Free Desert Crossing by Elise Broach Page B

was fine.
    â€œHey, what are you doing out here?” he asked. “Where is everybody?” He sat down next to me, rubbing his face with his hands. His hair was sticking up in little coppery whirls.
    â€œJust sitting,” I said. I didn’t want to answer the other question. I couldn’t think what to say. That they’d gone somewhere, Jamie and Beth? Her truck was still in the driveway.
    â€œWhere’s Jamie?” he asked. He glanced around the yard. “Where’s Beth?”
    I hesitated. “Still sleeping, I guess.” I looked at him. He was sitting so close to me, I could see the flecks of green and gold in his eyes. They were pretty, but in a complicated, surprising way, like the quartz inside a rock.
    Kit frowned and glanced back into the house. I saw what he saw: the empty hallway and Beth’s closed door. His eyes widened. He turned back to me.
    â€œNo way.”
    I pulled my knees up to my chin and swung my hair forward, hiding my face.
    â€œNo way!” he said again. This time, he grabbed my arm, making me look at him. “He’s in there with her?”
    I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have to. Kit whistled, and it was a low, wondering sound that pierced the air. “Unbelievable. Un-frigging-believable. I mean, we’re stuck here in the middle of nowhere, thinking we might have killed that girl, and Jamie—” He shook his head. “Jamie gets laid.”
    â€œStop,” I said.
    â€œNo, I mean it.” His mouth curved in a slow grin. “He has all the luck, you know?”
    â€œIt’s not like that,” I said. How did I know? Maybe it was like that.
    â€œOh, come on. He was totally into her. You saw it.” Kit raked his hair back. “But I’m surprised she went for him. I thought she’d be all uptight about the age thing. What do you think happened? He crashed the same time I did.”
    I stared at my feet, curling my toes over the edge of the step. The wood was splintery.
    Kit’s hand clamped my shoulder. “Hey. You know something.”
    â€œNo, I don’t.” I couldn’t look at him.
    â€œYou totally do. You saw something. What?”
    I tilted my chin down, shaking my head. “Nothing. I didn’t see anything.”
    But Kit leaned toward me, pushing my hair back from my face. “Come on, Luce. Just tell me.”
    And then I wanted to tell him. It was too much to think about by myself. I looked up at him.
    â€œJamie was in the hallway,” I said. “Late last night. He was … upset. Upset about the girl, you know, and relieved, but—” I didn’t want to say he was crying. Kit wouldn’t understand that. “Beth came out of her room. I heard something, so I got up and started to open my door … and I saw them.”
    â€œYeah?” Kit said. “What’d she do?”
    What had she done? How did it start? “She sort of hugged him—”
    â€œShe did?” Kit sounded incredulous. “She made the first move?”
    No, that wasn’t right. I shook my head. “She was trying to, you know, comfort him. And then he started kissing her.”
    Kit let out a long breath. “Wow. Really? And then what?”
    â€œI don’t know. I went back to bed.”
    â€œYou’re kidding! You missed the good part?”
    I shoved him away. I knew I shouldn’t have told him. “He’s my brother! There is no good part. Beth is twice his age. It’s ridiculous.”
    â€œOkay, okay. Relax.” He shook his head. “It’s still strange though, you know? Not Jamie, but Beth. She seems too—well, she must have known he liked her, so I’m surprised she’d do something—”
    I couldn’t take it. “Look, it’s my fault. I told her you and Jamie were gay. That’s why she hugged him. She didn’t think it would start anything.” There. I’d said it.