The white van pulled up just ahead of me. I didn’t like the way I couldn’t see into the windows. It was one thing to get into a van with a total stranger when at least one other person from school was supposed to be with me, but now that I was alone, I didn’t like the idea at all. Goose bumps prickled up my arms, and I hesitated on the curb.
The passenger’s-side window of the van rolled down a couple of inches. “You coming?” a deep voice called from inside. I still couldn’t see the driver.
I glanced back at the rec center entrance, to see if Principal Conway was coming back anytime soon.
“We gotta get on the road if we want to be back in time for your bus.”
I picked up my backpack and walked to the van. I pulled the door open and was about to tell the driver to go on without me.
“Grace Divine?” asked the driver. He smiled at me from under his baseball cap. The sleeves of his flannel shirt were rolled up to his elbows. “I told you I’d be seeing you around.”
I almost fell over backward. I grabbed the handle of the door to steady myself. “Nathan Talbot? What on earth are you doing here?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rescue
HALF A SECOND LATER
“Call me Talbot, please. Nobody but my mom ever called me Nathan.”
“Okay, Talbot, then … seriously, what are you doing here?” I was stalled halfway through the van door.
“Um, my job?” Talbot tipped his baseball cap toward me. It had the clasped-hands logo embroidered on the front. His unbuttoned flannel shirt revealed a T-shirt under it with the words ROCK CANYON FOUNDATION: THE GOOD SAMARITAN PROJECT written on the front. I guessed that was why that guy in the club had called him the Good Samaritan.
Talbot patted the passenger seat. “So you getting in, or what?”
I hesitated again and looked back at the rec center. No sign of Principal Conway or Chris anywhere nearby.
“I don’t bite, I swear.” Talbot grinned, and his dimples appeared in his tan cheeks. “Like I said, we gotta hit the road now if we want to make it back in time for the bus.”
I couldn’t help but stare at Talbot’s friendly smile as he spoke. That wave of warm familiarity rolled through me. What was it with him? I mean, he was barely a step up from a stranger, yet something about him made me feel like we were old friends. You can trust him, a quiet voice whispered inside my head.
“Yeah. Okay.” I climbed into the van and sat in the passenger seat. I glanced back at the rec center entrance one last time and figured Principal Conway would know that I’d left with the last van when he came back and I was gone.
“Where’s your partner?” Talbot asked.
“He took off. Went to an arcade down the street.”
“Good,” Talbot said. He gripped the steering wheel with his large, tanned hands and drove the van away from the curb and through the parking lot. “I hate it when I get assigned kids who don’t want to do the work.” His green-eyed gaze flicked in my direction. “You’re up for this, right?”
“Of course.” I fastened my seat belt as we pulled from the parking lot onto the street. “Um … you’re not following me around, right?”
“Self-absorbed much?” Talbot chuckled.
The sound of his laugh again triggered those warm waves through my body. It made me shiver.
“I’m the one who should be asking you that, don’t you think?” Talbot asked. “You going to show up at my dorm room next?”
I blushed. “No, um, it’s just weird to see you again.”
Talbot stopped at a red light. “Weird creepy, or weird pleasant?”
He smiled at me again, making his dimples super-pronounced. Why did he make me feel like I was curled up in a warm blanket on a cold winter afternoon? And how could the feeling be comforting, yet disturbing at the same time? I looked away so he wouldn’t notice the flush of heat in my face.
“Weird pleasant, I guess.”
Talbot flipped the blinker on and pulled the van onto the highway. We headed in the direction of the city. I felt a little thrill of anticipation that I might get another chance to look for Jude.
“You saved me some trouble anyway,” Talbot said.
“How’s that?”