat next to the refrigerator, which sat next to the cabinets. The sink with the faucet that had scarred her face was in front of the window. To the right of that was some more counter space, and then a stainless steel oven stood next to the outside door. They didn’t have a kitchen table. No room, plus the island sat eight. Why need a table when the island practically was one.

The assembled group looked at her when she walked in and got very quiet. It was beginning to make Sloan paranoid. Still, she had to be confident and keep her head up. She refused to fall apart. “You all made it.” She forced a smile and sat on the right side of the table. Mackenzie was next to her. Aaron was at the head, opposite her mother, and Ray sat alone on the other side.

Sloan thought maybe she should have sat with him, but then stopped feeling bad about it. They weren’t there to declare their intentions. They were there to talk about the letters and who was sending them. It was much more important than which brother to date.

Much more important.

“We said we’d be here,” Aaron said, his hands locked in front of him on the island. His eyes fluttered to hers then back down. Her heart sank. What did that mean? Why couldn’t he look at her?

Awkward silence. Yay.

Finally, Mackenzie broke it. “Okay, can someone fill me in because I feel like I’m totally lost here. I mean, I know some of what’s going on, but not everything. I don’t think anyway.”

Sloan’s mother spoke up. “Mackenzie has a good point. I think maybe some of us have little bits and pieces, but not the whole picture. Sloan, you tell us exactly what’s been going on so we can all get on the same page. Okay?”

She couldn’t take her eyes off Aaron, who hadn’t looked in her direction yet.

“You sure you’ll believe me?”

That got his attention. “I never said I didn’t believe you.”

“Sure seemed like it at school.”

“Stop it!” Ray yelled from across the table. It shocked Sloan because Ray never yelled. Like… ever. “Can we get through this without fighting? Please!”

Sloan had never seen him so frustrated, and that was odd since she’d seen him carted off to a foster home a few months ago when Aaron had been on the run for attacking her. “Sure. Okay. I’ll start at the beginning.” For the second time that day, she told her story.

“Sunday after church, I got in my car to go eat with Ray and Aaron. There were five roses in the front seat and a note that said five days until the Fall.”

“What fall?” Mackenzie asked.

“I don’t know. I wish I did. I think I’d feel better if I knew, ya know?”

“The prom was five days from Sunday. Think that’s when this fall is supposed to happen?”

“Seems logical,” Ray answered. “Sloan and I are going to the prom together.”

“We all know that, brother,” Aaron commented with a sneer.

“Just putting it out there.” Ray smiled.

Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

“Anyway,” Sloan went on before they snarked each other to death. “I didn’t think a lot about it. I mean, it was weird, but… whatever. Ray and Aaron both said they didn’t put the flowers in my car.”

“Is that the truth?” Mackenzie asked. She wasn’t feeling timid today. Then again, Mackenzie wasn’t the timid type.

“Yes,” Aaron said emphatically. Ray nodded.

“What happened next?” her mother asked.

“Okay, so Monday I got up and thought I saw Boyd looking at me from across the road. It was so strange.”

“Describe him,” Mackenzie said, pulling out a pen and paper to take notes. Seriously? Actually, why hadn’t Sloan thought of that? It was a smart thing to do.

“Well, just like Boyd. Tall. Blondish hair. Had on a hoodie. But when the police got here, they couldn’t find any trace of him.”

“Hmm…” Mackenzie wrote. “Ray has blond hair too, you know.”

Ray’s head shot up and his eyes were wide. “So do a thousand other people. Doesn’t mean I had anything to do with it. Why would I play Peeping Tom in Sloan’s window at six in the morning?”

“Because you love her,” Aaron said with a low voice.

Sloan’s throat caught. She couldn’t believe he’d actually had the nerve to say it.

Mackenzie’s jaw dropped, and her eyes cut to Sloan.

A sly grin crossed Ray’s lips. “So do you, brother. Does that make you a Peeping Tom?”

“I’m not blond,” Aaron answered quickly.

“Boys!” Sloan’s mother reprimanded. “This is getting us nowhere! No. Where. If you both truly care for Sloan, just shut up and let her talk so we can figure out what’s going on before doomsday.” She threw them some wrapped hamburgers and fries she’d brought home. “Here, use your mouths for something besides talking. Eat. Listen.”

Ray’s cheeks turned red, and Aaron smiled. It had been a while since someone had mothered them. “Yes ma’am.” Aaron said, much to Sloan’s surprise. He took his burger and started chomping down.

“Continue,” her mother said as she threw a hamburger to Sloan.

Sloan opened it and took a bite, not really hungry. “The day went okay. Felt kind of stupid for calling the police for something like that, wasting taxpayer money and all. When I started to leave, I opened my locker and found four roses with another note about the Fall.”

“A countdown.” Mackenzie said, opening her burger wrapper.

“That’s what I figure.”

“And you got three yesterday?”

“Yeah. But that’s a bit controversial.”

Aaron raised his eyes to her, but didn’t stop chewing. He got the message.

“Why is it controversial?” Mackenzie asked as she looked from Aaron to Sloan and back again.

“Because Aaron thinks I made it all up and sent three roses to myself.”

He threw his hamburger down and swallowed the bite he had in his mouth in a big gulp. “I did not say that. I said that the order slip had your name on it.”

“Because it came to her?” Mackenzie said, clearly not getting this.

“Because I ordered it… apparently.” Sloan said as she bit the head off a fry.

Mackenzie shook her head and said the very appropriate, “Huh?”

Aaron wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I just told you the facts, Sloan.”

“The fact that I’m crazy or that I’m a drama queen and have been sending myself these flowers?” Oh she was mad. Shaking mad. Beyond angry mad. In all honesty, she hadn’t known Aaron’s conclusion at school had affected her so much.

For a few seconds no one said anything. The tension built to an uncomfortable level before Aaron scooted out of his chair, walked around the table, and grabbed Sloan by the arm. “We need to settle this.” He pulled her off the chair and toward the back door.

Ray got up and blocked it. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Relax. I’m just talking to her, junior. She needs to know that I don’t think she’s crazy.”

“We need to figure this out.” Ray said, refusing to budge.

“And we will, but we can’t get anything finished with Miss Snarky Britches here. Now move.”

Aaron wouldn’t take no for an answer. Ray looked at Sloan, who finally nodded. It wasn’t like Aaron would hurt her, and maybe they did need to hash this out so they could get on with figuring out who was stalking her. Plus, it wasn’t like Ray had anything to be so high and mighty over. According to Boyd, he hadn’t even gone to see him.

Ray moved out of the way.

“Thanks so much,” Aaron snipped. He pulled the door open and held Sloan’s arm until she walked through.

Once they were outside, he let her go and she stomped to the other side of the concrete porch. The wind had picked up since she’d left Donna’s house. A spring storm was coming.

“We don’t have time for this,” she huffed as she pulled the ponytail holder out of her hair. It was killing her head, which wasn’t hard. Everything killed her head.

“You seem to be making time,” Aaron threw back from about five feet away.

Good. She hoped he stayed that far back.

“All you’ve done is bring it up about the flowers and what I said. How about you let me explain?”

“Oh I’d love for you to.” This should be good. Really. How was he going to talk himself out of this one?

He shut his eyes like he was trying to calm down. She couldn’t tell if it was working or not. “I’ve been worried about you. That’s no secret. With the pills and the whatever, you’ve not been yourself.”

“So you think I’m a druggie and hallucinating all of this?”

“No!” Aaron yelled. “That’s not what I think!” He paced and looked like he was walking back inside.

Abruptly, he seemed to change his mind and made it across the porch to her in three steps. Without giving her time to protest or even think about what in the world he was doing, he crashed his lips into hers so hard they both took a few steps back. By the time her mind registered to her mouth that she was supposed to be mad at him, she was too far gone. She wrapped her fingers in his hair and kissed him harder, enjoying the break from reality.

When he stopped kissing her, he looked as ragged as she felt.

“I’d rather do that than fight.”

“Me too,” she heard herself saying then thought better of it. What was she doing? Was she going to let one kiss completely wipe away the fact that Aaron had thought she was either losing her mind or making up the whole thing?

Aaron smiled and ran his fingers though her hair. He pulled her toward him for another kiss when she pushed him back, just hard enough to get him to stop.

He looked confused, and she didn’t blame him. She was confused too. “I can’t do this. Maybe you should have kissed me at school instead of accusing me of taking drugs or losing my mind or whatever it is that you think is going on.”

She walked by him and to the back door. “I don’t know what’s going on here,” he called, breathless. “That’s the problem.”

With her hand on the knob, Sloan didn’t turn around. “That’s the problem.” She said before going inside without him.

Sloan plopped down on the seat next to Mackenzie and pushed her food back, her appetite all but gone. She heard the back door open and shut but didn’t watch Aaron sit down at the island.