A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,98
opening.”
“Do you think Adam came with his brother willingly?”
“I do. I don’t think he would force him.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am. If I remember correctly, the mine opens up to a chamber of sorts about a quarter mile in.”
Sun spun in a circle, careful not to knock herself out. Parts of the rock ceiling dipped low when one least expected it. “I haven’t been here since I was in high school.”
“Who’d you come out here with?” he asked, ducking under a low boulder.
“Friends. Quincy and a few others.”
“No romantic interludes?”
After an indelicate snort—not that any snort was delicate—she said, “Not unless you count the time Ryan Spalding tried to kiss me.”
“Tried?”
“And failed. What about you? Any romantic rendezvous in a dark, cold, creepy mineshaft?”
“Nah. There are far easier places to get to.”
Figured. She slipped but caught herself. Thankfully, he had taken the lead and missed her acrobatics. “What about with Crystal Meth?”
“I’ve never done meth. Here or anywhere else. Surely, you know that.”
“I mean the girl, which, by the way: poor thing. Her parents suck.”
“I gotta say, I really think they were oblivious.”
“Nobody’s that oblivious.”
“And you brought her up because?”
“You guys were making out the night Seabright was attacked. Outside the bar.”
He stopped and turned back to her. “Making out? Me and Crys?” The fact that he used her nickname so casually caused an unsettling in her stomach. “Where’d you get that from?”
“Crys.”
“She told you that?”
She shined the light in his eyes. Mostly because she could. “Not in so many words. It was very much implied, however.”
He frowned and tilted her flashlight downward. “We were just talking. She was asking for a job.”
“I bet she was. I can only imagine the interview process.”
He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then asked, “Is your opinion of me really so base?”
His indignation shocked her. And thrilled her. Not that she actually thought so low of him, but he was now one of the privileged. One of the elite with enough money to buy half the state. They thought differently than the rest of the world, however. She was glad to know money didn’t change him. Or maybe it did, considering his tragic upbringing. His deplorable role models growing up.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” she said, then squeezed past him, breathing in the earthy scent that wafted off his skin like a soft, alluring breeze, and headed farther inside the mineshaft. The ceiling dropped lower and lower and Levi had to duck down even more, putting a strain on his ribs if his breathing was any indication.
He put a hand on her shoulder to halt her and pointed. A couple dozen yards in front of them a soft light went out, while behind them, the ATV turned off. Its sound stopped its muffled echoing along the rock walls.
He twisted the lens on his flashlight. The color changed to a muted blue. Sun’s didn’t have that feature so she turned hers off altogether.
The floor was getting more uneven, the ceiling even lower, and the walls even tighter. Soon they would be on their hands and knees. “I forgot about this part,” she said softly.
“For good reason. The walls are literally closing in on us.”
She turned to him, panicked. “You’re not claustrophobic, are you?”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment and because she could barely see his face, she didn’t know what he was thinking. Then he said softly, “I can see why Ryan Spalding tried to kiss you.”
“Gross!” a kid shouted from deeper inside the mine.
They both startled and Sun almost knocked herself out on the rocky ceiling when she tried to straighten like the genius she was.
“That was so cheesy, Levi,” the kid said before he made gagging sounds.
Levi covered her head with a hand to try to keep her from concussing herself, then chuckled as a kid carrying a lantern popped his head into the narrow tunnel.
“It gets better,” he said. “Just keep coming. But only if you two stop making out.”
Another kid, Adam, poked his head into the tunnel from the opposite side and giggled as he looked on.
The older boy motioned them forward, but Sun couldn’t move. She could barely breathe. Elliot Kent, the boy she’d spent years trying to find, stood not fifteen feet away from her, as beautiful and healthy as ever.
If ever a dream had come true … She felt tears sting the backs of her eyes, the wave of emotion rising up within her unexpected and surprisingly strong.