by Chris Cannon
“I think we just hit another one of those to-be-continued-later moments.” Jack stood. “Let’s go get some food.”
“Okay.” Funny how Jack chose to walk away from an issue rather than hashing it out. Now that I thought about it, that seemed to be his standard operating procedure. When things became complicated, he bailed. Maybe I was being too hard on him… This wasn’t the time or place to have a deep discussion.
We sat and ate with Trevor and his family. It was nice. I could see why Jack liked to spend time over here. It filled in the missing piece of having guys to hang around with, but there was more to it than that. I knew Trevor’s older brother had OD’d. Everyone knew the story. Yet here these people were, living their lives, moving forward, making the best of what they had left. It was inspiring.
On the drive back to my house, I said, “Trevor and his family seem really great.”
“They are.”
“I understand why you like to hang out over there every weekend. Thanks for taking me with you.”
A comfortable silence settled between us. When Jack pulled up to my house, my dad’s truck was gone, and the house was dark.
“No one’s home again?” Jack said.
“They probably ran to the store or something,” I said.
“Do you guys ever have family time?” Jack asked.
“You mean where my mom cooks and we all sit around the table and talk like normal people?” I frowned. “That happens about twice a month. Usually on Sundays. My mom didn’t mention anything about dinner tonight, so I don’t know what’s happening.”
“And that sucks,” Jack said.
“Yeah, sometimes it does.” It was nice that he understood. “Want to come in for a few minutes while I figure out what’s going on?”
“Sure.”
When I opened the front door, silence greeted me. I hung up my coat and went into the kitchen. “My mom usually leaves a note to let me know where they are.”
On the kitchen table, I spotted a note scribbled on the back of an envelope. Shopping. Back by six with food. See you then.
The clock on the kitchen wall said four p.m., so they wouldn’t be gone too long. Maybe Jack and I could get back to our to-be-continued-later scenario. I started to say something, but Jack grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the living room. The couch was covered in clean laundry, but the love seat was clear.
“I guess we’re sitting here.” Jack sat.
“Have we reached the to-be-continued-later portion of the day?” I asked.
“Yes. I think there were two of those. So I can kiss you, or you can tell me how you aren’t interested in Aiden.” He sat and put his arm up on the back of the couch like he was just chilling out. “You choose.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Shouldn’t me kissing you prove I’m not interested in someone else?”
“Probably.” He patted the couch cushion beside him. “Sit. Reassure me.”
I plopped down next to him. “Promise you won’t run away like you did last time?”
“Not my best moment,” he conceded. “This happening between you and me is kind of big.”
“I know. That’s why we need to make sure it’s worth the potential drama.”
He leaned over and pressed his mouth against mine, and everything seemed to fall into place. His arms went around my shoulders as he pulled me closer. The rest of the world faded away. It didn’t matter whose brother he was or whose friend I was. We fit together just right.
Jack’s cell buzzed. For about five seconds, he froze while he seemed to be figuring out if he should answer his phone. And then he continued kissing me. I ranked higher than his cell. Good to know.
My cell buzzed, which was weird since Zoe was out on a date and my parents were at the store. I ignored whoever it was and focused on Jack. When his cell buzzed again, I pulled away from him. “Is the universe messing with us or something?”
“I don’t know. Let’s see what’s going on.” He grabbed his phone and frowned. “Both of mine were from Zoe. She wants me to call her.”
I checked my text, and a chill ran down my spine. “Crap. Mine was, too.” I dialed and waited while the phone rang and rang.
“I’ll try texting her,” Jack said.
Neither of us had any luck. “Call your mom. I’ll keep trying Zoe.”
Jack stood and paced while he listened to his phone.
What the heck was going on? Everything from Zoe being in a car crash to his grandma having a heart attack scrolled through my brain.
I texted Zoe again and waited, trying to keep my freakout under wraps because Jack needed my support. He didn’t need me to add to his stress.
Minutes ticked by, adding to the tension. “Maybe we should just go to your house,” I said, “since no one is answering.”
Jack stopped pacing. “Can you…would you call the hospital…and make sure my family—”
“Got it.” I pulled up the number for the local hospital on my cell and dialed. When I asked the emergency room nurse if anyone with the last name of Cain had been admitted, she said, “No.” I asked a few more questions before hanging up.
“No one named Cain has been admitted for anything. There haven’t been any accidents or heart attacks or anything involving anyone who matches the description of Zoe, your grandmother, or your mom.”
Jack sat on the couch and closed his eyes. “Thank you. I know it’s stupid, but—”
“It’s not stupid.” I sat and held his hand, lacing my fingers between his. “You’ve endured enough family trauma to last a lifetime.”
My cell buzzed. I checked it. “Holy crap. Zoe wanted to ask my opinion about a Christmas gift for Grant.” I texted her back that the sweater she’d taken a picture of at the mall when Grant hadn’t been looking was a little too old-man for my taste. Then I added, You just took ten years off your brother’s life.
Zoe texted back. Why are you with my brother?
“I think we’ve just been made,” I told Jack, showing him the texts.
“Shit. Tell her you left your phone at our house and I just stopped by to drop it off.”
“I’d rather tell her we were hanging out together, or maybe we should just tell her the truth.” As far as I was concerned, we were a good fit. And we had spent the afternoon together at Trevor’s, which meant we’d been seen together in public already. Not that I was ready to say we were flying off to Vegas for the weekend, but I think it would be okay to say we were dating.
“That’s not a good idea.”
“I don’t want to lie to her.” It just didn’t feel right.
“It may be stupid, but I’m just not ready to deal with any drama yet. You know how she is.”
He wasn’t wrong. Zoe hadn’t earned the title Drama Queen by being calm and collected. “Fine.” I handed Jack my phone. “Take this and hand it back to me.”
“Why?”
“Because then it’s not a lie.” He handed the phone back, and I texted Zoe that Jack had returned my phone to me.
She texted back, asking me to show the sweater to Jack, which I did. He texted back a thumbs down.
After that, both our phones were silent, and the situation seemed awkward. I sat back down on the love seat. Jack sat on the arm rest.
“Jack, what do you want?”
…
Jack
“What do you mean?” Okay, I knew what she meant, but I’d hoped to avoid any type of relationship conversation. Things were just getting started; why did we have to talk it to death? Plus sometimes, it seemed like my life was the case study for if-anything-can-go-wrong-it-will.
“Don’t pull that oblivious guy crap on me. You know what I mean. Are you looking for someone to date every once in a while, or are you looking for a girlfriend? What’s the final goal of this relationship experiment we seem to be in?”
I moved off the arm rest to sit beside her. “I don’t know. Why can’t we just see where it goes?”
“Does that mean you don’t
want a relationship?”
“No.”
She rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Mr. Chatty. That cleared everything up.”
“I like you. You like me. Neither of us wants to ruin your friendship with Zoe or your open-ended invitation to practically live at my house.”
“Which leaves us secretly dating?”
Did I want to say we were dating? I didn’t want her dating anyone else, especially not Aiden, and I didn’t trust that he was out of the picture for good. “Secret dating works for me.”
“You know it’s two weeks until Christmas, and I don’t mean to pressure you, but there will be mistletoe hanging around, and I’d expect the guy I’m dating to kiss me in public if I happen to be standing under any.”
Crap. Trevor had been right. Christmas was a relationship beacon, drawing girls in and making them a little needy. “If things between us are good at Christmas, I will honor whatever mistletoe we happen to stand under. Does that work?”
“I guess.” She didn’t sound happy.
“Allow me to reassure you.” I placed my hand on her cheek and turned her face toward mine. She met me halfway, and her lips were soft, and she smelled like flowers, and maybe having a girlfriend who understood me would be nice. If only my brain didn’t automatically hunt for all the ways this could go wrong.
…
Monday on the drive to school, I felt nervous, which was stupid. Delia and I had agreed to play it cool at school until we knew what was really going on between us and we were ready to tell Zoe. Which I admit was more me than her.
I met Trevor in the parking lot.
“How’s Rocky?” I asked.
He held out his cell featuring a picture of Rocky nose deep in a jar of peanut butter. “I will not be eating PB&J’s until my mom buys more Jif.”
“How’d he get ahold of that?”
“I left it open on the counter this morning after breakfast.”
“So it’s completely your fault,” I pointed out. “You tempted him, and he caved.”
“He doesn’t have much will power to begin with when it comes to food.”
“Buddy likes food, but he prefers socks.” I told him about the ever-growing sock collection under my bed.
“Your job as a dog owner is to take pictures of your dog in the act of doing funny things.”
I laughed. “I’ll work on my camera skills.”
As we walked across the quad, I spotted Delia talking to Aiden, and my good mood faded. She caught sight of me, stepped away from Aiden, and waved. He turned to see who she was paying attention to, and he smiled like he knew something I didn’t. And I wanted to punch him, which was nothing new. Before, I’d wanted to punch him because he seemed like a rich-entitled-asshole. Now he seemed like a rich-entitled-asshole who was trying to move in on my sort-of girlfriend.
The expression on my face must have clued Delia in, because she abandoned her little group and came toward me. “Why do you look angry?”
“Your friend, and I use that term with great irritation, was smirking at me.”
“I’m sure he wasn’t,” Delia said.
“And you defending him isn’t helping.”
Delia sighed. “Do you want to tell Zoe about us, right now? Because I’ll do it if that will prove to you I’m not interested in Aiden.”
I wasn’t ready to make that move yet. “No. I trust you. I just don’t trust him.”
Delia headed back to Zoe.
Trevor cleared his throat like he had something to say.
“What?”
“I don’t get it. You like her. She likes you. Why don’t you tell Zoe and let the chips fall where they may? Sure, your sister might be weirded out at first, but after she adjusts, I think she’ll be happy for you.”
“Something about it doesn’t feel right yet.” I adjusted the weight of my backpack on my shoulder. “I think Delia is keeping something from me.”
“About what?” Trevor asked.
“I don’t know. Something about how things ended between her and Aiden doesn’t sound right. When was the last time a girl friend-zoned you and you actually wanted to be friends with her afterward?”
“Girls are more in touch with their feelings and all that crap, so maybe Delia just got over it because there wasn’t really anything there in the first place.”
“Maybe.”
Chapter Nineteen
Delia
I was kind of surprised Jack was so stuck on worrying about Aiden. And I couldn’t talk to Zoe about it, and talking to Aiden about it seemed disloyal, so I was stuck mulling it over in my head.
At lunch, Aiden said, “We’re still good for my dad’s dinner on Friday night, right?”
“Your dad’s dinner? I thought you said it would be on a Thursday.” Which was a non-date night, so Jack wouldn’t even have to know about it.
“Sorry, I had the date wrong. Is that a problem?”
Okay. He was asking me this in the cafeteria in front of Zoe and Grant and anyone else who might be listening. Not good. “Friday might be a problem.”
“Why?” Zoe asked. “Do you have a secret boyfriend you’re not telling us about?”
I panicked for a moment until I realized she was joking. “I don’t know my work schedule yet.” Seemed like a reasonable response. “I’ll let you know once I have my schedule.”
Aiden nodded, but he didn’t look pleased. He was my friend, and I wanted to help him, but there was no way Jack would understand if I went someplace with Aiden on a date night. Then again, he wasn’t exactly declaring that he wanted to be my one and only. Why are guys so difficult?
Maybe I’d feel him out a bit in art class, see what he thought of me going someplace with a friend on Friday. He didn’t have to know who the friend was, and if he wasn’t planning on asking me out, did it really matter what I did? I wasn’t sure.
When I walked into art class, something about the room was off. It took me a moment to realize half the chairs were missing, or rather, the chairs were back to the normal number. They must have found someone to teach the other art class. A fine layer of disappointment settled around me. I shook it off. Not seeing Jack in class wasn’t a big deal. But I had looked forward to it. Was I over investing in this pseudo-relationship? Would Jack even care that we weren’t in the same room anymore? Who knew?
“We’re back to having some elbow room,” the teacher said. “To celebrate, we’re going to break out the tabletop easels.”
I grabbed an easel from the cart where they were stored and then waited for instructions.
“I’ve prepared an interesting still life arrangement for you.” He hung three Christmas wreathes on magnetic hooks on the white board. Each wreath was covered in miniature ornaments and toys. They’d be fun to draw, but I couldn’t imagine wanting to hang them in my house.
After class, I turned in my drawing and headed out into the hall. I kept watch for a certain sandy brown-haired guy, but Jack was nowhere to be seen. I hadn’t thought to ask when he worked. I knew I worked tomorrow night, so I guess I’d just wait and see him then. For now, I’d concentrate on me, because focusing on a guy twenty-four hours a day was ridiculous.
This Sunday afternoon was the Christmas Flea Market, where I planned to draw portraits or caricatures of people while Zoe sold cookies and her grandmother sold afghans. When would Zoe want to bake cookies? We’d have to pick a night that fit around my work schedule. Not that she needed my help, but I was usually present for all major baking events.
After our last class, on the walk out to the parking lot, I asked Zoe, “So when does the great bake-off commence for the Christmas Flea Market?”
“I think we should bake Wednesday and Thursday. The cookies will still be fresh, and we won’t have do the last-minute-panic baking.”
“Sounds good.”
“About Aiden,” Zoe said. “This might sound mean, but I don’t think you should go to his dad’s dinner.”
That brought me up short. Like, I literally stopped w
alking. “Really? Why not?”
She grabbed my elbow and pulled me toward Francine. When she reached the SUV, she looked around like someone might be eavesdropping. “I know you say you’re just friends, but to any guy who hears about you going to a party with Aiden on a Friday night, it will sound like you’re dating, which means they’ll think you’re off the market.”
I was off the market, sort of… “I agreed to go when it was a Thursday, but I’m not sure I want to go now that it’s Friday. Why does that make me feel like a bad person?”
“You’re trying to be a good friend, but sometimes you have to do what’s right for yourself first,” Zoe said. “Jack’s friend Trevor is a cute guy who loves his dog, which has to mean he’s a good person. Maybe Jack could set you up with him.”
I almost laughed out loud. “No. I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking Jack to do that.”
“That’s what best friends are for.” Zoe gave me an evil grin, which meant my life was about to become more complicated. She waved at someone coming up behind me. “Hey, Jack. Have you introduced Delia to Trevor?”
Well, this was going to be awkward. I turned around knowing what I’d see. Jack and Trevor walked toward us…both of them looked confused like they didn’t know what to say. Then again, neither did I.
“What do you mean?” Jack asked.
That seemed to be his go-to line.
Zoe rolled her eyes. “Trevor, this is my best friend, Delia.”
“We’ve met,” Trevor said. “Hello, Delia.”
“Hello.” I glared at Zoe. “Thank you for sponsoring this awkward moment.”
“You’re welcome,” Zoe said. “If you think about it, it makes total sense. You’re my best friend. He’s Jack’s best friend. I think you two should go on a date.”
Wow. Now what? Before I could get a word out, Jack said, “Yeah, that doesn’t work for me.” He reached over, took my hand, and pulled me to stand by his side. “Zoe, there’s something you should probably know.”
Zoe pointed at our hands. “What are you doing?”
I gave a hopeful smile. “We planned to tell you, but—”
“We didn’t want to freak you out,” Jack finished for me.