Forever (5 page)

“I don’t know, is it safe to
take her out, with that maniac after her?” Brody looked over to Mina for
affirmation.

His question mirrored her
very own fears.

“That’s fine. We can stay in
this house forever, but let me just say that Teague can come and go in this
house as much as he wants. Since Jared has been here, Teague technically has
too, and the wards won’t keep him out.”

“You’re right,” Mina said.
“We can’t cower from him forever. I think this will show him we’re not scared
of him.”

Nan’s hand shot straight up
in the air. “I’m scared of him.”

Charlie grabbed her hand,
pointed to himself, and shook his head no.

“Well, if Charlie’s not
scared then I’m not scared,” Nan amended.

“Okay, but we don’t go
anywhere alone. We stay in groups. You got that?” Mina said.

Nan made a salute, and
Charlie copied her, slipping his hands into hers.

Brody smiled at Mina. “Aye,
aye, Cap’n.”

Mina laughed and turned to
Ever who looked aghast.

“Nuh-uh. There’s no way I’m
saluting you. You can’t even lead a silkie to water.”

“You mean horse?” Nan
corrected.

“No, I mean silkie.”

Nan’s face furrowed in
confusion as Ever opened the door and they piled out into the driveway.

Chapter
5

Mina didn’t follow them
outside into the driveway right away. She went back to the kitchen, and her
footsteps slowed. The glamour of flowers and the celebration had disappeared.
The room was back to the way it had been right before her mom disappeared. This
was the last place she had spoken with her mom.

Moving on so soon seemed
wrong. But these weren’t normal circumstances. Mina was a young girl trying to
protect her little brother in the best way possible. Helping him heal was what
was most important right now. But they didn’t have time to mourn, not when she
had a feeling there was so much more to come.

She stared at her mother’s
purse but couldn’t open it up to take money out of it. It felt wrong. Instead,
she went into the pantry and pulled out an old coffee tin, to take money out of
their emergency stash. Her mother was always prepared in case they had to pick
up and move again, so even though they
felt
strapped for cash, there had always been a couple hundred in there.

The wad of money was even
larger than Mina remembered. Probably because they weren’t paying rent on this
place, her mom had been able to add to their fund.

Mina took three hundred
dollars and shoved it into her jeans pocket. Then she placed the lid back on
the tin and pushed it back up onto the top shelf.

She grabbed her jacket and
locked the door before following the others. They’d apparently split themselves
up into two cars instead of taking one—Nan in her Volkswagen Beetle and
Brody in his SUV. Ever already sat in the front seat of Nan’s car, and Mina
could see Charlie strapped into the back seat. The girls were talking very
animatedly, trying to keep him entertained.

Mina didn’t feel like being
surrounded by false joy, so she willingly jumped into the front passenger side
of Brody’s car. She had barely gotten her seatbelt buckled when Nan
meeped
impatiently. Nan’s car horn
wasn’t threatening at all. It was kind of hilarious and matched her
personality.

Brody gave a wave, drove down
their driveway, and turned left. Sailors Grocery wasn’t a long drive, and Mina
was too far out to pay Brody much attention. Until she realized that he had
asked her a serious question and was staring at her, waiting for her answer.

“Um, I’m sorry. What was the
question?” Her cheeks heated in humiliation.

Brody’s face flushed, and he
stammered. “Yeah, I’m the king of asking questions at the wrong moment.”

“No. I’m sorry. I’m here in
the moment. Ask away.”

He glanced in the rear view
mirror to check his blind spot before changing lanes.

“I asked you if you got to
see it.”

“See what?” she mumbled and
felt horrible.

He didn’t make eye contact.
“What was in the box I gave you two nights ago.”

Oh crud. Mina blinked in
disbelief. A ring? There was a ring. When? Where? Two nights ago! That would
have been the night of the explosion. Then it all came rushing back to her.
Brody on the balcony, holding up a small box and saying how old fashioned he
was. He’d opened a box to show her a class ring. His class ring. What happened
to it? She remembered the explosion, and that’s it.

“Your class ring.”

“Yes and…?” he trailed off.

“And…” she repeated trying to
delay the answer so she could think. If he had given her the ring before the
ball, she would have said yes without a doubt. But then she had gone back in
time and started to fall in love with Teague, before she’d torn his life in two
with the curse. Before she’d seen how ruthless he could be.

When Teague was hell bent on
trying to destroy her, why would she pause? She had loved Jared—she was
able to freely admit that. But a small part of her still wondered if something
of him remained within Teague. Could there be a small bit of love for her
within his blackened heart?

Why couldn’t she just date
the boy she’d had a crush on for years? It was obvious he liked her, and she
really, really liked him. And this time there was no Story-funny-business
messing with his feelings.

“Oh man,” Brody grumbled and
pulled the car over to the side of the road.

“What?” Mina glanced around
somewhat fearfully, and they had pulled over by the school. Cars were lined up
and down every street, and kids walked by with balloons and large overstuffed
prizes. “Oh, the school carnival.”

Brody groaned and ran his
hands over his face. “Yeah, I was supposed to volunteer with the polo team in
our booth today. I got out of it for Friday night, but I blew off yesterday.”

“Well, you did have a lot
going on, like being chased by a death omen and all.” Mina tried to tease him,
but it didn’t help. Brody’s face looked guilt stricken.

“You don’t understand. This
was my idea—to raise scholarship funds for underprivileged kids to go to
summer camp. The team is going to kill me.”

Mina understood. She had seen
the banners all over school promoting the fair. Most of the clubs and teams
manned a booth—it was the biggest fundraiser of the year. Luckily, Mina
had been able to avoid getting roped into volunteering.

Nan pulled up beside them,
and Ever rolled down the passenger window. “What’s the hold up?”

Brody rolled his window down.
“I’m supposed to be working today and yesterday.”

“Uh oh! Somebody’s in
trouble,” Ever taunted.

Charlie saw the balloons and
the Ferris wheel and fun house in the background, and he practically crawled up
between the console of the seat to point it out to Nan.

“Yeah, I see it, buddy,” she
answered. “So what are we going to do, Mina?” She leaned forward to ask around
Ever.

Brody turned to Mina and ran
his hands through his hair in frustration. “I’m sorry, but I really ought to go
in and work the rest of the day, or the guys will kill me. You can jump into
Nan’s car, and I’ll swing by tonight when I’m done.”

Mina looked over to Nan’s car
and saw Charlie jumping up and down in excitement, pleading with those big,
brown eyes. It might be just what they needed.

She sighed. “I’d hate for you
to get kicked off the team for shirking your duties. But I think we should all
go in. It should be fine. We’re surrounded by hundreds of people.”

He leaned over and kissed her
forehead. “You’re the best.”

She smiled slightly as Brody
pointed out an empty spot for Nan to park in up ahead. He did a U-turn and
pulled into a spot that had just been vacated.

Thankfully, he was so worried
about his missed volunteer spot that he didn’t ask her again about his class
ring. But he did grab her hand as soon as they were out of the car and met up
with the others.

With a squeeze of her
fingers, he said goodbye and then ran to the volunteer line to check in before
disappearing into the fair.

The group walked out by the
football field and fell in line behind others waiting to pay to get into the
fair. When it was their turn to pay, Mina was pleasantly surprised to see
Melissa, Makaylee, and Julianne selling tickets.

“How many?” Melissa asked,
opening the cash box.

Mina eyed the list of ages
and ticket prices. “One student and one child,” She pulled out enough money to
cover hers and Charlie’s entry tickets.

“How many ride tickets do you
want?” Julianne piped up and pulled out a roll of pink tickets. “Everything is
two tickets, and each ticket is a dollar.”

“Okay then, twenty,” Mina
handed over the bill and paid for the tickets.

“Be sure to check out the
dunk booth,” Makaylee whispered to Mina. “You won’t want to miss it.”

“We won’t miss it,” she
answered, unsure of the hidden message.

Ever and Nan met up with them
on the other side of the ticket tables.

“Highway robbery,” Ever
scoffed.

“It’s a fundraiser,” Nan
corrected. “We do this to raise funds.”

“Well, the rides better be
good after what I paid to get in.” She held up her wad of pink tickets and made
a joke of emptying out her pocket.

They started with the food
vendors. Ever stopped grumbling when she got a cotton candy as big as her head.
Charlie munched away happily on an elephant ear while Nan skipped joyfully and
waved to each of the students working the booths.

They came upon the infamous
dunk tank that Makaylee had suggested they stop by, and Mina was surprised to
see how long a line it had. The cheer squad was running the dunk tank. Mina
couldn’t help but slow down and stare as the one and only Savannah crawled up
to the seat above the tank of water and perched on the edge with her pom poms.

Mina watched in fascination
as one of the basketball players, Avery Picket gave his money to take a shot at
the target.

“Oh Avery, you don’t really
want to hit that target and get me wet, do you?” She smiled sweetly at him.
“How about you give another donation, and I’ll let you take me out on a date.”

He paused in his throw and
tossed the ball up and caught it in his hand. “How about Friday?” he asked.

She turned in her seat, and
Pri held up a date book and shook her head. “How about three Fridays from now?”
Savannah smiled and twirled her hair.

Avery thought about it and
said, “Deal.” He tossed the ball into a large bucket next to the dunk tank.
Someone had plastered a big old white sign with red letters over the word
“Dunk,” changing it to “Date.”

So instead of Dunk a
Cheerleader, the squad had turned it into Date a Cheerleader. Mina watched,
amazed, as almost every guy lined up booked a date with either Savannah or one
of the other girls.

When a girl did make it to
the line and chose to toss a ball at the target, they either didn’t have enough
power to make it to the target or they had terrible aim.

“You gotta admit that’s
pretty genius,” Nan chuckled. “Wish I would’ve thought of it first.”

“Yeah, well you didn’t,” Ever
grumbled, following Charlie as something caught his eye.

He stopped in front of a
milk-can toss and stared in awe at the large wooden popgun prize.

“Three throws for five
dollars,” the wiry carnival vendor coaxed. He was in his thirties and was one
of the traveling fair’s employees.

“There’s no way we can win
that, it’s rigged.” Mina tried to dissuade him from the game.

“Nonsense,” the vendor
replied. “It’s easy as pie.” He came over to their side of the booth and, with
one easy lob, tossed the softball into the milk can.

Charlie lit up. He wasn’t
going to leave the booth until he had at least tried the game. So they wasted
five dollars on the game to watch the ball spin around the top and roll right
across the opening. Instead of falling into the hole, it rolled up and over the
side. Charlie was devastated.

“Too bad. Maybe next time.”
The vendor smiled, showing tobacco-stained teeth.

Ever slapped five more bucks
down and gave Charlie a wink. “My turn.”

She grabbed the softball and
tossed it underhand in a perfect arc for the milk can. It hit the edge, rolled
around the rim and fell off. She frowned and tried again. This time, the ball
went up and was falling in a perfect arc, right at the hole. But it changed
course and bounced off the lip at the last second. Ever tossed her last
throw—even more on point than the last—and it rolled into the
middle, then popped out.

“That’s impossible,” Ever
touched her finger to her lips and cast a suspicious glance at the vendor. He
smiled slyly while counting out the bills in his apron.

“Oh, too bad. Better luck
next time.” He waved them on.

Ever rolled up her sleeves
and slammed another five dollars down.

The vendor smiled. “Oh you
want to try again?”

“No, I’m betting you five
bucks that you can’t make the shot again. If you can’t do it. I get to pick a
prize.”

His eyes lit up in challenge.
“Deal, and I’ll only need one toss.”

“Don’t count on it,” Ever
said under her breath to Nan and Charlie.

The vendor picked up a
softball and came over to stand behind the counter and toss the ball into the
same milk can.

Ever stood slightly off to
the side and, as soon as he tossed the ball, flicked her finger. When the ball
hit the can, it rolled around and around the can but refused to go in. With
another flick, Ever made it roll out.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” she
said.

“No, wait. I get two more
shots.” He stormed behind the counter to grab two more softballs. Mina could
see sweat beading on his forehead in concentration as he tossed the ball
perfectly. It would have been a perfect toss, if Ever hadn’t flicked her wings
at the last second and blown it off course.

Now he was really nervous.

“One last shot, bub.” Ever
sat on the edge of the booth and crossed her legs. “And I’ve got my eye on the
popgun.”