Page 66 of Adam's Rising

Peter glanced at her, brows furrowed, but didn’t miss a beat. “Claire said you had to take down one of the hands?”

Adam pushed Lala backward, firmly but gently. “Yeah. Frank tried to attack Clara —” Adam jumped off the stepstool. “Peter, what happened?” He was at his brother’s side in a second.

Lala looked confused.

And Claire still wanted to smack her cousin.

But seeing Adam push Lala off his lap and rush to Peter’s side gave Claire a moment of peace.

“What’s going on?” Lala demanded, as if upset that the two of them had interrupted her reunion.

Leave it to Lala to care about herself and not the fact that a fourteen-year-old had a gash above his eyebrow.

How could Adam even get close to her?Ugh! She wanted to throttle both of them!

“Stop!” Peter pushed Adam’s hand away. “Same old, same old, man. Jerk asked why I wasn’t going to school on the res. I warned him to back off, and he said, ‘Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?’ Whatever that means. So I put my fist wherehismouth was. Doesn’t matter that I’m not an Alaska Native. It pisses me off that he’d insult someone who is… as if they weren’t here first.”

Adam rubbed his temple. “I get it. I do. But they’ll expel you.”

“It was after school, outside. Didn’t last but a few seconds. And wha’do I care? I should just quit.”

“You can’t quit, Peter. You’re only fourteen.” Adam lifted his hands. “You know what? We’re not talking about this right now. If you don’t want to work, get your butt downstairs and do whatever homework they gave you.”

Lala sighed, but Adam didn’t give her the time of day.

Claire suddenly understood. “Juanita,” she said without thinking.

Peter whipped around, shook his head, imparting a request.

Adam turned to her slowly, then back to Peter. “Juanita? What about Juanita?”

“Nothing, man.” Peter darted off, leaving the three of them.

Great! Without Peter, they looked like one of those love triangles from Grams’s soap operas.Cue the music.Zoom in the camera.Commercial break.

“I gotta go!” Claire said. “Lots of homework.”

She turned and jogged toward the Cherokee before she broke into tears. While she didn’t believe for a moment that Adam was interested in Lala, he’d allowed her to straddle him.

“Claire!” Adam called.

She wanted to keep running, but if she did, Lala would suspect something.

“Yeah?” she said, her heart pounding so hard she thought it might explode.

Lala was behind him, waiting, arms crossed.

“Thanks for bringing Peter home,” Adam said audibly, but then she saw his lips form the wordsI love you, just like in those stupid dubbed movies she hated. But unlike the foreign movies, she couldseetherightwords. She didn’t need to hear them.

Adam loved her, not Lala.

* * *

Claire really did have homework— studying, actually. Final exams were closing in fast.

The front door swung open, smacking the wall.

Lala.