By Your Side(55)

“I know, I know.”

I sighed. I needed to leave. “I better get going.”

“Autumn, it was all in good fun,” Jeff said.

“I know. I’m not mad.” Well, I sort of was. “But you need your rest.” And I did too.

“You’ll come back, right?”

“Yes. It’s obvious you’re getting bored in here.”

“Mind-numbingly.”

“Have a fun visit, Dallin,” I said, but he just took over my seat without responding. Guess the prank hadn’t improved anything between us. He was being such a baby, and I wanted to call him out on it, but not in front of Jeff. I had hoped that once Jeff started improving, Dallin would too, but that had obviously been too much to hope for.





CHAPTER 37


The tile floor was very white in the hospital and I wondered how they kept it clean with all the traffic. After leaving Jeff’s room, I walked down two hallways, counting a hundred of those tiles until my nerves settled. I was thinking about different cleaning products they might have to use when a pair of feet stepped into my line of vision. I looked up and gasped.

“Dax? What are you doing here?” I glanced over my shoulder to see if we had an audience. When I saw we didn’t, I hugged him, which did more to relax me than counting all hundred floor tiles had.

“Thought you might need your distraction,” he said, hugging me back.

I laughed but then realized even with the smirk on his face that he was serious. “Wait, you’re not visiting someone? You’re really here for me?”

“You talked about promises and best friends fighting and you visiting on your off day—I don’t know. I was hardly listening, but I sensed stress in your future.”

He really came here for me. I was beyond shocked. “Hardly listening? Really? It sounds like you were listening perfectly.”

“Don’t get used to it.” He stared down at me.

I hugged him again but quickly pulled away when I heard footsteps. Dallin walked by us, meeting my eyes and raising his eyebrows. He muttered nice under his breath and kept walking.

“Dallin,” I called after him, “do you know Dax? He goes to our school. He volunteers at the hospital.”

He half turned, gave a salute, and kept walking.

“Is this the boyfriend’s best friend that hates your guts?”

“Yep.”

He was silent for three beats, then said, “Did this help?”

I laughed without humor.

Still staring after Dallin, Dax said, “Volunteers at the hospital? You probably should’ve gone with mandatory community service. It might’ve been more believable.”

“Not true.”

“Do you want me to go threaten him to stay quiet about my philanthropic side?”

“No.”

“Can we get out of here, then?”

I hesitated, wondered if I should go and tell Jeff about this before Dallin did. Downplay it. Or maybe a bigger downplay would be not to mention it at all and act like it was no big deal if Jeff brought it up.

Dax nodded once, his smile falling. “I’ll leave.”

“No,” I said, determined. “Let’s go.”

We walked toward the exit. “How do you think they keep these floors clean?” I asked.

“A really good janitor?”

I smiled that he actually answered my question instead of making fun of me for it. “Did you take the bus all the way here?”

He nodded.

“How do you make money for bus fare?”

“The old-fashioned way.”

“Holding up train conductors? Robbing banks?”

His smile was back, which was my goal. His hard-to-earn smiles made me feel like I did something not many others could.

“Mowing lawns. Washing windows.”

“I was close.” I clasped my hands together and offered him a bright smile. “The time has come.”

“For what?”

“For you to learn how to drive.”

My body jerked forward, my head almost hitting the dashboard. “Easy on the brakes. No need to stomp on them.” We were in the school parking lot. It was the only place I could think of that was big enough and wouldn’t have a lot of obstacles.

Dax eased off the brakes and the car rolled forward. He pushed on them again, and once again my body jerked forward. This time the seatbelt tightened and I let out a grunt.

“Sorry,” he said. “Sorry.” I’d never seen him more out of his element or unsure of himself. Dax was always a presence. A confident presence.

“It’s okay. It takes a little while to get used to how sensitive the brake pedal can be.”

“I suck at this. I’m going to ruin your car.”

“You’re not going to ruin my car.” I wasn’t sure if he understood what I said, though, since I was laughing so hard.

He shot me a look. “Is this going to be one of your laughing fits?”

I pointed back at the wheel. “Just drive. You’ll get used to it.”

“Driving or you laughing at me?”

“Both.”

He inched forward again, his face a mixture of concentration and nerves. A surge of warm affection eased through me. I felt like I knew Dax pretty well, but I still wanted to know more about him.