I quickly rise from my seat and join her on the bench.
“Hey,” I whisper, then bite my lip.
There’s wetness in the corner of her eyes, and a single tear drips down her cheek. I wipe it away for her. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I tried to help you, I did. But I can’t go to jail.”
She nods. “I know.”
“If anyone asks, I’ll tell them I let you borrow my car, but I don’t know what happened. You can make up whatever story you want.”
She nods again.
“It might not turn out so bad.”
Another tear rolls down her cheek.
Just then, the door at the front of the room opens. “I’m sorry, Lora,” I say before hugging her and quickly taking my place again.
The lawyers and judge sit down. Mr. Needleham gives me a subtle thumbs-up as the judge says, “Mr. Evans, we have just been shown evidence proving you could not have been driving your car at the time of the accident. As a result, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office has no choice but to dismiss all charges against you.”
My mom sobs behind me, and I’m on the verge of doing the same. It’s over. It’s finally over.
I don’t think I fully realized the amount of stress I was under until just this moment. With one big sigh, my muscles relax, my head stops throbbing, and my anger at the world fades away.
“Next time, if I were you,” the judge continues, “I’d think twice before confessing to a crime you did not commit.”
“Yes, ma’am. I won’t do it again.” There’s no way in hell I’d do it again. In fact, I may never let anyone borrow my car again. Or anything else that could potentially cause some sort of damage.
After she dismisses everyone, I stand and give Mr. Needleham a hug.
I owe him. If it hadn’t been for him pushing me on the coercion, things would’ve turned out much different. “Thank you,” I say. “I’m glad you looked for evidence, even though I wasn’t sure what I wanted.”
“You need to thank Ms. Durant. She’s the one who provided the lead.”
“Paige?”
He nods, and I turn to watch her.
She’s talking to Gordy. He’s all smiles and laughs while she’s got her typical attitude. For some reason, her frown makes me smile.
I start to head in her direction when the door slams open, and Mr. Durant, red-faced, storms into the room. That’s enough to make me take two steps backward to hide behind Mr. Needleham. I don’t know what happened, but I have a feeling Mr. Durant was not on board with Paige coming here.
Peeking around Mr. Needleham’s shoulder, I see Paige spot her dad. She jumps to her feet, rushes to him, grabs his elbow, and pulls him through the door. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall of the hallway right now.
Gordy looks at me and mouths, “Wow.”
I nod and race to the door. Sticking just my head out, I try to listen to what is probably World War III based on their matching glares. But it’s silent—eerily silent, as if every single person in the hallway zipped their lips the minute they saw the pissed-off Navy SEAL and his equally pissed-off daughter pass by them.
“Want me to see what happens?” Gordy asks.
I nod as my mom and dad surround Mr. Needleham. “Yeah, I’ve got to finish up things here.” When I join them, my dad tries to give me a hug but settles for the “hey” I offer. It’s more than he usually gets, probably because my life is in the best place it’s been in months.
“This calls for a celebration,” my mom says, hugging me.
“Dinner?” my dad asks.
Despite being over-the-moon thrilled with what the last five minutes mean to my life, I still give him the evil eye. The three of us haven’t had dinner together in over four years.
Before I can answer him, I see all the cadets start to file out to the hallway. “Actually,” I say, “dinner sounds good if I can bring a few friends.”
“Of course!” my dad says, beaming. He probably thinks this whole ordeal has brought us closer. It hasn’t. By now he should realize I’ll never forgive him, although I do, begrudgingly, appreciate him showing up today.
“How about GameWorks?” I ask. It’s an awesome restaurant/arcade we used to go to a lot. My battalion will love it.
* * *
In my mom’s car, I try calling Paige, but it goes straight to voice mail. Gordy never found her and her dad, so they must have made a quick exit. I try texting her, too. We need to talk. Can you come to dinner at Gameworks?
She doesn’t reply by the time we make it there. The Wallingford bus is already in the parking lot, so I’m hopeful she and her dad have finished their fight and she’s inside. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to realize she’s not.
“Do you know where Paige is?” I ask Jernigan as we shoot baskets side by side. I’m up by two, not that I’m keeping score or anything.
“She had to go back to school for suspension. Plus, her dad will ground her for months or years. I have a feeling her dreams of the Air Force Academy may be over.”
“Wait, what?” I ask, placing the ball on my hip and facing him. There’s no way she put herself at such risk to help me. She wouldn’t do it. Never in a million years.
“She went AWOL.”
“Everyone went AWOL for me?”
“No, only her. After she told me what she was doing, I figured you could use a little more help, so I told the dean what was going on and he got permission for a bunch of us to come down here. She should’ve waited, but … well, love makes you do stupid shit,” he says.
He makes a basket, and I quickly face forward and start shooting again. “Sorry for being an asshole,” he says.
“Me too. Thanks for … you know.”
“Yeah.”
That’s the extent of our conversation and all we will probably ever say about our contentious past. It’s enough. Guy relationships are a hell of a lot easier than girlfriend relationships.
CHAPTER 33
PAIGE
In about three minutes, I’ll have to face my dad. He wouldn’t talk to me at the courthouse, other than order me to drive straight to school. He’s been following me the whole way, and I’m sure his silent treatment will end as soon as we park. Then I’m in for the reaming of my life.
After today, there’s no way he’ll let me move all the way to Colorado. I destroyed seventeen and a half years of trust in a matter of hours. He may not even let me go to the Naval Academy. I may have to go to Roanoke College so I can live at home and he can always keep an eye on me.
I won’t let that happen.
I made the best decision I could given the difficult situation he put me in. If he doesn’t like the outcome, he needs to consider how he could have handled the situation better. As horrible as it will be, I need to tell him. He needs to understand he can’t continue to control my life.
After parking my car, I take a deep breath and slowly look through the window at my dad, who’s sitting in his SUV right next to me. He motions with his hand for me to join him.
This is it. The epic showdown that was bound to happen eventually.