Page 48 of Stand

Kane had insisted, and Ty was too tired to contradict him. The spying car was still on the street. Being followed out of the state wouldn’t exactly help their plans, so after a minute or two, Kane’s electric Audi SUV literally purred up to the other car—and died.

Len, the driver, a twenty-seven-year-old old soul, hit the steering wheel so hard the car shook. There was a moment of silence while Len turned around to the occupant of the back seat, and then both doors facing the house opened.

“What the hell do I pay you for?” Kane yelled, throwing his hands up.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Fielding!” Len cried, his voice drenched in fear of retribution. “It’s these new technologies!”

“It’s your stupid-ass driving!” Kane shouted, looming over the younger man and backing him up so they blocked the spy car’s view of the front door. “When did you last get it charged?”

“Now,” Ty said, and Sam opened the old front door as quietly as humanly possible. Kane’s voice covered the slight creak, and they stayed low as they ran down the porch steps to Sam’s SUV. While Kane swore at Len and told him he was trying to save his family from yet another scandal with yet another sister, the Cavanaughs, Sam, and Cairo executed a perfectly pre-choreographed dance—Cairo and the backpacks in the back, kids in the passenger seats, Sam and Ty in the front.

While Kane told the whole street how feckless Sam was and how little she cared about his tenth-generation business and Len swore that he could fix it if he just opened the hood, Sam started the car. That noise couldn’t be covered, but Kane’s car was in the way, and now the journalists or PIs or whatever they were had jumped out of their car and were swearing at Len themselves. Kane was yelling at them to leave his driver alone, and Sam marveled at his acting abilities while she backed up and squealed around to barrel down the street in the opposite direction from the chaos.

Alyssa was laughing. Ty looked over at Sam, who wasn’t. “We’re not done yet.”

Cat and Megan, who’d begged to be part of the plan, were supposed to wait until Sam had driven away and then block the road further by coming out and yelling at their brother to stop yelling.

They drove for a minute, and then Cat called. “You won’t believe it,” she said. “Megan’s flirting with them.”

“Hi, Sam!” Megan’s cheerful voice came over the phone. “I’m not flirting! We’re just good friends now, right, boys? All good now!”

“Okay, get out of the road,” Ty said. Two women were safer than one, but he didn’t like what the men would do once Kane drove away.

“We’re going,” Megan said. “Hey! The car started! Wow, thanks, guys. You must have looked at it and it worked.”

“Stop flirting and get out of there!” Sam cried.

“Look who’s talking!” Megan laughed. “Good luck! Love you!”

And they were on the highway heading north—Sam’s profile determined, and Cairo, his head on the back seat, getting rubs from Alyssa—before Ty could have another coherent thought.

♦

The first hotel was an hour north of town, because Sam said they couldn’t be too careful. Ty hated driving away from the direction they should be going, and he already missed home. The kids, too, once the initial excitement had worn off, were morose and not inclined to like anything they saw. In the hotel, Ty closed his and Matt’s connecting door with an unbidden sigh of relief.

He took out the little bird he was carving for Alyssa, put on his glasses, and laid a small drop cloth on his lap. While he sanded the bird, Matt lay in bed, wincing and scrolling on his phone.

“Your face feel worse?” Ty said.

“Mm,” Matt grunted. His eye certainly looked worse. Ty had never seen so many colors come out on one person’s face.

“I’ll get you some ice.”

So he had to extricate himself from his makeshift workshop and go down the hall. And wouldn’t you know it, there was Sam. Already in a tank top and pajama pants, with no bra and her hair in a messy bun on top of her head. He just wouldn’t breathe in for the next two minutes and he’d survive this.

“Hey,” she said. She was filling her ice bucket already. “How’s it going?”

“Matt’s eye hurts worse.”

Sam nodded. “Alyssa’s crying, just FYI.”

“Jesus.”

“It’s okay. It was kinda fun with all the plans and tricks. I think it’s just more real now that we’re really on the road.”

“I’m sorry you have to deal with that. You want me to come—?”

“No.” She put her hand on his arm. A quick squeeze and she let go. Okay, maybe he shouldn’t breathe forthreeminutes. She smelled like toothpaste. God help him. Toothpaste. “Let them sleep for a few hours. Things’ll look better in the morning.”

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