Mom stood and looked at Aunt Jackie. “These kids. You always gotta feed ‘em.”
Rather than take me back to Rafferty’s after lunch, Mom took me back to her house on the other side of town. I caught a quick nap and woke up to my cell phone ringing.
Rafferty’s name lit up the screen.
I smiled and took the call. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself. Where are you?” he asked.
“Oh, I’m at Mom’s. I thought you’d be at the clubhouse all day.”
“Yeah, but I get an hour break, and thought I’d have a late lunch with you at my place.”
I pressed my lips together. “Sorry. Mom and Jackie took me out to eat, and then…it made sense to bring me back here.”
He went silent for a beat. “How are you planning to getbackhere?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Worst case scenario, I can catch an Uber. It almost sounds like you have plans for us tonight, but we never really discussed that, other than hitting the bar on Saturday.”
He blew out a breath. “Yeah. I thought we’d hang at the clubhouse tonight.”
My brows furrowed. “Prospects don’t get to just hang at the clubhouse.”
He chuckled. “You’re right, butyoucan hang at the clubhouse.”
“I see.”
“No, there’s more. My plan was for us to spend the night there because I know neither of our parents will be around tonight.”
I tipped my head back for a slow nod. “Ah. I’ll see if—”
“No, I’ll call Jasmine. See if she can bring you over here. She works at One Night Taco Stand, and she’s got a shift tonight.”
“Oh, no. I’m such a bad friend. I should have called her about all the crap going on… She’s going to be mad at me.”
“No, she isn’t,” Rafferty said in a steely tone.
“You don’t know that.”
“Why do you thinkIwant to call her?” he asked, his tone back to normal.
“Oh.” A thought struck me. “As much as I appreciate that, it isn’t cool to tell her she’s not allowed to be mad at me because I didn’t call or text when—”
“You had finals. You just lost your friend and roommate. And you also had me to deal with. No, your plate was full enough, she should cut you some slack.”
My lips twisted to the side. “When you put it like that, I guess you have a point.”
“You guess?”
“She should be able to—”
“No, I care about both of you and she’d feel like shit if she lays into you and then finds out everything you were dealing with - this way I’m protecting you both.”
Maybe I’d been wrong when I’d said I’d be cool with the overzealous protectiveness.
“You’re quiet, Lex.”
I smiled. “Let’s just say, I’m seeing the ways you’re just like Dad… but even more over the top.”
