Chapter 1-3
227 Words
“You’ve been—what?” Dad shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
Ridley sighed. She figured it was time to come clean about all the stealing. She couldn’t very well demand that her father keep no more secrets from her while she still kept some of her own. “Sooooo, there’s this unofficial extra-curricular activity that I’m quite good at,” she said carefully.
Dad folded his arms. “I’m listening.”
“You really don’t need to freak out about it.”
“Ridley, just tell me what you’ve been doing.”
“It’s actually a good thing, okay?”
“Now I’m getting worried. Can you please just spit it out?”
Ridley bit her lip, trying to decide how best to ‘spit out’ that she was a thief. But before she could say another word, a loud knock sounded from the door downstairs. Both Ridley and her father looked toward the stairway. “Grandpa?” Ridley whispered. “I didn’t think he’d be back so quickly.”
“Neither did I,” Dad said, pushing himself up from the couch. “And why would he knock? Mei has a key. She’d let him back in.”
“You think it’s someone else?”
Dad left the letter on the crate and crossed the room. “Wait here.”
Ridley stood. Her heart thumped a little faster than usual as she edged toward the doorway and watched Dad descend the stairs. He reached the bottom—the room behind the antique store—and disappeared from sight. She heard him unlock the door. Then a quiet voice reached her ears. A male voice. Not Grandpa, though. Someone younger. He walked forward into Ridley’s line of vision and looked up, sending a jolt through her chest.
Archer Davenport.
- Writer
