Noah did as he was told, and after I slid into the passenger side, he placed his hand on my shoulder. “Are you going to be my mom’s boyfriend?”
I looked back at him and then over to his mom. “How would you feel about that if I did?”
He was silent a minute, thinking. “It’s okay.”
“Yeah?”
“Uh-huh. You can teach me how to be a rock star.”
“I can do that.” I laughed, impressed with how well this kid coped with change.
“Hey,” I said, looking back at him. “You’re okay, Noah.”
We didn’t even make it out of the parking lot before the call came in from Tucker. Actually, many calls had come in from Tucker, but I’d had my phone off since the homeless shelter and had forgotten to return it to the normal settings.
“Hello?”
“Chili’s, Quinn? You’re at Chili’s?”
How the hell did he know that? I looked out the window for any signs of a drone hovering about or even a swarm of Tracker Jackers. Upon finding none, I was left assuming the worst.
“Have you put a tracking device on my phone?”
“Yes, Quinn. It’s called fans, and you put a tracking device on yourself. You’re like a walking bullseye. All I have to do is type your name into Twitter and I can follow you all over town.”
“Well…shit.” The word just slipped out. I glanced back at Noah. “I meant poo.”
A smile spread across his face. “But you said the other one.”
“But you didn’t hear it,” I said, trying to use the force to direct his mind.
“Yes, I did.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Jess stopped the childish duel with a swish of her hand.
“Are you still there?” Tucker asked.
“Yes, sorry. Jess and I picked her son up at his after-school program and went to dinner.”
“I know.”
“I find it creepy that you know that.”
“Don’t be. Pretty much anyone under thirty knows where you are. Listen, Quinn, I know having the spotlight on you and not Jake is a new thing, but you need to be more careful. For example: dinner. I could have called ahead. Got you in a back door, found a private corner.”
“Chili’s has a back door?”
“You know what I mean. I’m used to dealing with excitable fans—I managed a boy band, for god’s sake—but I can’t help you unless I know where you are and where you’re going.”
“Okay. Sorry.”
“So whereareyou going?”
I paused. I knew where I wanted to go, but that didn’t mean it was where we were going to go. “I don’t know.”
“Quinn!” He tsked.
