The Gathering Dark (16 page)

“Well? The gas tank’s full.” Her dad dangled the keys in front of her the way other parents waved rattles in front of babies.

She plucked the fob out of his hand. “I need to take Susan her homework, actually. She was going to come here, but . . . yeah. This is better. And maybe I’ll stop by Take Note too. See if they have anything new in.” She bent to grab for her bag, but her dad reached into his back pocket and Keira froze.

He pulled out his wallet.

Keira swallowed.

He dug a crumpled twenty out and passed it to her.

“Here—find something fun. You’ve been working so hard on your Juilliard pieces—you deserve it.”

Keira stared down at the limp bill. Something really was wrong. It was too much bribery—her dad had already given her “emergency money” once in the last week. Twice was more than they could afford and she knew it. She swallowed hard, pushing down the sick feeling that rose in her throat.

“Thanks, but I’ve still got plenty left from what you gave me before,” she lied. She’d spent a chunk of it having pie with Walker. But she still had her last paycheck.

Her very last, not-going-to-get-another-one paycheck.

She scooped up her bag and cradled it in her arms. Her dad stuffed the money into the open front pocket.

“Just take it,” he insisted. “And go have fun!” His voice buzzed, bright and fake. He stared behind her at the door, like he expected someone to come through it.

Of course. He was probably waiting for her mom. It would be like them to schedule a time to have their next horrific fight. At least he was giving her a chance to escape first.

Keira backed out of the house. “Okay. Well—thanks, then. I’ll see you soon!”

Her dad shut the door so fast that he snapped off the end of his “Drive safe!”

Keira tossed her stuff into the car. She shook out her hands. Whatever weirdness was happening with her parents, it wasn’t
about her. She shoved her parents’ problems out of sight, into some tight-closing drawer in her mind, and focused on what was ahead.

Susan. Then music. And Walker. And a whole afternoon with a car to herself.

Chapter Twenty-One

T
HE
K
IMS’ DOOR SWUNG
open. Susan stood there, freshly lip-glossed and glowing. Her eyes had dark circles underneath them, but the smile on her face was genuinely happy.

“Uh, hey,” Keira said. “How are you?”

“Hungry!” Susan announced. “I overslept and missed breakfast.”

The off-balance feeling that something was wrong spread through Keira. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, trying to get her equilibrium back. “I brought your homework.”

“Oh, my God. How can you think about homework right now?” Susan dragged her into the house and up the stairs. Keira
could hear the TV in the living room, chattering in Korean.

“So, I take it this means you had fun with Smith?” Keira asked, dropping Susan’s assignments onto her dresser.

“Last night? He bought me a mocha and we ended up talking for almost two hours. Tommy
never
listened to me that much. Half the cheer squad was there and Smith didn’t even look at them.”

Keira tugged at the loop on the top of her backpack. “Wow. That’s—wow. I thought all you wanted was to make everyone forget about you and Tommy? Is that . . . ? I mean, are you . . . ? Is it more than that now?

“I don’t know. What do you think? He’s totally cute, right? In an edgy sort of way?”

The words crawled over Keira like fat spiders.

The TV in the living room got quieter. Susan rolled her eyes at her mom’s attempt to listen in to their conversation.

“My mom’s thrilled that I’m not dating Tommy anymore,” she said, loud enough for her mother to hear. “She said that I’ve finally got my priorities straight.” Susan slammed her bedroom door and lowered her voice.

“Speaking of Tommy, did you see him today? Did he seem upset?” Susan looked up at Keira so hopefully that Keira sagged with relief.

“He and Jeremy seemed pretty put out about last night,” she admitted. True, she hadn’t actually talked to Tommy, but he hadn’t exactly looked pleased about the whole thing.

Susan sighed. “Imagine how pissed he’ll be when he finds out that Smith is taking me to dinner tonight.”

“How will he find that out?” Keira asked.

“Because we’re going to The Blue Plate. Smith’s picking me up in a couple of hours. He
wanted
to spend the whole afternoon together, but I told him I had to come home so my mom would believe I’d been at school.”

“Wait—you’re going to dinner at the restaurant where Tommy works?” Keira looked at the spite that was stitched into Susan’s expression.

Susan snorted. “He’s off tonight. He’s always off on Thursdays. But trust me, everyone who works there will be running off to text him.”

“And your mom’s letting you go?”

“My mom’s letting me go to
work
, yeah.” Susan pursed her lips. “What? I don’t like lying to her, but I can’t just sit here and let Tommy ruin my life. Smith’s hot and he’s fun and he’s exactly what I need to keep the rest of my year from sucking.”

“I think you should be careful, that’s all. There are a billion guys you could use to prove that Tommy made a bad choice when he dumped you. Smith—you don’t know him at all, and neither do I. Walker doesn’t really trust him, and—”

Susan interrupted her. “You know, that’s interesting.” Her voice had a little set of teeth in it, pearly and sharp. “Because Smith doesn’t trust Walker. He thinks Walker’s in some kind of trouble, but he wouldn’t say what.” She looked pointedly at
Keira. “And I don’t see why you’re getting so overprotective all of a sudden. I’m just playing with Smith. You’re the one who’s falling for someone.”

“Hey,” Keira started to protest, but Susan lifted a hand, cutting her off.

“I don’t want to fight with you. I’m just saying. You’re in uncharted territory, here. That’s the time to watch your step—when things are getting serious. My whole goal is basically to make out in public with a hot guy. Speaking of which,” Susan glanced at the clock. “I need to get in the shower if I’m going to be ready by the time I have to leave to meet Smith. Thanks for the homework. I’m only going to be able to pull this off if I keep my grades high enough to satisfy my mother.”

It was a little bit like a dismissal, but there was nothing to do except go. Keira left Susan to use up all the Kims’ hot water. Outside, she took a deep breath of the damp air. The car keys felt unusually heavy in her hand.

It was time to go to Take Note.

•  •  •

She opened the door so gently that the bells hanging from the handle barely chimed. As reverently as if she were entering a church, Keira stepped into Take Note. The paper and ink and dust smell of the store washed over her and her eyes closed as she breathed it in.

The smell reminded her of all the afternoons she’d spent there, poring over music, humming as her eyes skimmed the
staffs. Immediately, she was calmer. Immediately, she was happier.

A voice slipped out of the back room, interrupting her reverie.

“It doesn’t matter! Mom wants to know what’s going on.
I
find things out when she tells me to, unless there’s some reason to avoid it. Can you think of a reason for me to avoid it, Walker?” There was a sneer in the question—an insinuation.

The accent was familiar, but the voice was a tenor to Walker’s baritone.

Smith.

Walker made a disgusted noise. “You can’t blackmail me into letting you off the hook, Smith. I told your mother that I would call if I had any news. If you’re looking for something about Keira to go running back to your mommy with—”

“I’m just saying that if you tell mom about Susan, I’m not going to go quietly. I want to have a little fun. I want to see what things are like here on the wild side.”

“This is
not
the wild side. It’s not a game, Smith. What’s going on with Keira is none of your business. Please, go home and leave it alone.”

“From what I can see, what’s going on with Keira is that you’re too busy trying to get in her pants to worry about anything else.”

Oh. My. God. I cannot believe he just said that.

“If you ever say something like that again, they’ll be the
last words you speak with your teeth in their current arrangement.” Walker’s anger leaked through the open door and the unexpected emotion in his voice made Keira suddenly aware that she was eavesdropping. She took a step back toward the plate-glass door. She should leave.

She really should.

Keira accidentally knocked into the door, sending the bells clanging.

“Someone’s here,” Walker said. “Listen, we’ll talk more later. In the meantime,
behave.
”

“Sure. I have to go pick Susan up for dinner anyway. I’m sure our conversation will be much more pleasant than this one.” The derision in Smith’s voice made Keira wince.

“Don’t do that. I mean it.”

Walker strolled out of the back room, his face pleasant, his eyebrows raised in a can-I-help-you look, which disappeared as soon as he saw Keira. His eyes flashed with pleasure but then he glanced back at the open door and she saw his jaw tighten.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he said, light as spun sugar and nearly as sweet.

Keira shrugged. “My dad was trying to get rid of me, so he gave me his car keys and money for music. I dropped off Susan’s homework first.” Without meaning to, she glanced at the back room, burning with curiosity. “But—if it’s weird, if I’m interrupting . . . ” She didn’t want to admit she’d been listening in, but she didn’t want to lie, either.

“Not at all. Smith stopped by to brag about Susan. It sounds like they had quite the day together.” Walker rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter though. He was just leaving. And anyway, I’d ditch him for you any time. You’re significantly more beautiful than he is.”

Keira ducked her head as the compliment caught her off-guard.

She tried to piece together the conversation she’d overheard and also peek into the back room for a glimpse of Smith. “It sounded like you guys were talking about me.”

A little crease of confusion appeared between Walker’s eyebrows. “What? I . . . oh. Yes and no. He’s looking for ways to get me in trouble with my aunt. Or rather, ways to keep himself out of trouble—if she’s busy being mad at me, it’s a lot easier for him to get away with stuff.”

“So, why did he sound so pissed off back there?” Keira asked.

Walker dropped his hands from behind his head and tore his gaze away from the ceiling. “He told my aunt that I’m dating you. She found out that he’d come to see me, and she was pissed, so he pretended he’d only come to check up on me out of
concern.
Aunt Holly’s not happy.” He rubbed his neck. “To put it mildly.”

“But they don’t even know me,” she protested. She’d only been out with Walker a couple of times—there was no reason she should care what his family thought about her. Still, it stung.

“That’s exactly what I said, but it’s not really about you. It’s about me. Aunt Holly doesn’t trust my judgment. She assumes that I’m incapable of making a decent decision. So if I choose you, obviously, it must mean something horrible.” Walker got up and headed for the bins of music, riffling through them restlessly. “She’ll come around.” He shot her a sideways glance. “And if she doesn’t, I’ll trade them both in for puppies.”

Keira’s forehead scrunched up. “Puppies?”

Walker nodded seriously. “Yep. Think about it—they’re cute, cheap to feed, and they keep their opinions to themselves. It would be a hell of an improvement, don’t you think?”

Keira laughed, but her insides still felt heavy and cold. She had a feeling that this was going to be a bigger problem than it looked like.

“So, is he just going to hang out back there?” Keira demanded. More than a little bit of her liked the idea of confronting Smith.

“No, he’s already gone.”

“Gone? How?”

Walker blinked. “Through the other door.”

Keira squinted at him. “That door’s been locked for years. Mr. Palmer always said if I could find the key, he’d give me any music in the store.”

“It was taped above the doorjamb.” Walker shrugged. “You should have seen the tape. It was ancient.” Keira wondered if she was imagining the faint red tinge to his cheeks.

“So, Smith’s taking Susan out to dinner?”

Walker tipped his head back, studying the dusty ceiling tiles. “That seems to be the plan, yes.” He sighed.

“And your aunt’s not mad about that?”

Walker raised his eyebrows. “What makes you think he’s told her?”

Keira opened her mouth and then shut it again. “Oh. Right.”

Walker stepped behind the counter and motioned for her to follow. “Come on, there are two chairs back here.”

Keira bit her lip. That was exactly the sort of thing she’d wanted to avoid—the clinging girl routine. Hanging out with the hot guy at work. “Thanks, but I really did stop by to find some music. My dad gave me guilt money and if I don’t show up at home with something new, he’s going to think something’s horribly wrong with me.”

“He’ll show up at your bedside with a thermometer and the therapist on speed dial?” Walker guessed, flipping through one of Mr. Palmer’s catalogs.

“Forget the therapist. He’d probably skip straight to the exorcist.”

Walker laughed.

Keira walked over to the shelves, glad that they were alone in the store.

“So, why was your dad so anxious to get rid of you?” Walker asked.

Keira flipped through the books of music hard enough to raise a sparkling cloud of dust motes. “Honestly, I think he was waiting for my mom to get there. I think they had planned a hot afternoon of fighting.” She stopped the rest of the words before they tumbled out of her mouth. He’d heard them arguing before. The details were unnecessarily gory. She blinked, trying to get her eyes to quit stinging.

It must be the dust
.

Even in her own head, the lie sounded hollow.

“Families suck sometimes,” Walker said.

“Wow . . . that’s, I mean, since your . . . ” Her stammering sent a flush of heat through her cheeks.