Kappy communicated back with another look.
“Justshh,” Colt said firmly, which really confused me.What did these two know that I didn’t?
“I can’tshh!” Kappy argued. “I feel too guilty,” he said through gritted teeth.
Colt’s eyes widened. “No,” he said, sounding like a stern father.
Kappy squeezed his eyes shut. “Yes.”
Colt’s face dropped. A second later, he made a move to go after Kappy, but Kappy dodged to the other side of the kitchen. They braced their hands on the large island counter, both flinching in opposite directions.
“What in the world…?” Piper said, her face scrunched in confusion as her eyes darted between the two guys.
Mer’s eyes went to mine. “What’s going on?”
My eyebrows rose, but no words came out. I was just as clueless as the girls.
“What’s going on is… Kappy is shutting up. Right. Now.” Colt grunted before darting toward Kappy again. Kappy evaded him with a girly shriek and moved to the other side of the kitchen.
“JP, I’m sorry, man,” Kappy started. “But back in July, we stole your phone when you were passed out.” Colt tried to catch him again, but Kappy got away just in time.
“Stop talking,” Colt said, bracing his arms on the island again,looking like a predator ready to pounce.
“No, no, don’t stop,” I said, moving between them. I stared at Kappy.Where the hell was he going with this?“Spit it out,” I demanded.
“We booked the cruise for you. There!” Kappy threw his arms up. “I said it! It’s off my conscience!”
“No, I…” I trailed off. I rubbed my forehead as I tried sifting back through my blurry memory of that night. I couldn’t refute his claim because I couldn’t even remember how I got to bed that night. But if they booked it, that meant they orchestrated me going to Ali. And if Ali thought the cruise wasn’t my idea, would it change how she thought about me? My entire body froze in fear. Ali was probably coming to the same conclusion as me. I was too nervous to look at her.
Colt threw his arms up in the air. “Why, man?” He shook his head. “Everything’s perfect. No one had to know.”
“We just thought you needed some help,” Kappy told me sheepishly. “It was Hans’ idea. Well, no, he told us to encourage you to go, notmakeyou go. But you’re stubborn as hell, so we had to make you think it was your idea. But then you went and knocked up our poor, innocent, little Al Pal.” His shoulders sagged. “And not even with one baby, withtwobabies, and the guiltdoubled.” He smacked a hand to his forehead. “I felt like it was all our fault, ya know?” He straightened and pointed an accusing finger at me. “But you two made the decision to do the no pants dance all on your lonesome! Weneversaid to do that! We wanted you two to talk, not dothat.But everything is okay now, right?” Kappy rambled on. “You’re both happy, right? It all worked out? And JP, you could’ve canceled the ticket the next morning, but obviously you didn’t want to.” He made a safe motion like a baseball ump. “Not our fault!” Kappy blew out a breath and straightened his shirt. “Wow.” He smiled. “I feel a lot better.” He nodded at everyone, but no one else in the room reciprocated his relief.
I scanned the faces in the kitchen, still too nervous to look at Ali. Mer and Piper were staring in shock, so they obviously had no clue. Colt was staring daggers and muttering threats at Kappy. Kappy was holding his hands up in innocence.
Beside me, Ali’s body started shaking.
If this made her cry, I was going to fuckingkillKap—
“That is too funny,” Ali cackled. She held her stomach. “Oh my God, your face.” She pointed up at me, her eyes dancing withlaughter. She tried to take a breath. “I’m going to pee myself,” she exclaimed. She fanned her face and waddled out to the hallway.
Immense relief caved in on me as I watched her go.
When I turned back to the kitchen, everyone in the room was struggling to keep in their laughter.
“Assholes,” I finally said, breaking the last of the tension in the room. My friends all cracked up laughing. I shook my head, trying to keep a straight face. I pointed at all of them. “You’re all assholes.”
THIRD PERIOD
NOVEMBER
32. ALI - MICHIGAN
The night before JP and I were supposed to drive back to Michigan for Thanksgiving, I tossed and turned in bed, trying to find a comfortable position to relax and fall asleep, but as the hours ticked by, I had to accept that it just wasn’t happening.
“You okay?” JP groggily whispered at one point.
“Yeah, all good,” I quickly responded, not wanting to fully wake him. He needed good sleep for his recovery.
