Page 39 of My Return to the Walter Boys
“The guy from hisGoGguild?” I’d only met him once before at theWalter end-of-the-school-year party, but Marcus gave me the creeps.
“What? Oh no. You’re thinking of Malcolm. They’re two totally different people. Marcus and Alex are on the baseball team together.”
“I’ve never met him, but if you’re happy, then so am I.” Maybe if she had a boyfriend, Riley would be too distracted to bug me about Cole.
Riley gave a contented sigh. “Beyondhappy. I’m hoping he’ll ask me to homecoming if tonight goes well. Do you think I could raid your closet after school? I need to find the perfect outfit.”
“Well, I have a lot of homework…”
“Pretty please?” She pouted her lips. “My mom gave me a gift card for that new café you like. If you let me come over, I can pay you in frozen caramel goodness.”
“Okay, deal.”
***
“Huh, that’s strange,” I said, my eyes narrowing as Riley pulled up alongside the truck and parked her car.
“What’s strange?”
I pointed out the windshield to where Lee was rocking back and forth on the porch swing, a textbook in hand. “That.”
“Um, okay.” Riley gave me a strange look before flipping down the sun visor to access the mirror. “Are you guys not allowed on the swing or something? My mom is weird about stuff like that too. There’s this fancy sofa in our sitting room that we can’t use because it’s importedfrom Europe.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “He’s pretending to study.”
“What makes you think he’s pretending?” she asked as she uncapped a tube of lip gloss, then applied a thick coat.
“Because that’s a chemistry textbook.”
“So?”
“Lee’s a junior.” I unclipped my seat belt and grabbed one of the straps on my backpack, which was tucked between my feet. “We all have physics.”
“Oh,” Riley said. “Maybe he’s really into science?”
That was highly unlikely. From what I observed, Lee slacked off in school. Not to the same extent Alex did, but he preferred to spend his time skating over studying and doing homework. I couldn’t recall a single instance where I’d seen him touch a book before today. What I did notice, however, was that Lee kept glancing up from his reading material, and of all the spots to sit on the front porch, the one he had picked had the best view of the driveway. It looked like he was waiting for something.
“Come on.” I opened the car door and hefted my backpack onto my shoulder as I stepped out. “Let’s go talk to him.”
“Can I help you ladies with something?” Lee asked when I approached him.
“You can tell us what you’re up to,” I replied.
The corner of his mouth quirked. “No can do, Jackie. But if I were you, I’d use the back door.”
“Is there a reason why?”
“Trust me,” he said. “You’ll be sorry if you don’t.”
Well, that was ominous. There was a point in time when I’d have scoffed at Lee’s warning and done the opposite, not trusting a single word he spoke, but now I decided to take his advice. After giving him a nod of thanks, I directed Riley around the side of the house. Usually you could find at least one Walter in the backyard at this time of day—playing on the swing set, swimming in the pool, roughhousing on the lawn—but there was nobody in sight, and when I pushed open the sliding glass door and stepped into the kitchen, the room was empty.
The house was entirely too quiet.
“What do you think is going on?” Riley asked, her voice low.
“Definitely some type of shenanigans,” I whispered back. “Why don’t you go upstairs and start looking for an outfit while I investigate.”
After reminding Riley I had a new room—left at the top of the stairs, second door on the right—I grabbed a bag of cheese puffs from the pantry and went in search of whatever mischief was afoot. As I passed by the formal dining room, which was more often used as a dumping ground and place to do homework, I spotted Jordan crouching beside the sideboard, his camera focused on the front door. A water balloon swollen to the size of a soccer ball was duct-taped directly above the transom.
