Spring Secrets - Allie Boniface Page 0,76
torn. She could almost feel the sun on her neck, hear the crack of the bat, see Dash at the other end of the row.
“Sienna!”
Now she could hear him, his deep baritone voice calling her name, the way he had so many times that spring. In the gym. In her classroom. In her dreams before she woke, when the world hadn’t spoiled things yet.
“Sienna!”
She crumpled the ticket. She had to stop torturing herself. Dash was sitting in a jail cell miles away. He wasn’t jogging across the parking lot like a lunatic, waving one arm and calling out her name.
He couldn't be.
But somehow, in some miraculous reality, he was. With her mother close behind.
“Ma?”
Dash skidded to a stop in front of her. Sienna’s mother stayed a few steps behind and pretended to look at her phone.
Sienna stared at him. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you.”
“No, I mean, how are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be in—”
He took one step closer, then another, until the space between them narrowed to a breath. He was pale and thin, like he hadn’t eaten or slept much. “I got released. Just today, just a couple hours ago. The charges were dropped. I didn’t do the things they said.”
She glanced at her mother, confused. Ma looked like she’d spent the better part of the last two hours either crying or yelling. Maybe both. “Does this have anything to do with what Louie was telling you the other day?”
Ma’s mouth opened and closed a few times before it settled on some words. “Your brother told me he’d taken the pills. Said he didn’t know why, that he was doing it to fit in.” She turned bright red. “I had no idea. When he told me, I just...” She pressed her lips together. “At least he did the right thing. Finally.”
But too late! Sienna wanted to say. After everything was blamed on Dash! She didn’t know whether to cry or rip Louie’s head off when she saw him. “Where is he now?”
“Your father and I thought it’d be best if he spent the night at the police station.” Ma straightened to her full five feet. “The chief said they probably won’t charge him with anything official, but he needs to know what could happen if they did.”
Sienna took Dash’s hand. Warm. Strong. He folded his fingers through hers. “But you had the pills when the cops got there. I don’t...” Then understanding swept over her. “You covered for him?”
Dash shrugged. “He’s a kid. I didn’t want that mistake to haunt him for the rest of his life.”
Like mine did. She could read the rest of the words on his face. She couldn’t believe it. First he’d saved Dawn. Then he’d saved Louie. “What are you, some kind of guardian angel?”
He laughed. “Oh darlin’, I’m not anything close to an angel.”
Darlin’...
She loved the way it sounded on his tongue. And yet there was still something she needed to know. She took a deep breath. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Anything.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you spent time in prison?”
He took a long moment to answer. “How did you find out?”
She wouldn’t tell him that Al had practically assaulted her in the parking lot; she had a feeling if she did, he’d end up back in jail for murder. “I ran into Al Halloran. He said felony theft?”
Dash visibly cringed.
“Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Would you have gone out with me if I had?” He shook his head. “It’s a long story. It’s the worst story of my life, actually, and if I could live one hour over again, it would be the hour I broke into Edie’s apartment and tried to take back what was mine.”
“You told me she cleaned out your bank accounts. So you tried to get the money back?”
“All I wanted was the title to my Mustang. It was the first car I ever bought, and I restored the whole thing top to bottom. She loved driving it, though, so I put her name on the title too. She moved in with her boyfriend after I kicked her out, so I knew where she was living. Al and I went there one night when I thought she’d be working.”
“If both your names were on the title, they couldn’t have prosecuted you for theft.”
“They didn’t. Not theft of the car anyway.” He ran one hand over his forehead. “I was pissed. She had stacks of cash under the envelope where we found