The Good Race

Chapter Eight

Ryan rolled his eyes and groaned when he opened the door to find Danny standing on the other side. He turned away and walked into the room, dropping down onto the couch.

"Well, hey, there, good buddy," Danny smiled in return. He walked into the room and closed the door behind him. Ryan knew Danny was aware that he got to him. The feeling was mutual. Danny never missed an opportunity to poke at Ryan. He knew there was nothing Ryan could do about it as long as Danny was in his sister's good graces.

For the life of him, Ryan couldn't figure out why Danny rubbed him the wrong way. They had never been friends. They had grown up together at Trent. Ryan knew Danny longer than he knew a lot of his friends. As a matter of fact, only he, Danny, Sophie and Brooke had started out at Trent from kindergarten. Everyone else came and went. But Danny and Ryan just didn't get each other. Danny had a bad attitude, or so Ryan always thought. He was always doing things to try to get kicked out of school. Ryan was convinced Danny could light the place on fire and still attend school there.

But Jackie saw something different. Jackie looked past the piercings and tattoos and heavy metal band t-shirts and apparently found someone appealing underneath. She said Danny was respectful, but until Jackie showed up, Ryan had never seen much evidence of that. He was never out and out rude to anyone—except Ryan—but Ryan wouldn't have described him as respectful.

"Jackie, your boy toy is here!" Ryan heard his sister's gasp of indignation from the bedroom and smiled. Having a little sister was a lot of fun. Ryan knew that Jackie and Danny weren't having sex, but it didn't stop him from pushing his sister's buttons. She was so virginal, which Ryan thought of as a good thing, and he loved to heckle her about her boyfriend. And if maybe it served as a reminder to Danny about what he wasn't getting, well, that was a bonus, too.

"So, where are you taking her?" Ryan asked.

"It's a secret," Danny replied.

"The hell it is," Ryan growled.

Danny held up his hands in peace. "I meant it's a surprise to her. I don't want her to know. I'm taking her somewhere she's never been before."

"And that place would be?"

Danny sighed and dropped his hands to his waist. "Apple picking, then we'll grab something to eat. But don't you fucking tell her, dude."

"There's an apple orchard around here?"

"It's down by Grayson Falls."

"That's like an hour away," Ryan frowned. "What are you going to do if something happens?"

"What the hell is going to happen?"

"The last time she left campus, the press was all over her," Ryan said. "If you're an hour away and that happens, how are you going to get her out of there? She's like first fucking prize to paparazzi now because nobody can get near her. There's literally a price on her head. Everyone wants to know what she thinks about her dad's accident. They're chasing a byline, 'Jackie Reilly finally breaks silence over father's death.' They all want that to be their story."

"I think it's pretty obvious that she was devastated by it, but what do I know? Anyway, I doubt reporters are staking out an apple orchard an hour from the school she attends on the off chance she shows up. Besides, last time she left campus, she was with you, who was in quite the iconic photo with her. Nobody knows me. Nobody cares about me. If they're actually at the gate and they see me leaving, they won't see her. She can lay low. They know your car, not mine. She has to get out of these walls. How the hell is she ever going to figure out who she is if she's always stuck in an ivory tower? She traveled all around the country with her dad and didn't see any of it. She has a right to experience things."