Page 30 of The Saint

“Is that…?”

My lip felt raw, the way I was worrying it with my teeth. “Yeah.” I stepped over to the book, picking it up and trying to slap the cover shut. But Penny stopped me with a hand on mine before I could.

“She’s beautiful,” she said, this wispy sound in her voice and a half smile on her lips. Her pretty eyes looked up at me. “Are you—”

“No.” I pulled my hand away from hers and closed the book, hiding the picture from view.

“Y’all know that girl’s the one who tore out his heart.”

“Grams!” Penny spun to face Mrs. T, who was standing with her hand on the handle of her rolling suitcase near the hall.

“Just telling it like it is, child. Boy’s been lost all morning, worrying those lines on that pretty face. Didn’t pay one damn bit of attention to our games.”

“Grams, that’s—”

“That’s not true, Mrs. T.”

“You calling me a liar?” She gave me a look so hard it would have twisted my stomach in a knot if it weren’t already there. And that look, it didn’t leave room for argument. It made me face the truth she could clearly see.

My mind had been elsewhere all morning.

Stuck on the girl from my past.

I hadn’t seen her in over a week, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t thinking about her. Dreaming about her. Wishing I could see her again and wishing we’d never met.

“What’s going on?” Tyler asked, coming up behind Mrs. T.

“It’s nothing, Ty,” Penny said, casting me a quick glance. “Grams is just being a pest.”

“Nah, not my grams,” Tyler said, scooching up close to his great-grandmother’s side and giving her a hug.

The old woman was a picture of innocence as she looked down on the kid. “Such a good boy,” she told him, pinching his cheek.

Penny looked back at me, and I was sure it’d never been this awkward between us. With a watery smile, she told me, “We should probably get going.”

“Right.” I nodded, clutching my sketchbook to my chest as I scooted around her. “I should go, too. Get out of your way.”

Penny’s hand landed on my arm as I bent to reach for my bag. “You going to be okay?”

As I straightened up, I took in a slow breath. “I will be,” I told her. “Don’t worry about me. You take care of them, okay? And call me if you need anything at all.”

“Of course, I will.”

I passed out hugs like they were candy, steeling myself for the week ahead. These three had become as important as family. It was rare I went more than a couple days without seeing them, without checking in. I hated that I couldn’t go with them, couldn’t help Penny with Mrs. T, and play ball with Tyler.

But they weren’t my family.

And if my heart had anything to say about it, they probably never would be.

Out on the pavement, I let my mind wander as my feet carried me wherever they wanted to go. I turned the opposite direction of my apartment and was in the middle of the park before I even noticed I’d gone more than a block. When a voice called out, “Hey!” I looked up to find a canopy of trees overhead.

“You following me again?” the voice asked, and though I wanted to ignore it, to keep walking and stay lost in my thoughts, the same thing that snapped me out of them with the word “hey,” tugged hard enough at me to stop me in my tracks.

Jael stood alongside the path, looking like she’d stepped right out of my nightmares. Tight green tank top, short black shorts, hard muscles, and her sweat-slicked skin darkened by the summer sun. Those jade green eyes shimmered as sunlight and shadow played across her face. And I swore she was a dream. Just a nightmare.

But I couldn’t blink her away.

She walked toward me, this pint-sized thing who was larger than life. She’d always been the confident one. The strong one. The girl who feared only one thing in the world.