Light in the Shadows (Find You in the Dark #2)(41)
Author: A. Meredith Walters

We watched each other warily for a few more minutes. “Fair enough,” I said finally. Daniel nodded, seeming to accept my response.

“So, you gonna come back to Jackson?” he asked me, changing the subject. I was left in a bit of recoil by the switch. Daniel crossed his arms on top of the table and waited for me to answer him as though he had all the time in the world to sit here and chat.

“I’d planned on it. I probably won’t start until the end of the week. I’ve got to help Ruby out at the shop, make sure she’s doing all right before I go back to school,” I explained.

“Understandable. Well, if there’s anything you need, Rachel and I are around,” he offered offhandedly and I couldn’t really tell if he meant it or not. Then he got to his feet. Clearly our conversation was over.

I grabbed the full coffee cup and threw it in the trash. Daniel called out a goodbye to Jake, who was still watching us, looking pissy, which gave me immense satisfaction. We headed out to the parking lot.

“Okay, well I guess I’ll see you around,” Daniel said, throwing me a wave as he got in his truck. I waved back. I got into my car and started it up, not sure if I had just experienced a thinly veiled threat or unexpected support. Either way, Daniel Lowe had given me something to think about.

Chapter Fourteen

-Maggie-

“You’ll never guess who I just saw in the office, filling out paperwork,” Claire said, sitting down at our lunch table. Daniel and Rachel looked up as she started to unwrap her sandwich. Daniel seemed wary, as though he knew something the rest of us didn’t know. I narrowed my eyes at him, but he seemed reluctant to make any sort of eye contact.

“Who?” Rachel asked, taking a sip of her soda.

“Clay Reed,” Claire said in a whisper. My head jerked in her direction. What did she just say?

“Huh?” Rachel asked, looking confused. She shot me a look as if to ask do you know anything about this? I shook my head. I was currently the last person on the planet to be in the know when it came to Clayton Reed.

“Yeah, rumor has it, he’s re-enrolling at Jackson. He was talking to the secretary when I saw him. I tried to hang around outside the door for a while, hoping I’d catch him. But the bell rang and I had to get to class,” Claire said conspiratorially.

Clay was back in school? That must mean he had decided to stay in Davidson. When we had spoken after the funeral, he had seemed set on returning to Florida. I wonder what changed? And there went my stomach flip flopping all over the place.

“Interesting,” I muttered, pushing my lunch away. I had suddenly lost my appetite.

Daniel cleared his throat, drawing my attention. Rachel gave him a look. “What do you know, Danny? Spill it,” his girlfriend demanded. He looked uncomfortable.

“Well, I may have run into him on Sunday. And he may have mentioned he was planning on sticking around,” Daniel mumbled, stuffing a few French fries into his mouth.

Rachel smacked his arm. “And you didn’t say anything? What the hell, Danny?” she shrieked, glaring at him. Daniel hunched his shoulders up, clearly feeling the stink eye hitting him from all directions.

“I wasn’t sure he would actually do it. I didn’t want to say anything if he ended up leaving again,” Daniel defended himself. I grit my teeth together in frustration. Nothing like being blindsided to make me feel punchy.

“Way to keep secrets, ass**le,” I threw at him, though I couldn’t summon up a whole lot of anger. Mostly because I was annoyingly thrilled that I would be seeing Clay again. Not that that changed anything.

Sure sweetie, you keep telling yourself that. I goaded myself. Yep, the full on internal conversations had begun.

“What’s with the angry faces guys?” Jake asked, plopping down beside me. Claire looked from him to me as he put his hand on the small of my back briefly before digging into his lunch. When did Jake start feeling like it was his place to touch me? He and I were definitely not on the same page. In fact, he was a good twenty chapters ahead of me. It made me want to rip out the freaking pages and shove them down his throat.

See…punchy.

“Oh, just dishing out the gossip. You know with Clay back, that’s all anyone is talking about.” Claire grinned, licking pudding off the back of her spoon, her eyes twinkling devilishly.

Jake went instantly tense beside me and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Well, that’s cool I guess.” It was very obvious that it was anything but cool as far as he was concerned. Rachel was staring at me, trying to send me Morse code through her eyeballs. But clearly I wasn’t up to receiving encrypted messages.

“Yep, cool,” I said dryly, getting to my feet. I was definitely finished with this conversation and I had homework to finish up before my next class. “Later guys,” I tossed out as casually as possible before heading to the trash can.

I was shaking the food off my tray before putting it on the counter when Kylie joined me. She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Wow, so Clay’s moved back to Davidson. That’s so awesome. I hope he’s okay. I mean after trying to kill himself and all,” she said with false brightness. I shot her a look over my shoulder and then walked out of the cafeteria, deciding no response was better than going all Kung Fu ninja on her ass. Fuck that bitch.

The rest of the day was spent fielding a million and one questions about Clay. You’d think this was the only news worthy event happening at Jackson. Had everyone already forgotten about the junior girl who had gotten knocked up by her thirty year old boyfriend? That seemed a hell of a lot more interesting than the fact that Clayton Reed had returned.

By the end of the day I was ready to bash my head in. “Have you talked to him at all?” Lila Casteel asked me as I headed toward the gym for track practice. I hefted the bag up onto my shoulder and gave her my frostiest smile.

“Nope, but I’ll get right on that, Lila. It’s right behind learning to tap dance and translating the Odyssey into Pig Latin.” Lila looked taken aback but I just didn’t give a shit. I stormed away from her and was glad to have practice to keep my mind distracted.

***

After practice, I grabbed my bag and left before anyone else could stop me, asking questions I didn’t have answers for. If one more person asked me if I had seen Clay and whether he was really coming back to Jackson, I would profess temporary insanity and go UFC fighter on their faces.

I dug through my bag for my keys as I got into the parking lot. When I glanced up, the sight of who waited by my car made me stumble. There went my plans for plausible deniability.