I thought he’d ask again for me to get Jane to stand in the wedding, and my heart sank, knowing there was no way Jane would do it, not even for Lucas. Not even for me.
But that wasn’t his price. “You have to promise me, Lily, that if I get these charges dropped on this kid that you won’t see him again. I can’t take the risk of you being tied to him if it comes out that I stepped in. Let people just think…well, shit, I don’t care what they think, but it can’t be tied back to you.”
“I…I…” My moment of victory was crashing around me. The thought of giving up Lucas making me breathless, hardly able to speak.
“Besides, clearly this boy isn’t a good choice for you.”
“But…Mom?” I said, hoping, pleading that she’d intervene on my behalf.
“I think your father has a good point, Lily. Obviously this boy, though you might love him, does not seem to be…good for you.”
I thought of all the times I lay in Lucas’s arms and felt strong, felt myself becoming the person I was meant to be. How could that not be good for me?
“But you don’t—”
“It’s a deal breaker, Lily,” my father said.
“Okay,” I said on a whisper, finding it painful to even breathe.
“Okay. I’ll text you after I’ve spoken—”
“Wait. Wait. I need one more thing,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“I need to see Lucas one more time.”
“Lily…”
“To break up with him in person. I have to do it in person. Anything else would be…cowardly.”
“Okay,” my father agreed, quicker than I would have guessed. “I admire you wanting to do that, Lily. And I admire your negotiating skills, young lady. We may have another Spaulding in the political arena yet.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, and he just laughed, happy that a simple phone call was getting an undesirable boyfriend out of his daughter’s life and discovering that she might be as politically savvy as himself.
Yeah, he was happy. And I was devastated.
“And Lily, I won’t be able to know for sure that you’ve stopped seeing him. There are all kinds of ways around that. I’m taking you at your word.”
I looked at Stick, and then at Jane, who had come all the way out of the bathroom. They’d been able to hear my parents’ side of the conversation in the small room. I knew that from hearing countless conversations between Jane and her mother.
“You have my word,” I said.
The phone call ended. I held my hand out to Stick for his phone, which he gave me. It was just like that first night when Lucas had taken my phone and called his phone with it. I did the same thing now. The noise of my phone ringing startled me, even though I’d just dialed it myself. I handed the phone back to Stick.
“Now you have my number. Call me when Lucas is out and we know for sure the charges have been dropped.” He nodded. “And don’t say anything to Lucas about what you just heard.” He opened his mouth to protest. “I need to tell him myself.”
“He’s going to want to know why the charges were dropped.”
I waved a hand. “You can tell him I called my father and he called the DA. Just don’t tell him…the other.”
He nodded, and placed a hand awkwardly on my shoulder. “That was well done, Lily, really.”
“Yay, me,” I said with absolutely no emotion. My feelings were going into shut-down mode, I could tell. Self-preservation. “If it’s not cleared up by morning and Lucas isn’t home by the time Mrs. Jankowski wakes up, call me and I’ll go over there.”
He nodded. “Got it.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Nothing Basic about what you just did,” he whispered in my ear, then kissed me on the cheek.
He nodded at Jane as he left. She nodded back, their claws for each other subsiding for the moment.
