Return to Sender by Julie Cross Read Free Book Online

He’s pretty short. I’ve got a good two inches on him, I’d guess.
    “Probably about seven hours. But we’re not expected for another twelve hours, so let me know if you want to stop anywhere.” I hold my tongue for a second to see if he has any requests and then plunge into making conversation. It will be all kinds of awkward if we just sit in silence for seven hours. “So… excited for this summer?”
    He leans forward and fiddles with the radio. “Money, place to stay, meals, free training facility—it sounds like heaven. Except for the teaching spoiled rich kids how to do a damn back handspring part.”
    I know a thing or two about being wary of spoiled rich kids. I went to school with them. I’m also best friends with one and my girlfriend would probably fit into that category, too, so I’ve learned not to judge too quickly. “I’d say more like upper middle class. Or middle class with massive credit card debt.”
    Camp is expensive as hell, so he’s sort of right. But competitive gymnastics is expensive as hell. Which makes me wonder…
    “I’m coaching the power tumbling kids this summer,” he says, as if answering my silent question.
    “That’s cool. How’d you get into tumbling?”
    “Boys and Girls club,” he says. “We started out learning everything on a tile floor in an elementary school gym and then we got those folding mats. Kids started winning competitions and some rich dude donated a spring floor. We got to learn the harder shit and some of us went to Nationals. I’m nineteen now, but they let me work out for free if I teach some classes.”
    “You’re still training?”
    “Yeah.” He settles on an AM station playing an Atlanta Braves baseball game. “What about you?”
    “I quit gymnastics years ago. They only let me help out at gym camp because my dad was way better than me. One of the directors used to compete with him. This is the first year I’m actually getting paid, which is awesome.”
    “You worked for free? And you weren’t training? Why?”
    I shrug. I’m not gonna tell him that staying with my dad over summer breaks wasn’t exactly an appealing idea for me. “The place is pretty awesome. You’ll see. And I don’t train anymore, but I still like to play around on the equipment. As for working for free, I worked during the school year. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere all summer kept me from spending my money on stupid shit. Which is how I got this fucking amazing car.”
    “Ain’t that the truth.” TJ nods toward his garbage bag of stuff in the backseat. “I got a bag of weed that sucked up almost a week’s paycheck and now I’m getting a ride from your ass. I should be saving for my own car.”
    I laugh. “Well, keep the weed on the DL. That stuff is like contraband after a few days of coaching.”
    “Noted.”
    “So… are you like in school or…”
    “Nah, I dropped out a couple years ago. Decided making money now was the better route to go.”
    “What do you do? Besides teaching classes at the Boys and Girls club.”
    His gaze drifts out the window. “Trust me, dude, you don’t want to know my day job.”
    Great. Now I have seven hours to mull that over.

CHAPTER NINE
KAREN
    F rom the rearview mirror of Jackie’s car, I can see Blair’s mom’s minivan pull up. She glances in our direction, but probably doesn’t recognize Jackie’s car, so Blair tumbles out and heads for the front door, where Grandma lets her inside.
    “Karen,” Jackie says. “Let’s finish our chat before we go inside.”
    I guess she’s working under the assumption that I’ll actually be able to get myself through the front door. This whole being afraid of my house feels so infantile and yet I can’t shake it no matter how hard I try.
    “The last thing you need to worry about is what your grandmother or best friend think about your reactions,” she says. “How you feel can’t be deemed as right or wrong and Blair has never been through what you’ve been