Page 65 of Skate the Line

Tense silence fills the tiny space, and she won’t meet my eye.

That’s perfectly fine with me, though.

I’m not going to question what just happened.

Not yet, anyway.

Twenty-Three

SUNNY

I pretendto sleep on the way home to avoid talking, which is probably something Ellie would do. Therefore, I’m acting like a five-year-old, but who could blame me?

Not only did Rhodes—my boss—witness me in one of the most vulnerable states I’ve ever been in, but he is now very much aware of something I wanted to keep private.

My body heats.

What if he wants to fire me because he thinks I’m too weak to watch his daughter now? What if Ellie has to go to the hospital, and he thinks I can’t handle taking her because of my near panic attack?

I’ll have to get a different job to survive living out here. I could waitress. Or sell feet pics.Anything.

“We’re home.”

My eyes spring open.

I hiss when I use my sore hand to open the door.

Rhodes’s sigh doesn’t go unnoticed. He mumbles something about me not waiting for him to open my door, but I ignore his muttering and hop onto the sidewalk to race up the porch stairs.

The house is locked, so I have to wait.

Which is unfortunate.

“If you would have waited three seconds, I would have opened the truck door for you.” He leans past me to unlock the front door.

His cologne erases the smell of the sterile hospital.

“I didn’t need you to open the door for me,” I say quietly. “I’m fine.”

He angles his head toward me, blocking the entrance. “I know you are. It’s called being a gentleman,Allison.”

My stomach caves. “Please don’t call me that.”

He squints at me, and I take his confusion for granted to slip past into the quiet house. After kicking my shoes off, I scan the area. Most of the lights are off except for the faint glow of the TV in the living room.

I jump when I hear a loud noise.

Is that a freaking monster?

Rhodes’s hand presses on my shoulder. “It’s just Malaki,” he says quietly, heading to the living room.

I follow after him and see that Malaki is asleep on the couch with a hockey game playing on the screen. He opens his mouth and growls angrily, but he’s clearly asleep.

Rhodes bends his head closer to me. “He dreams about hockey. He’s probably angry we’re losing a game.”

I laugh quietly, but as soon as the silence falls between us, I’m back to feeling cagey.

“I’m going to go check on Ellie,” he says.

---