“Yeah. I had my check-up.” The same gray eyes as Mr. Rhodes’s roamed my face briefly, and he seemed to have to blink again. “You look tired.”
Remind me never to word something in front of a teenager that could be turned into an insult. “I haven’t been sleeping that great.”
“’Cause of the bat?”
“How do you know about the bat?”
He eyed me. “Dad told me about you screaming like you were gonna die.”
First of all, I hadn’t been screaming like I was going to die. It had just been about five screams. Max.
But before I could argue with him about semantics, the front door opened again and Mr. Rhodes was out, hauling a small backpack in one hand and a thin black jacket in the other.
Wow. He wasn’t fucking around. He wanted to tag along.
I eyed the kid next to me as he let out a sigh. “You’re sure you want to come?”
His gaze flicked toward me. “I thought you said you’d like the company?”
“I do, I just want to make sure you’re not going to regret it.” Because his dad was coming too. To spend time with him? To not leave him with me alone? Who knew?
“Anything’s better than staying home,” he muttered just as his dad made it to us.
All right. I nodded at Mr. Rhodes, and he nodded at me.
I guess I was driving.
We loaded into my car with Mr. Rhodes taking the front passenger seat, and I backed out. I glanced at them both as sneaky as possible, feeling a little bit of pleasure at having them come with me… even if neither one of them talked much. Or I guess really liked me.
But one of them was desperate to get out of the house and the other either wanted to spend time with his kid or keep him safe.
I’d hung out with people who had worse intentions. At least they weren’t being fake.
“Where are we going?” the deepest voice in the car asked.
“Surprise,” I answered dryly, peeking in the rearview mirror.
Amos had his attention out of the window.
Mr. Rhodes, on the other hand, twisted his head to look at me. If I didn’t already know he had been in the Navy, it would have been confirmed in that instant. Because I had zero doubts that he’d mastered the glare he was shooting my way on other people.
A lot of them, more than likely, from how good he was at it.
But I still grinned as I glanced at him.
“Okay, fine,” I conceded. “We’re going to some falls. You probably should’ve asked before you got in the car though. Just saying. I could be kidnapping you.”
He didn’t appreciate my joke apparently. “Which falls?” Mr. Rhodes asked in that stony, level voice.
“Treasure Falls.”
“That one sucks,” Amos piped up from the back.
“It does? I looked up pictures, and I thought it looked nice.”
“We didn’t get enough snow. It’s gonna be a trinkle,” he explained. “Right, Dad?”
“Yes.”
I felt my shoulders deflate. “Oh.” I thought of the next falls on my list. “I already did Piedra Falls. What about Silver Falls?”
Mr. Rhodes settled into the seat, crossing his arms over his chest. “Is this four-wheel drive?”
“No.”
“Then no.”
“Damn it,” I groaned.
“Your clearance is too low. You won’t make it.”
My shoulders deflated even more. Well, this sucked.
“What about a longer trail?” the older man asked after a moment.
“That’s fine with me.” How much longer was long? I didn’t want to chicken out, so I just agreed. I couldn’t think of one on my mom’s list off the top of my head that we could do, but my plans were ruined already and I was going to take advantage of the company. I knew how to be by myself, but I hadn’t been lying to Amos about being lonely. Even when Kaden left for a short tour or for an event, someone would be at the house, usually the housekeeper I’d said we didn’t need but his mom had insisted on because it was beneath someone of Kaden’s reputation to make his own food or clean his own house. Ugh, I cringed just thinking about how snobby she’d sounded back then.
“I’ll get you directions,” my landlord explained, dragging me out of my memories with the Joneses.
“Works for me. Work for you, Amos?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
All right then. I drove the car toward the highway, figuring Mr. Rhodes would give me directions once I got there.
“You used to live in Florida?” Amos asked suddenly from the back seat.