Moment of Truth - Kasie West Page 0,70

night because of the mask and the challenge?

He pushed the hair back from my forehead, his eyes on mine. “I have to keep her around. She owns me.” He kissed the corner of my mouth. “You own me.”

I let out my breath and leaned into his kiss.

His phone rang again.

“It’s like she knows.” He laughed and answered it. “Mom, I’m home. I’m right outside just saying good night to Hadley.”

Had he ever used my first name before? It sounded weird coming from him.

“More like forty-five minutes. And I’m here.” He paused to listen to whatever she was saying. “Well, if I’m already grounded for a week, then I’m just going to make out with her for ten more minutes.”

I gasped. He put down his phone.

“You did not just say that to your mom.”

“No, I didn’t. She’d already hung up.”

I grabbed a handful of the front of his shirt and pulled him toward me. I gave him a soft kiss.

“I thought you were going to hit me. This is way better.” He kissed me twice more. “I better go, though. I wasn’t kidding about the Mom-being-mad part.”

“I know. Good luck with that.”

“You too.”

“Thank you.”

He started to get out.

“Wait!” I called.

“What?”

“I need your phone number.”

He laughed. “We did this way backward.”

We switched phones and entered our numbers, then he left, throwing a smile over his shoulder as he did. A few minutes later my phone rang. Across my screen the words My Hot Boyfriend calling came on. I laughed and answered. “Hello.”

“Do you agree?”

“About which part?”

“All of it.”

“Yes.” My cheeks hurt from the smile there. “Did you get in trouble?”

“Just a week. That’s doable. Are you home yet?”

“No.”

“Call me if you need me, after your parents get home,” he said.

“Okay.”

“Good night, Moore.”

“Night.”

Thirty-Four

As I pulled up to my house, I expected sirens to sound, my parents to come rushing out yelling and screaming. But all was quiet, as I had left it. Everything was exactly the same. Not even Amelia’s car was back. It was almost like it hadn’t happened at all. Something should’ve been different to reflect how different I felt.

I sighed. Now I had to decide what to do with the truck. I had been planning on putting it back on the platform, but maybe I should leave it in the drive. It would force me to have the conversation with my parents that I’d been putting off practically my entire life.

My dad would be the first to see it the next night. It would shock him. Maybe even put him on the defense right away before I had a chance to share my feelings. Or maybe it would make him sad or scare him. I thought about every possible reaction my dad might have to seeing the truck, after eighteen years, not where it belonged. And regardless of how I felt, I didn’t think that was fair to him. I couldn’t go from saying nothing to doing the most dramatic thing possible. Both he and my mom deserved to be eased into what I needed to tell them. They didn’t deserve a lightning strike.

I put the truck in park and got out. The ramps were where I left them in front of the platform so I moved them around to the back. Then ever so slowly, positioning the truck just right, I drove it forward. When I got to the top of the ramps, the truck stopped, not having enough power to get over the lip. I needed to give it more gas. I gripped the wheel and pressed gently on the gas pedal. It still wasn’t enough. I’d gone up the ramps too slow. I thought about backing up and going up again, a little faster. First, I tried one last time with a little more pressure on the gas pedal. The truck lurched forward. I gasped and slammed on the brakes. It stopped just in time, inches from the front edge. I caught my breath.

Now I needed to back it up just a few inches. As I started to shift the truck in reverse, a set of headlights swept across the yard and a car pulled up to the front of the house. Amelia. Her eyes were wide as she climbed out of her car and saw me, the headlights of my brother’s truck like a beacon across the lawn. I held up my finger, telling her to wait a minute, then looked over my right shoulder to back up. I lifted my foot off the brake pedal,