Page 14 (1/2)

Author: Robyn Carr

"Let e clothes Then I’ll sit a few minutes until the after-school crowd descends"

"Just what I was hoping," he said

She took his eh the kitchen on her way to the bathrooht herself a soda and slid in across fros?" she asked

"Good But that’s ht to U of Oregon? We could drive up to see it, talk to sorinned "I’one to see soood"

"Still planning on coood decision I’ram yet I want to dip in, work part-tiht to what I want to study"

"As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with the cost of tuition because I said I can help with that I want you to feel like you can stretch if you want to"

"I’et ene isn’t that far!"

"But now you have a girlfriend"

He was shocked He shouldn’t have been He’d known from the first date this would be all over town

"Eric," she said, laughing at hiirlfriend"

"I’irlfriend? Too soon after being dueek?"

"No," he said "To my embarrassment, that wasn’t serious It should’ve been, since we lived together, but really" He cleared his throat

"I’h "Then maybe I’d understand why you were never brokenhearted"

"Cara’s a great girl You would’ve liked her," he said "But she wanted someone entirely different and I understood It was tiuess And now"

"Now you’re hooked up with the ain "Giency? Good friends with a woman as in a cult for years before she escaped with her daughter? I should say barely escaped And later both of therow about as large as hubcaps

"Whoa," Ashley said "You bought all that research stuff?"

He thought she did investigative research for the FBI and he was keeping a tight lid on that, per her instructions He knew she probably went out on search warrants fro What was this cult and rescue stuff? "I don’t like to pry," he said evasively "And apparently I don’t get ossip"

"Probably because you’re always under the hood of a car Haven’t you wondered about her?"

He just shook his head "Do you?"

"Well, yeah! Not that she isn’t well-liked Everyone likes her a lot because she’s very cool And she’s tight with Cooper and Spencer and Rawley, who just happen to be the three guys who staged a big rescue to get Devon’s three-year-old out of that cult after she was kidnapped Coirlfriend is some kind of secret operative She can probably build a car out of her cell phone or soulp "Kidnapped? Operative?" He gave his head a shake "Jesus So what are people saying?"

"You ?"

He just nodded stupidly

"Well, like she’s undercover Or in the witness protection prograainst the ones who got away Or that she’s on the run, hiding frouys OrAnd she just doesn’t see Have you checked to see if she has a Wonder Wolove box? Because I bet she is--Wonder Wo"

"No shit," he said before he could stop himself He looked up and colored a little After all, this was his daughter!

But she didn’t see," he ad about her"

"It’s because she stands out Not in a bad way Laine seelad you like soot out of prison"

He looked down He could say those words pretty easily but it still filled him with shame when Ashley said theave her a biological father she should probably be ashamed of He wished, for her sake, he’d learned about her after beco "Not many"

"And apparently no one special," she said

He reen She was so intuitive So smart and empathetic

"I’ potential problems Now, that is"