by Jessica Love
On our third ride, as we click our way up the track hill, Grace reaches behind her neck and unclasps her key necklace. She holds it in her hand as we pause at the highest point; then as the car tips down to rush down the track at full speed, she throws her arms up and uncurls her fingers, letting the necklace fly out into the air behind us.
After we climb out of the car, I lean over, my hands on my knees, catching my breath. “I can’t believe you did that,” I say. “That necklace was expensive, Grace.”
Grace shrugs. “You didn’t want to go on the roller coaster, but you did, and you loved it.” She runs her hand through her hair. “So, I figured … I should have done it a long time ago.”
I don’t want to say something cheesy about how proud I am of her, so I pull her into a tight hug. Then I straighten up, look at her, and say, “I need to go to that party.”
I’d be lying if I said Nick hadn’t been on my mind every time we went on that roller coaster. I’m conquering my fears here, and as much as I feared losing control, I also fear losing Nick. So, he’s with Frankie, and he’s mad at me. That isn’t enough to lose a four-year friendship over. I might not be able to be with him, but I can’t leave Vegas without making things right. I can’t run away. Sure, I don’t know what is going to happen when I show up at this party, but it can’t be any worse than the way I left things with him. If Grace can let go of Gabe, then I can face my feelings head-on. I need to fix this. Talk. Apologize. Get my best friend back.
Grace wraps her arm around my shoulder and squeezes. “Let’s get Lo and get out of here.”
Lo waits for us outside the entrance to the Desperado, sucking on a soda. She looks a little less green, and she gives us a wan smile as we approach. “Four times?” she asks.
I nod. “I’m in love. You can be the maid of honor when I marry the Desperado.”
“You should do something super wild when we get home. I’ll make a list of illicit activities you can try your hand at.” She gets up from her chair and puts her arm around my other shoulder.
“Let’s not go crazy now,” I say, and we all laugh as we walk out to the car.
I look up the address to the party on Grace’s GPS and we head back toward Vegas, in considerably better moods than we had been in only an hour earlier. My irritation with them has dissipated, and it’s replaced with nervousness very similar to the butterflies I had when we drove this way yesterday. Will Nick be happy to see me? Will showing up at this party make things worse? I don’t think Alex would have told me to come if Nick really didn’t want me there, but who knows. Things have always been weird between them.
I’m empowered by my roller-coaster ride, but that doesn’t turn off my mind, thinking about every possible thing that can go wrong.
“Are you going to tell him you’re coming?” Grace asks.
“Nope. This time I’m embracing the element of surprise. Hopefully it will be on my side.” I grab my purse from the floor by my feet and dig around on the bottom of it for my clown penny. I tossed it in there along with my wallet this morning while we were packing up, but now I want it on me again. Smiling, I rub my thumb over the bumps, and then I stuff it into the side pocket of my jeans.
I turn around to face Lo, who is sitting upright now and looking slightly less pukey. “So, you don’t mind helping me out?”
She leans forward in her seat, as far as her seat belt will allow, and grabs my arm. “Girl, I’m sorry about last night. I don’t know what happened to me.”
Grace chuckles from the front seat. “Um, I think his name was Oscar.”
Lo rolls her eyes. “You know how I get. You had Nick and I wanted to have fun with a cute boy, too. But I didn’t mean to ruin your night.”
“I wasn’t having fun with a cute boy, though. I was having drama with a guy who has a girlfriend.”
“I know this.” She flops back to her seat. “But I’ve always been frustrated by the obvious sexual tension you have with this best friend of yours. I wanted you to do something about it, you know? I guess in my own weird way, I thought if I left you alone, you’d get this whole thing solved.”
“You and Hannah are so the best friends for each other,” Grace says, elbowing me from across the console. “She needs someone to drag her kicking and screaming out of her comfort zone every now and then. Try to get her to take some action.”
I snort. “Not too much action, though. Can you imagine if we were both trying to hook up in the hotel room?”
“Instead of you sitting in the dark, watching us?” She leans forward again and winks at me. “Why were you lying there like a creeper, you creeper?”
“I was trying to wallow in my self-pity over this Nick situation! You interrupted my ennui!”
“We really are a pair, aren’t we?”
I try to turn around in my seat to hug her, but since there’s no way I’m taking my seat belt off in a moving vehicle, I end up patting her shoulder instead. “Are you going to talk to Oscar again?”
She shrugs and gives me a sly grin. “Maybe I will, if you can fix things with his best friend.”
I turn back around, staring at the long stretch of freeway spilling out in front of us. “That’s the plan.”
CHAPTER
29
We exit the freeway in Henderson, and now we’re only a few minutes from Nick and Alex’s house, according to the GPS. I pull down the mirror on the sun visor and try desperately to fix my hair and makeup. We left the hotel in such a huff this morning that none of us are looking even close to our best. Even though I know there is no hope for Nick and me in any sort of romantic way, I still want his last memory of me in real life to be a good one. He’s heard me on the phone at my worst, but he doesn’t need to see me looking like ass. The last thing I want is my beat-down face distracting him from my apology.
“Here we are,” Grace says, turning onto a street of older tract homes, each one a copy of the one next to it. I texted Alex to let him know we’re on our way, but other than the fact that the guys in the band are going to be there, I have no idea what to expect. This unknown element would usually freak me out to the point of inaction, but it doesn’t faze me right now. All that matters is fixing things with Nick.
We find the house, but we can’t park too close, because there are cars in the driveway and parked all along the street. “Okay, girls,” I say. “This is it.”
“You got this,” Lo says. Grace pats my leg reassuringly.
“I hope so.” I smile at them. “Thanks.”
We walk toward the house, where music pounds from the backyard. We’re almost to the party when I hear my name, and Alex hops out from the bed of the truck parked at the edge of the driveway.
I wave to him, and I see a huge grin spread over Grace’s face out of the corner of my eye.
The whole time we’ve been in Vegas, I haven’t paid much attention to Alex. My focus was on Nick, and honestly, Nick has never painted a flattering picture of his brother. It was pretty natural for me to try to avoid him since we got here yesterday, and he made it easier by taking off with my sister at every opportunity. Now that I look at him, though, I can see why Grace picked him out in a concert crowd all those years ago. He’s an older, more outgoing, more punk rock version of Nick, with colorful birds tattooed up his right arm and some mysterious saying peeking out of his V-neck. And when my sister smiles at him, he grins back, a carbon copy of Nick’s adorable smile, but with a little more attitude.
“I’m glad you guys came by.” He shoves his hands in the front pockets of his hoodie, and he looks back and forth between Grace and the crack in the driveway, never once glancing at me. “Hannah, can I talk to you alone for a minute?” he mumbles to the ground.
I catch my sister’s face fall for a fleeting second, but she turns it into a small smile. “We’ll be over here,” she says, and she leads Lo on a walk down the sidewalk.
Alex sits back down in the bed of the truck, swinging his feet like a little boy at the playground, and he pats the
empty spot next to him. I hop up.
“So, uh, thanks for coming,” he says.
“Yeah, sure.” I’m trying to keep it out of my voice, but this is Code Red awkward. He’s focused intently on his shoes as his feet swing back and forth, and I figure I should say something because this situation is too weird for me to handle right now. “So, is this about Grace?” I ask. “Or is it Nick? I just want to know what to prepare myself for.”
He lets out a nervous laugh. “Dude, I think your sister is unbelievable, but that’s no secret. I don’t need your help there.”
I want to smile because, man, that’s super cute, but it’s impossible when my insides are dropping down to my shoes. It takes all my focus to try to sound nonchalant as I squeak out, “So it’s Nick, then?” The Cooper brothers aren’t close. Nick has told me many times that I know way more about him than his brother does, and Alex never seems to pass up an opportunity to torment Nick in some way. Why is he getting involved with our friendship now?
Alex stops swinging his feet and pulls one leg up under himself on the truck bed, angling himself so he is facing me. “Look, Hannah. I know I haven’t always been the best brother to Nick, okay? It’s just how we are. It’s just the two of us here with our dad, you know? You have a sister. You know how it is.”
I shrug. From what I know, my relationship with Grace is about as opposite from his relationship with Nick as Planet Hollywood was from Buffalo Bill’s, but I don’t think that’s the point here.
“I’m sort of a dick to him sometimes. I get that. But—” He reaches up and adjusts his hat, scratching the back of his head. “—I know this about my brother. He’s upset right now, but he’d regret it so much if he let you leave Vegas like this. He always gets in his own way, and I can’t let him do that this time.”
I twist my hair into a bun as I let this all turn over in my head. Then I remember Nick’s admission last night at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
“Does this have anything to do with Frankie?”
He shakes his head as he laughs. “Nah, dude. She’s a whole other story.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “So, you told me to come here for no other reason than you wanted to help Nick out? Really?”
“I know you don’t believe me, but—” He shakes his head again, like he can’t even believe he is saying any of this. “—I feel like I owe him. He kept talking to you, but I never kept in touch with Grace after we met. I’d ask Nick about her and stuff, but I never did anything about it.”
Well, this is surprising. “Why not?”
“Too cool, I guess.” His laugh doesn’t have a trace of humor in it. “I’m stupid. But then when you guys showed up last night, and Grace was there, man, I felt like it was a sign from the universe or something. It was weird.”
I open my mouth to respond, ready to tell him that even though Grace threw her necklace off the roller coaster, I’m pretty sure she has no intention of getting into another relationship anytime soon, but he holds up his hand, stopping me. “I don’t know what happened between you and my brother last night. But it doesn’t matter. You guys have history. You’re important to him. And I know you think I’m an asshole, and maybe I am, but Nick’s my brother, and, well, you know he sometimes has trouble saying the right thing. This whole ‘dealing with people’ thing has never been easy for him, and I do want him to be happy. I don’t want to see him be an idiot like I am.”
His admissions stun me into silence. I stare down at my knees, trying to process it all, then look back at him. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.
“Anyway,” he says, “will you come out back to the party? Nick doesn’t know you’re here, and I was thinking, well, maybe it could be a surprise. Like last night, but hopefully more successful.”
“Sure,” I say. “As long as you’re not revealing any Cooper family secrets or anything. I’ve had about all the drama I can take.” Here we go. I came here to talk to Nick and make things right. The fact that his brother wants to help me do it, well, it makes the whole thing easier, I guess.
Alex smiles and helps me out of the truck bed. I wave to the girls, who are sitting on the curb across the street, watching us. As soon as Grace reaches arm distance of Alex, he reaches his arm around her shoulder and pulls her in close, kissing her on the top of her head. “Glad I got to see you again, sexy.”
“We’re surprising Nick, I guess,” I tell them, and shrug.
“Wheee!” Lo says. “I love a good surprise. And last night’s was such an epic bust, we need a do-over.”
Instead of walking us through the front door, Alex opens a gate on the side of the house and ushers us through. He holds a finger up to his mouth as we each pass him; then he carefully eases the gate shut. “Okay,” he whispers. “Nick is back there, but I don’t want him to see you guys yet.”
“There’s seriously no need to whisper,” Lo says. “We could hear this music from the state line.”
Alex rolls his eyes, but the three of us can’t help but laugh. “Fine,” he says in a normal voice. “The band is going to start playing in, like, five minutes. It would be best if Nick didn’t know you were here just yet, so maybe you girls could just hang out here for a few. Cool?”
“So, that’s it? You’re just going to leave us back here?” I wave my hand around to indicate the three trash cans, storage shed, and lawn mower. “How is this surprise going to work?”
“Oh, you’ll know. I promise. Just hang out here and keep an eye on things.” He pulls down on the strings on the front of his hoodie. “Do you want a beer or something?”
Lo makes a gagging noise at the suggestion of more alcohol, but Grace nods enthusiastically. I flash back to last night and how my first time drinking led to kissing limp-tongue-Jordy and almost getting offed by a pit boss. “I’m good,” I say, shuddering. “Thanks.”
Alex returns a minute later with a red party cup full of beer for Grace, and I study the peeling paint on the wall of the house while he pulls her into a kiss. “Okay, Hannah,” he says once his mouth is available again. “You ready for this?”
“Honestly, no. I have no idea what I’m doing.” Giving this control over to Alex has my heart beating like it was at the top of the Desperado. But I try to hold on to how much fun that ended up being, the rush of the free fall, the thrill of the speed and the wind in my hair. I have to trust Alex here.
“Just wait for the signal.”
“What’s the signal?” I ask, but he walks off toward the clamor of the party, leaving me more confused than I was when I arrived.
“So, what now?” I look at the girls, hoping they’ll have some answers for me. A pretty pointless hope, since this plan is all Alex’s, and he’s just wandered off to set up the band’s equipment.
Grace takes a huge gulp of her beer and then shrugs. “I guess now we wait.”
CHAPTER
30
Seven minutes, five spiders, and fifteen peeks around the corner of the house later, we’re still lurking in the space between the Cooper home and the wood fence that separates it from the neighbor’s lot. I’m rubbing my penny like a genie is about to emerge from it, while Grace has a solo dance party to the music blasting from the speakers in the yard. Lo, annoyed with all the excess energy, sticks her head into the storage shed, pulls out a couple of old towels for the two of us to sit on, and spreads them on the grass.
“I can’t believe you’re not freaking out about this more, Hannah,” Grace says, twirling in a circle. She’s right. I’m mildly annoyed at the lack of information from Alex, but aside from that, I’m surprisingly Zen even though I have literally no idea what we’re waiting for.
“So, what are you going to do when you see Nick?” Lo turns around and leans into my propped-up knees, and I reach for a chunk of her hair and start braiding in an effort to keep my hands and mind occupied. “If we’re really going to make this an epic surprise, I think you should run out to the band and steal the mic away from Jordy and sing him a song or something.”
“No! Gross! Nick would absolutely hate that.” I shudder at the thought. “Can you imagine? Everyone pulling out their cameras and Instagramming it? If anything, it would support his decision to never speak to me again.”
“Well, luckily, you have Frankie as president of your fan club,” Grace says. “And Nick adores you. You could shout from the top of the Stratosphere, and you know he’d forgive you.”
Before we can come up with a real plan, one that doesn’t involve public humiliation, the loud music turns off and it’s replaced by the clatter of drums and the tuning strums of guitars. The band is getting ready to play.
“I think this is what we’re waiting for,” Grace says, extending a hand to Lo and then to me, helping us up.
I dust off the back of my jeans as I peek around the side of the house for the millionth time. The yard is full of people, so many more than it seems would be there, even though the street is packed with cars. The band’s equipment is set up in the back right corner, opposite from where we are hiding behind the wall, and the guys are all warming up their instruments, getting ready to play.
“Do you see Nick?” Lo whispers. She grips my shoulders and leans over me. “Where is he?” We spotted him briefly when we first peeked, but since then, he pretty much disappeared. I don’t know how this apology thing is supposed to work if I can’t even keep a lock on his position.
But then it doesn’t matter, because Jordy grabs the mic and taps a couple of times before speaking into it. “What’s up, everyone? Thanks for coming out. We have some new stuff to play for you today.”
A whoop goes up in the crowd, and the guys onstage all laugh. “I know you love our old stuff, but we’ve been working on some new songs, so you all, our dearest friends, get to be the first to hear these new jams.”
Someone in the crowd cheers, and some chick yells, “I love you, Jordy!” She’s clearly never kissed him.