You Drive Me Crazy novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Number Nine
Sunday morning Eli stood on an upturned bucket beside the Mustang with a fat marker in his fist.
"It washes off," he said. "The box says so."
The Best in Show ribbon hung from the mirror.
The car sat in Cade's yard under a clean sky, with the dent on its quarter and the paint still cool from the dawn.
"Cade," I said. "That paint is a week old."
"It's a washable marker," Cade said.
"You're taking his side."
"I'm on the side of the bucket."
Eli looked from one of us to the other, and held up the marker like a lawyer.
"I want a nine on the door," he said. "Just for today. Then Mom can wash it."
I looked at my son's face, at the black cowlick and the gray eyes and the left thumb already tapping the marker.
"One nine," I said. "Straight."
"Straight," Eli promised, and drew a big, fat, slightly crooked number on the green door.
He stepped back and studied it.
"It looks like a balloon on a stick."
"It looks like a nine," Cade said, quietly.
His voice had gone rough.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of You Drive Me Crazy are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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