Free Better Left Buried by Belinda Frisch Page B

here.”
    Jaxon folded her into his arms, relieving anyone watching, including Harmony, of their doubts about what was going on between them.
    Harmony marched up to them, her breathing still labored, and grabbed Brea’s sleeve. “Will you stop whatever this is and talk to me?”
    Jaxon slapped her hand away. “ Why don’t you leave her alone?”
    “I’m not doing anything until she answers me.”
    Brea couldn’t stop shaking no matter how tight Jaxon held her. “Please,” she said. “I need to get out of here.”
    “Pete, put my bag in my locker,” Jaxon said, quickly producing his car keys. Pete confirmed with a nod. “Where do you want to go?”
    “Anywhere but here.”
    He wrapped his arm around her and led her out the main doors without a moment’s hesitation or a word about consequences. He opened the Jeep’s passenger’s side door and helped her inside.
    Principal Anderson appeared as they drove away.
    Jaxon pressed down on the accelerator. “She’s going to call our parents, you know.”
    “I know.” Brea wiped the tears from her cheeks, more than a little embarrassed now that the dust was settling. She flipped down the vanity mirror and powdered her face. “Aren’t you the kind of girl who worries about that sort of thing?”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” She could tell he was only half-kidding, but the teasing took some of the pressure off.
    “ I mean, here I thought you were the good girl. My parents won’t care, assuming either of them bothers to answer their phones, but yours—”
    “My mother won’t mind as long as I’m with you.” The truth spilled out before she’d even had a chance to filter it.
    A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth then faded. “Do you want to tell me what happened back there?”
    “Not really.” For the last couple of months she’d done everything she could to appear normal and knew it would all be undone with one sentence. If she was going to really let him in, to be able to be herself around him, she had to reveal her eccentricities slowly. “Turn here.”
    There was no time like the present to start.
    He turned on his blinker and took a hard right. “I thought you didn’t care where we went.”
    She reached for his hand. “I changed my mind.” His smile emphasized the dimples in his cheeks. “Left here, and park.”
    Oakwood was only a few miles from the school.
    “Brea, it’s a cemetery.”
    “ Does that bother you?”
    “Nope. Not at all.”
    She got out of the Jeep and pretended not to notice when he shoved something into his pants pocket and covered it with his shirt.
    “I’m guessing there’s a story here, right?” He held out his hand as if waiting for her to lead him.
    “Probably more than one.” She took his hand and walked down the center aisle. “I come here at night sometimes.” She knew the rumors about her and Harmony being involved in some kind of witchcraft.
    “To do what?” He seemed more intrigued than bothered.
    “ Not what people think.” She smirked. “Mostly to get away from whatever’s going on with my mother. Ever hear of gravestone rubbings?” He shook his head. “It’s where you put a piece of paper over a headstone and use charcoal to make an impression. You know, like when you were a little kid and you’d rub over a paper and penny with a crayon?”
    “That, I remember.”
    “Same concept.”
    “Why headstones? Why not something a little less—”
    “Morbid? I don’t know. I like the look of them, I guess. I like seeing what comes up on some of the older ones. You can’t always see the details just by looking at them.” She stopped in front of a headstone bearing the name Earl Miller. “It started with my grandfather.” His stone was black granite with an angel topper and new compared to those around it. “I used to come here and talk to him after he died. I know he can’t hear me, but doing it made me feel better. To know he was here, or at least his body was. His