Page 57 of Just This Once

“He’s fine,” Hudson announced, and we all turned away in disinterest to receive our own boxes to carry.

Both Faith and Hudson had gotten theirs by the time Oaklynn, Damien, and Xander had arrived to help out.

“Anything left for us to carry?” Oaklynn asked.

“Here, you can take this,” Hope offered, turning to extend the laundry basket full of folded blankets that Foster had just given her. “It’s pretty light.”

“Thank—oh myGod!”

14

PARKER

Oaklynn lurched backward, stumbling away from Hope with wide eyes and her mouth gaping.

Everyone at the truck paused curiously.

“Babe?” Damien asked, grabbing her arm to steady her.

She gasped, jumping at the contact, only to blink. “I—I’m so sorry.” Eyes filling with embarrassment, she swung back to Hope. “I didn’t mean to freak out like that. I thought I saw a—a spider in your hair, but it was just a fly. And it flew away,” she was quick to add, waving her hands desperately. “You’re okay. No worries.”

“O…kay,” Hope said slowly. “Did that mean you wanted this or not?”

“What? Oh! Sure.” Laughing at herself nervously, Oaklynn hurried to take the basket from Hope. But even as she did, her gaze traveled back to Hope with a look that told me whatever she’d seen was still there.

Glancing over curiously, I examined Hope as well. But nothing looked out of the ordinary to me.

Hope took the next box from Foster, and as she turned away, I frowned at Oaklynn who’d been returning to the house. At thesteps, she glanced back, directly at Hope. And she still seemed worried.

She hurried back into gear once Hope started her way, though, and I watched her disappear into the house with squinted eyes, knowing something was definitely up.

After getting my own box, I toted it inside behind everyone else and dropped it off in Xander’s new room, only to detour when I saw Oaklynn grabbing Faith’s arms and jerking her over to the side to whisper something to her feverishly.

As the others carried on as if nothing was wrong, I followed the two girls to the window.

“Do you see it now?” Oaklynn whispered to Faith, chewing on her fingernails nervously as Faith squinted and leaned closer to the glass.

Peering over their shoulders, I noticed that Hope was back outside to retrieve another box.

“I mean…” Faith wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Maybe,” she finally admitted. “But it’s pale. It could be anything.”

“Youdosee it, though, right?”

“See what?” I asked, making both women yelp in surprise and whirl around.

“What the hell, Parker?” Faith demanded, slapping my arm. “Give me a damn heart attack.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I barked dismissively, glancing out the window to see Hope heading this way. So I hooked my thumb over my shoulder and commanded, “Kitchen. Now.”

“Oh, but there’s nothing—” Oaklynn started to protest until I sent her a dark look. Swallowing down the rest of whatever she was going to say, she quickly revised her statement to, “Alright. We’re coming. You don’t need to get pushy.”

“You know, you really should’ve been named after the dwarf, Sneaky,” Faith complained, glancing over her shoulder to scowl at me. “Creeping up on people like that.”

“Or Snoopy,” Oaklynn interjected.

“Yeah, well…” I turned back to them as we entered the kitchen. “Those dwarfs don’t exist.” Planting myself sternly, I folded my arms over my chest and lifted my eyebrows. “So you get Grumpy. Nowtalk.”

“I really don’t know what you want us to say,” Faith tried to allude. “We weren’t?—”

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