My cell stopped ringing just as I picked it up, but it was only a couple of seconds until it started back up again. I didn’t hesitate to answer it this time and bring it to my ear. “Hey, Jenifer,” I greeted, pushing up off the sofa and grabbing my now empty ice-cream tub.
“Skylar,” she rushed out, and the tone of her voice had me halting in the middle of my small living room. “I need your help.”
“What?” I asked, rushing to my trash can and depositing the tub. “What’s going on?”
“I need you to take Carter for a few months.” Some noises rang out over the line and my heart was now racing for a different reason.
“Carter? Why? What’s happening, Jen?” I gripped on to the counter in my kitchen and looked over at my sofa. I had one of those houses where all the rooms trailed into each other and there were no defining walls to separate them.
“I—” She screamed and a thump sounded out. “He needs to get out of here, and the only place I know he’ll be safe is with you.”
“Where the fuck is he?” someone roared at Jen, and I widened my eyes. What the hell was going on?
“I don’t know!” Jen shouted back to the person. “I haven’t seen him in days.”
“You’re fuckin' lying! I should shoot your brains out,” the voice growled at her, and I squeezed my eyes closed. She couldn’t die, not now. I’d told her time and time again she needed to move out of the area she lived in. The streets were full of thugs, colors separating the two gangs that divided their territories. It wasn’t the kind of place I wanted to visit in the middle of the day, never mind once nighttime started to descend.
“Jen?” I whispered. She made a small noise, indicating she could hear me over the shouting people around her. “I’ll take Carter. Send him to me and I’ll keep him safe.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, just loud enough for me to hear over the other voices. “He’s on his way to the airport, his flight lands at seven in the morning.”
I opened my mouth, about to reply, but she cut the line off. I stared down at my cell, seeing my home screen and app icons, and wondered what the hell I’d just gotten myself in to. I hadn’t seen Carter since he was a seven-year-old kid who was running around the block trying to beat his fastest time. Back then, he had been a sweet boy, but I had no idea who he was now. I didn’t know what he looked like, and I didn’t know what he was like as a person.
But then, Jen was sending him here to keep him safe. And the man had been screaming, asking where he was. Did that mean he was trouble? Had I just invited danger into my house?
* * *
I paced back and forth outside the arrivals section, gnawing on my bottom lip as my thoughts went haywire. I hadn’t been able to sleep all night, worried about what I was welcoming into my life and my home. I didn’t think Jen would put me in danger, but when I thought about it, all our relationship consisted of was phone calls and text messages.
But all she was doing was trying to take care of her son, and as I lived a couple of states away in Illinois, it meant he’d be safe with me. I hoped.
The board above arrivals flashed and told me Carter’s plane had landed. I imagined he’d had to wait hours in the airport for the short flight, and part of me wondered why he hadn’t driven instead. Or maybe that was too dangerous. He could be followed all the way here if he’d used a car, whereas he could go anywhere from the airport.
I halted as people started to file out of the doors, smiles on some faces and tiredness on others. Family and friends greeted them with hugs and kisses while I stood off to the side, my nerves ramping up so much my hands were shaking. What if he was a serial killer? What if he was part of a gang who would come and find him no matter what? What if he was neither of those things and instead was a quiet person with glasses who loved math? What if—
“Skylar?” a deep voice asked, and I whipped my head up to face the man standing in front of me. He was at least eight inches taller than me, his shoulders wide, his body at ease and yet also on alert. I noticed all of that before I actually looked directly at his face. His sharp jaw and high cheekbones led into a straight nose with a slight bump in the middle, but it was his shocking honey eyes that had mine widening—how could they be so clear?
“That’s…” I cleared my throat, and tried again. “That’s me.”
The man nodded and picked the bag up at his feet that I hadn’t even noticed. “I’m Carter.”
A shocked gasp escaped my lips and I stepped back. “No.” I shook my head. “You can’t be Carter. Carter is only eighteen and—”
“Yep. Mom said you’d probably freak out a little.” His lips quirked at the corners, but his gaze flicking around us told me he wasn’t comfortable standing here. Maybe he was Carter? But...how had he grown so much? He wasn’t a teenager, he was a full-grown man. I’d never seen an eighteen-year-old that looked like him, and I was surrounded by students all day long at the high school where I taught.
“I—”
“Can we get out of here?” he asked, stepping forward, and I tried my hardest not to breathe in his cologne, or was it cologne? I somehow didn’t think he was like the men I’d been dating who doused themselves in it.
“I...yes.” I stepped forward. “Would you like me to carry that?” I pointed at the bag he held.
He chuckled, the sound deep and throaty. “I think I got it, Skylar.” He stepped away from me and I followed. “Besides, it probably weighs as much as you do.”
“Excuse me?” I raised my brows and stared up at him. “Are you commenting on my weight not even five minutes after you’ve landed? Did my sister not teach you how to speak to a lady?”
He shrugged and moved through the main doors first. “Ain’t many ladies where I’m from.” I opened my mouth, about to reply to him, but...I came up empty. I didn’t know Carter from a stranger walking down the street, and I was about to invite him into my home and sleep under the same roof as him. “Where’s the car?” he asked, glancing around us.
I pointed toward the lot I’d parked in several hours ago. “Over there.” I waited until he moved and then walked beside him. I was sure he could feel my nerves rolling off me in waves, but he didn’t seem fazed by having to come and stay with his aunt who he barely knew.