Page 105 of Cornered

“Good night, Lahela.”

Snuggling into her blanket, she reached over to make sure her alarm was set on her cell phone when it vibrated with a call from Nancy.

Lahela kept her voice low when she answered. “Hello?”

“Hey! What’s wrong?”

“What? Nothing. Why?”

“Your voice sounds weird.”

“I’m using my indoor voice,” Lahela said. “Why are you calling so late?”

Nancy scoffed into the phone. “It’s barely ten.”

“On a school night.” Her eyes flickered to the wall and she imagined Briggs’s body sprawled out on her couch. Would her pillows smell like him after tonight? Was it weird to hope so?

“You still there?”

Lahela blinked, realizing Nancy had still been talking to her. “Yeah, sorry. It’s been a long day.” She flopped a hand over her eyes. No need to worry about snoring, she wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight. “Um, did you need something?”

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

Lahela sat up at the change in Nancy’s tone. “What?” All it took was a second or two of silence for the anxiety to return. “Nancy, what is it?”

Nancy released a sigh. “I spoke to Trevor.”

She let that hang in the air for a second, unsure if she was surprised by it or that she was expecting something ... worse? “What do you mean?”

“While you were giving your report to the police today at school, I went over and spoke to Trevor. He told me everything. About what happened at the fair, that he went to your house to apologize, but he saw Briggs there, and how the police questioned him about the fire—which by the way, why didn’t you tell me about that?”

“I was going to.” Did her answer sound as defensive as she felt? She didn’t want to relive the terrible details of her weekend, but she wasn’t trying to hide them either. “At lunch.”

“Oh. And you thought Trevor would do that?” Again, there was an oddly accusatory tone in Nancy’s voice. “I mean, he was an idiot letting you walk out of his life, but stalking you? You should’ve seen how upset he was today, Lahela. He’s really worried about you, and I think maybe he’s realized breaking up was a mistake.”

Lahela dropped back against her pillows and relief eased through her, realizing what this was. Nancy had been Trevor’s biggest fan and was nearly as upset as Lahela, maybe even more, when Lahela told her about their breakup. Even though it was Trevor who had called it off, it hadn’t stopped Nancy from hoping for a second-chance romance that Lahela blamed on Nancy’s obsession with romance novels.

However, if this was Nancy’s thinly veiled attempt to get them back together, she was going to be very disappointed in how this story would end.

“I don’t think Trevor is a bad guy.” She kept her voice low. “And I wasn’t convinced he was behind the calls or fire, butthe police had reason to look into him. I appreciate he’s sorry but, Nancy, that part of my life, with him, is over.”

“Are you sure? Because there’s nothing like a knight rising to the challenge of protecting his maiden.”

Lahela rolled her eyes. “You need to read some nonfiction.”

“Ugh. No thanks. There’s enough nonfiction in the world for me.” Nancy sighed. “Okay, well, I guess I just wanted you to know that if there were any lingering feelings for Trevor, I think he’d be open to rekindling th—”

“There aren’t.” Her voice was a little louder than she expected. “Feelings. For Trevor,” she whispered.

“Fine. I just thought it was super romantic of him to show up today. And before you tell me that’s the stuff of make-believe, there’s a reason authors keep writing the hero rescuing the heroine tropes. It’s the grand gesture that wins back her heart.”

“I don’t want him to win back my heart.” Exhaustion weighed on her. Lahela wasn’t going to explain how she’d been questioning whether she ever really loved Trevor in the first place. At least not tonight. “Look, let’s meet up for coffee tomorrow since I missed Mocha Monday today.”

“Ooh, Tea Tuesday. Sounds great.”

With plans made to meet at the coffee shop, Lahela flipped off the light and listened to see if she could hear Briggs snoring. Nothing. Maybe if she buried herself beneath her covers, it would hide her snoring, but then that meant he’d win and there’d be no dinner. Smiling, Lahela folded her blankets down and prayed she snored loud enough to wake up Pele all the way from Texas.

LAHELA JOLTED UPRIGHTin her bed to the sound of the blaring alarm echoing in her ears. It took her a second toshake off the sleep and realize it washeralarm system going off. Fear pulsed heavy through her veins, and she scrambled out of her sheets, forcing her eyes to adjust to the darkness of her bedroom. She screamed when her bedroom door flew open.Briggs.

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