Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits #1)(27)

“You heard her, Mr. Hutchins. Get going.”

I had no doubt the head shrinker was ticked at me. I hadn’t waited around long enough yesterday to find out why I’d been summoned. When Echo left the office, I’d followed. Partly to make sure she made it to her car okay and partly because I was shaken from what I’d overheard. Dealing with Mrs. Collins required me to be one hundred percent and after learning about Echo, I hadn’t even been close to fifty.

I stood to leave, half relieved, half disappointed. I’d connected with the girl, but not in the way I intended. Echo placed her sleeve-covered fingers on my wrist. Her neck and cheeks flushed red. “I moved the appointment time. I meet with her at three forty-five on Tuesday afternoons instead of at two-thirty.”

Searching for a brief reminder of the moment we had lost, I brushed my thumb across her sleeved hand. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

WHEN I WALKED INTO THE MAIN office, Mrs. Collins stepped out of hers with her coat and purse in hand. “Great timing. I’m glad to see you have your coat—you’re going to need it.”

“What?”

She locked her office door. “We’re taking a field trip. Let’s go.”

Mrs. Collins brushed past me. My mind remained blank as I watched her walk down the hallway. For the first time, I missed the brain cells I’d fried.

“Come on, Noah.”

I caught up to her right as she walked out to the teacher parking lot. “Where are we going?”

“You didn’t show for your appointment yesterday morning, nor did you come when I requested.” She held out a remote and pushed a button. Lights flashed on a black Mercedes. Figured. “Irresponsible. Get in.”

I opened the door and was greeted by the smell of leather. My gut twisted. I’ve been down this road before. “I’ve got four months to graduation, they can’t move me again.” The mistake of becoming attached to Beth and Isaiah roared to life. Anger and hurt pricked my chest with needles. And Echo …

Mrs. Collins shut her door and leaned over the middle console. “Unless your current foster home has become a dangerous situation, you’re not being moved. Get in or you’ll miss the fun.”

Fun? I slid into the seat. The engine purred to life. She floored the accelerator and the car jerked forward. She took a hard right and the tires screeched when she pulled out onto the main road. I gripped the armrest. “Who the f**k gave you your license?”

“Watch your language, Noah, and the state of Kentucky. Why did you miss your appointment?”

I loved fast driving. Isaiah and I had drag raced all last summer. What I didn’t love was a middle-aged nut job who couldn’t steer straight. “You want to pull over and let me drive?”

Mrs. Collins laughed and cut off a tractor trailer merging onto the freeway. “You’re a riot. Focus, Noah. The appointment.”

Oh—yeah. Echo had gone through hell to move her appointment. I could, at least, change mine before I became part of a fireball when we hit that tanker. “I work most evenings and close the place. It’s hard to get up in the mornings. I was wondering if we could move our session to right after school.”

She cut over three lanes and took the next exit ramp. “It’s your lucky day. I happen to have an opening at two-thirty on Tuesday. But I expect you to make it to your first period class on time. I won’t accept that excuse for anything else.”

“Yellow light. Yellow light!” And she ran right through the red. “Jesus Christ, you can’t drive.”

“I’m afraid we’re going to be late.” She pulled into a crammed parking lot and found the first spot available. “We’ve got to book it.”

She sprang out of her car and ran toward the town’s convention center. Unable to imagine one thing Mrs. Collins could offer me worth running for, I lazily followed. I breezed into the building a few seconds behind her and saw her enter an auditorium.

I grabbed the door before it closed and blinked when the crowd applauded around me. Row upon row of chairs faced a large, wooden stage. The room was crushed with people. Mrs. Collins waved me over to the side and the two of us leaned against the wall. She whispered, “Good, we’re just in time.”

A stout man in a shirt and tie propped his arms on the podium. “I have the privilege of introducing the Young Authors first-place winner in the second grade division, Jacob Hutchins.”

My heart slammed past my rib cage as I searched wildly for my brother. There he was, speed-walking down the middle aisle from the back of the room to the stage. I took a step to follow him, but Mrs. Collins placed a hand on my arm and shook her head. “This is his moment.”

I peeled my eyes off him to browse where he’d been sitting. Carrie and Joe sat next to his empty seat. Sitting on Carrie’s lap, Tyler rested his head on her shoulder and glanced around. Everything inside me twisted in pain and relief. My brothers. I was in the same room as my brothers.

My eyes met Tyler’s and a smile tugged at his lips. I sucked in a breath in order to pull back the millions of emotions eating at me. Tyler remembered me. “Thank you,” I breathed, not sure who I was thanking or why—Mrs. Collins for bringing me here, Tyler for remembering me, or God for both of those.

Mrs. Collins watched my reaction, but I didn’t care. I waved at Tyler and, to continue the miracle, he waved back.