with a nod. He comes up, casting his gaze over me for the barest second.
Grayson clears his throat. “Hey. Aiden, this is my little sister Olivia.”
Under Aiden’s renewed gaze, I turn pink, though I’m not sure why. “Hi.”
“Aiden plays soccer on the team I joined last summer,” Grayson says, filling me in. “He lives in the big house that we always pass on the way to school.”
Aiden rolls his eyes with a grin. “It’s not that big.”
I eye Aiden suspiciously. “You live in the white house with the big columns? That place is huge.”
He rolls his eyes and waves a hand dismissively. “I bet everything looks huge to you. You’re tiny. How old are you?”
Straightening, I cross my arms. “Eight. How old are you?”
The question is blunt and it makes Aiden’s cheeks color. “Fourteen. I’ve uh… I’ve been held back a few times.”
I immediately feel like I need to make him comfortable. I screw up my face. “That’s not a big deal. Jimmy Marsterly has been held back four times and he’s one of my best friends.”
“Jimmy goes to our school,” Grayson says to Aiden. “He’s twelve but he’s in Olivia’s grade.”
Aiden looks thoughtful. I expect him to make fun of me for being young or try to get Grayson to play somewhere else to avoid me, but he doesn’t. Instead he looks me dead in the eye.
“Do you like to swim?”
I bite my lip, looking at Grayson for reassurance. “I don't really know how.”
“Well, you should both come over to my house. We have a pool and a ton of cool inflatables. You’d like it.”
Grayson clears his throat. “Maybe another day. We are stuck here waiting for our mom to show up. Which she probably won’t.”
Aiden absorbs that, nodding slowly. “That’s cool. What do you guys do all day around here?”
“I have a bunch of comic books next to my bunk inside.” Grayson jerks his thumb in the direction he means. “Wanna check them out?”
“Sure.” Aiden strides to the door, but Grayson holds up a hand.
“Hey man. You can’t leave your bike there. It will get stolen in a heartbeat.”
Aiden casts his glance backward. “You think?”
“He’s right,” I chime in. “Your bike is all shiny and new. You had better bring it inside with you.”
He turns his gaze on me again. I look up at him, only now realizing just how gorgeous his dark eyes are. It’s a color somewhere between brown and black, smooth velvety and piercing all at once.
For a moment, I’m awestruck. He gives me a lazy smile. Every tooth is perfectly in place. His nose is just the right length for his face. His eyebrows are a little bushy. There are freckles on his face, very faintly sprayed across the bridge of his nose and his cheeks.
I suck in a breath as he shrugs. “It’s all right. If that bike gets stolen, there are way more where it came from.”
He doesn’t tell me where he expects to get another bike, but I believe every word he says. He turns to pull open the door, holding it open for Grayson. Grayson looks at me as he goes into the building, jerking his head toward the hallway.
He’s asking if I want to go. I shake my head, swallowing against the lump in my throat. I feel tingly all over but I don't know why.
“We’ll be back in a little bit,” he says. Then he lets the door slam shut behind him.
In the silence, I can suddenly hear the thumping of my heart. I find myself wondering when Aiden will be back. Looking over at his abandoned bike lying on the ground, I bite my lower lip.
There is not a lot I can do to protect his bike. But I can shield it from interested onlookers by making it look like all the other junk laying around the group home’s yard. I pedal my bike over to his, dismounting and laying mine down on top of his.
Pleased with myself, I lay back on the patchy grass and wait.
Chapter Thirteen
Aiden
In the early hours of the morning, I dream of my childhood home. Eve and I are sitting on the floor of the living room, playing with my collection of model airplanes. We’re about twelve and four, respectively; as the older brother, I love lecturing her about what she should and shouldn’t do.
“You’re holding that plane wrong.” I look down my nose at her. She frowns and just keeps holding it by the tail, making revving engine sounds. I roll