Gifted Connections: Book 2(26)

I knew this was an opportunity I should take. Judge Myers and Ella’s words came back to haunt me. Make your connections. I could take this opportunity to try to make a connection tonight and go back to Collin’s later so I could continue finding a way to use his same methods of spying.

“Yeah,” I tried to feign a look of apology at Collin. “Maybe I need a time out. Sorry,” I whispered softly to him. “You really hurt me and scared me. I need some time to think.”

“Come on, Blake,” his voice got real whiny. “You know I didn’t mean it.”

“Let’s go, Blake,” Gavin insisted. “I’ll follow you to your spot,” Gavin looked at Noah as if he didn’t know where he was going.

I picked up my bag and followed Gavin to his pickup truck.





Chapter 7


I felt like I was coming home, in all sense of the word. The moments we rolled through the gates I felt a tug on my heart strings.

“I missed home,” I said quietly to Gavin.

He looked over at me with sympathy. “I don’t know how you do it. If it was me I would have already told them the truth. Plus,” he added quietly. “I don’t trust Collin. Now more so than ever. I think you should tell them tonight.”

The truck came to a stop and I looked over to him. “It’s not that easy. For one, I need to find out who is against them, and I am in the best position to do so; and two, I don’t think they’re ready for it. It was hard for you at first and we don’t have to make a connection. I’m not forcing myself into your life, whereas I would be if I drop it on them now. If I take opportunities like this and let them know me for me and not me as their connected, then I think they’ll be more receptive.”

He shook his head. “If it was me, I would want to know. Especially knowing the danger, you put yourself in.”

A knocking on Gavin’s window made us jump. Noah’s smiling face was on the other side.

Gavin opened the door.

“Everything okay?” Noah asked.

“Fine,” Gavin said sullenly. “Just talking about the ass.”

I knew he was upset with me as he picked up his bag and started walking towards the house, reminding me this had become like a second home to him 3 or 4 days a week.

“You’re sure you’re just friends?” Noah murmured quietly with a mocking glint in his eyes.

“Positive,” I said tongue in cheek. “He treats me like… a sister.”

“Hmm,” he said thoughtfully as he guided me in the house.

As we walked through the garage doors, it was as if I had never left. I removed my shoes, because Sue, the housekeeper/ family friend, hated shoes being worn in the house. Then I paused in the doorway of the kitchen, taking the scene in before me. I was filled with mixed emotions. Part of me was glad to be back, the other, not so much.

We often did our homework as a family (odd I know) in the dining room or family room. Most of the time I would try to complete mine quickly, so I could help Drake in the kitchen with dinner. Drake generally waited until after dinner to do his. On the rare occasions that he felt overloaded with it, he would order take out. Will had given him a bank card for that purpose.

Drake loved cooking and didn’t mind being the person to do all the grocery shopping and meal preps. He almost treated it like a business. The menu for the week was posted by the fridge on the bulletin board. Another separate sheet had the list of groceries for the next shopping trip. Everyone would write in a request for meals or groceries on a separate piece of paper. He tried to make everyone happy, but on occasion he would flat out refuse. Like when Jemmy would write ‘chicken fingers with spaghetti’ every week. He didn’t mind indulging her on occasion, but he wouldn’t often give in to the five-year-old trapped in her body. Seriously, what 18-year-old girl thought chicken fingers and spaghetti were a tasty food combination?

My stomach clenched when I saw Tamara sitting on Jaxson’s lap while she did her homework and he read from his American Literature book. Tamara was Zach Young’s daughter, and she was a beautiful mix of black and white. She had inherited her father’s blue eyes and slightly upturned nose, and I hated her. Even if she wasn’t Jaxson’s girlfriend, she was a pretentious, vindictive, and generally hateful girl.

Gavin had found a spot next to Jemmy. He was already diving into his work, while she doodled in a notebook. She never was a serious student.

“Hey, everyone,” Noah called as he put an arm around my waist. “This is Blake, she’s a friend, Blake that’s my brother Jaxson and his girlfriend Tamara, and that’s my sister Jemmy.”

Everyone said ‘hi’ with various levels of emotion. Everyone looked at me, and I was promptly dismissed as non-threatening in Tamara’s eyes. I’m sure I looked like a hot mess in my shorts, Gavin’s oversized sweatshirt, and my hair wild from my run. I wished I had thought of that before coming here, at least taken a shower first.

“Dinner won’t be done for some time. Do you have a change of clothes? You can hop in my shower if you would like,” Noah stated.

I smiled gratefully at him. “That would be great.”

“If you don’t have a change of clothes I’m sure I can find you something to wear,” Jemmy said with a bright smile.

Tamara snorted as she wrote something in a notebook. “Like the Oompa Loompa could fit in your Gigantean clothing.”