Fighting Silence (On the Ropes #1)(8)

“Oh yeah. I’ll need that. Can I have your phone number too?” he asked.

My jaw fell open. Fantastic. My six-year-old brother was even trying to take her from me.

“You are definitely related to Till.” She laughed loudly. “Well, Quarry Page, my name is Eliza Reynolds. I’ll get your brother to give you my number later. I’m really looking forward to our date.” She lifted her hand for a high five, which Quarry enthusiastically returned.

Shaking my head, I broke up Quarry’s love connection. “All right, we’ve got to go. Flint’s at home sleeping. Happy birthday, Doodle.” I leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.

She picked the vase up off the windowsill and hugged it to her chest. “Thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course.” I smiled and winked. “Here. I’ll help.” I scooped her off her feet and eased her back through the window. I’d have used any excuse to touch her.

“Goodnight, Quarry!” She blew a kiss that made a slow smile creep across his lips.

As soon as we got a few steps away, Quarry started talking again. “Are you going to marry her?”

“I don’t know. You probably should have checked with me about that before you asked her out on a date. I’m not sure how I feel about you hitting on my girl,” I teased, and his smile fell. “I’m kidding.” I lightly punched his shoulder.

“Hey, why’d she climb through the window? Does her house not have a door? That would be pretty cool to climb through the windows all the time. Would you have to put a doorknob on the window though?”

“You want to hear something cool?” I interjected just to make him stop talking.

“Yeah!”

“That window she crawled into is magic.”

“Nu-uh,” he said in disbelief, but he stopped walking and turned to look at me.

“I’m serious. It’s a magical portal that takes you to a fantasy world. There are no parents or teachers. Everything is nice and clean, and the pantry is always stocked. The best part, though, is that she’s always there.”

“Is she magic too?” he breathed with wide eyes.

I thought about it for a minute before answering.

Was Eliza magic?

She is to me.

“Absolutely.”





Six months later . . .

“WHY YOU SITTIN’ IN THE dark?” Till asked as he crawled through our apartment window. I’d always wondered why he never used the door.

The power to our nightly refuge had long since been shut off. I had told Till no more stealing for me, but when he’d run an old extension cord over to the building next door, I’d made an exception for power. He’d buried it in the dirt so no one could see it, but he’d still had to replace it a few times over the years. He always made sure we had light and a connection for the small space heater I’d bought from a thrift store.

Little by little, Till fixed up that dirty, run-down apartment. His efforts wouldn’t have prevented the city from changing its condemned status, but they made it comfortable for us. He brought bits and pieces of discarded furniture as he found them. It was never anything large. I suspected he couldn’t carry couches on his own, and I was relatively sure he’d never told anyone about our place. I knew I hadn’t.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, quickly turning away to hide my tears.

“Um, I live here,” he answered in the smartass tone I had grown to love.

“No, you don’t.”

“Well, close enough.” He eyed me curiously. “Why are you cryin’?” He crossed his arms over his chest, which seemed to be growing thicker every day.

Not that I really noticed or anything. It wasn’t like I was checking him out or lusting over his body . . . daily. Nope. Not at all. Till was my best friend, the brother I’d never had . . . and the visual of every orgasm I had ever given myself.

“It’s nothing,” I said dismissively.

“Why are you cryin,’ Doodle?” he repeated, clearly not dismissed.

“It’s stupid.” I dried my eyes on the backs of my hands. “I thought you were going out with Helen Chapman tonight?” I questioned, trying to distract him.

“What? Who told you that?”

I swear, sometimes, he didn’t even remember that we went to the same school. Nothing had changed. Till and I were thick as thieves inside that apartment, but it was our little secret from the outside world—or, more accurately, Till’s secret.

“No one had to tell me. The whole school was talking about it.” I stood up off the cushions we had made into a makeshift couch on the floor.

A small smirk grew from the corner of his mouth. “You really shouldn’t believe everything you hear.”

I let out a loud laugh. “Funny, that’s not the first time I’ve been told that tonight.”

He quirked an eyebrow and cocked his head, asking for further explanation, but I didn’t give it to him.

“You hungry?” I walked to the small filing cabinet he’d converted into a pantry. It was never loaded, but we usually had at least something in case we got hungry.

On average, we spent about two hours a night in our apartment, but on the weekends, we spent almost all day if we weren’t working. My parents never even bothered to ask where I disappeared to, and eventually, I stopped sneaking out and started walking out the front door instead.