Page 41 of Time to Bounce

“That didn’t answer my question,” I said.

“She’s just experimenting,” Maven explained. “She wants to know what kind of interest it would get.”

I looked back at that stupid sign. “When is she coming home, Maven?”

Maven grumbled something under her breath before replying.

“If you hurt her, Gable, so help me God,” Maven replied fiercely. “She’s already lost a lot. Her dad. Her sister. Her brother. Her mom wants nothing to do with her. Literally, she only has me, Gable. If you hurt her, and she feels like she has to leave, she’s going to pull away from me because of Auden’s relation to you.”

I looked at the ground between my boots. “I’m not going to hurt her on purpose, Maven.”

“I don’t think I believe you,” she said. “But I truly don’t know the answer to when she’s coming home. Maybe in a few more days like she said, but she sounded like she loved it there.”

Meaning, Maven wasn’t discouraging her from staying.

“Call me if she shows?” I asked. “I need to see that she’s all right.”

“I thought you said Madman was arrested?” she asked.

“He was,” I confirmed.

It was a day and a half before Darryl was arrested.

And I used the excuse of needing to work to not get an emergency passport right then and head her way.

In fact, I never got the passport even though I told myself I would… just in case.

I was acting like a wishy-washy little bitch. A hormonal one at that.

“Thanks,” I said to Maven when she refused to say more—or give me a promise of calling.

Maven grumbled something before saying more clearly, “Bye.”

I shoved my phone back in my pocket, then got back on the bike.

I hadn’t solved very much, though at least now I knew that she was okay.

As I started heading toward town, I didn’t find myself going home, or to the station.

I went to the post office to get a passport.

Just in case I had to force a stubborn someone to come home.

*tries to do the speed limit.* All right, that’s boring AF. Time to skirt skirt.

—Gable’s secret thoughts

GABLE

The next morning at work, I was already fighting off a headache.

That, and I hated that I was about to go to my dad and beg for a few weeks off so I could go chase down a certain someone.

After hours of overthinking it, I made a few calls, pulled a few strings, and talked to my local representative to see if he could fast track my passport.

Ol’ Louie had agreed, and by the sixth hour of the morning, I was driving to go pick it up.

That was why I was late for work.

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