Page 46 of Room to Breathe

“Your handwriting is terrible,” I said as I studied the cards I held, trying to decide if the number on one of them was a four or a nine. It looked like both or neither. “Has it always been this bad?”

“I was making fifty-two cards. It was getting tedious. Show me and I’ll tell you.”

“I’m not going to show you. You’ll tell me it’s a four. You know, in the middle of each card you should’ve drawn as many hearts or clubs or whatever suite to match the number.”

“That would’ve taken even longer,” he said.

“But it would’ve solved my right-now problem.”

He leaned forward, trying to peer over the top of my cards. “Just show me, punk.”

I held the cards to my chest as he attempted to pull my arm down. With my free hand, I smacked his shoulder several times.

He laughed. “Fine, do you have any nines?”

“Go fish,” I said.

“Give me my four!”

“It might be a queen, now that I’m looking.”

He shook his head and drew a card from the middle. “Such a cheater,” he teased.

My cheeks immediately went hot and my eyes shot to the floor.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said quickly.

“Why not? It’s true, isn’t it?”

Chapter 20

Then

I woke up groggy. I’dhad the nightmare again the night before. It hadn’t helped that my parents were once again fighting before I went to bed. This time it was about money and how things were going to work if Dad couldn’t bill clients for an extended period. I’d walked down the hall and stood in the open doorway to their bedroom for several long minutes before my mom noticed me.

“Hey, honey,” she said in a tired voice.

It made me feel bad for interrupting. She needed to let her stress out as much as I did, I was sure.

A thought entered my mind suddenly. “Your birthday trip on Wednesday.” They’d been planning a trip to San Diego for months now. They didn’t usually go away on birthdays, especially not midweek, but this year my mom was turning forty and Dad had planned a getaway for her. She could use a getaway.

“We’re not going,” she said, her words clipped, short.

“The FBI doesn’t want me to leave town right now,” Dad said,with a look that made it clear that he wished I hadn’t brought that up. They’d obviously already had a fight about this as well. “We’ll go in a couple of months.”

“I’m going to bed,” I said. I couldn’t make things worse if I went to bed.

“Night,” Mom said, and she turned to face my dad again. He gave me a small smile and a nod. His lawyer face. I’d seen him make it in court to placate a cranky judge or a nervous client. I wondered which one he thought I was.

And so I’d gone to sleep to the sound of their raised voices, even through my closed door.

Now, this morning, I rubbed my eyes and wanted to just stay in bed. But it was literally the first day back after vacation and I couldn’t miss it. Plus, I had a test today. I didn’t miss tests.

“You look tired,” Caroline said when I climbed into the back seat for carpool.

“I didn’t sleep well,” I said.

“Already making up excuses for why I will beat you on this test?” Beau asked.