Only Love Read Online Free Page B

more than two sizes in their normal diameter. Turning her head as if on autopilot, she looked at me and smiled.
    “My man Officer Adam,” she said, nodding in satisfaction by what she just discovered about me.
    I shook my head, waving my hand so she’d give me the reins to take over the radio. My partner hated what I listened to. He was more old-school, but when he wasn’t in the car I was going to listen to what I wanted. I began flipping stations, trying to find something a little more appropriate for a teenage girl. “It’s just Adam,” I said. “And maybe Kid’s Bop would be a little better for your ears,” I joked.
     She shot back in her seat, her lip curling up in distaste. “Um, no. We don’t have to listen to that, but no Kid’s Bop please. I’m fifteen. Not eight.”
    I lifted my hand and let her take over again. She settled on a Top 40 station. Something more suitable and wouldn’t make me feel guilty by filling her head with obscenities. Kids cussed enough as it was without my help.
    “So what’s your story?” I asked her, guiding the car down the street. “Do you eat breakfast with Aubrey every morning or…”
    I tried to make my question less about Aubrey than it really was. I didn’t want Gabby thinking I was fishing for information about her… which I kinda was. It was my business to know about all the residents who lived around me. Aubrey included. Though I guess that didn’t need to entail her morning activities... I made myself look past that tiny detail as I waited for Gabby’s response.
    She nodded to the beat in the car, gazing out the window. She pushed the glass down with the button on the door and rested her arm outside of it. “Pretty much. I watch Rissa while she gets ready for work, and well,” she paused, shrugging. “Mom don’t miss me too much, so whatever. I live down the hall.”
    She didn’t look at me while she spoke, and I didn’t want to press about her words, how the change in her tone went from lighthearted to something else, or how the happy kid next to me suddenly turned into something different. Something completely on the other side of the spectrum. Her situation was similar to a lot of kids her age unfortunately. Some parents just didn’t know how to be parents. She was picking at the windowsill when I spoke next.
    “That’s good you help her out.” And it really was. Aubrey definitely seemed like she needed it as well and didn’t seem like the type to allow too many others to do so for her.
    That smile lit Gabby’s face again as she gazed. “Yeah. I love Rissa. And Aubrey. Some folks around here give you the side eye; don’t care to be around you or anything if you’re not their business. But Aubrey, she cares.”
    I could tell that about her, too. Especially when she wiped my hands down and served my plate this morning. Babying me like her baby. I laughed inside at that.
    Silence fell between Gabby and me for a bit, but that was okay. We listened to music, cruising along. We drove into a new neighborhood, urban just like where we were lived, and Gabby sat up, leaning on the windowsill. “Don’t remember the last time I passed through here,” she said, watching the rundown buildings and the faces smiling and playing outside of them.
    This area was more Hispanic than ours, and she was right, we didn’t need to pass through here to get to her school, but even before I moved I made my way down here. Just to check up on the area and stuff. We passed a house and an aged woman sat outside, watching as a little girl showed her cartwheels out front. The woman smiled, clapping every time the girl completed a rotation. The two were in their own little world until my squad car came by. The woman glanced our way, but I turned my head, not making eye contact. Unfortunately, I was trapped by the light and had to stop, nearly directly in front of the house.
    Tapping on the steering wheel, I mentally willed the light to change. I could feel the woman’s