“No, not Jane. Jane’s actually in the room now, and we’re all fine. It’s for…this guy I’ve been seeing.”
“Christ, Lily. Aboy? What did he do?” There was a long-suffering sigh from him, like I asked for this kind of favor all the time.
“He…he stole a car. But it was—”
“What the hell? Why would a Bribury kid need to steal a car? Was it a joy-riding situation? A prank or something?”
“No, not like that. And he doesn’t go to Bribury. He lives in Schoolport.”
There was silence to that bit of news. “Just how good of friends are you with this boy?”
“I’m in love with him,” I said with no hesitation. It was the strongest, the surest my voice had been since that girl had knocked on my door and told me Stick was waiting downstairs.
“But Lily, you just went out on one date with this boy for the first time last night,” my mother said.
“That wasn’t exactly the whole truth. Last night was our first date-date, but we’ve actually been…together for about six weeks.”
“Jesus Christ. A campus full of boys with connections and you date atownie? And a car thief at that?”
“He’s not really a car thief, it was a—”
“Yes, yes, he’d never done anything like it before, and would never do it again. They all say that, Lily.”
It wouldn’t be worth my breath to say that it was true in this case…at least about not doing it again.
I cleared my throat to make sure my voice didn’t crack. “Will you help? I’m sure all it would take is one—”
“I know the DA in Schoolport well, Lily. You don’t think I’d let you and Jane go to school in a town where I didn’t have any connections, did you?”
The thought that he’d chosen my college based on DAs he could call if I was in trouble had never crossed my mind, but I suppose it should have.
No loose ends for Grayson Spaulding.
“I think this kid should just take what he gets, Lily. You can go on with your life and just—”
“But that’s not what will happen,” I said, drawing on my inner Spaulding. “What will happen is I will go over to his apartment and take care of his little brother while he’s in jail. Because Lucas is Andy’s guardian and raising him.” I didn’t need to add that their mother was still in the picture, hopeful she’d be able to stay in rehab until she was ready to be a fit parent to Andy.
I must have really sounded like a little Grayson, because Jane popped her head around the doorway to the bathroom and raised a brow at me, then did a silent golf clap in my direction.
“Not only do I love Lucas, but I’m very fond of his little brother, so if Lucas stays in jail, I’m going to take care of Andy. Which will probably mean a lot of missed classes, maybe even flunking out.”
“Lily,” my father said with warning in his voice.
“And I certainly won’t be around the dorm to keep an eye on Jane. Who knows what she’ll get into?”
Jane smiled at that and mouthed, “Burn!”
There was a moment of quiet. I could hear Stick’s breathing as my father played out all his options in his head.
But I had him with the Jane thing, and I knew it.
“Okay, I’ll make the call and get this kid out, as long as you’re telling me the truth and it was just car theft and he doesn’t have eight outstanding warrants or anything.”
“He doesn’t,” I said. “Thank you, Dad. His name is Lucas Kade. Kade is spelled with a K.”
I heard him write it down, the pencil scratching on paper. “But Lily, I will only make the call if you do something in return. That’s how these things work, I know you know that.”
I did. I’d grown up listening to my father—and mother, for that matter—making deals.
