Keeper of The Lost Cities: Book 9: Showdown

Chapter 22 - Keefe's POV

I need something to happen.

Life is boring now.

A few days ago I went online and ordered a bunch of books, but I finished them all and I don't want to waste more money.

Dr. Daniel poked his head in my room and held up a pair of car keys. "Library?"

I sigh and roll over from my bed. "No, not today."

He leaned against the doorframe. "What's on your mind?"

"The fact that everyone looks at me like that and asks me that question."

"Really?"

"But everyone is only two people."

"Mhm." Dr. Daniel walks over to the balcony and pulls open the sliding door. A breeze wafts in. "Should I leave you to your own resorts?"

I shrug, wish is kind of strange and hard to do when you're lying on a bed. "Is there anything better to do?"

"I don't think so."

Suddenly a thought occurs to me. "Whatever happened to your job, Dr. Daniel?"

"Oh," he rubs the nape of his neck. "About that..."

I sit up. "What did you do?"

"I quit."

"Why?"

Dr Daniel shrugs. "I... I guess I sort of realized that that was never what I wanted to do."

"But you did it for so long!"

He shakes his head. "It wasn't that long. I taught there for maybe a decade. Compared to some of my other colleagues, that was a short amount of time."

"What were you doing before that?"

At the mentions of the past, he smiles a little. "I was an architect," he says. "That was what I really wanted to do. I liked what I did."

Someone knocks on the door in the front, and Liam stumbles over a hundred things before yelling, "I'LL GET IT!"

Then he trips over a hundred things more.

Dr. Daniel opens his mouth to say something when a strangely familiar voice says, "I'm here to see Keefe."

We both freeze, and Dr. Daniel silently ushers me towards the balcony.

Liam says something like, "I don't know who you're talking about."

Then the feminine voice responds. "Oh, please, don't be ridiculous. Keefe is right here, in this apartment." It wouldn't have been significant if she hadn't responded in the Enlightened Language.

Dr. Daniel's eyes widen and he moves to almost toss me out of the apartment - but I sidestep him and shake my head silently. I know this voice. I feel like I can trust this person. I want to meet this person.

Dr. Daniel shakes his head back at me and opens his mouth to warn me, but I'm already out the door.

I was right.

I do know this person.

Amy smiles. "There he is."

-+-

We had ice cream in Hollywood, a cool breeze weaving through.

"Sophie told me you were here," Amy takes the teeniest bite of her ice cream. "She asked me to come meet you."

"San Diego is a long way from here."

Amy smiles. "I told my parents I was going on a 'school trip'."