Page 41 of When to Call a Blitz

“No one can ever know for sure.”

“As long as I have my way, we’re going to be friends, alright Gardner?”

But the problem isn’t that we’re friends. It’s that since the very second I saw her, I wanted, for the first time in years, to have something more than friends.

It’s the very thought that I may want something more in the future that scares the living shit out of me. Because I meant what I said. The more you have, the more you have to lose.

And if I let Heidi in, I have a lot to lose.

***

Leo looks between us as he drops us in my driveway, the tow truck bringing the car back to my garage right behind him.

“What were you two up to?” he asks with a knowing smirk. Too bad he doesn’t know shit.

“We were just taking the car for a spin,” I tell him, rolling my eyes.

Leo chuckles, jingling his keys in his hand before heading back ot his car. “Sure, you keep telling yourself that,” he says.

“We were!”

He nods, and he keeps nodding, until he’s literally down the street.

“Fucking bobblehead,” Heidi says under hear breath, and I can’t help the guffaw that rips through me.

Once I’m settled down, I put my things on my workbench, watching as Heidi makes her way to the stairs. “Do you want to come over tomorrow morning for a run?” I ask.

She considers it, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “Sure. But only if you come to something with me Sunday night.”

“We have a game Sunday afternoon,” I remind her.

“That’s perfect then. Great way to unwind.”

“What is it?”

“A sound bath.”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that, but I’ll try everything at least once.

22

HEIDI

I’m folding laundry on Emmett’s couch when the most foul, gross scent assaults my nose.

I pause, one of Juniper’s shirts in midair, and sniff, immediately gagging.

Rotten eggs, onion? And maybe almost… burnt rubber?

Placing the shirt on the pile of clothes, I get up, circling the couch and heading for the kitchen, sniffing the air as I do like some kind of animal.

Emmett left a couple of hours ago and I set Juniper up at the table with a coloring book and crayons.

We had gone for a run this morning, and in a wonderful turn of events, I’mactuallystarting to not feel like I’m actively dying whenever we do. But my body is still stiff, and I almost wonder if there’s something going on with my brain that’s causing me to smell something that’s not there.

But when Juniper looks up at me, first confused before her whole face turns red, her eyes widening, I know that something’s up. Something that I’m not going to like.

“What’s going on?” I ask her, hand on my hip.

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