Page 77 of Dove
I wasn’t some attention-seeking teenager anymore. I didn’t need it.
The swing creaked as I pushed myself back and forth, one foot planted on the floor while the other crossed over, my ankle resting on my knee as I leaned back to take in the stars freckled across the night sky.
I was worried about Dove too, but I trusted her.
I just didn’t trust who she was around.
Reverie cared for her, but she was reckless and fueled by bad decisions. Dove had let it slip that Reverie planned to leave soon. Packing up and moving to LA without so much as a job or a place to rest her head at night.
Reckless didn’t evenbeginto cover that one.
The sound of someone coming down the drive drew me from my thoughts. I couldn’t see them in the dark because their headlights were suspiciously turned off and the moon was but a sliver in the night sky. The mystery vehicle wasn’t visible until it got closer to the porch and its circle of light.
It wasn’t Rev’s Jeep, but a truck instead. Not anyone’s I recognized, for that matter.
When Dove jumped out of the back, closing the door behind her a little too loudly, I jumped up from my seat. Once the door was shut, the driver wasted no time in hightailing it out of there, the gravel crunching under their tires as they sped back down the way they’d came.
The night settled back into quiet as if it’d never been disturbed.
I watched as Dove ambled up to the porch, her gait slow and methodical. When she reached the steps and her hand missed the railing, I gave a weary sigh.
So much for not drinking.
“You’re drunk.”
I leaned against the pillar at the top of the steps and watched her fumble.
She jumped, placing a hand on her chest.
“Dammit, Josh,” she whispered, her voice slightly slurred. “You scared me.”
“You scared your mom,” I shot back. “She was worried you wouldn’t be back by midnight.”
Dove snorted, finally making it up onto the first step, swaying slightly. “Well, I must have made it. I didn’t turn into a pumpkin.”
A smile twitched on my lips, but my worry that she’d been drinking didn’t allow me to laugh.
“You’ve been drinking.”
She didn’t answer, instead focusing on climbing the steps slowly, her hand clenched tight on the railing. At the top, when she let go, my heart seized as she swayed. Without thinking, I moved to steady her before she could fall back and crack her head.
That was the last thing we needed tonight, considering the state she was in.
“You’re drunk,” I repeated.
“Shhhh.” She brought a finger up to my lips. “Don’t wake them.”
“You’ll do that all on your own,” I whispered back. “Why are you drunk, Dove?”
“Jus’ celebratin’.” She shrugged, then sighed and all but melted in my hold, her hands dropping down around me, her head flopping onto my shoulder. “Tired.”
My heart clenched as she molded herself against me, letting me take most of her weight.
“Let’s get you up to bed,” I suggested, holding her up and praying she slept off whatever was in her system so Josie wouldn’t find out come morning.
I wasn’t in the business of tattling. Dove and I had each other’s backs. She’d certainly had mine plenty of times, including on my twenty-first birthday, when I woke up the next morning with no clue how I’d made it into my bed. My dad would have killed me if he’d found me passed out somewhere inappropriate—legal drinking age or not. She’d been vague when I asked, but I knew she’d had something to do with me finding my own bed safely.
I could do the same for her now.
