UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)(18)

Mina darted out of the door the minute her mother picked up the phone to call her boss. Now that her commute took longer walking, Mina needed to wake up earlier, which for any teenager is a big stretch. Mina wished that she still had her bike when the sky turned overcast and it started to sprinkle. She groaned, wishing she would have checked the forecast.

A tingling sensation on the back of Mina’s neck alerted Mina that she was being followed. Picking up her pace Mina kept her head up and tried to not make eye contact. Her nerves were a wreck and she was ready to bolt when a car slowly pulled up next to her on the road and rolled down its window.

Mina wasn’t sure what to expect, robbers, kidnappers, someone that was going to ask for directions and then force her in their car. She wasn’t a child that could easily fall for those ploys, so she was taken aback when a male voiced asked politely. “Need a ride?”

“No thanks,” Mina shot back. She picked up her pace, refusing to look at the driver. The rain started to come down in bigger droplets, making her squint.

“Mina…,” The driver said her name.

Mina’s head turned in surprise to see Brody Carmichael driving alongside her in his Camaro. She faltered in her footsteps but kept moving. How did he find her? How did he know where she lived? She knew her phone number and address were unlisted.

“Mina, I’m sorry about your bike. It was an accident.” Brody looked apologetic. Mina kept walking. “The least you could let me do to make up for it is give you a ride to school, it’s raining.”

It was raining, hard.

Mina blinked the rain out of her eyes and shivered. Whether it was from the cold or the idea of sitting less than a foot from Brody Carmichael, she wasn’t sure. But when her teeth started to chatter Brody abruptly stopped the car darted out into the rain and ran to the passenger door and opened it for her. “Get in, before you get sick.”

Mina bobbed her head in answer and slid in, her wet jeans sticking miserably to the leather seats. Her hair was now soaking wet and large drops of water were dripping onto the seats of his car.

“I’m sorry.” Mina’s teeth chattered out when Brody ducked back into his car.

His large hand went to the console and turned on the heat. He twisted in his seat and reached behind him to pull a clean shirt out of his gym bag. “Here, use this.” He took the shirt and gently tried to wipe the water from her face.

Mina jumped from the touch and he held out the shirt to her in a peace offering. “Sorry,” she said again.

Brody smiled out of the corner of his mouth. “You sure do apologize a lot, when it’s not even your fault.”

“I’m getting your seat all wet.” She tried to use the shirt to wipe off the pools of water on the leather but he reached out, touched her hand stopping her efforts.

“It’s just a car, it will dry.” He looked at Mina and her heart fluttered. He meant it, he wasn’t lying or trying to appease her, he didn’t care about the car at all.

Mina let the heat of the car soak into her bones, no wait; it was Brody’s heated seats. She was so nervous; she didn’t know what to say or where to look. Should she talk to him, look at him, ask him about his family. She couldn’t decide so Mina did none of them. She stared out the passenger window.

Brody cleared his throat. “You know you are one hard person to find?”

Mina turned to look at him. “What do you mean, you were looking for me?”

Brody cast her quick glance before focusing on driving again. “Well I tried to call you to apologize but you are unlisted and then no one I knew had your cell number.”

“I don’t have a cell phone.” Mina was embarrassed and felt her cheeks turn pink. She must be the only girl in high school without a phone. “I’m also not friends with anyone you would know.”

Brody shrugged. “I didn’t know. So then I was going to come to your house but again…”

“Unlisted,” Mina finished for him, glad for once that her mother paid a small fee each year to keep it that way. Mina didn’t know what she would have done if Brody showed up on her doorstep, in the middle of yesterday’s packing fiasco.

“Brody, it’s okay. What happened yesterday was an accident. I left it in the middle of the driveway. It wasn’t as if you ran over me or anything.” Mina played with the edge of her sleeve. She was doing it again, taking the blame.

“Then why did you run from me?” Brody asked looking at her. “You didn’t give me a chance to apologize or explain.”

Mina wasn’t expecting this question and she desperately wished she was outside walking in the rain again. She shrugged her shoulders pathetically in answer. “I don’t know.” A few minutes of silence filled the car and then Mina turned on Brody. “What were you doing on this side of town this morning? I know for a fact that you live on the other side of town.”

Brody chuckled and smiled at Mina. “Looking for you.”

“W-w-what, Why?” Mina was numb with disbelief.

“I felt bad about what happened and I wanted to find you. So I had one of our employees do some digging and they found out that you lived in the international district. I only found out this morning so I decided to head over here to find you. After all I did destroy your only mode of transportation; so the least you could let me do was drive you to school.”