Page 48 of Not On Your Life

“What the heck were you two doing in there?” Spit sprays against my bare chest, and I try not to cringe. “No, I know what you were doing. You aren’t children. Do that crap at your own home.”

His rant is amusing, but Maddie doesn’t seem to think so.

“Excuse me! You thoughtwewere doingthat?For your information, sir, we were locked in there due to your negligence to fix the doorknob.”

Talk about kicking a man while he’s down.

“Maddie,” I try to shush her, but she glares at me.

The man attempts to push himself off the floor. I brace an arm under him to help him sit. “It’s always my fault. A kid gets stuck in a locker, my fault. Two grown adults can’t remember to prop the door open before getting freaky in the closet, my fault.”

Maddie mutters something under her breath before standing up and walking to the bleachers.

“Ain’t she a grumpy one.” the man grumbles after her.

Two EMT’s rush into the gymnasium. They don’t hesitate to check on the man, even when he yells at them, repeatedly and profanely, that he doesn’t need their help.

They manage to get him loaded up on the stretcher, anyway, insisting that because he lost consciousness he needs to be checked out.

“Is one of you coming?” asks the nearest EMT.

I glance at Maddie, who seems equally confused about what to do.

“No!” the man barks. “Those two are the reason I’m strapped to this stupid bed. You can charge them for my hospital bill.”

Well, I guess that settles that.

How many more people can I injure? I might as well leave my card on file at the hospital for all future accidents.

“Grumpy old man,” Maddie grumbles as they leave.

The confusion and chaos of the last few hours hits, and I snort. “He said the same thing about you.”

She glares at the retreating gurney. “He called me an old man?”

I can’t stop laughing.

“I think you’re delirious. We should go.” She checks her phone. “It’s almost ten.”

I nod, sobering up enough to retrieve my stuff. I slip my arms into my shirt but forgo buttoning it. We were in there for four hours, and somehow, I’m more exhausted than after a full training session.

I follow Maddie out of the school and to her car. I tell myself I want to make sure she makes it safely, but I’m wondering if she will bring up the closet situation. She must have known I had been holding her for a while. I’m surprised she hasn’t said anything about it yet.

And then there’s the fact that I should apologize for trying to force chocolate down her throat.

Wait. My steps slow momentarily. Where did the Snickers go?

“Well, that was not fun. So let’s not do it again,” Maddie says as we reach her car.

“It could have been worse.”

“Yeah, we could have died.”

I grin. “See? Worse.”

She tosses her stuff in the back of her car. I’ve never seen her be so careless. Maddie is the picture of precision, organization, and perfection. Sometimes I made it a game to move something on her desk to see how long it took her to put it back in its place. But tonight I caught a glimpse of the unrestrained girl hiding behind those walls, and it only makes me want her more.

Maddie turns to me, and I take her in under the dim lighting of a streetlight in the outdated parking lot. She’s beautiful, even after being locked in a room that resembles her worst nightmare.