Page 26 of My Return to the Walter Boys (My Life with the Walter Boys #2)
“Yeah, you’re right.” She sighed wistfully. “His girlfriend is so lucky.”
“I don’t think they’re dating,” Savannah said, her tone conspiratorial. “I heard he’s hooking up with the manager of the Gas Exchange. Apparently, he’s there all the time.”
Before her words could sink in and wreak havoc, Megan responded and saved me from spiraling. “Yeah, because he works there. I’m telling you; he’s dating Jackie. Teagan heard from Heather, and those two have been friends since she moved to Colorado.”
“Even if you’re right, don’t you think that’s weird? I mean, they live together.”
Her comment made my cheeks burn. Not wanting to hear any more of the conversation, I peeked over the top of my notebooks to gauge how close I was to the front of the line.
Thankfully, there was only one person in front of the gossip twins—a little old lady with a handbag so bulky I was impressed she didn’t tip over.
“Who cares?” Megan said. “They’re not related.”
“Sure, but the Walters took her in because she has nowhere else to go. Doesn’t that seem a bit messy, dating someone who’s part of your new quasi family?”
“Next!” the barista behind the cash register called.
As the girls stepped forward to order, I couldn’t stop Savannah’s words from echoing in my head.
I wanted to dismiss the statement outright.
The little I knew about the two was far from flattering, so I was disinclined to take anything they said to heart.
But no matter how I rationalized, there was a part of me that wondered if she was right.
***
“Is this an abduction?”
It was Tuesday after school, and I was standing next to the truck, waiting for Alex to arrive and unlock the doors. Thirty seconds earlier, a familiar black car had whipped into the empty space next to me. Cole proceeded to roll down the window and tell me to get in without so much as a hello.
His response was, as usual, vague and lacking any important information. “No, it’s a mission.”
“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “And what would that involve, exactly?”
My question was met with a standard Cole smirk. “That’s a secret.”
Of course it was. I knew when to pick my battles, and Cole on the verge of an adventure wasn’t one of those times, so I released a sigh and walked around the Buick without further inquiry.
“Hey, Jackie!” someone shouted as I opened the passenger door. “Where are you going?”
I glanced up and saw Alex crossing the parking lot with Nathan and Lee trailing behind him. Isaac was, presumably, at home. In addition to a buttload of community service and a hefty fine, he’d earned himself a weeklong school suspension for the fire alarm stunt.
“Who knows?” I said, lifting my shoulder in a half shrug. Did the answer even matter? My lips twitched with a hint of a smile when I realized that no, it didn’t. I would get in the car and go with Cole no matter his explanation. “See you guys later.”
“Tell Mom we’ll be back in time for dinner,” Cole added as I climbed in. He fiddled with a dial on the dash, and once warm air was blasting from my vents, he backed out of the spot and expertly navigated the post-school traffic.
We drove for ten minutes before pulling up to a nondescript, brick building with a cryptic sign that read simply THE RIFT.
“Well, that’s not ominous at all,” I said, eyeing what appeared to be a storefront as Cole put the car in park. That there were no indicators clarifying what type of store it was struck me as a poor business strategy.
Cole laughed as he drew his keys from the ignition. “I promise you’ll like this.”
As I followed him out of the car, more than one possibility of what the Rift could be ran through my head, each one more ridiculous than the next—an outer space–themed arcade bar; a sketchy money-laundering front; a tear in the fabric of reality that led to an alternative universe—but a thrift store wasn’t one of them.
A bell above the door jingled as we stepped inside, and my first impression was that we’d stumbled onto a quirky movie set instead of an actual, real-life place.
The shop was poorly lit and narrow, with only three long aisles that stretched backward into the gloom.
In my initial scan of the room, I spotted a bust of Shrek, an old aquarium filled with stuffed animals, and a collection of fishnet-stockinged leg lamps.
Lounging beside the register was an orange tabby cat, and a second one slept peacefully on top of an old grandfather clock.
“This way,” Cole said, taking me by the hand and dragging me into the depths of the clutter.
There was no rhyme or reason for the way the shelves were organized; books transitioned into household goods, then turned into electronics.
Finally, we reached the end of the aisle, which opened up into a musty apparel section with racks of clothing, tables of accessories, and bins overflowing with shoes.
“Perfect,” Cole said, propping his hands on his hips and surveying the room with the satisfaction of a forty-year-old dad observing his freshly mown lawn. “Nobody’s here yet.” He glanced over at me. “What do you think?”
“That this is the strangest kidnapping ever,” I responded, still uncertain about why we were here.
“Did you happen to receive an invitation today?” he asked offhandedly.
My mouth parted in surprise. “How did you know that?”
At lunch, Chase had made an appearance at my friend group’s established cafeteria table.
This wasn’t unusual—he and Skylar started dating a week before the dance—but his distribution of black envelopes closed with real wax seals was definitely different.
The one he’d handed me had my name written across the front in perfect, gold calligraphy.
Inside was an invitation to a costume party.
“Chase takes Halloween very seriously,” Cole explained, starting toward a table display dedicated to the very holiday he’d just mentioned; a wide range of masks, wigs, and props were laid out across its surface.
“His party is the only one that comes close to rivaling our end-of-the-year kegger, but that’s because his parents are loaded, and they let him go all out on decorations and catering.
I’ve only gone once, but he usually deals out invites after homecoming. ”
“Okay,” I said slowly, even though he’d skirted around the answer to my question. Knowing Cole’s history, some old hookup probably texted him today to see if he wanted to go. “Why are we here?”
He picked up a feather boa and wrapped it around his neck with a flourish. “To find our costume, obviously. I wanna get a head start before everything is picked over.”
“ Our costume?” Even though it was awfully presumptuous of Cole to assume my plus-one would go to him, my heart thumped. His assumption was one hundred percent correct, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t give him a hard time. “What if I want to take Nathan instead?”
“Do you?”
“No.”
“Then why—”
“Because,” I said, shooting him a duh look, “I don’t remember us having a conversation about it.”
With a dramatic sigh, Cole unwound the fluffy scarf, discarded it on the table, and turned to me, his eyes wide and imploring. “Jackie, can I pretty please come to Chase’s party with you? I’ll let you choose whatever cheesy couples costume you want.”
Leaning in, I plucked a feather out of his hair. “ Anything ?”
He hesitated, then nodded.
“Well, how can I possibly say no to that?” I grinned and brushed the feather across the tip of his nose. “Thanks for asking, Cole. I’d love for you to be my plus-one.”
He swatted my hand away. “You know, when I first met you, I never expected someone so prim and proper to be such a menace.”
“That’s because I wasn’t,” I said with a sniff. “It’s a reflex developed from spending so much time around you and your family. I’ve been corrupted.”
A low chuckle escaped him. “You say corrupted, but I think we’ve brought out the best in you,” he replied as he gave my ponytail a gentle tug. “I love your sass.”
I blushed. “Aren’t we supposed to be looking for a costume?”
“You’re right.” He turned back to the Halloween display, and after a moment of consideration, he picked out a silver, foam helmet and a matching shield. “I’m sure we can find a tiara around here somewhere. What do you think about being a princess? I can go as your—”
“Knight in shining armor?” I finished for him. “Don’t make me laugh. You’re more the pompous prince type.”
But Cole wasn’t listening. He’d caught sight of something that made him perk up and toss the helmet and shield aside.
“Hey! Alex had one of these when we were kids,” he said, seizing a green lightsaber from a box of plastic weapons.
He bent his knees into a fighting stance, then gave the sword a wave.
“I think I ran over it with my bike and broke it,” he added.
“We should totally go as Luke and Leia. You can wear that sexy gold bikini.”
Oh, hell no.
Cole must have clocked my reaction. Before I could open my mouth to tell him off, he beat me to it.
Squaring his shoulders, he held up a finger and, in a bad mimicry of me, said, “First off, I refuse to wear an overtly sexual outfit that will result in me being objectified like a piece of meat. Second, the party is in October, Cole! Do you want me to freeze to death? And third—” He stopped ranting and frowned, but after a few seconds, he continued in his own voice.
“Actually, I can’t think of a third thing. ”
I hid a smile. “Those are both exceptional points, but what I was going to say is that it’d be weird for us to go as a brother-sister duo.
” Nobody knew about the conversation I overheard between Megan and Savannah.
I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing; Cole and I weren’t stepsiblings, and there was no shared blood between us, but Savannah’s comment about how weird it was that we were dating hadn’t left my mind since yesterday morning.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.