Free Diving In (Open Door Love Story) by Stacey Wallace Benefiel Page A

wouldn’t have to sleep in your old room or anything. I’d like it. Dani can come too.”
    “She’s going to Hawaii with her parents, which is the only reason I’m considering coming home. I’d be lonely here, but there…”
    “You’ll get to hang out with me and do some hardcore bonding?”
    “And deflect all of Mom’s attention away from you. I know your game, Brynn.” He laughs. “I never will get why you decided to stay in a place that has nothing to offer, with people who treat you like crap.”
    “It’s not easy to explain. I don’t feel that way. Things aren’t exactly how you think they are for me. Grandpa cares about us and I care about making sure his business is around and thriving. That means something to me. Also, I don’t think I’d belong any better anywhere else. I wasn’t going to go to Wyoming with Andy and as much as Eugene is a great place for you, it’s more granola than I can handle.”
    “Huh,” Liam says. “You have your reasons, I definitely get that.”
    The bus is approaching, so I get up from under the enclosure I was sitting in and step out to the curb so the driver can see me. “Bus is here. Come home for Christmas, please. I miss you.”
    I can practically hear Liam smiling through the phone. “Okay. I’ll do it for you.”
     

     
    Chapter Ten
     
     
     
    I get off the bus by Safeway, only to find they’re closed for the day. Guess Grandpa and I will be getting our pumpkin pie tomorrow. Instead of waiting twelve years for the bus again, I decide to hoof it home. It’s less than a mile and the weather isn’t too crappy. Gray, fortyish, and threatening to rain, but being indifferent to the whole thing because everyone is inside. Yes, I know for a fact that weather has a personality.
    The traffic is light as I walk down the side of the road on the gravel part between where the city decided there absolutely needed to be sidewalks and where they could spare making a safe place for people to walk for twenty feet. Weather, I get. The government, not so much.
    I’m singing to myself, well, sort of hum-singing because I don’t know the words to the song I’m trying to sing except for the chorus, when a car pulls up alongside me.
    I look over at the woman behind the rolled down window. She smiles at me like I should know her. A customer, probably.
    “Hi,” I say confidently, hoping she doesn’t notice I haven’t addressed her by name.
    “Hi,” she says and then giggles a little and shakes her head. “You’re Brynn Garrett, right? Otherwise, I’ve stopped on the side of the road to bother a total stranger.”
    I nod. “Yeah, I’m Brynn. You’re a customer at my family’s drycleaners?” The jig is up!
    She points to the seat next to her. “I am. I’m also Gabe’s mom. Do you need a ride?”
    “Oh!” I say, recognizing her now. He shares her mannerisms … and giggle. “It’s not far to my apartment. I actually live over the cleaners.”
    “Gabe mentioned that. He lamented how he’d never be able to visit your place because there’s not an elevator in your building.”
    “It’s true. Although, my place is not worth visiting. It is exactly what you’d think an apartment above a drycleaners looks like.”
    She giggles again. “Would you be interested in coming over to our house? That would score me some points with Gabe and I’m needing them at the moment.”
    I only need to think about it for a second. I’ve been leaving him alone all day. Not texting or calling because … because we were new and I didn’t know if I was supposed to wait or what. I wanted to see him, though, and if it looks like it’s his mom’s doing, I seem less desperate. “Sure.” I go around and get into the passenger seat of her completely adequate blue four door sedan. “You wouldn’t happen to have any pumpkin pie at your house, would you?”
    Mrs. Riley smiles at me. “I do. I was just popping to the Safeway to grab some whipped cream, but it’s closed. Can’t