Shot Through the Heart (21 page)
Read Shot Through the Heart Online
Authors: Niki Burnham
“Maybe we should turn around?”
“I’m sure he’s fine.” I pick up my cell phone from where it’s tucked between the seats. The screen is blank. “He’d have called if he was looking for us.”
I drop it into my lap and lean back against the headrest. Another car passes us, then slows before turning into the lot behind Josh and Connor. I glance back to confirm the identity of the driver.
“Tessa, turn around.” When she looks at me in confusion, it’s all I can do not to grab the wheel. “Now!”
Chapter Eighteen |
Connor
“S
o why are we here?” Josh taps his steering wheel and looks around the empty parking lot. “Who’d you text?”
“You said you saw Joe slither out from under the front porch swing while I was in the shower, so you figure it out.” I reach into the bag of Skittles propped between our seats. If I’m going down, I need fortification first.
Another car pulls into the lot and eases into a parking spot two rows in front of us, with the nose of the car pointing our direction. Josh looks from the driver to me just as I nab his keys from the ignition and stuff them into my front pocket. “What the hell, Connor?”
“I told you. We need to make things right.” I smile and wave at Jimmy Delano, who’s staring at me from the driver’s seat of his car. His brother Joe is beside him holding a water gun—literally, sitting shotgun—while Drew and Grayson occupy the back seat.
“No. Way. You are
not
getting out of this car.” Josh punches the button on his seatbelt to release it, then turns to face me. “I know you have a good boy streak about ten miles wide, but this is not the way to handle things. Not now, and definitely not in front of the clowns sitting in Joe’s backseat.”
I pop one last Skittle into my mouth. “It needs to be in front of those clowns, which is why I asked Joe to bring them here. It’s a grand gesture.”
“Whatever.” He punches a button on his car door to lock mine, then another to prevent me from rolling down my window. “I won’t let you do it. I’ll tackle you if I have to.”
I unbuckle. “Three hours until round one ends. Even you can’t hold me that long.”
“Wanna bet?” Josh grabs the retreating seatbelt and clicks it back in place.
“It’s no different than what you did.” Across from us, Joe honks his horn. I hold up my index finger, asking him to wait a minute while I talk to Josh. “You went to see Molly even though you knew you might get eliminated.”
“I knew it might be my only chance with her. This is different.”
“It’s not.”
I glance toward the other car. Joe’s now standing outside, a red water balloon in one hand and his squirt gun in the other. “This is my one chance to prove to Peyton that I’m trustworthy, and that’s more important to me than a car. For all I know, it won’t matter to her, but face it, we might not have gotten this far anyway if Molly hadn’t fixed the tourney.”
“Still—”
“Let me do this and I won’t feel the need to rat out Jayne and Molly.” I unbuckle my seatbelt once more, then wait until Josh’s gaze is locked on mine. “I need to do this, Josh. For your sister. And don’t tell me you don’t want us together. I happen to know that when you dropped out of Academic Olympics, you told Ms. May you hoped Peyton could take your slot.”
“Duh. She’s the best candidate. I couldn’t put in the study time, not with soccer, even if you somehow can. But Peyton will.”
“She’d have made the team next year. You wanted her with me.”
Josh shakes his head and turns away, but not before I see the expression on his face, which makes me howl with laughter. “You’re just as manipulative as Molly. Sheesh, you two really do belong together.”
“Fine.” He hits the button on his car door to release the lock. “Go. But you’re going to explain to Peyton why I can’t pay back the money I owe her for awhile.”
“Deal.”
I open the car door and step out. I hear another car pulling into the lot and stopping a few rows behind where I’m standing, but I ignore it as Joe holds up his squirt gun, waiting for me to close the car door in a manner reminiscent of my hit on Drew. “You for real, Connor?”
“I’m for real. Josh and I want out.”
“You suck, Strabinowski,” Drew calls from where he’s standing alongside Joe’s car.
Behind me, a female voice yells, “Run, Peyton!” at the same time I hear another yelling, “Connor, don’t!”
Peyton? I spin around to see her running across the lot. Tessa is standing behind her, her hand slapped over her mouth to cover a grin. What the heck? “Josh, did you tell Peyton we were coming here?”
“Nope.”
Behind me, I hear Joe advancing.
“Connor, get back in the car!” Peyton yells.
I smile, then shake my head. Turning away from her, I exhale, then close the car door. Joe raises his gun, fires…and hits Peyton, square in the chest.
I grab her shoulders to move her out of the way, but she locks her knees and puts an arm against the hood of the car to anchor herself in place between me and Joe.
“Move, Peyton.” She’s sweaty and her ponytail’s disheveled, as if she’s just come from the gym.
“I can’t let you knock yourself out of the tournament for something you didn’t do,” she hisses. “What are you thinking? Get back in the car before he hits you!”
“It’s the right thing to do.” With my mouth close to her ear, I add, “I’m always going to do the right thing. You can trust yourself with me.”
I step out from behind her. She can’t hold onto me and to the car at the same time.
A water balloon explodes against her shoulder. She disregards it and lunges for me again. Too late. A bright green balloon hits me in the side of the head so hard it stings.
Peyton gasps, then asks if I’m all right. She’s breathing hard as she reaches up to check where the water balloon hit, then pick the broken balloon pieces from my shoulder.
“Fine.” I tell her. “And I knew you weren’t chicken.”
“What?”
“Gotcha!” Joe whoops, then high-fives his brother. “On to round two!”
Suddenly, Peyton folds forward and grabs her knees. Her breath comes in wheezes.
“You all right?” I lean over and put a hand on her back.
“Embarrassed. But all right. Gimme a sec.” She eases herself into a standing position, leaning against the hood of Josh’s car for support while Drew and Grayson make obscene gestures from the back windows of Joe’s departing car. I let out a grunt of exasperation. At least the two of them are out of the tournament.
When her breathing slows, she says, “Connor, I’m sorry I was such a flake yesterday.”
“It’s all right.” I prop my hands against the car hood on either side of her. I’m sure Josh is watching—and about to have a coronary—but I don’t care. I care about Peyton not running away.
“No, it’s not all right. You didn’t need to do that.” Her eyes search mine. “I’ve always tried to do the safe thing, but sometimes the safe thing isn’t the right thing. What’s right for me is you.” A laugh escapes her lips. “That is, assuming you’re still interested, given that I look like a freak when I run because I have zero stamina.”
“I bet you have plenty of stamina. You just need to work at it, like anything else.” I lean in closer, so my lips are only a few inches from hers. “If you wanted to we could run together sometime. When we’re not studying for Academic Olympics.”
Her lips part in surprise. “You’re the other math and science person?”
“I told you we have a lot in common.” I run my hand over her shoulder, which is sopping wet. “I can’t believe you took a shot for me.”
She wraps her arms around my waist and gives me a smile that wrenches my gut. “I can’t believe you gave up a car for me.”
“I’ll get a car another way. In the meantime…” I lean in and kiss her, because I can’t wait another second. I don’t stop until Josh pounds the horn, which makes Peyton jump and sends me into a fit of laughter.
“You expect me to give you a ride home after that?” Josh calls from the driver’s seat.
I start to yell back at Josh, but Peyton cups my chin in her hand, forcing my eyes to meet hers. “How ‘bout if I give you that ride? We can borrow Tessa’s car and let her go home with Josh.”
Josh hits the horn again. I wave him off and smile at Peyton. I can’t think of better transportation.
“Done.”
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