He gives me a sideways look and the spotlights from the wall shine over the dimple in his cheek. “You don’t have your aunt’s number?” He grins like he can’t believe anyone could be that dumb.
“Shut up!” I growl, still scrolling frantically through my contact list in case I’ve got the ranch’s landline in here, but it’s hopeless – whenever I call Popeye, I call from our own landline back home. I don’t have anyone’s numbers saved in my cell phone. “I only arrived today.”
“That’s unfortunate,” he says, then turns to the stretching darkness behind us and jokingly calls out, “Does anyone out there have a tent Mila can borrow?” His voice booms in the night, echoing far in the distance. “And maybe a sleeping bag?”
“Stop it. This isn’t funny.”
I tilt my head back and run my eyes up the height of the walls. There’s a reason they are eight feet tall – no one’s going to scale those babies. I groan and press my palm flat to my forehead, mulling through my limited options.
“You seriously have no way to get inside?” Blake asks.
“What – you think Iwantto be stuck out here with you?”
He smiles, then reaches into his pocket for his phone. “Look, I’m going to do you a real favor this time.”
I wonder what he can possibly do to help me get inside, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I may be angry at him, but right now Iamsecretly pretty glad that he didn’t follow my orders to leave.
Blake dials a number, then presses his phone to his ear and walks away from me. He stuffs his other hand into the pocket of his shorts and paces silently by his truck, not making eye contact with me. I remain where I am, watching, waiting. Who is he calling?
He stops pacing and clears his throat when the call is answered. “Hey, yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry,” he says quietly into the phone, his back to me. “I know it’s late, but I need you to call someone for me. It’s kind of an emergency.” He listens, then sighs. “I just told you I’m fine. This isn’t about me.” He pauses and turns to me, holding his phone away from his ear. “What’s your aunt’s name again?”
“Sheri.”
Blake angles away again and talks into the phone, his voice lowered but not quite enough. “Can you call Sheri Harding and tell her that her niece is locked out of their ranch? Yeah, her niece, sohisdaughter.” A long pause. “I know, but you’re the only one who’s awake at this hour and can help.” Another pause. “Okay. Thanks.” He ends the call, puts his phone back in his pocket, then walks back over to me.
“Who was that?” I ask.
Both Blake’s hands are now in his pockets and he rocks back and forth. He stares at the ground for a few seconds, then says, “My mom.”
“Your mom?”
“She has a lot of connections. Also – small town, remember? Smaller than you’d think.”
Okay, ominous, but I guess it doesn’t matterhowI get into the ranch just as long as I eventually do. I keep quiet and wrap my arms around me, not really sure what to do now besides wait it out.
At this time of night, the summer warmth has cooled down and there’s a soft breeze blowing strands of my hair into my eyes. On the other side of the road, there’s just sprawling, empty fields that fade into the dark. The moon is full tonight, and the stars dance high in the sky above us. Thanks to LA’s chronic light pollution problem, I’ve never seen stars so vibrant before.
Blake and I stand together in the silence of the night, the only sound being that of a cricket’s incessant chirping, and we don’t say a word to each other. The more time that passes without either of us speaking, the more the pressure builds. I’m the one who cracks first.
“Thanks for staying with me,” I say.
He leans back against his truck. “Pretty considerate for a jerk like me, huh?”
Any attempt at further civil discussion is disrupted by the startling shrill of the bell, signaling the opening of the gate. The gate slowly peels open and reveals Aunt Sheri on the other side, a fuzzy bathrobe wrapped tightly around her.
“Mila! Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry!” she splutters. Her slippers scuff the ground as she rushes to me, pulling me into her arms as though I’ve been missing for five days. “Is this damn gate playing up again? Didn’t the code work?”
“It’s okay,” I reassure her, awkwardly patting her on the back until she unravels me from the hug. I look into her guilty expression and offer up a playful grin to put her at ease. “I think I wrote it down wrong. Also, I really need to get your number.”
“Oh,of course!I didn’t even think. . . I just assumed you had it already. . .” Sheri’s words trail off into nothing as her gaze shifts over my shoulder. “Hello, Blake.”
“Evening, Miss Harding,” Blake says, nodding his head as a polite greeting. Oh, so hecanbe nice if he wants to be?
Sheri gives me a strange look and says, “I thought you were going out with Savannah?”
“She was,” Blake answers for me. “We were all in my truck. I’m just dropping Mila back off to you.”
“Well, thank you, Blake. And thank your mother again for me. I didn’t know what to expect when I answered the call.”
