Read Online How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler - Free Book Online

remembered the warning. His temper. His eyebrows pressed together and his lips were one tight line. As if he was irritated. What could he possibly have against Kya?
    He leaned across the table, his eyebrows squished together in a thick unibrow. I frowned, my stomach twisting.
    â€œI have to find her,” I repeated, bothered by the intensity in his face. All flirty coffee banter had vanished. “I have to go.”
    His entire demeanor changed. Anger. He was angry.
    Disappointment bubbled under my skin and I longed to go back to the conversation before Kya’s call, but I didn’t have time to deal with his issues or even my reaction to them.
    He let me go and sat back. “I think I know where she is.” I stared at him. “She was with my cousin earlier.” He gazed into his tea and then back at me. “She probably still is,” he said in a softer voice.
    â€œWhat?” I glared at him with anger of my own rising to the surface.
    â€œShe came over this afternoon. My aunt and uncle are in Seattle for the weekend. Lucas and I are alone. He had a few guys over. And Kya.” He pushed back on his chair and stood. “Come on. I’ll take you there.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” I demanded as I stood. His words were perfectly clear. I didn’t want to believe them.
    â€œKya was in the basement when I left. With a couple of Lucas’s buddies.” He glanced at the giggly happy couple picking up their coffee drinks. “They were drinking.”
    I snatched the unfinished cup of hot chocolate from the table to throw in the garbage on the way out, gripping the cup so tightly, some of it spilled on the floor. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    Levi picked up the almost-full tea and put his free hand on my back to let me move ahead of him. “I’m sorry, Grace. If I’d known you were looking for her, I would have told you right away.” His voice was gentle again, the anger gone.
    We hurried through the coffee shop, ignoring the curious stares from the barista and the moms, and dumped our drinks in the trash. He held the exit door for me. I slipped by him and my skin touched his bare arm. Dark and warm. I shivered. Outside, I hurried toward my car and he easily matched my pace. “I didn’t know you were worried.” He paused. “And she seems like a partier. I thought it was normal for her.”
    â€œYou don’t know her,” I snapped.
    â€œI know enough.” I glared at him and picked up my pace.
    â€œSorry.” He reached for my arm. “I know she’s your friend.”
    I jerked away from his apologetic touch. “It’s complicated. She’s complicated.” I wanted to tell him he was wrong about Kya. Sometimes she was a party girl. But he didn’t know why. And I couldn’t tell him. We reached his car and he stopped.
    â€œI’m right here. Why don’t I drive you?” he said. “It’ll be easier. We can come back and pick up your car later.”
    â€œFine.” I nodded, focused on getting to Kya quickly.
    He opened the passenger door of a shiny blue hatchback. “We’re not far. It won’t take long.” He reached across me to brush fast-food wrappers off the passenger seat. “Sorry. I’m kind of a car slob.” He straightened and his cheeks had blotches of red on them. “I have to clean it before my aunt gets home.”
    At any other time, the embarrassment would be kind of endearing, but I climbed inside, snapped on my seat belt, and said nothing. “How did she even end up at your place?” I mumbled when he got in the driver seat.
    â€œLucas got her number yesterday. Before the paintball game.” He started the car. “He was bragging about it.”
    I cringed on Kya’s behalf, imagining the less than poetic way Lucas probably put it. Another Neanderthal to add to her list.
    â€œI guess they arranged to hang out