Page 54 of Time to Bounce

I didn’t think he could, or I wouldn’t have shot back with, “I’ll give you anything you want if you can kick that in.”

My brother had reinforced the door.

There was no way…

Crack.

One kick from his booted heel was all it took to fold my door in like he’d stepped on a cardboard box.

I stared at the door, now nearly completely broken in two, and said, “Now what am I supposed to do?”

He pulled out his phone and placed a call.

“Hey, Jack. Yeah, do you think I could get you to replace a door for me?” he asked. “I need it to be a good door, though. One that’ll withstand a boot.”

He got a couple of details, then he was walking in my door, leaving me still staring at the shattered remains.

“You know,” I said as I finally followed him in. “Gavrel told me that would hold.”

“Gavrel was probably trying to be nice because you wanted to stay here,” he said. “Plus, there was this one time during orientation we had a bird house building competition with some kids. When he was done with his, it fell apart because he only used wood glue—and too much of it at that.”

I giggled at that, then walked to the wall where I had hung his bird house.

He’d given it to me with this huge grin on his face. “This one.”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “That one.”

It was lopsided, and I wouldn’t ever think about subjecting a bird to it.

I guess Gable did have a point when it came to my brother’s carpentry skills.

“What do I get?”

I looked up to find Gable standing next to me.

“What do you want?” I asked, having no trouble following his line of thought.

He didn’t hesitate in saying, “You to stay with me for the weekend.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but he held up his hand.

“Actually,” he said, “I’m set to take a vacation. When I can finally go on it, I want you to come with me… and spend the weekend with me.”

I winced. “I just got back from a three-week vacation.”

He turned so he could look at me and not Gavrel’s poor excuse for a bird house.

“I know the chief of police who has final say so on your schedule,” he challenged. “How about you let me work on that part?”

I was crazy. That had to be why I agreed.

“Okay.”

I hate pants and socializing.

—Text from Athena to Gable

GABLE

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