Page 106 of Sticks and Stones (Shadow Valley U)

He waggles his middle finger at me. “Get out.”

“Gladly. I’m going back to bed.”

That’s kind of a lie. I hurry back to bed before Wren gets out of the bathroom, hoping she’ll come back in. But she doesn’t. She breezes down the stairs, and a second later, Grant’s heavier footsteps follow.

Good.

The front door closes, and I’m back out of bed. I get ready for the day and wake Evan up. Luckily, he rolls over as soon as I say his name. No water over the head necessary.

“Is there a reason you’re waking me up at the crack of dawn?”

I huff. “It’s seven. The sun is up.”

Okay, maybe it’s six-thirty. And the sun was rising, last I checked…

“Whatever.” I kick his leg. “We’ve got shit to do.”

Evan eyes me. But he’s a better sport than Grant in more ways than one, and he only takes five minutes to brush his teeth and pull on fresh clothes. He meets me in the kitchen, where I slide him a toasted bagel and the tub of cream cheese.

“Uh-oh. Are you trying to…well, fuck, the butter pun would’ve worked better if you didn’t offer me cream cheese.”

“Coffee.” I snap my fingers. “That’ll make you make sense.”

He agrees.

I pour us cups and sit across from him, then take out my phone. I set it down. Pick it up. Set it down again.

“What?” Evan finally asks.

“You talked to your parents, right?”

I mean, it’s been five days. I overheard Wren and Ally talking about it at the restaurant in hushed tones, whispering about the worry she has for her foster family.

He nods. “They know about the break-in, that someone has their address. That her dad is out.”

Out. That was definitely a bomb my father dropped last weekend. And I didn’t even have a chance to prepare Wren. How the hell was I supposed to break that to her, though? And then force her to make small talk with rich strangers until we could interrogate my father?

“I didn’t want to have that conversation in front of her,” I admit. “And then she was there, and I couldn’t stop it.”

Evan eyes me. While I’ve taken the brunt of Wren’s cold shoulder, she hasn’t been speaking much to any of the guys. Especially Evan.

“Okay, okay.” I guess we’re going for honesty. Maybe that will make me feel better. “I didn’t want to stop him. It was either that or he would’ve reverted to a wall.”

Kind of like how Wren is right now.

I rub my face. “You should’ve seen the look on her face. And then I dragged her out of that little hut in your parents’ backyard…”

He winces.

“Iknow. It was your safe place. And I know you only told me about it because I snuck in there that one time…”

Oh, man, I had never seen Evan so mad. Sputtering, red-faced. He said it was private, which obviously meant it was something between him and Sticks. I kind of hated their relationship when I was fourteen. Everything was changing. We started high school, a new hockey team, Wren was flitting back in and out of the Mitchells’ lives. Evan’s attention was being pulled away, and selfishly, I just wanted him to be my friend while everything else was rocky.

And she was just so…irritating. I couldn’t help but watch her. Where she was. What she was doing. All cataloged and filed away for later, like the stupid tree fort that never made it off the ground.

It’slaternow.

I pick up my phone again.