Off Her Rocker by Jennifer Archer

Author:Jennifer Archer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2006-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Wearing the thick, long terry-cloth robe and slippers Lilia loaned me before we went to bed, I tiptoe through the quiet, dark house toward a glow of light in the kitchen.

Eddie sits at the table, huddled over a textbook and a spiral, pencil in hand.

“You’re up late,” I say in just above a whisper.

“Calculus.”

“Oh.” I wince, since I hated that subject in school. “I don’t have a good excuse. I just can’t sleep.”

“My bed is lumpy. Sorry.”

“No, it’s not that. The bed’s fine—you’re nice to loan it to me. I just have a lot on my mind.” I smile. “Is it okay if I get a drink of water?”

“Go ahead.”

I take a glass from the cabinet and fill it from the tap. “So, are you a senior this year?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you going to college next fall?”

“Maybe nowhere.” His smile is sheepish. “Abuela keeps saying I’m going. She thinks it’s a given I’ll get a scholarship.”

Leaning against the sink, I sip the water. “And you don’t?”

He thumps his textbook. “I barely have a C average in this right now. I don’t get it.”

“I wish I could help you, but I never got calculus, either.” I sip again, watching him. “Without a scholarship—?”

“I can’t afford to go to college,” he finishes for me. “My grandparents don’t have the money.”

“There are programs that could help with the cost. Ask your teachers about them, your principal. They could help you with the applications.”

He shrugs. “Yeah, I guess.” His gaze shifts to the book as he draws the corner of his lower lip between this teeth.

“If you could go to college, what would you study?”

“Business,” he says quickly, glancing up again. “Whatever it takes to learn what I need to know to come back and save this town. I want to finish what my father started. You heard my grandmother’s stories about how Hellen was. That’s what I want. To make it that place again. Someday I’ll do it, too. I just wish it would happen before they die. I wish I could see them dance in the park again.” He blinks and looks away, embarrassed. “They’ve given me everything.”

My heart opens wide to him. A year younger than Troy, yet decades more mature.

“I guess my abuela didn’t tell you that my parents also danced at the festival.” His eyes meet mine. “They got engaged there.”

“No, she didn’t mention it.”

“My mom’s mother…ask her and she’ll probably tell you my dad really was the devil.”

Roberto stole Barbara Jean Needlemeyer’s only daughter, I realize. Left his mark on Amanda, like the dancing devil in Lilia’s legend.

I step closer to the table. “I could help you find a way to go to college. I’d be happy to do what I can.”

He looks surprised, then uncertain. “Thanks. But even if I could go, I don’t know if I should. Not yet. My grandfather gets worse every day. I can’t leave my abuela alone to take care of him. And my part-time job helps pay the bills.”

“What do you

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