Chapter 19

“Forgive me?”

But Sally didn’t want to let him get away with it that easily. “I’ll think about it,” she said.

“Please?”

“Oh, go on, Sally,” Melissa urged her. “Don’t make him beg.”

“Well…”

I stepped in. “I forgive you, Bud.”

He looked at me. “Thank you. I’m real sorry I hit you.”

“You’d better be,” Sally told him.

“I am! Honest! I don’t know what got into me. It must have been the heat. It was almost too hot to think.”

There was silence for a few moments while we watched Sally and Bud watch each other. Was Sally going to give in?

“You have company, Nickie,” Gran broke the silence.

“Who?”

I followed her gaze to the driveway where a blue Toyota was parked next to Bud’s car.

I started hyperventilating. “Oh, my God.” It was Katie’s car.

“I sent her down to the lake to look for you.”

“But you weren’t there.” I froze when I heard that voice. Then I turned toward her.

“What happened to you?” she asked when she saw my face.