“What’s wrong?” he asks. He stops walking.
I shake my thoughts away. “Nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing. What was it?”
I don’t want to tell him. “I was thinking about vacation destinations. That’s all.” I stare straight ahead as we walk back to the hotel so we can collect our bags.
30
Grady
Evie just lied to me, and I don’t understand why. We go inside the hotel, collect our bags and check out, then drive Ms. Markie’s car back to her Aunt Cathy’s house, where we’ll leave it. On the way, she’s quiet.
“What’s eating you?” I ask.
“What?” She turns onto the street her Aunt Cathy’s house is on. “Nothing’s eating me.”
“Yes, it is. I know you, Evie Allen. And I know when something’s eating you.”
She makes a humming noise in her throat. “Really, Grady,” she says. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing if it makes you get all quiet,” I say.
“I don’t have to talk all the time,” she retorts. She waits a beat. “Where’s your favorite vacation destination?” she suddenly asks.
I shrug. “Wherever you feel like going,” I say truthfully.
She holds up one finger. “If you could pick one place, where would it be?”
I think about it. “Probably the gardens at Biltmore, or some other place with a colossal garden. I like to see the plants.” I shrug, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed by my answer.
She pulls up at the curb in front of Aunt Cathy’s house, parks, and turns to face me. “Really? Gardens?”
“Yeah,” I reply.
She tilts her head at me. “Gardens?” she asks again. “Huh. I like gardens too.” She stares at me. “You want to go and explore some gardens with me, Grady Parker?”
“I’d do just about anything with you, Evie Allen.”
She grins at me and rolls her eyes.
Her dad calls out to me when he sees us get out of the car. “Hey, Grady!”
I wave at him.
“Come help me for a minute, will you?”
“Be right back,” I say to Evie.
I see Mr. Allen walk toward the backyard, and I fol
low him. He stops in front of an old building. “Mama sent me to get some more chairs,” he explains. “Because the first two hundred of them that I set up weren’t enough,” he grumbles.
I laugh and help him open the shed, and then we move things around until we find the folding chairs she was talking about. They’re dusty and dirty, though, so we have to wash them off. We carry them over to the side of the house where the hose is and start to spray them down.
“I wanted to thank you again, Grady, for bringing Evie and my mother to Florida. I really appreciate it. When Evie told me you were with them, it was a load off my mind.”
“I was happy to do it,” I say as I open up some chairs and step back so he can spray them off. “I didn’t want them driving that far alone either. Evie can take care of herself, but I like to think I can take care of her too, sometimes.”