Chapter 28
The roar of a tractor coming to life jerked Hannah awake. Justin groaned under her, and she blinked the fog out of her brain.
Sunlight. There was sunlight...a lot of sunlight.
“Oh, crap,” she whispered, and nudged the man she’d been lying on. “Justin! Wake up!”
“Mmm,” he moaned, turning over on his side, taking Hannah with him. “Just a few more minutes.”
“No, get up now!” she said anxiously. “It’s morning, and we’re still in the tree! Wake up, dammit!”
Justin bolted upright. “Oh, sh*t!”
“My thoughts exactly,” Hannah said, scrambling to cover herself. “How are we going to explain this?”
He rubbed his hand over his face. “I don’t know...sh*t!”
“Come on,” Hannah urged, tossing his jeans to him. “We’ve got to get out of here before someone finds us.”
“Too late,” he groaned, staring at the floor of the fort behind her. Hannah turned around. There, in a nice, neat stack were clean clothes for both of them. Hannah saw her pants and shirt from yesterday. They’d been washed, ironed and folded. And on top of all that was a picnic basket with sticky buns, orange juice, and a note. Hannah stared at it like it was a snake.
Justin leaned over, grabbed the note and read it out loud, “‘You owe me for this, Mom.’ Wonderful.”
The rumble of Mr. Kirkland’s tractor began to fade away, and Hannah risked a glance through the branches of the Magnolia tree. She saw Justin’s dad driving it out into the fields...with Josie riding along.
“There’s one small blessing,” she said, and Justin followed her gaze. “Do you think she knows?”
“Josie? I don’t know,” he answered. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
They both dressed quickly. Hannah nibbled from a sticky bun as she tried to button her shirt with one hand. She was starving. Last night’s activities had left a hole in her stomach, and she wasn’t sure if it was from hunger or if it was because they never finished what they started. Either way, the rushed breakfast quelled her appetite as well anything could in their mad dash to get back to the house undetected by Josie.
As soon as the tractor and the occupants were a bare speck in the distance, Justin grabbed everything from the tree fort, took Hannah’s hand in his, and herded her quickly to the back porch. He paused before entering, but with an intake of calming breath, he pushed into the kitchen and blanched when they saw Mary Alice rolling out cookie dough on the counter. She glanced up, scanned them both from their dirty bare feet to the clasp of their fingers, shook her head with calm tolerance and went back to her baking, never saying a word.
“Thanks, Mom,” Justin said quietly, set the picnic basket on the table and led Hannah out of the kitchen. They passed through the living room and up the stairs. He brought her into his bedroom and closed the door, leaning desperately against it. Hannah slithered out of his handhold, looking around at the room he’d grown up in and the bed that he’d slept on. She’d been too embarrassed downstairs to say anything, but now she had to voice her thoughts.
“You’re not thinking...”
A bang on the floor -- the ceiling of the kitchen -- resounded through the room. And Mary Alice’s shout carried through the layers of flooring, “Oh, no you don’t, you two! Not in this house, you won’t! You keep that door open, you hear me, Justin Lewis?!”
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Promise Me (Book One of the Kirkland Family)
General FictionHannah Baker cannot stand to breathe the same air as Justin Kirkland...but she adores his daughter, and his parents, and she even dated his younger brother back in high school. So what will it take for those two to fall in love? A screwy family tr...
