Home > Wider than the Sky(5)

Wider than the Sky(5)
Author: Katherine Field Rothschild

   “So, you’re a twin,” he said.

   It turned out I’d said all of that out loud. “Identical.”

   “There’s no such thing as identical.” He bent over, his eyes on the lock. He pulled a narrow screwdriver from his back pocket, tapped it in, twisted it, and popped the trunk open. Then he looked at me through a blur of dark lashes.

   “Like snowflakes?” I asked.

   “Like people.” He winked. “Do you both have voodoo smiles?”

   My heart skipped. “What?”

   “It’s from the Cure.”

   “Oh.” The Cure. Lyrics. “I don’t know about our smiles, but I guess our hair is a little different.” He stopped lifting the trunk to look, and I wished I hadn’t just experienced what a six-hour car ride does to curly hair. I pushed it back.

   “Hers is more peanut butter,” I said. “Mine is more toffee.”

   “The Candy Store Method. So, licorice?” He pointed to his hair.

   “Black licorice is very one-tone. I’d say seventy-three percent dark cacao chocolate.”

   “Only seventy-three percent?” He flashed another smile. I forgot why I was standing there.

   “Nobody’s perfect.” But I was thinking the opposite.

   “Everyone screws up. Hence, forgiveness.”

   “Speaking from experience?” I asked.

   “With forgiveness?”

   “With screwing up.”

   He squinted against the sun setting into the trees, and his lips turned up in a small smile. “Is this your way of telling me I helped you break into a car?”

   I ducked into the trunk. “I’m not breaking in. I’m getting in.”

   I threw open the top box, thinking to riffle through the contents, grab some stuff I wanted, and drag as much as I could back inside. It wasn’t a well-thought-out plan. But the first box was filled with neatly pressed color-coordinated shirts and sweaters I didn’t recognize. I flipped through them, hoping something would trigger my memory. But no.

   “I can bring these boxes in for you—”

   “No, that’s okay. I was looking for something specific.” I threw open the next lid. It was men’s argyle socks and those boy-short underwear. I shoved that lid back on and dove deeper. Where did he put my dad’s stuff?

   Kai reached for the top box. “You can look for it inside. We’re getting paid to—”

   “It’s okay.” I stopped him. “I . . . um, I just need a minute.” I wedged open another box below. Camera equipment? That’s when I realized. He hadn’t put my dad’s stuff anywhere. Because this wasn’t my dad’s stuff. I shook my head. But . . .

   “Blythe is never wrong.”

   “Who?”

   “Blythe. My sister. She’s is never, ever wrong.”

   But she was this time, and I really was breaking and entering. I reached up to close the trunk and stopped. Why had Charlie’s stuff been in our moving truck? Had he moved from Dana Point, too? I opened the trunk back up and rummaged through the first box again, looking for an answer.

   “Hey.” Kai elbowed me. “My dad is watching. Give me an excuse to keep standing here when I should be working.” I scanned the contents of the box, but nothing looked important. So I just reached and grabbed. My hand closed around a smaller box. I yanked it out, and Kai took it from me. “Yep. That’s it.” I looked at the box and cursed. Great. Exactly what would tell me what was going on with Charlie: a pair of men’s size-ten Salvatore Ferragamos. Nice.

   “I can carry more,” Kai said. “Load me up.”

   “That’s it.” I slammed the trunk down and squinted up at the house. The windows might have been broken or dirt-rimmed, but there were a lot of them, and anyone could have seen us. My heart hammered. But even if Charlie saw, what could he do to me? Serve me leafy greens at dinner? I told myself to relax.

   “So, you’re part of the ‘Big Family Movers’ family?”

   “My two brothers, my mom, my dad, and me. My oldest brother will probably take over when my dad retires.”

   “Moving’s not for you?”

   “Big Family is a monarchy, and I’m the third son. So I’m expected to work for them, but not take over.” He shrugged. “But I want to go to medical school.”

   I glanced over at him. Blythe wanted to be a computer programmer and make “awesome badass games for chicks.” But I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to be, or do, or have. Not anything possible, at least.

   “Do they mind that you want to do something different?”

   “Yep. But I’m family. They have to take the good with the bad.”

   Inside, voices carried from the living room. My mom and Charlie.

   “Paint color is the least of our worries.” He sounded tired of their conversation. “But it has to be from an approved list.”

   “What about greige?” As we passed the doorway, Charlie was saying he was pretty sure “greige” was neither on the list nor an actual color. I slid around the corner and ducked upstairs. Kai followed, the box under his arm.

   At the doorway to the pink bedroom, I paused. Blythe looked up from her laptop and gave Kai a once-over. “Is he what you found in Charlie’s trunk?”

   Kai smiled. But it was different from the smile he’d given me. It was a professional mover smile. “She found me near his trunk,” he said. Then he handed me the shoebox carefully. It was heavier than I’d expected.

   “Thanks for your help.”

   “Did I just commit a federal crime?”

   “Municipal.”

   Blythe cleared her throat. I was afraid to look. She was probably rolling her eyes.

   “If the police stop by, I was never here.” Kai turned to me and let his nonprofessional lopsided grin linger before he headed back downstairs. When he was gone, I leaned against the doorjamb. I might have stood there indefinitely reexperiencing the last ten minutes, but the box was too heavy. I lugged it to the bed.

   Blythe raised both eyebrows. “You wanted a pair of Dad’s shoes?”

   I gave her a sidelong glance. Blythe really hated to be wrong. “It wasn’t actually Dad’s stuff. The shoes are Charlie’s . . .” I turned back to the shoebox. It was way too heavy to be shoes. I flipped open the lid. No shoes. No shoes! Inside was a stack of raffia-wrapped letters and a few trinkets—a Montblanc pen, a large crystal paperweight, and a thick box of new stationery.

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)
» The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash #4)