Gravity - By Abigail Boyd Page 0,36

out mowing their lawns, or tending to their fall flowers.

"This is my house," I said when we arrived, with a faux grand gesture of my arms. "Ta da." He laughed, his eyes crinkling again. I don't know if I'd ever seen someone with a more genuinely happy smile, and it made his face more impossibly gorgeous the more I saw it. The goofiness I had once seen in it had disappeared.

Hugh was standing in the dining room when we walked in, waiting like a bouncer to either okay Henry or kick him out.

"Hugh, this is Henry," I said, watching his reaction for signs of trouble, ready to shield Henry from oncoming missiles.

Hugh shook Henry's hand, his eyes like an airport scanner. No detail unnoticed.

"Nice to meet you," Henry said cheerfully.

"Likewise," Hugh said, attempting gruffness. "My daughter hasn't told me much about you, other than your interest in helping her learn. So pardon me if I have some questions."

"Dad..." I moaned, putting my hands over my eyes. Let the mortification begin. Odds were Henry would never want to come back.

"Sure, anything you want to know," Henry said.

"What do your parents do for a living?"

"They're both attorneys. My father is in criminal defense and my mother deals with real estate disputes."

Hugh was unfazed. It probably counted as points against Henry's parents, consider how much the legal system irritated him.

"Where did you used to live?" Hugh continued.

"Westchester, Pennsylvania."

"Any siblings?"

"I have a sister, Andrea. She's a freshman in college at Villanova."

"Okay, I think that's enough third degree," I burst in, before Hugh could continue his investigation. I put my hand on Henry's chest without realizing it. "We need to be studying."

Henry looked down at my hand and grinned at me. I took it away, as if I had burned myself, heat prickling across my face.

Seemingly satisfied, Hugh sat back down at his laptop. The bridge was now crossable, apparently.

"Just so you know, the walls are very thin in this house," he said pleasantly.

Henry grinned widely and looked down at the floor, his shoulders shaking as he contained a snicker. I didn't get Hugh's meaning at first, but when I did I was horrified.

"Hugh! Please!" I implored him.

"Go study," he said.

Henry and I went into the den, and I shut the accordion doors so we would have some privacy. Since the walls were so thin and all.

"I'm sorry about my father," I said, gritting my teeth.

Henry laughed, his good mood only boosted by the interaction. "That's just the typical dad rundown. I would do much worse if I had a daughter. She probably wouldn't date until she was twenty-five."

"Well, still." I set my backpack down on the coffee table.

"It must be nice to have a parent home when you are," he continued, following my lead by dropping his notebook and book next to my stuff. "My parents are never home."

"Most people would love that, you know," I said, glancing at him sideways.

"Yeah, probably. I told you I'm not normal."

"Hugh and Claire are always watching over me," I complained, flopping down onto the couch. I was hardly ever in this room except to get books. The entire wall we were facing contained bookshelves crammed full of heavy volumes. Like I didn't have enough of my own. "Even when Claire is at work, she sends me texts. They worry about me all the time. Which I get, but I feel like I'm in an invisible cage or on a leash. I wish my parents were both out of the house sometimes."

Henry sat down next to me on the couch. His sudden proximity made my skin warm up. He smelled really good, of some random cologne but not put on heavily, just a hint of it in the air. It seemed bizarre to have him in my house, sitting on a couch I'd sat on a million times. At school, he was a distant, untouchable prize, but here, he seemed truly real.

The thought occurred to me that Lainey had probably told him all kinds of nasty things about me, and about Jenna. I tried to keep my mind off of it. I gripped the edge of the couch cushion with my hands.

"I did like being alone, for a long time," he admitted. "But now I mostly just wander around my house all day, reading. I could make you some high class microwave dishes. Sometimes I just drink and fall asleep."

"Drink, like alcohol?" I asked. I didn't much like being around drunk people; they always found themselves far more