The Gift

Chapter 87

Whit

"Let's get everyone underground!" I shout to Wisty. "I saw a manhole a while back. Maybe we can hide there."

We manage to get the group to the manhole, and, as luck would have it, it's an old steam tunnel rather than a sewer. Not the freshest air in the world, but the tunnel should be far enough underground to make us safe from explosions and flying shrapnel.

Once everyone's in, Wisty pulls me aside.

"Unless you have any better ideas, I think you and I need to go to Mrs. Highsmith's," she tells me. "She's powerful. She might be able to…" I don't think she's even sure what the woman can do for us.

"Give us options?" I finish the thought.

"Exactly." Wisty nods. "Maybe even give us info about Mom and Dad. I just have this feeling she knows where they are…"

Just then Janine walks up to us, her eyes still tinged with red from watching our longtime home bite the dust. "What's next, guys? Any bright ideas? Any dim ones?"

"Listen, Janine, we've got to go to Mrs. Highsmith," I tell her. Then I put my hands on her arms. "You okay here with the group?"

"Yes, but…" Janine looks down at her black combat boots. I think she's trying to hide that she's getting choked up again.

I lift her chin gently and force her to look at me with those sage-green eyes.

"Why do I have this awful feeling that this is it? It's the last time I'm going to say good-bye to you, isn't it?" She speaks in a whispery voice. It sends a shiver rushing up my spine.

"The last time you're going to say good-bye, yeah," I acknowledge. "But not the last time you'll see me. I promise."

She can't help the tears from spilling out of her eyes. My hands cup her face, and I wipe the streams away with my thumbs. Her hands slide down my arms to my wrists, as if she doesn't want to let me go.

I'm not exactly sure what I feel for Janine. But I do know what I have to do right now.

So I kiss her sweetly. Long enough to tell her everything without words-some crazy, mixed-up jumble of admiration, appreciation, attraction. I feel all of those things for her right now. Deeply.

I don't stop kissing her until Wisty's finished saying her good-byes, and she tugs my shirt gently. "C'mon, Whit."

I let Janine go, and she just nods. There are no more good-byes as Wisty and I climb the metal rungs up the manhole shaft to the war zone above.