Three Wishes (9 page)

I’d just wanted to find out the truth before. Now I was rooting for Leo’s dad. Neither motive made it easy to break into my mother’s office.

Mom and Dad wouldn’t be back until at least six thirty if they kept to their usual pattern. I had plenty of time to accomplish my search and get over to Alex’s.

I put down my drink. Now if I could only make my feet move toward Mom’s office.

The Armpit Hostages geared up in the garage, and I realized I hadn’t ever seen Leo playing the drums. Talking about it at lunch made me curious. I wanted to go in and peek at the band for a few minutes. Despite Ian being a jerk, watching the guys usually helped me relax. And how was I going to picture Leo beating on the drums if I’d never actually seen it?

I glanced at the clock. I had plenty of time. I could watch Leo play one number and then proceed with my espionage.

If I slipped in during one of the guitar solos, I probably wouldn’t be noticed. I didn’t want Ian thinking I’d forgiven him. Because I totally hadn’t. Backstabbing bag of barf.

I heard my cue and opened the door. The guys would have to turn around to see me. I edged in, closed the door, and perched on the hard freezer. So far so good.

I glared at Ian’s back and then settled my gaze on Leo.

He’d taken off the leather jacket even though the garage was cooler than the house. His arm muscles bulged under his black t-shirt as he kept the beat. His mature physique was totally out of place between my scrawny, boyish brother and slightly chunky Dylan.

The boy, make that the man, looked twenty-five.

I couldn’t believe I was drooling over a man. Alex, yes. Me, not so much.

No doubt about it. Leo was hot. He wasn’t terrible on the drums either, and he certainly looked good doing it. He was better than average. Just like he’d said.

They wrapped up the number and Ian turned around as they discussed making some adjustments.

Then he spotted me.

Crap.

“You know what to do guys,” he said with glee. “Jen’s serenade.”

I winced as Leo gave me a friendly smile.

The others were already counting down. They started with familiar melody to Message in a Bottle by the Police, all of them singing at the top of their lungs, “Jenny in a bottle.”

Leo raised a brow.

Ian loved to taunt me like this. His friends thought it was funny. They totally missed the genie reference because why would genies occur to them?

Leo didn’t miss a thing.

My only choice was to leave. I could yell and scream like usual, but I didn’t want Leo to see my shrewish side. The guys were all watching me, so I couldn’t even wave to Leo. I met his eyes one more time. The green glow leaped in his irises as he clenched his fists. Uh oh. Leo getting angry and pounding my brother wouldn’t help anything.

I shook my head at him. Then I went inside.

I hated when Ian played that song. When I was younger, he’d threatened to trap me in a bottle. When his buddies weren’t around, he sang the lyrics as “Genie in a bottle.”

Shuddering, I pushed the thoughts from my mind. I’d never be trapped in a bottle. Never.

With a scowl at the door to the garage, I headed to Mom’s office.

My stomach dropped to my knees as a horrible idea occurred to me. What if the other realm was actually a bottle?

No. I assured myself with a frantic shake of my head. The treaty wouldn’t allow them to return genies to that claustrophobic hell.

Slumping with relief, I walked to Mom’s office.

First, I wanted to check on that technology interference thing. Then I wanted to check for any information at all on Leo’s dad, and I’d take another look around for info on the Directorate.

I was just punching in the combination when Ian and the Armpit Hostages finished a song and I heard a noise at the front door.

I jumped away from Mom’s office and headed as fast as I could to the front door to investigate the source of the sound. The guys in the garage wouldn’t come in that way, but everyone else was gone.

I almost screamed at the sight of Mom coming through the door. “Mom!” My heart nearly pounded out of my chest.

“Hey, hon.” She pulled off her coat and hung it on the hook. “I thought you were at Alex’s.”

Yeah, um. “I just stopped by for a few things.”

Mom gave me a sharp look. “You didn’t come by for rehearsal did you?”

“Um, no.”

“Good. I know you think that Derek boy is cute, but I really don’t know about him.”

“I’m not here for Derek, Mom. I promise.” I was violating her trust and running around with someone I should never have met. Derek, no. He didn’t hold a candle to Leo.

It must have finally registered where I had come from because Mom asked, “Were you doing laundry?”

“No. I, um, was looking for my good bra.”

Mom raised a brow. “Please don’t tell me you and Alex are taking lingerie pictures and posting them on the Internet.”

“Very funny, Mom.” She knew I’d never do that. “What are you doing here, anyway? You bailed on Dad and Sean.”

“The movie we wanted was sold out. Dad and Sean wanted to see that new parody.” She grimaced. “I hate those. Boy humor with no sophistication.”

“You did the right thing, Mom.” She’d paid me to take Sean to see those movies more than once. Sean cackled all the way through, and I winced at every crude joke.

“I don’t know why all boys love those movies,” Mom said.

I doubted Leo would watch them. He seemed so much more mature. Plus he had more important things to deal with than movies.

I had so many secrets, I felt them bubbling over. I needed to split before Mom got me talking. “I guess Alex is wondering where I am. I should get going.”

“Okay. Have fun!”

At least she didn’t tell me to stay out of trouble.

By the time I got to Alex’s, I was totally exhausted. As usual, Alex was full of energy.

“Hey, girlfriend,” she said, yanking open the front door. “You’re right on time. The game just ended.”

Behind her in the living room, I could see her dad turning off the television. “Hi, Mr. Anderson.”

“Hey, Jen,” Alex’s dad said.

“How’d we do?” I asked, knowing they lived for the games.

“We blew ‘em away,” Mr. Anderson said, beaming.

“How many games did you guys watch today?”

Alex grinned. “Four and a half.”

The two of them were obsessed with college basketball. I guess it was a good thing Alex was so into b-ball. It must have made it a lot easier for them to stay close after the divorce.

“I’ll dump my bag in your room.” I wanted to give them time to say goodbye. Alex’s dad usually came to her mother’s house for them to spend time together. Her mother would head out shopping or something. I think Alex said her mother had read that switching houses was harder on kids of divorce. Some weekends, her dad came and stayed there, and her mother crashed at a friend’s.

It seemed a little weird, but I guess it worked for them. “Bye, Mr. Anderson. Good to see you.”

“Bye, Jen.”

I headed down the hall with my overnight bag. My room at home looked like a Pottery Barn explosion. I loved my room, but the truth was the truth. Alex didn’t do coordinated. Her room had a thrown together look. Nothing matched, and a few piles of clothes on the floor. She spent most of her time downstairs in the rec room where her mother had set up an elliptical and an exercise bike. I think the main draw was actually the entertainment system and the distance from her mother.

Alex’s room looked more like a sloppy guest room than a teen’s room. I heaved my overnight bag onto the bed.

“I hope you brought some decent snacks,” Alex said from behind me. “Mom’s dieting again and Dad ate all the chips and dip.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think of it.” After the mega-healthy lunch I’d had, I could use some empty calories.

“We need dinner, too,” Alex said. She wrinkled her nose, “I don’t really want pizza again.”

Since I’d had pizza last night, I didn’t bother arguing. “How about Subway? Then we can grab some snacks and soft drinks from the store.”

“Deal,” Alex said. “But I’m getting the Italian BMT with extra fat and everything on it.”

“Then I get a pint of Chunky Monkey for dessert.”

“We need cereal for breakfast, too.”

I grabbed my purse off her bed. Alex and I were totally in sync except when it came to driving. “I’ll drive,” I said quickly rummaging for my keys.

Alex’s eyes narrowed. “You always drive.”

“No. I drive a lot when I’m with you because I never get to drive any other time. I have to fight Ian for the car, and you know it.” Plus, Alex scared the bejeesus out of me when she drove. She drove like she played basketball. Aggressively. In Atlanta, the average driver was bold. Alex was just plain militant behind the wheel.

Hands on hips, Alex probed me with a glare.

“You drive every day,” I argued. “I haven’t driven since Wednesday.” Okay, I was exaggerating a little, but my life was at stake.

“Fine, but you’re buying.”

My safety was totally worth the price of a sandwich. “Yay!” I silently cheered. Another crisis averted.

When we pulled into Alex’s driveway later, her mother was already home. “Just leave the soft drinks in the car,” Alex warned. “We’ll sneak out here for them later. If we take them in, Mom will drink them all.”

“I thought she was on a diet.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “She has zero willpower. Put the ice cream in your purse. If she sees it, she’ll confiscate it, and eat it. Then she’ll be downstairs on the elliptical half the night.”

“Over my dead body,” I said, cramming my pint of ice cream into my purse.

“Don’t tempt her,” Alex muttered. She stashed hers in her bag and opened the car door. “Mom always says that something becomes most desirable when it’s forbidden. She might jump us for the stuff.”

I accidentally dumped my purse out in her driveway at the mention of desiring the forbidden. Why did Leo have to be so off limits?

“What the freak, Jen?” Alex ran around the car to help me scoop everything back into my purse. “Why don’t you just open the door and yell that we have ice cream?”

“Ice cream?” her mother’s voice drifted from the front door. Mrs. Anderson stood there with her hands on her hips.

“Now, look what you’ve done,” Alex hissed.

“You did it,” I said.

“Alex,” she said with her hands on her hips. “I asked you not to bring any sweets into the house.”

“We only have a tiny bit, Mom.”

“If you’ll give us ten minutes,” I said, “We’ll make it disappear.”

“I haven’t even had dinner, yet.”

Alex glanced at the Subway bag in my hand. She obviously wanted me to sacrifice the other half of my foot-long sub. The half that I wanted to save for lunch tomorrow.

Fine. “Mrs. Anderson.” I held up the bag. “We brought you a six-inch turkey sub.”

Alex’s mom broke into a smile. “Really? How sweet! I’m allowed to eat the turkey.”

We tramped up to the porch and I grudgingly handed over half of my sandwich.

“It was that or your ice cream,” Alex whispered as we walked downstairs to the rec room.

Sundays were chili days at our house, and I couldn’t bear to eat another bowl. Maybe I’d just make a salad.

In the colorful rec room, Alex set her purse on the table. “Guard the good stuff. I’ll grab some spoons.”

I pulled the ice cream out of my purse. It was already kind of melted, just the way I liked it.

Before I could get Alex’s out of her purse, she came pounding back down the stairs with the spoons.

“She already inhaled that whole sandwich!” Alex said rolling her eyes.

More power to her. I pulled the top off my ice cream and licked the lid. Nectar of the gods.

Alex turned the stereo on our favorite station. Then she came over and handed me a spoon, and her hand grazed mine.

“Ouch!” she yelled. “You shocked me.”

“Sorry,” I said, even though I had no idea what it felt like. One of the many weird things about genies was that static electricity didn’t bother us.

Alex dug into her container. “Ooh baby,” she said licking at her spoon with a sigh of pleasure.

When she’d scraped up the last of her ice cream and gulped it down, she finally brought up the subject I’d been dreading. “Are you never going to tell me what happened with Leo?”

I was kinda hoping for never.

“Spill already,” Alex ordered.

“He asked me out to lunch. No big deal.”

“So you guys met on Wednesday when his grandmother’s cat was stuck in a tree…”

I could feel her eyes on me as I pretended to search my ice cream carton for one more drop of the sweet treat.

“And on Friday, he asked you out for lunch on Saturday.”

“Um,” I looked up at her. “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t he just ask you out for dinner or a movie? Lunch is a little strange. Unless you’re twenty-something coworkers living in New York.”

She had no idea how strange the whole thing really was. “Um, he didn’t want to make a big deal of it with my brother, and lunch seemed more discreet.”

“Where’d he take you?”

How much did I tell her? “We went over to Emory and had lunch at this vegetarian place.”

“He’s a vegetarian?” She didn’t sound convinced. “Why didn’t you just go somewhere close to here? There are about five different veggie places.”

“He didn’t say.” Yeah, I know, but it was the best I could think of. “I didn’t ask.”

She leaned forward probing me with her brown eyes. “Did he kiss you?”

“No!”

“Why not? It was a date wasn’t it?”

Not exactly. It was more of an alliance of magical beings. “We’re just hanging out, Alex,” I huffed. “I mean, maybe we’ll just be friends.”

“Friends,” she asked, quirking a brow. “Then why the secrecy?”

“What secrecy?” Oh, she meant the part about not telling my family. “He just doesn’t want to make waves with Ian after joining the band, and I don’t want to deal with the crap any of them will dish out. I wouldn’t call it secrecy exactly.” It so totally was secrecy.

Alex’s gaze bored into me.

“Fine.” Time to throw the dog a bone. “I think he does like me.”

“Of course he likes you,” Alex said. “And…”