“Hang on! You should want to go. You’re giving some award, aren’t you? You’re headlining!”
“I think they’ll survive without me.”
“But you’re the hometown hero! Where’s your sense of duty?”
Jake snorted. “Oh yeah. A weekend of pricks telling me how to do my job, or in bed with the hottest girl in the world. Tough call, Renaldo.”
I laughed. “I dunno. I’ll feel like an asshole for ditching.”
“I won’t. I only wanted to go because I thought someone might know where you’d got to. Now I know exactly where you’ve got to, and I want you all to myself.”
My heart gave a silly little skip. “I’m not saying I’m not tempted, but I made a promise to Cece.”
“Cece won’t mind. She knows the whole thing’s a wank.”
It’s the first time I thoughtI might love this man.
But I didn’t give him a ‘yes.’ There’s Cece, sure, but there was alsosomething about the way he was pushing that pinged my warning radar.
“Ada?”
Cece’s watching me with concern. “Sorry, a lot on my mind.”
“About Jake?”
“Kind of.” I chew the inside of my cheek. “How would you feel… about me not coming to the reunion?”
She looks like I shot her childhood dog. “Are you kidding?”
“I dunno. Jake wants us to go away that weekend. He thinks me being there might be a bad idea.”
He said no such thing, and I know I’m being a coward, blaming him. The truth is,I’mstarting to think it might be a bad idea. I won’t be able to pull off anything satanic with Jake glued to my hip, and that just leaves a weekend of trauma flashbacks and bad wine. But as I look at Cece, her eyes start to shimmer, and Ifeellike I just shot her childhood dog.
“Sorry,” I say quickly. “I’ll come. Of course I’ll come.”
“No,” she says, wiping her eyes. “You should go away with Jake. It’s so nice you’ve met someone.”
She bursts into full-tilt tears, and I leap up to hug her.
“Fuck Jake. I’ll come. I promised, and I meant it.”
“Really?” she sobs into my shoulder. “I feel so bad! I just know I’ll have the worst time without you. I want to talk to Will, but I need you there too. I won’t feel confident without you. But now I feel guilty!”
A smile pulls at my lips. “Well, now we both feel guilty, so I’d say it’s settled. Let’s fuck up Pukekohe for keeps.”
She gives a watery laugh. “Thanks, Addy.”
“Anytime, baby girl.”
Cece swipes a fist across her eyes. “Can I bum your vape?”
I make a face. “Sorry, I, uh, thought I’d give quitting another try.”
“Oh my God,Addy!”
“Come on, I don’t vape that hard.”
Cece’s eyes dartsideways.
