Page 51 of Choosing Forever
“Can you back up?”
“You’re beautiful. Single?” he asks, the corner of his mouth curled into a smirk.
It’s impossible not to laugh out loud at the visceral unease that explodes on Bryce’s face. The poor kid clearly doesn’t realize that he’s dangling himself above the open mouth of a venomous snake because he doesn’t turn to leave like he should.
“You’re a child.”
“I’m sixteen. Pretty much an adult, babe.”
“Go get your donuts before your mom comes looking for you,” Bryce says, tone as flat as the brim of his snapback hat.
He closes his lips, cheeks growing red. I almost feel bad for him as he spins around on his heels and, in a flash, is at the window of the donut truck without so much as speaking another word. Bryce glances back at me with a disturbed expression that makes me laugh.
At least he knows what to look for to tell if a girl isn’t interested now.
For the next five minutes, I hang back and wait for Bryce to order the donuts. When she rejoins me by the curb, it’s with a yellow, plastic bucket in her hand. She swings it dramatically once she notices I’m watching.
“Hope you’re as hungry as your stomach made you out to be.”
“I’m starving,” I confirm.
“Want me to pop the top before we get back? I can’t guarantee Daisy will share once we do.”
Laughing, I look back in the direction of the fundraiser set up. The line’s still as long as it was when we left, but now . . .
“Was Darren only staying for a few minutes?” I ask, stomach tightening.
“Don’t worry about him. I can tell him to get his own.”
My breath slows. “He’s not there.”
“What?”
Bryce grows alert as she sneaks around someone walking in front of us to get a better look at where only Brody’s sitting above a tank of water. Caleb’s still there guarding the gate and money box, and there’s a red ball rolling along the pavement beside Brody.
I catch the tilt of Caleb’s head as he leans to the side and steals a quick look through the crowd to the left of him before doing the same to the right.
“Did he have other plans?”
And why does it matter so much to me? The sooner he’s gone, the better. That’s the way I should be feeling. Knowing that I’d see him today had me nervous pacing all morning. Yet here I am, searching this crowded makeshift fair for any sign of him the way I did the halls at school this week.
There are kids blowing bubbles, a dog hopping beside them that’s snapping its teeth, trying to pop each one, and an elderly couple watching them with warm eyes, all a few feet from us. Too many conversations are happening at once to try and pick apart a specific one, and even though I’m close to Bryce, I worry I’ll lose her amongst the crowd beside and behind us.
It’s obvious that there are more people here than usual. The town’s population isn’t this impressive. I’d bet all of Oak Ridge is here in addition to some Calgarians who’ve come down to participate in dunkingtheBrody Steele. It’s good publicity for him and fantastic help for the whole fundraising thing. But the number of people clogging the street makes it harder to find Darren. Not one voice sounds like his.
That used to comfort me. Right now, it makes me want to climb the back of one of these downtown shops to get a better view into the street. Maybe I’d be able to find him that way.
“He doesn’t have Abbie this week, so I doubt it,” Bryce says, her voice drawing me back through the door I’ve opened in my mind.
“Maybe he went to the bathroom.”
Bryce’s grunt is noncommittal. “Maybe.”
“Do you know where he is?” I ask, picking up the pace when the gap between us grows.
“No. But I have a feeling in my gut.”
“A bad one?”
