Must be access to the roof, then.”
Visions of baseball fans falling to their deaths filled Sienna’s head. Wouldn’t they keep access to the roof firmly locked? Her heart thumped. “Do you think she went up there?”
“Only one way to find out. Dawn?” he said into the dark stairwell.
She isn’t going to answer, Sienna almost said, but he already knew that. As he took a few steps up into the darkness, she wiped her forehead and realized she smelled of perspiration. She’d also completely shredded the bottom hem of her shirt, and she’d stepped in a puddle of ketchup at some point. She was dissolving into a certifiable wreck with every passing minute.
“Yes, I know it is,” he was saying.
Is he talking to her?
“Miss Cruz is awfully worried about you. We need you to come down so we can all go back to school together.”
In disbelief, Sienna stuck her head under his arm and looked up. Far at the top of the dark stairwell, a pair of eyes blinked down at them. “Dawn?”
“Mr. Dash?” came Dawn’s plaintive voice. It was the sweetest sound Sienna had ever heard.
“Yes, sweetheart. I’m right here.” He glanced at Sienna. “And I’m not going anywhere. You’re safe with me.”
“I think I’m ready to go home now.”
On the bus ride back to school, Dawn sat pressed up against Sienna. She stared out the window without speaking, but every so often, Sienna felt a small hand in hers.
I can’t believe you found her, she mouthed to Dash, who sat across the aisle. Actually, she couldn’t believe any of it had happened. It was like they’d been thrust into an after-school TV special. Her heart had only just returned to normal.
How is she? Dash mouthed back.
Okay. She glanced at Dawn, whose head bobbed with the bumps in the road. Her eyes had closed, and her fingers grew slack in Sienna’s. I think she’s sleeping.
When they reached the school parking lot, Sienna let Dash stay on the bus, guarding over Dawn while she released the rest of her students to their waiting parents.
“You lost a student?” Harmony said in passing. She arched a brow.
“Nope,” Sienna said, the blood hot in her cheeks. “Just got separated for a few minutes.”
Harmony gave a little sniff and turned to her own brood, none of them learning disabled or mute in the least. Sienna shook her head. There’s one in every crowd.
“Don’t let her get to you,” Polly said from behind. “She’s kind of a snob.”
“Kind of?”
“She means well. She’s from old money, that’s all. Her parents have always made things go away. The biggest thing she ever worried about was when the nail salon in Silver Valley closed down and she had to find a new manicurist.”
Sienna laughed. “How tragic.”
Polly gave a little shrug. “We’ve been friends forever, so I take her and her attitude with a grain of salt.”
Sienna didn’t have much to say to that, so she returned to the bus, where Dash sat next to a bleary-eyed Dawn.
“Just woke up,” he said.
Dawn rubbed her eyes.
“How are you feeling, honey?”
She shrugged.
Oh, well. Sienna supposed she couldn’t expect a miraculous return to full speech just because Dawn had uttered a few sentences back at the ballpark. Still, they’d made a start.
“Wait for me?” Sienna asked as she took Dawn’s hand. “I’ll just be a minute.” The day felt unfinished. She wanted to talk to Dash before he left.
“Sure.”
But the conversation with Dawn’s foster parents lasted almost twenty minutes by the time Sienna had reassured them that no harm had come to Dawn, but that she would certainly make an appointment with the school psychologist first thing Monday morning. She hurried from the principal’s office back outside, but the bus was gone. So were almost all the vehicles.
Except Dash’s truck.
Something lifted inside Sienna, a headiness that carried her across the pavement to where he waited for her. I can’t wait until Friday, she wanted to say. I want to see you tonight. Watching him with Dawn, watching him worry and take action, had made her fall for him even harder.
“Everything okay with the parents?” he asked.
Sienna nodded. “They were a little freaked out, of course, but who wouldn’t be?”
“What about you?” He tipped down his sunglasses and looked at her over the tops. “You still freaked out?”
“I wasn’t—” Then she stopped. Who was she kidding? Of course she’d been freaked out. An entire volume of worst-case scenarios had coursed through her mind in a matter of minutes. “I’m okay. But I’m really glad