“I’ll do my best, but Mom hates surprises.” Ally smiled at the guy. “Canweknow what you’re doing?”
“Sorry, girls. It’s your dad’s orders.” He shoved somepapers into his back pocket and hurried back into the hall. “We’ll have to make several trips through the house.”
“Ugh.” Ally grumbled and took a seat on a built-in cabinet under one window. “Does your dad do weird stuff like this?”
“He used to.” She hoisted herself up beside her friend. “I miss those days.”
“I’m sorry. I forgot about your mom.” Ally let the sentence hang for a long moment, maybe curious to hear more about how she’d died.
“It’s okay. I’m just ready for my father to have a life again. He’s spent so long being sad.” Sometimes it made her feel guilty. Like she didn’t love her mom enough and that’s why she didn’t spend all her time feeling down about her death.
Itwasheartbreaking. She’d have a hole in her heart her entire life because of it. But she also felt her mother would want her to go out and be happy whenever she could. Use her creative gifts. Give back to the world. That’s how her mom was—selfless and kind.
She wanted so much to be like that and not like Brandon. Brandon, whose letter said he’d spend the rest of his life being sorry for what he’d done. As if that helped.
“My mom has been sad for a long time, too,” Ally kept her voice low as footsteps came down the hall toward them. “I just hope whatever surprise this is, it makes things better and not worse.”
The delivery guys appeared with two huge, long, flat boxes and started cracking them open with a crowbar. While Ally asked them questions they wouldn’t answer, Sarah noticed Mrs. Finley dart past the door every now and then. She thought about going out there to keep hercompany—or offer to make mac and cheese for everyone—but her phone buzzed with a text.
Can I see you tomorrow?
Lucas.
She’d been thinking about him since they’d kissed in the woods during the tailgate party. She’d had to beg him not to come out and introduce himself to her father. She just wasn’t ready for that complication yet. But she could tell he’d been frustrated with her.
“Ally.” She showed her the message while the construction crew went to work hammering boards together for a large frame. “Are you going to Lucky’s tomorrow?”
“If the weather is nice, for sure.” Ally watched the guys work. “I’ll bet half my class will be there.”
Lucky’s? she texted back.
Her phone buzzed again a few seconds later.
How about some place quieter?
She didn’t show that one to Ally. She still hadn’t asked him about the rumors of his bad reputation, so she didn’t know how serious they were. How smart would it be to meet him somewhere private when she didn’t know that much about him?
Funny, she could practically hear Mathilda’s voice in her head telling her it was a bad idea.
I kinda like the idea of a reunion under the slide.
She hit Send, hoping he’d be okay with that. She felt guilty for the mixed messages. She’d been trying to forget about the letter from jail last night, and she’d gladly indulged in kissing and a little more than that to put everything else out of her head.
No doubt about it, she regretted misleading him since she was thinking they’d better put the brakes on the physical side of things until they knew more about each other.
Ok. But we need to talk.
She stared at his message while Ally texted her friends about the surprise construction crew in the basement. Sarah didn’t want to be rude, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to stay the whole time they put the mystery furniture—or whatever it was—together. Besides, Lucas’s message made her a little uneasy. She needed time on her own to process it.
Would he give her a hard time about not introducing him to her father? She hadn’t had a real boyfriend in two years. She’d had fast, hot hookups that had been sorta physical while maintaining her virginity. She liked Lucas too much for that kind of thing.
And in the past week and a half, she felt she’d outgrown it. She was eighteen now. She’d admitted the truth to her dad about the college application fiasco. She’d told him about the letter. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she was in the driver’s seat for her future. She wanted to dobetter than she had in the past. Then again, so did Lucas. Maybe they could reform together.
Finally, she typed, Me, too.
“Oh my God. Sarah, are you looking at this?” Ally grabbed her arm.
Pocketing her phone, she looked at the project taking shape in the game room.
