I blinked at him.
“If you want me to go, I’ll leave,” he said. “I just felt like if you didn’t want me to know where you were, you wouldn’t have posted those photos.”
“I didn’t know you were following me!”
“You aren’t followingme.”
No. I was anonymously stalking him, like a healthy person. But tiny, blissful heart-shaped bubbles were filling up my chest now that I knew he’d been doing the same.
Fen leaned back against the restroom door, studying me. “I absolutely understand why you left the lake now. I didn’t before. But I do now. Triangulation.”
“Tri…”
“It’s when one person pits another against a third person. Like an alliance? I learned about it in therapy. It’s part of whathappened to me, Eddie, and my dad. My father ended up playing the role of a mastermind who tried to manipulate both me and Eddie. But basically, I wanted you to be in my alliance, and Eddie did too. That left you being pulled in two directions. Triangulation.”
“Huh.” I tapped my finger on my leg. “How do you fix it?”
“We conspire to murder Eddie. Problem solved,” he deadpanned.
“Right. Any non-murderous fixes?”
He feigned a heavy sigh. “I suppose we could forgive Eddie for his mistakes, ask him to do the same, and try the messy business of getting along. But that’sso muchharder, when one deadly road trip to Vancouver would solve all our problems—bonus, we’d get that Bonnie-and-Clyde race from the police that we’ve dreamed about.”
I chuckled a little, then wiped at my eyes. “I start school soon. I think an outstanding murder on my record would interfere with my studies. Maybe that other thing you mentioned?”
“I mean, if you can handle that kind of commitment,” he said lightly. Teasingly. “Sounds like a lot of work to me.”
He was joking, but every move he made was sending wild feelings through me—the way he pushed his curls out of his eye. The way his thumb nervously rubbed against his index finger. Those piano hands… why were they my downfall?
“I didn’t expect you to be here today,” I told him. “I hoped you’d see my posts, but in my reunion fantasy, you just texted or called. This is very overwhelming and unexpected.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
I shook my head vigorously.
“I’ve been in Glendale for a week, and I tried to come here last Saturday, but I chickened out. My grandmother convinced me to give it another shot. And, uh, I had something for you.”
“For me?”
He lowered his shoulder and dropped his backpack to unzip it, then dug around inside. He pulled something out and set the backpack on the floor next to Frida. “Here…”
I accepted what he was offering with a racing heart. And as I inspected it, I could feel his gaze on my face.
It was a plastic sleeve with a single piece of black vinyl inside.
Black Flag.My War. Side 2. I flipped it over. Side 2.
It was the legendary Double Deuce.
I couldn’t even say anything. I tried. I held up a hand to gesticulate my feelings, but all I could do was wave and point at the record.
“You found…” I started. I was going to cry over a record? “You found it.”
“I told you I would,” he said patiently. Proudly.
“The Holy Grail. I can’t believe it. I never thought I’d see it. My dad will bawl like a baby.”
“I’m glad.” He smiled, satisfied, and then scratched his neck and gestured toward the record. “I looked for it every single night online. I emailed. I texted. I bid. I made so many phone calls to the weirdest people. I even talked to a guy long-distance in France. Funny enough, it was my dad who ended up helping mefind it. Someone who lives at the lake made me a trade.”
