“Okay,” she told the dog. “Here we go.” With a big exhale, she pushed through the gate of her mom and Peter’s backyard and headed straight for the lady of the hour, who was holding court in the center of the partygoers.
“Happy graduation, Belly!” She hugged her half sister, who squealed and hugged her back.
Belly glanced curiously over Thea’s shoulder, and of course there was no Moo Daddies drummer to be found. But Theawas. Not. Thinking. About. That. Today.Today was about Belly, and the wretched state of her heart would just have to wait. She just needed to fake her way through the next hour or so and then fall apart at home. Brave face on, big smile activated. Nobody would be the wiser.
Bless her heart, Annabelle didn’t say a word about Aiden’s absence, instead crouching to scratch Blue’s ears. “Hello, pretty girl! Don’t you look fetching today?”
Blue wriggled in delight, setting her rhinestone collar jingling. “She really is the best dog,” Thea said. “So how does it feel to say buh-bye to Beaucoeur High?”
“Amazing.” Annabelle, taller than Thea by a head and a half, slung an arm around her shoulder as they cased the backyard. “Okay, here’s the lay of the land. My high school peeps are at the food table—don’t worry, Mom had it catered—and Dad and his gross coworkers are hanging out by the grill.” She wrinkled her nose. “It’s not even on! I will never understand what it is with men and grills.”
Thea’s smile vanished. She had a brand-new grill sitting in her yard, and the guy who’d bought it for her wasn’t going to be coming around anymore. “Yeah. Heh. Men and meat,” she said weakly.
The new graduate didn’t even notice her strained tone. “Anyway, the gift table’s there, Mom’s gossiping with the aunts inside, and most importantly, there’s the drink station.” She concluded by pointing one black-and-red manicured nail at a little bar cart tucked against the side of the house.
“Then that’s where I shall be.” Drink to forget, right? If so, she’d better startright now. “By the way, please tell me you’re gonna ditch this shindig and spend at least part of tonight doing something outrageous with your friends.”
“Pssht, of course. When I give the signal, execute Operation Distract Mom.”
They exchanged the complicated fist-bump handshake they’d perfected when Belly was still using training wheels, and Thea couldn’t help but smile as she crossed the yard to pour herself a glass of merlot. Peter was a pain in the ass, but she did love his daughter with all her heart.
Wine in one hand and Blue’s leash in the other, she began making the rounds. Her eyes still throbbed from the tears she’d shed that morning, but she’d compensated with dramatic eyeliner and bright red lips. Hopefully nobody would notice the misery following her like a shadow. She stopped first at the gift table to deposit a wrapped box containing the high-end backpack Belly’d been coveting for months.
Then she moved on to greet Annabelle’s teachers over the cheese tray, followed by the pack of tall girls her sister had played varsity volleyball with as they devoured a mound of pigs in a blanket. Every single one of the lanky eighteen-year-olds had uniformly straight, glossy hair and healthy, glowing skin. She had a decade more life experience than all of them, and she was being thoroughly shown up in the beauty department. If Aiden were here, he’d tease her about her inferiority complex—
Shit. No. Aiden wasn’t here. She’d gotten exactly what she asked for that morning when she’d made it clear he had zero place in her life. She and Blue were flying solo, and it wasmiserable. But she forged onward, chatting with cousins, neighbors, and a big-eared, broad-smiling fellow graduate she suspected was more than a little head over heels for her sis. Good luck to them both.
After twenty minutes, she hit thescrew itpoint and turned to brave Peter and his guffawing posse of fellow white male insurance agents. Not like the day could get worse, right? She crossed to the all-male cluster—still gathered around the massive silver grill—and greeted her stepdad with a perfunctory kiss on the cheek.
“Hi.” She kept it short and waited for him to rain down hell about the fact that she was there without her boyfriend.
Instead, he surprised her by saying, “Good to see you. Fellas, this is my stepdaughter Thea. She works for the Brick radio station.”
“Hello, gentlemen! What’s new in insurance?” she said brightly to the half dozen ruddy-faced polo shirt wearers surrounding her. She’d mastered the art of doe-eyed obsequiousness over the course of her many jobs, and she knew this crowd would eat it up like she was driving a golf cart full of imported beer into their midst. “Isn’t everyone so excited for Annabelle? She’s going to love Northwestern.”
“Hope so.” Peter used a red-and-blackHappy Graduationnapkin to mop at his sweaty forehead. “It’s going to cost us enough.”
The men all nodded and harrumphed about tuition and highway robbery and student loans, leaving Thea free to glance down at Blue.Now, girl. Do your dirty, sinful business on Peter’s stupid tassel shoes. That little bit of petty revenge might be the only bright spot in her weekend. But Blue just rolled to her back and waved her paws in the air in a blatant invitation for a belly rub. All the men ignored her friendly overture, the monsters, so Thea bent to do the honors.
“Gonna have to hold off on getting that boat, huh Pete?” one of the men asked.
Peter clapped a hand over his heart. “Bite your tongue. That Cat 34’s got my name on it.”
Thea glanced up sharply. “Oh! I was just out on a Cat 34 with my… friends.”
The men all turned surprised faces to her, and as she stood, she dug through the recesses of her brain to recall any factoids Trip had offered aboutthe Hammerheadthe day before. “Its motor will absolutely get you where you need to go, but on a breezy afternoon, you won’t find any better mode of transportation than those big, beautiful sails.”
Although the memory brought nothing but pain, she offered the group a toothy smile and breathed a silent sigh of relief when they all muttered their approval of her sailing prowess. Peter’s surprised gaze rested on her for a long moment, and she braced for some cutting comment about her getting her boat lingo all wrong.
But he just raised his beer bottle in salute. “I was in your neighborhood the other day. House is looking good.”
She mustered a smile. “Thanks. I’d love to have you and Mom for dinner sometime soon.”
“Let’s schedule something,” he said. “Landscaping could use some work though. Need the number of our gardener?”
Just like that, her equilibrium vanished, and she cut the conversation short and handed Blue off to Annabelle for a spot of sisterly dog-sitting so she could escape for a few minutes. She skirted the kitchen, where the family matriarchy was gathered to dissect the latest gossip, and headed to her old bedroom on the second floor. It no longer had a decor aesthetic straight out of Lisa Frank’s trippiest nightmare, but it still had her old twin-size bed. She kicked off her flats and flopped onto the boring beige comforter, the bed frame creaking as it had for a decade. If she closed her eyes, it was just like being back in high school. Of course, back then she’d only imagined what it would be like to get to kiss Aiden Murdoch. Now she knew: it was incredible, and only a deeply damaged person would toss it aside lightly.
She curled onto her side and pulled her knees to her chest as if that would ease the ache in her heart. If only he hadn’t taken her by surprise with his declarations of love. If only he’d eased her into it, given her the chance to get used to the idea that he truly felt things for her that went past friendly affection. If only…
