Considering my daddy asked me for money on a weekly basis, that wasn’t happening.
He pointed to my pocket, where I had stored the electronic clip Face had given me. “You’re going to let your brother use that?”
I wasn’t sure yet. Addie had said the DAA program helped. Maybe I should just have patience and let him continue with that. “Are you saying I shouldn’t?”
He shrugged.
“Oh, that’s right, you’re just the middleman. You don’t ask questions.”
“I was just going to offer to buy it off you. Since you need money and all.”
It was tempting. I was a long way from five hundred dollars, and any little bit would help. But I wanted to help my brother. “No thanks.”
“So what’s your next step then?”
“Nothing that involves you.” I opened my truck door and climbed inside without waiting for a response. I had no idea what my next step was. I was broke no matter how many syllables the word had.
CHAPTER 13
Addie: There really are bronze bulls. Lots of them.
I stared at the black screen of my cell phone long after we hung up. I wanted Laila to restore my memory? Why? Was there something I had learned in the other life that I needed now? Maybe whatever it was that my parents were keeping from me. Or maybe why my head felt like it was going to explode when I used my ability.
I slid my finger across the screen. There was nothing I could do about that now. The only thing I had control over was figuring it out now. I hit the Call button.
“Hello,” Rowan answered, and I could tell by his tone he had no idea who was calling.
“Hi, Rowan, it’s Addie.”
“Addie! Hey. The answer is yes, and what time should I be there?”
I laughed. How could Stephanie hate this guy so much? He was hilarious. “I need someone to take me to Pioneer Plaza.”
“Pioneer Plaza? I don’t even know if I know how to get there. Hey,” he said to someone who must’ve been in the room with him, “do you know where Pioneer Plaza is?”
“Yes,” the other person, who sounded suspiciously like Trevor, said.
“Addie wants to go.”
“Why?” Trevor asked.
“Because she’s funny.”
I smiled. I rarely got described as funny—that was Laila’s trait. Weird, yes. Funny, no.
“We can take her, right?”
“Sure,” Trevor said.
I bit my lip, trying to contain a smile.
Back to me, Rowan said, “We’ll be by to get you in ten minutes. Text me your address.”
“Ten minutes? I didn’t mean tonight.”
“Well, you’re getting tonight.”
I hung up the phone, texted him my address, and ran to the bathroom.
“Please, Mr. Bull, don’t trample me,” Rowan said. He had wedged himself beneath the bronze hoof of one of the many bull statues that trailed through the park in downtown Dallas.
“I wish that bull was real,” Trevor said.
“Hey, Addison is the one who dragged us here, remember?”
Trevor raised his eyebrows at me. “So true.”
I gave Trevor’s shoulder a small push, and he laughed.
“Okay, take another picture, Addie,” Rowan said.
“Sure thing.” I snapped a picture with my phone, and then Rowan ran off to find the next statue. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what I wasn’t supposed to know or see here. They were just bronze statues. I had discreetly studied each one as we walked down the line, but there was nothing out of the ordinary—if bronze statues were considered “ordinary.”
“I think he was born with more energy than the rest of us,” Trevor said, nodding to Rowan, who was now trying to climb on top of a horse.
“It would seem that way.”
His gaze lingered on the blue stripe in my hair, and he asked, “What’s the story with the blue?”
I let out a breathy laugh. “A long one. My one and only attempt at rebellion.” I twirled it around my finger a couple of times, my hair, straight like it had been for weeks, feeling a little frizzy out in the humid air. “Have you ever done something stupid?”
“Today? Or ever?”
I laughed. “Does that mean yes?”
“Haven’t we all?”
“Something you regret, though. Something you wish you could take back.”
We walked over a hill, and a field of gravestones stretched out in front of us. My breath caught. This was what my father had been referring to. It wasn’t visible from the road at all.
“I’m fairly cautious. Most of my regrets have to do with things I didn’t do versus things I did.”
It took me a moment to remember what we were talking about and another one to settle my heart. Crap. We had to stay until I looked at every gravestone. How could I make that seem natural? I had to keep him talking. “So what haven’t you done lately that you wish you did?”
“Most recently would have to be when I came to talk to Duke after the football game a couple weeks ago. . . .”
Ah, here it was again—the sore subject I wished he wouldn’t associate with me. “Oh?”
“I had just overheard some things Duke said in the locker room.”
“Oh. Right.” Sometimes I forgot because everyone called her Addie too. But she was right; our names weren’t exactly the same.
A loud “BOO!” shouted in my ear, pulled me out of my memory. Rowan laughed when I jumped, but the scream Trevor asked for was lodged somewhere beneath all the disbelief in my chest.
“Ah, you guys are no fun,” Rowan said, draping an arm over my shoulder. “What’re we all looking at? Adeline Coleman. Do we know her?”
“It’s her grandmother’s name,” Trevor said.
“This is your grandma’s grave?” Rowan asked. “So you’ve been here before. And here we thought we were giving you the grand tour.”