Saint Sloan (Saint Sloan #1)(31)

“I do. You’re scared. Anybody would be. It’s scary.”

“Doesn’t make it okay,” she said, laying her head all the way on the table. If it would stop hurting, she’d very much appreciate it.

“Headache?”

She grunted an affirmative.

“Have you had a lot of them lately?”

Another grunted. “Uh-huh.”

“Think you need to see a doctor?” Her mom got up and put her bowl in the sink.

Sloan rose up and plopped on her elbows. “I had the same thought this morning. If I still have them next week, I’ll call and get an appointment.”

“Sounds like a plan. Need any medicine until then?”

Now that was a good question. Every time she took the aspirin she had upstairs, she got dizzy, lightheaded, and weird stuff happened. Maybe it was a bad bottle or something. Might as well test it out. “Yeah, got any?”

Her mom grabbed her designer bag from the table. “Yeah. A few. Want them?”

Sloan nodded and held out her hand. Her mother opened the bottle and winced. “That’s so weird. I thought I had some. Must have taken them without realizing it.” She shrugged and tossed the empty bottle in the trash. “Do you have any?”

She slumped farther over. “Yeah. Upstairs, but I’ll just take the ones in my bag at school.”

A worried look crossed her mother’s face. She sat down next to her and put her arm around Sloan’s shoulder. “I know this is hard for you. Why don’t you let me call the police? Get them involved. It might make you feel better.”

“You can’t.”

“Why? Detective Morgan can go and talk to Boyd and make you feel better about it.”

Sloan shook her head with every word her mother said. “I’ve already called her. The first day when I thought I saw Boyd across the road. She didn’t find anything. Nothing. Not one thing to show anyone was standing over there.”

Her mother ran her fingers lovingly over Sloan’s hair. “But this is different. You’ve been getting things.”

“That no one else has seen.”

“Doesn’t mean they aren’t real.”

“That makes it worse. If they are real, you definitely can’t call the cops.”

Her mother sat up, and her brows furrowed. “Why? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Sloan had avoided telling her mom this part, but now she had no choice. “Yesterday’s note said he’d hurt you if I told the police.”

Her mom slowly took her hand down and placed it on the island. “I see. And you take that seriously?”

Duh… “Well, yeah. I mean, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what to think. I do know the police need to know.”

That was the worst that could happen. One, if she was crazy, they’d never believe her again. Two, if it was Boyd or someone else threatening her, they could make good on his or her threat and hurt her mother. She couldn’t let that happen. No matter what, she had to protect her mother. It wasn’t like her father was around to do it now that he had Tiffani.

A plan, she needed one. “I’ll make you a deal. If I get flowers today or a note or anything weird, I’ll call Detective Morgan. Okay? It could just be a prank to freak me out. Now that I have freaked, maybe they’ll stop. Or maybe Aaron’s right, and it’s all in my head.”

Her mom smiled slightly. “Aaron. Speaking of…”

Oh glory! Here we go…

“I saw you two kissing yesterday.”

“I know. It just happened. It’s not like I meant for it to. I don’t even think he thought about it. It was just like, bam!” Thinking about that kiss made her heart flutter and her toes tingle. Funny, she never got those feelings kissing Ray.

The problem was she wanted those feelings kissing Ray. She wanted to like him more than Aaron because he seemed much more reliable and honest, trustworthy, and just more her type. Aaron was brash at times, didn’t sugarcoat things when he talked to her, and was sort of a loner.

Still, he had those soul-cutting brown eyes and the looks of a Greek god.

And Ray had the face of a Malibu doll.

But looks weren’t everything.

“Uh, Sloan.” Her mother cut into her very important and deep thoughts on the Hunter men’s looks. “Did you zone out?”

“Apparently.” She left her seat and got a toaster pastry from the cabinet.

“Thinking about the Hunters. Trying to figure out which one you like most?”

And that’s when everything came flooding out. “I want to like Ray. Like really like him. I love having him around. He’s a great guy. He even got saved at church Sunday.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah. So he’s a church-going feller, which I need. He’s a good guy. A very good guy, and he tries to take care of me.”

Her mom smiled a knowing grin. “But…”

“But, Aaron is… he’s so awesome! He is not the nicest person ever, but he tells the truth. He talks me down when I get way too hyper about things, and he isn’t bad on the eyes either. And can that boy kiss.”

She knew she had a dreamy look in her eyes as she leaned back against the counter with a piece of food hanging out of her mouth. Probably not the best look in the world, but it was what it was.