Page 3 of Misdirection

Olivedefinitelyhadn’t moved them.

So who had?

Had her dad come out to throw something away after she left and rearranged them?

That theory made the most sense.

Olive imagined him and Mom eating a late-night snack and then getting rid of the evidence. Maybe they’d even ordered pizza from the one Italian restaurant in town.

She knew they did that sometimes. They had their own little date nights after their girls went to bed.

It was sweet, really. Her mom and dad still looked at each other like they were in love even after twenty years of marriage.

If Olive ever got married, that was what she wanted. She wanted the real thing, and she would never settle for less.

No, she wanted to live life to the fullest. If she wasn’t crazy about the man she was dating, then she wouldn’t pretend they had a future together.

Jason’s picture flooded her mind, and her heart ached.

She knew young love rarely lasted. But she’d really thought the two of them had something special. There was no one else in the whole world—not even her family—who she felt she could be herself around.

Even stranger, she still didn’t know who she wanted to become. There had been too much change in her life. But when she was with Jason, she suddenly felt authentic—whatever that meant.

Then her family had moved again. It had been abrupt—literally happening in twenty-four hours.

Olive hadn’t even been able to say goodbye.

Emotion burned her throat, and she pushed it down.

Enough reminiscing.

There was no need to put this off any longer.

She hurried toward her house.

It was almost 3:30 in the morning. Her family should be asleep—unless her dad was waiting up for her.

The party she’d sneaked out to attend wasn’t even worth the trouble. It had been lame. There had been alcohol, but Olive didn’t drink.

But sheloveddancing. Not the sleezy sort. But put on a good beat, and she could get lost in the music.

Was she good at dancing? She had no idea. And she didn’t care.

At least when she was away from the house, she didn’t feel so suffocated by her dad’s rules.

He hadsomany rules. Rules about how she should act. What she could tell people about her past. What she could or couldn’t do.

No more boyfriends. That was her dad’s latest decree.

Something about Jason had apparently freaked Dad out because when they’d moved to Indiana, Olive had been banned from dating anyone.

It was just as well. Her heart still belonged to Jason. She’d even thought about finding him online. Trying to get his new number so they could text each other. His old number had been mysteriously disconnected.

Her father must have predicted what she might do. He’d given her a long talk about how being in contact with Jason could put her family in danger. Her dad had admitted that he’d made some enemies in their small Texas town, and that they needed to leave and ensure no one could track them down.

It was a matter of life or death.

His words had caused a hollow ball of ice to form in her gut.

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