SEALED with a Kiss (Midnight Delta #4) by Caitlyn O'Leary

Chapter One
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    B illy Anderson
    He watched his sister rushing to the back of the diner as she took another order.  She was in her element.  It used to bother him, seeing her working so hard, but Mason, her fiancé, had made him realize this was part of what made her happy.  She came back out holding a pot of coffee.
    She had a bright smile for him as she breezed by the table where he was doing his homework.
    “Hi Billy, how’s it going?  Do you have any questions?  Darius is going to be here soon.  He should be able to help.”
    “Nope, I’m covered.”  She made as if to fluff his hair, and then stopped herself.  Thank God.   He was going to be fourteen next month.
    She went to top off the coffee for some of the regular customers, and take the orders of people he hadn’t seen before.  He went back to his social studies homework.  He loved social studies.  He was paired with Rebecca Barnes for a project, and she was brilliant.  She was one of the nicest girls he had ever met.  He thought about her, and her long brown hair and golden brown eyes. 
    He’d traced over the heading of the paper with her name so often the paper had almost torn through.  It didn’t matter, Rebecca said she was going to type it up on the school computer.  Still he didn’t want her to see how he had messed up their notes.
    A piece of pie was suddenly placed in front of him.  He looked up and there was Shirley.  She owned the diner, and was like a second mother to his sister since theirs had died.
    “Working hard I see.”
    “Huh?”
    “Who’s Rebecca Barnes?”
    Billy put his hand over their names, and looked up at Shirley. 
    “This is a project about Martin Luther King for social studies.”
    “Uh-huh.  Not that he isn’t a pretty interesting guy, but I don’t think he has you mooning over him.  Who’s the girl? If you spill it to me I won’t tell your sister.”  Shirley sat down across from him.
    “What girl?”  Billy groaned as he looked up and saw Darius Lane towering over the table.  Darius was one of the Navy SEALs in Mason’s unit.  Mason was practically his big brother, so all of these guys considered him his little brother too.
    “Nobody.”
    “Rebecca Barnes,” Shirley answered.  “She’s in his civics class.”
    “Social studies,” Billy corrected.
    “Order up,” Peter yelled from the back.
    “I guess my break is over.”  Shirley got up from the booth.  She fluffed Billy’s hair, and he hunched over.
    “I guess you’re too old for that?”
    “Yeah.  But it makes her feel good so I don’t want to hurt her feelings.  It’s not worth complaining about.”  Darius tilted his head and smiled.
    “I knew I liked you.”
    “I thought it was because we both spent time in foster homes.”
    “Well there is that.  Speaking of which, do you still talk to the Bards?” Darius asked, referring to the people Billy had lived with for over two years.
    “Yeah, Mason, Sophia, and I were just over there for a barbeque two weeks ago.  The twins are both in gymnastics.  Do you stay in touch with the people you fostered with?”
    “Only the last guy we stayed with, Old Henry, nobody else.”
    “Who’s we?”
    “The two other guys I was in foster care with, Donny and Steve.  We were together for over ten years.  Anyway, Old Henry took us in when we were about your age, he was great.”
    “Is he dead?”
    “Nah, he actually wasn’t that old.  He was probably fifty, he just seemed old at the time.  He was a retired sergeant from the Army.  So who is Rebecca Barnes, and don’t tell me she’s nobody.”
    “We were paired to work on this project together.  We’re meeting at the library tomorrow.”  Billy toyed with the pie in front of him.  “Dare, she’s really quiet.  I try to get her to talk.  I know people pick on her.”  Immediately Darius was looking at him, really looking at him.
    “Why?”
    “She’s a foster.  She’s in one of those