Unlovable (48 page)

“
Sounds like a plan. I’ll
get my shoes on and meet you outside.”

He wasn’t kidding about his lack of
skill on the court. I won both games by a fairly decent margin. It
felt good to be outside running around soaking in the warm spring
sunshine. Winter had lasted entirely too long. Seth pulled up as I
made my one and only three point shot.

“
That’s my girl.” He scooped
me up onto his shoulders, and we made a victory lap around the
driveway. Cole’s cell phone went off and he quickly excused
himself, probably glad he didn’t have to play against
Seth.

“
How badly did he lose?”
Seth asked, lowering me to the ground.

“
Ten points the first game,
and twelve the second, he’s really terrible.”

“
You’d never guess he’s an
incredible salsa dancer, he’s even better than Booker.”

“
Salsa dancer? He has
two left feet on the basketball court. He tripped over them at
least a dozen times.”

“
I know, it’s
bizarre.”

Now all the bandages I’d seen on him
over the past months finally made sense.

***

By Monday morning, apprehension was my
constant companion. I was worried about what the rumor mill Melody
had spread around about me, and tensions were still high as the
manhunt for Alan continued. The search warrant was a bust, Alan had
moved out of his apartment, and there were no leads as to where
he’d gone.

Booker arranged for Wilbur,
a huge transfer student, aka
undercover
MET agent roughly the size of a small town
,
to escort me to all the classes Seth and I didn’t share. Book
thought it would be less conspicuous to have “Willy” hanging around
me than to suddenly have Seth in all my classes. Any time anyone
came near me, the
town of Willy
would close ranks. How that was less conspicuous
was beyond me.

It felt good to have my life back in
some type of order. Several kids offered their condolences on the
death of my mother, and two invited me to go with them to their
Ala-teen meetings. Knowing my mother wasn’t the only parent in the
world who had a drinking problem gave me comfort.

“
Hello, beautiful, may I
escort you to lunch?” Seth came to rescue me from my personal brute
squad of one.

“
Why, yes, I’d be
delighted,” I smiled. “Thanks, I’ll see you later,” I said to
Willy. He grunted and left. “He’s not very…”

“
Bright?” I giggled at
Seth’s choice of word. “It’s good to see you laugh again,
Maggie.”

He bought cafeteria food for our
lunch, a first for him, although he picked and grumbled at the
entire meal.

“
You should know Zack’s
parents reported him as a runaway. Booker’s trying to convince the
police department to treat it as a missing persons. Since he’s
nineteen, they won’t do much if he is a runaway, whereas a missing
persons report will generate a search. Did you know he flunked the
second grade?” Seth took great pleasure in that little fact.
“Booker is supposed to be here today to question some of Zack’s
friends.” He took a bite of his pizza and groaned.

“
Hey, Seth, I’ve missed you
the past few weeks, how have you been?” Hillary strutted up to our
table and flashed him a flirty smile.

“
Maggie and I have been just
fine. Thanks for asking, Hillary.” He smiled back
politely.

“
Oh, hello, Maggie. I didn’t
notice you there.”
Direct
slam
.

“
Seth Prescott, correct?”
Booker appeared out of nowhere, in full uniform with a notepad in
his hand. There was no mistaking it, Booker was an exceptionally
good-looking man, but there was just something plain hot about him
in his MET uniform.

“
Captain Gatto, how are
you?” The two men politely shook hands.

“
And, of course, how can I
forget this lovely beauty.” He took my hand in his and kissed it.
“Maggie, how are you? You get lovelier every time I see you.” I
threw him a huge grin. “Seth, you are a lucky man,” he said,
winking at me. Hillary was going nuts, just as Booker had intended.
“I’d like to talk to you two about Zackary Finkle, if I
may.”

“
Hello, Captain Gatto, do
you remember me? I certainly remember you. I just love a man in a
uniform, by the way.” Hillary practically purred as she wrapped her
arms around his and snuggled up to him. She flashed her perfect
smile and batted her perfect blue eyes. I couldn’t believe she’d
flirt with such boldness.

“
Ah, no, sorry young lady,
have we met?” He made an unpleasant face and pulled his arm out of
her grip. I made a mental note never to get on Booker’s bad side;
he was absolutely vicious. I was loving it!

“
Yes, that night at the
Winter Festival, remember? Seth and his big strong muscles smashed
all those mirrors in the Funhouse.” She kept feeding him details to
try to trigger his memory, and he kept playing stupid. At last, he
threw her a bone.

“
Wait, maybe I do remember
you. You were with Zackary Finkle correct?” She nodded, her face
smug with an expression of, 'Naturally, he’d remember
me.'

“
Suzy, right?” Her mouth
dropped. “Ah, no, huh? Is it Nancy?” She turned and stomped out of
the cafeteria. All three of us exploded in laughter as soon as she
cleared the door.

“
A silly, 17 year-old girl,
flirting with a 28 year-old, albeit undeniably handsome, man,” he
said, shaking his head in disgust. He murmured something to Seth
about her being a stuck-up, snotty little thing that needed to be
knocked down a few pegs. I giggled.

“
You weren’t supposed to
hear that,” he said with a crooked grin.

“
Have you found any leads on
Zack?” Seth asked.

“
No, it’s as if he’s fallen
off the face of the planet.” Booker sat down at the table, pulling
a face after biting into Seth’s pizza.

“
Do you think he’s still
alive?” I asked the question they were both thinking but were
afraid to voice in front of me. Seth looked at me cautiously. I
glared back.

“
He could be dead, I
suppose,” Seth admitted. “At the same time, Dreser’s MO tends to be
sloppy. If Zack were dead, we should have found the body by
now.”

“
Probably carved up into a
million little pieces,” Booker said, taking a sip of Seth’s Diet
Pepsi. Now it was Seth’s turn to glare.

“
What?” Booker asked
innocently.

“
He’s afraid I’m going to
melt,” I said wryly.

“
Oh, sorry.” Booker
mindlessly began adjusting his shirt in an effort to avoid my
eyes.

“
I wish you both would
forget about my little
episode
. I’m fine, stop shielding
me.”

“
I better go and question a
few of his ex-teammates. I’ll drop by the house to let you know
what I find out.” Hillary came back in as he walked away from our
table.

“
Hey, Mildred, can I speak
to you for a minute?” Booker shouted across the room.

“
Hillary! My name is
Hillary,” she said, fuming.

“
Oh, well, whatever.” Booker
turned and grinned at us.

“
He must have a death wish,”
I whispered while heading to Culinary class.

Mrs. Gianchi pulled me aside before
class began and offered her condolences. “Maggie, did you know I
taught your mother in Home Economics when she was in high school?
You have her eyes,” she said softly. “I remember she had thick
brown hair that was never out of place, and she was incredibly fun
to be around. She truly knew how to shine. She dropped out of
school after becoming pregnant with you.”

“
She mentioned a Mrs.
Gianchi once in a letter to me. Did you offer to take care of me
while she went to Rehab when I was a child?”

“
Yes, my parents were both
alcoholics, but though a lot of hard work they were able to
overcome it. I volunteer as an outpatient counselor for recovering
addicts and their families.

“
I really tried to help your
mother, Maggie. Eventually she shut me out of her life completely.
I was sad to hear she died.” She gave me her cell phone number and
told me to call her day or night if I ever need to talk to
someone.

Once we were home, I dumped out my
small mountain of homework onto the table. There was several hours’
worth, including my favorite, Calculus. Booker and Seth sat at the
table talking strategy the entire time. My nose was stuffed into my
Calculus book; my ears, however, were glued to their
conversation.

After a couple of hours, Booker stood
up, stretched, not unlike a cat, and poured himself a glass of
milk. “Homework! Am I glad I don’t have a baby face.” He playfully
pinched Seth’s cheek. “I’d hate going to high school again. How’s
gym class, kid?”

“
I like high school,” he
said defensively. “Did you get any new information from your new
girlfriend?”

“
Who?”

“
Hillary.”

Booker laughed. “She thinks you two
are destined for each other.”

“
Still
delusional.”

“
She saw Zack near the mall
talking to a badly dressed man the day before he confronted Maggie
at school.”

“
Do you think they were
trying to recruit him into selling drugs?” Seth questioned. I
pulled my head up, no longer interested in my Calculus homework,
not that it was ever of any interest to me.

“
I don’t know, maybe he’s
picked up a little drug habit,” Booker offered.

“
Could be. If he has I pity
the little fool.”

Booker nodded and set his glass in the
sink before grabbing an Oreo from the cookie jar. “Well, kids, I
have to go, have fun doing your homework.” He reached over and
messed up my hair.

“
You are
annoying.”

“
And you are fun to tease,
Magpie.” He hooked my pinky around his and gave it a slight squeeze
before he left. Seth walked him to the car while I cleared away my
books, my brain was done for the night.

“
Are you going to tell me
what all this pinky business is between you and Book?” Seth asked
as he came back inside.

“
Seth, you’re
overreacting.”

“
That’s what Book said
except he is a much better liar than you. I could kiss it out of
you,” he threatened, as if that were really a threat.

I wrapped myself around him, “You
could, if there was something going on with our pinkies.” I quickly
turned my head away and sneezed, twice.

“
I thought you were getting
a cold. No kissing, you need sleep.”

“
Hey, I want a kiss. Don’t
tell me the big ol’ undercover agent is afraid of a little cold?” I
taunted while he led me upstairs.

“
This undercover agent never
gets sick.” He swept me up into his arms.

“
Never?”

“
Well, seldom,” he
said.

Seth gave me a kiss, on the top of my
head while I tucked the blanket up under my chin. “Good night. I
will always love you, cold, or no cold.”

“
Good night,
chicken.”

36

By Saturday, my body had lost the
battle, and I was in the thick of a nasty head cold, which was
rapidly progressing into my chest. Outside, the rain, originally
forecast as a spring shower, was pouring down relentlessly. Spring
shower my eye, it was more like a rabid hurricane. I drew the quilt
over my head and curled down into the mattress.

“
Stay in bed, I’ll try and
hurry my Lunch Swap deliveries.” I peeked out from under the quilt
to watch Seth set a glass of orange juice on the bedside table next
to my Nyquil.

“
How can it be warm and
sunny one day, then freezing cold and rainy the next?” I
sniffled.

“
Welcome to spring in
Upstate New York.” He felt my forehead. “I’ve coerced Booker into
going with me after he finishes some paperwork. We're meeting up at
Miss Ethel’s place.” We both laughed. A healthy dose of Miss Ethel
would be good for Booker.

“
I don’t think he will be
nearly as fun to cuddle with.” He nodded in agreement. “You’re
leaving me here alone without a babysitter?”

“
Keep it up, beautiful, and
you’ll be wearing this orange juice,” he said before
sneezing.

“
Hmm, I thought you didn’t
get sick.”

“
I’m fine.” He reached into
his jacket pocket and pulled out a small red cell phone. “I bought
you a new phone. Keep it on you at all times, even if you decide to
take a bubble bath,” he said, toying with me.

“
Ah, the cell phone is my
new babysitter.” I placed my hand on his forehead to check for a
fever.

“
Stop worrying,
Maggie.”

“
I’m not worried, I’m
concerned?”

“
Do you remember where I hid
my gun?” he questioned, adjusting his Lunch Swap shirt.

I thought to ask him if I looked thick
before deciding sarcasm probably wasn't the politest way to handle
this since he was trying to protect me. “In the kitchen cabinet
next to the stove,” I said, smiling angelically. Okay, maybe I was
a little sarcastic. He ruffled my hair in response. Why do these
guys insist on doing that?