Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 158(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 158(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
She stares.
When she doesn’t speak, I clear my throat. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you. I was just trying to help. That’s all.” I move just a step closer and hold out my hand. “I’m Owen, by the way.”
She looks at my hand like it has several extra fingers, possibly even tentacles.
I lower it slowly. “Maybe you should just let me take a look?” I jut my chin toward her car.
Stepping back onto the sidewalk, she eyes me as I walk up to it and feel beneath the hood, lifting it as I peer down at the engine.
“Are you a mechanic?” she asks.
“No. But I know my way around cars.” I point to her wiper fluid. “You need more windshield fluid. It’s not safe to drive without more than this.”
Her eyes narrow. “I thought you said you weren’t a mechanic.”
“I’m not. Just making an observation.”
“Does the lack of wiper fluid make the car incapable of starting?” she asks curtly.
“No.”
“Mm-hmm.” She crosses her arms in front of her.
I glance around some more, looking for her problem. “Ah.”
“Ah?” She leans over, trying to see what I’m pointing at.
“Your battery cable is loose.” I grab it and affix it to the battery post. “It wasn’t making the circuit. You want to try it again?”
“Hmm?” Her gaze is on my hands.
“Try to start the car?” I stand, and even though she’s on the curb, I still tower over her.
She seems to remember herself and nods. “I’ll try it.” But she doesn’t move. Instead, she stares at me with a directness I rather like.
I stare right back.
She raises her brows and clears her throat.
“Is … is there something I’m missing?” I ask with what I hope is a charming smile.
“You’re in my way.” She waves a hand at me.
“Oh.” I back from between the cars and give her a wide berth, since the space she had before clearly wasn’t enough for her.
With a wary glance, she goes to the driver’s seat, and in only a moment, the car starts up.
I close the hood and walk around to her door.
She closes it. Hard.
I have to stifle a laugh, but I manage it somehow. Leaning down, I knock on her window.
She cracks it. But just a crack. “Yes?”
“Listen, I have wiper fluid up at my place. It’s a bit of a drive, but I’m happy to fill you up, if you’d like.”
“Your place?” she asks, her eyes brightening for a split second before she looks away. When she puts her gaze on me again, it’s closed off like before.
“Yeah. Sorry to be so forward, but it’s not safe for you to drive with such low fluid.”
“You said that.”
I nod. “I did. Anyway, I can text you my address. What’s your phone num–”
“Just tell it to me.”
“Are you sure? If you could just give me your number, I could–”
“I’ll find it.” She smiles, and I get the strangest sense that there’s a deviousness in it. “Just tell me where you live.”
“Sure.” I rattle off my address.
“I’ll meet you there.” She rolls the window up.
I knock again.
She cracks it. “Yes?”
“I didn’t catch your name.”
“Oh.” She purses her lips, and for a moment I wonder if she’s going to refuse to tell me. “It’s Roxanne.”
“Okay, Roxanne. I’ll see you at my place.”
She closes the window and pulls away, almost running over my foot in her haste to get away.
I stand straight and watch her taillights. She’s already headed in the right direction toward my place, though there’s no way she could’ve recognized the address.
Lucky guess, I suppose.
In any case, at least I’ll have another chance to speak with her. Maybe I’ll get more out of her than just her first name.
7
MAGGIE
What the hell am I doing? While I have a solid grasp of technical skills, I don’t have one on human nature beyond what I’ve read and tried to mimic in my life. Not to mention that the people closest to me–I don’t think any of them would be called normal. So mimicking such behavior has never been easy. Even when I was in school, every girl around me was exceptional in something.
I don’t understand people, but they do interest me. They usually behave in predictable ways. Patterns, really. That is something I can understand. However, it’s the most interesting of people’s patterns that are the hardest to understand, but we all have them no matter how hard we try to mask them. And within that, there is always a weakness.
I know without a doubt that is the key to me finding Owen’s weakness. To figure out who he truly is. I’ll need to take my time and watch him carefully. Him inviting me back to his house couldn’t be more perfect. He’s giving me the opportunity to observe him up close in his environment without him having his guard up.