by Chris Cannon
“Even if it’s true, I’m not sure I care.”
“So you’re falling for her.”
I turned into my subdivision, and the guard waved me through the gate. “I’m not falling for anyone. Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy my time with Haley while I’m forced to be with her. See you tomorrow.”
I failed to notice my father standing in the doorway of the garage, until I’d pulled in, parked, and climbed out of the car.
The scowl on his face proved he was less than happy to see me. The feeling was mutual. Though, what did he have to be mad about? Damn it. A rumor about his son ditching school to hook up with the landscaper’s daughter. How could he have heard?
Keeping my expression neutral, I nodded at him and gave my standard greeting. “Father.”
“Your mother and I need to speak with you.” His tone was flat, cold, and angry. Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked toward his office, assuming I’d follow. What would he do if I ignored him and headed up to my room instead? One day I might try it.
My mother waited for us in my father’s office, seated on the leather couch. Unlike the couch at Haley’s house, which was like sitting on a giant marshmallow, this couch was streamlined and possessed no padding whatsoever. It was about as comfortable as sitting on a concrete bench covered with a beach towel.
I joined Mother on the couch rather than taking the chair in front of my father’s desk, which had been built to sit lower than his desk chair, in order to make the person sitting there feel intimidated.
“Hello, Mother.”
She gave a tight smile. “Hello, dear.”
Father paced in front of us on the Persian rug. “Do you know what I heard at the country club this evening when I stopped in to have a drink?”
I wasn’t about to walk into that ambush. “What you heard was a lie. I didn’t skip school to hook up with anyone.”
“I tried to explain the situation to your father,” my mother added.
“What happened is irrelevant. Perception is reality. Right now everyone thinks my son skipped school to be with the gardener’s daughter.”
It took effort not to clench my hands into fists, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “Sorry, Father, if a rumor inconveniences you. I’d like to point out Haley’s dad isn’t a gardener, he’s a small business owner. If you care to know, Haley and I left school after a soda exploded on us. I dropped her off at her house alone—”
“I don’t care about—”
“And then I came here,” I spoke over him.
He froze.
I pushed up off the couch and stood eye to eye with him. “Don’t lecture me about perception. Something I discovered this afternoon changed my perception a great deal.” If my mother hadn’t been in the room, I would’ve told him exactly what I’d seen. I didn’t want to hurt her, so I left the accusation as vague as possible. As far as I was concerned, the simple fact that he let me leave his office, proved his guilt.
Halfway to my room, I decided to circle back to the kitchen for food. I hadn’t eaten much at lunch and I was starving. The chef who came twice a week should’ve stocked the refrigerator with individual meals ready to reheat. Given my father’s hours, dinner around this house was often a solitary event, unless my mother joined me.
When I reached the kitchen, I found her heating up a container. She looked up when I entered.
“I hoped you’d come back.” Her voice sounded strained.
“Where’s Father?”
“He went back to the office.” My mom pointed at the microwave. “I’m having vegetable lasagna. There’s shrimp étouffé and salmon as well.”
Cajun food sounded good. I retrieved a bowl of étouffé and warmed it up on the stove, because shrimp out of the microwave is wrong.
“Tell me about the rest of your day. How did Haley’s family react to all of the excitement?”
“Her brother’s hate me, and her father seems to appreciate that I was concerned about Haley, but he’d rather I didn’t come around.”
She sat back and looked at me with disbelief. “What’s wrong with those people?”
Where to start? “Her brothers know I’ve dated girls like Brittney, so they don’t believe I’m interested in their sister.”
“But you are interested in her, aren’t you?”
This felt like a test. “Yes and no. She’s different. Sometimes that’s good, and sometimes it’s annoying.” The spicy scent of the étouffé made my stomach growl. I didn’t care if it was warm enough. I wanted to eat now. Grabbing a bowl, I filled it and sat with my mother at the kitchen island.
“There must be more good to the relationship than bad if you still want to be with her.” My mother stared out the window like she was thinking about another situation besides mine. Was this how she felt about her marriage? Was it more good than bad, so she put up with my father cheating?
Guilt welled up inside me. “Mother, this afternoon when I came home—”
“No.” She reached over and placed her hand on my forearm. “Whatever it is, I probably already know. If I don’t, I’m better off. Your father and I are in the process of redefining our marriage. We’ve hit a few bumps. That’s all you need to know.”
“What does redefine mean?”
She patted my arm and then picked up her fork. “It’s not your concern. Now tell me more about Haley.”
What was there to say? “She has two three-legged dogs named Chevy and Ford.” I launched into the story behind the dogs, and Haley’s love of animals. For some reason, I told her about the evening I’d spent at the shelter with Haley and Leo, the shih tzu, who’d sat on my lap.
“They found him in a parking lot and no one came to claim him? How sad.”
I stirred the shrimp around on my plate. “He has food and a nice place to live.”
“Having necessities, even luxuries, isn’t a substitute for having someone who truly cares for you.”
Were we still talking about the dog, or did her statement have a double meaning? “Are you happy with him?”
“With who…your father?” She chuckled, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “I was, once upon a time, when I was young and naive and believed in love and happily ever after. Now I’m older and wiser and I realize our marriage is more of a business merger. But I’m not unhappy. I have you. I have my friends. I have a very good life. And this probably isn’t a conversation I should be having with you.”
“Don’t worry. If there are any therapy bills in my future, they won’t be from this conversation.”
She laughed, which was what I’d been shooting for.
There was one more question I wanted to ask. “I know this is stepping over the line, but would you ever consider leaving him?”
She froze for a moment and then said, “While I don’t care about appearances as much as your father, I’d rather not do anything to make our family the talk of the country club.”
Chapter Thirteen
Haley
Tuesday morning, I’d shot back to the top of the gossip circuit. Walking into school, every group of students I passed whispered or made snide comments.
“This is freaking fabulous,” I muttered.
Jane rolled her eyes. “Who cares what they think?”
I moved closer to her as we made our way down the hall to our lockers. “Please, if everyone was talking about you, you’d be upset too.”
“No. I wouldn’t. Because the people who pass around rumors are idiots.”
A group of jocks going by jostled into us, knocking Jane’s backpack off her shoulder.
“Hey,” she shouted, “watch where you’re going.”
The guy who’d bumped into her flipped her off without even looking back to see what he’d done.
“Jerks.” She adjusted her backpack and we negotiated the rest of the hallway without incident. Once we’d stowed our books in our lockers, we headed off to meet up with Nathan and Bryce. Sometimes my life seemed like a repetitive series of steps th
at rotated around lockers, lunch, and driving to and from school. Not an exciting existence.
It seemed, against my better judgment, that the high point of my day was spending time with Bryce. I decided not to think about how pathetic that sounded. Instead, I enjoyed the view as I walked toward him down the hall. His blond hair was perfectly tousled, and his skin glowed with a perpetual tan. My heartbeat kicked up a notch. God, he was gorgeous. Funny, I was no longer intimidated by his physical perfection or his money. One good thing to come out of this ridiculous nonrelationship was the realization that people with money were not better than me. They just drove nicer cars.
Nathan and Jane were the perfect example of money not mattering. He liked her, and if rumors were true, his family had so much money he could probably buy a car with his weekly allowance.
Bryce caught sight of me and smirked. I found myself smiling back.
When we reached the boys, Jane walked over, stood on tiptoe, and gave Nathan a quick kiss. He seemed surprised, but recovered quickly. Jane grinned at me.
I rolled my eyes. “If you want to replace me on the top of the gossip totem pole, you’ll have to do better than that.”
Nathan grabbed Jane, dipped her backward, and gave her a movie-star-worthy kiss. When he pulled her up, she was speechless, which was quite a feat. People around us clapped and hollered.
I laughed. Bryce looked at me like I was insane. “What?”
“You’re not mad about the new rumors?”
“I’m not thrilled about it, but there isn’t much I can do.”
He tilted his head and studied me like he was confused. “That is a surprisingly reasonable response.”
I elbowed him. “Watch it. I’ll sic my three-legged dogs on you.”
“Better them than your brothers.”
The memory of what my mother had said the night before at dinner reared its ugly head. “Whatever my brothers might say or do is better than dealing with my mom.” I gave him a brief summary of her odd behavior the night before.
He ran his hand through his hair. “Does your mom always talk to you like that?”
“No.” I shrugged and looked at the floor. “Lately she’s been paranoid and making these weird accusations. It’s like she doesn’t trust me.”
“If it makes you feel any better, my father was waiting to ambush me when I came home. He heard the rumor at the country club. I told him the truth, and he gave me this bullshit perception-is-reality speech.”
“How about your mom?”
“She was sympathetic. We ate dinner together afterward while my father claims he went to work. I’m pretty sure that’s code for getting-away-from-my-family.”
“So, we each have one functional parent and one wingnut.”
Bryce burst out laughing and ended up leaning back against the lockers to catch his breath.
I didn’t think it was that funny. “What?”
He wiped tears from his eyes. “I’ve heard my father called many different names: honorable, brilliant, hardworking…wingnut wasn’t one of them.”
Making him laugh made me feel better. “Glad I could brighten your day.”
The warning bell for homeroom rang. For the first time, it felt like I might be gaining ground in the real boyfriend department.
…
By the time lunch rolled around, I’d heard a dozen different rumors to explain Bryce’s and my absence the day before. My top three were:
Bryce and I checked into a seedy motel. Ridiculous, because if we were to check into a hotel, I’m sure he’d insist on one with five stars.
Bryce and I had rendezvoused at my house, and my dad walked in on us. If this had happened, Bryce would’ve been buried ten feet under, courtesy of my dad’s backhoe.
Bryce and I had eloped, because I was pregnant. This was my personal favorite. Where did people think two teenagers could run off to, on their lunch hour, to get hitched? It’s not like Bryce had a private jet ready to whisk us off to Las Vegas. At least I didn’t think he had a private jet. That might be worth looking into, for future reference.
…
Seated in the cafeteria across the table from Bryce, I tried to ignore the noxious smells drifting through the air. The hot lunch of the day was chili. What genius decided feeding beans to a group of teenage boys was a good plan? God help the teachers trapped in windowless rooms.
“What’s the craziest rumor you’ve heard?” I asked Bryce.
He opened his Rubbermaid container, revealing some sort of rice dish. “Let me think…did you hear the rumor we were secretly married by a judge because we’re afraid you might be pregnant?”
I ripped open my chips and sighed. “The judge is a new twist.”
Jane opened what I’d come to think of as the cupcake box. “Today is a special day.” She picked up a chocolate cupcake with caramel-colored icing and set it by Bryce’s plate. “Today, you receive a full cupcake.”
Bryce rolled his eyes.
“Don’t scoff,” she said. “That’s peanut butter icing.”
I snagged a cupcake from the box and licked some of the icing off the top. It tasted like the center of a peanut butter cup. “This is the best thing you’ve ever baked.”
“Thank you.” Jane passed Nathan a cupcake. “Now I know what type of cake to bake for your birthday this year.”
Bryce had an odd look on his face.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head and went back to chewing his food.
I ignored my turkey sandwich in favor of snarfing down the best cupcake I’d ever eaten in my life. Creamy peanut butter wonderfulness combined with moist chocolate cake creating instant joy. Once I’d finished mine, I eyed Bryce’s cupcake.
“You should give me your cupcake.”
He pulled the baked good in question closer. “Why would I do that?”
“Let’s see.” I drummed my fingers on the table, inching them closer to the cupcake. “It’s rumored I’m carrying your unborn child.”
“If you were, I would. Since we both know you’re not, no deal.”
Nathan reached across the table and touched Jane’s hand. “I have to attend a boring banquet at the country club this weekend. You have two choices. You can come with me and be bored, or you can opt out.”
Jane bounced in her chair. “Are you kidding? I love any excuse to dress up.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Nathan went back to eating his lunch.
I waited for Bryce to ask me to go. Seconds ticked by, turning into minutes…and nothing. My insides froze. Bryce belonged to the country club. Surely he was going to this same boring event. Nathan had asked Jane, so it only made sense he’d ask me. But he didn’t. Maybe because we’d had our one date and he didn’t feel the need to repeat the experience.
Pretending an awkward silence hadn’t crashed down on our table, I ate mechanically. Take a bite of sandwich. Chew. Swallow. Drink soda. Take a bite of sandwich. Chew. Swallow. Drink soda.
“Bryce? Isn’t there something you want to ask Haley?” Jane prompted.
Oh hell. Time to stop her before she made it worse. “Jane, don’t. If he wanted to ask me, he would. End of story.”
If the four of us had been alone in the cafeteria, you could’ve heard crickets chirping. Since the room was full of rowdy teenagers, no one noticed the lack of conversation at our table.
I tried to be proud of myself for taking the high road. Didn’t work. I resented Bryce for not asking me, and I hated myself for caring. The silence stretched out, until the air around me felt brittle.
My nonrelationship with Bryce seemed to be a constant pattern of one step forward two steps, or more, backward. The only time he’d been truly nice to me was when I’d been the damsel in distress. He’d been great the night my car was vandalized. He’d been caring when I’d hurt my shoulder in the not-quite car accident.
I closed my eyes as I remembered the sensation of falling asleep with my head on his chest. I could’ve sworn he’d felt some
thing for me. Despite our vast differences, it had seemed liked we were hitting it off. Guess I’d been wrong.
This whole situation was so damn frustrating; I wanted to beat him over the head with my chair. Since his lawyer would probably sue my family into bankruptcy, that wasn’t an option. Time to suck it up and act like nothing was wrong.
“New topic,” I announced. “The shelter is having a rummage sale, so if there’s anything you’d like to donate, now is the time.”
“What day is the sale?” Jane asked. I didn’t know if she cared or if she wanted to keep the conversation flowing. Either way, it worked.
“It’s the weekend after next.” A thought occurred to me. “The same day Bryce becomes a free agent.”
So much for taking the high road.
He opened his mouth to speak. I cut him off. “What? Like you’re not counting down the days?”
His lips pressed together like he was trying to keep words from flowing out.
“Don’t worry, even though you were nice yesterday, I’m not entertaining some delusional fantasy you’ll fall madly in love with me. I know the score.”
“Good. There’s no reason we can’t get along during our time together.”
“Right.” I smiled like I was fine with the arrangement. Internally, it felt like I’d swallowed a dozen ice cubes. My throat hurt, and my stomach ached.
I zombie-walked through the rest of the day. If Jane tried to talk about Bryce, I shut her down. In PE, she took advantage of my dislike for talking while changing clothes by talking at me, rather than to me.
“I don’t get it. He was so nice about everything. Why didn’t he ask you to the banquet? He should’ve asked you because Nathan asked me. I mean, what else will he do that night?
Dressed, I stalked out of the locker room. Since the weather had turned cold, we were walking around the gym. Can you say mind-numbingly boring? There was nothing to distract me from my problems. At least Brittney shouldn’t be an issue because she was playing basketball with the other Amazons.