Page 7 of Steal My Breath Away

My head was always full of noise. My brain jumped from idea to idea and even the smallest thing could distract me. I needed to be doing two or three tasks at once to focus on a single chore, or I needed to be outdoors where there were lots of things going on. Even better I needed people, lots of people, because people meant conversation and I loved to talk.

Ace took the noise away. For a few brief seconds, the world disappeared until it was just me and him in a bubble of calm. I felt a connection with him that I’d never felt with anyone before, and all I wanted to do was get him alone and unravel the mystery of his silence.

Paige pulled me back with a nudge. “Do you know him?”

“I’ve never seen him before.”

“Usually, in this house we greet guests with a ‘hello,’” Dadsaid in an admonishing tone before turning his megawatt smile on Ace. “Welcome to Riverstone. I’m sorry about Haley. She was raised by wolves. Sometimes I think we should send her back.”

“Dad.” Laughing, I gave him a playful shove. I loved Dad’s sense of humor, especially when his jokes were directed at me. “Last time you told someone I was raised by hyenas. Get your story straight.”

“Are you thirteen, too?” Paige asked Ace.

It was a strange question, but I understood where it had come from. Something about the way Ace carried himself made him seem much older than Matt and Rafael, older in some ways than Dad.

He nodded but kept staring at me, so I stared back. He had the most interesting eyes I’d ever seen. They were brown and green mixed together, like Matt’s favorite marble—the one I wasn’t allowed to touch. He had a nice face, but serious, not like Rafael, who always tried to make us laugh. I felt like I knew him, like he’d always been around. I knew things about him that he didn’t need to say.

Rafael and Matt headed over to the counter and grabbed their sandwiches, as they did every day after school, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there was nothing for Ace. I took my plate over to him. Dad had cut my sandwich in half and the cheese was oozing from the center. “You can have mine.”

Ace shook his head. “Thanks, but I’m not hungry.”

He was lying. I could feel it. I could see it in his face. He was hungry in a way I couldn’t even begin to understand.

I held out the plate again. “I had a big lunch. Huge. Dad made burritos that were the size of the teddy bear Matt sleeps with at night. I probably won’t need to eat for days.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Matt shouted. “I don’t sleep with a teddy bear.”

Ace’s lips tugged at the corners and that hint of a smile softened his face. After a moment of hesitation, he took the plate. “Thank you.”

“Maybe we won’t have to send her back to the wolves after all,” Dad said, ruffling my hair. “I’ll whip up a new batch. Looks like we’ve got a load of hungry kids here this afternoon.” Dad walked over to Ace and held out his hand. “Dave Chapman. You can call me Dave.”

Dad had never told any of Matt’s friends to call him “Dave.” Only adults called him “Dave.” I didn’t understand why he thought Ace was different, but maybe he’d seen what I’d seen—a boy who was world-weary at the ripe old age of thirteen.

A flush of pleasure crept up Ace’s face and he shook Dad’s hand. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

Dad laughed. “I see your grandmother’s handiwork already. She’s always been big into manners. Just don’t get on her bad side. I heard that when she became head nurse at the hospital, they gave her unlimited access to needles.”

Ace smiled and his face went from beautiful to breathtaking in a heartbeat, making me feel warm all over.

“You don’t need to make any more, Dad. I’m not that hungry,” Matt said piling his sandwiches on Ace’s plate. “Ace can have mine, too. You did make us a big lunch.”

I stared at him, wide-eyed in surprise. When had Matt ever not been hungry? Matt was always hungry. Mom said he was an eating machine. But he was also kind and generous, even to me, and I was, admittedly, a bit of a brat. It was why people liked Matt and why Mom called him her little gentleman.

“Well, I’m hungry.” Rafael stuffed one half of his sandwich in his mouth and blew out his cheeks, pretending to be a chipmunk as he walked away.

“I like the new boy,” I said to Paige after the boys had gone to play video games in the basement.

“He’s quiet,” she said. “Maybe he’s shy.”

“He’s hurting,” Dad said quietly.

“What do you mean?” I sat at the counter while Dad buttered another slice of bread. He knew that Matt and I were just being polite and if he didn’t feed us right away we’d be in the kitchenscrounging for unhealthy snacks as soon as our guests went home.

“I talked to his grandmother,” Dad said. “She was in the restaurant the other day. He’s had a hard life but it’s not my story to share. Just know he’s been through a lot. He needs love, and we have more than enough to give.”

That was Dad. He was a big man with a big heart and he loved people. He could see right through to a person’s soul.

If I’d known then that the love and friendship I gave Ace over the years would leave me with a broken heart, I might not have given him that sandwich. But I was only ten and Paige had brought her Barbies, so I didn’t think any more about it and went to play.

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