Adam’s dad opened the door to his apartment when I knocked. He wore the same friendly expression Adam defaulted to. “Jolene, hi.”
I hadn’t seen his dad since that day he’d found Adam and me playing cards, so I was thrown that he remembered my name.
I shifted my feet and felt the urge to lower my gaze. “Um, yeah, hi.” I wanted to make fun of myself for the awkwardness controlling my voice and body. “Is Adam here?”
Behind his dad, Adam peeked his head out from his room and the moment he saw me, he smiled. Butterflies filled my stomach and I took a step back. He was the only person who unsettled me like that. “Hey. I was just coming to get you.” Then his face fell and he looked first to his brother, who widened his eyes significantly in return, and then his dad. “I mean, I was going to make sure you got here okay, but then, I, um... I’m going to grab something to eat with...” He eyed his brother and dad again.
Oh.
Right.
The butterflies fled, a slick nausea flooded my stomach in their absence.
It was too fast. Too soon.
I needed to turn around and leave before I did something that’d be worse than getting sick.
“Oh yeah. Sure. That’s fine. I’ll catch you later.” And then, somehow, I was turning and stepping into the hall with no earthly idea where to go. The thought of hiding in my room all weekend made me feel so alone that my eyes stung. Where had I gone before Adam?
“Why don’t you come with us?”
I froze.
The invitation wasn’t shocking in and of itself. It was the person who’d made it.
Adam’s dad.
Somehow that made my eyes sting more. I rapidly blinked the sensation away before turning to face them.
“What?” Jeremy’s reaction was the one I’d been expecting. He stared at his dad looking somewhat put out. I’d also been prepared for the shocked way Adam’s mouth fell open. But their dad... I knew he’d invited me only to try to get Adam to thaw toward him, but I couldn’t understand why he was looking atme. Worse, the smile on his face, the one that was nearly identical to Adam’s a moment before, was focused directly on me without so much as a glance at the audience he had to have been playing for.
“Sure. You gotta eat, right? I know a good cheesesteak place around the corner. And I like to try to get to know the people who are important to my sons.”
I blinked. “I—”
“See, Dad,” Jeremy said. “She’s not hungry.”
I really didn’t like Adam’s brother, but I was grateful for his presence and general turdness that day. It was familiar and normal, and I clung to it.
“If you mean Sonny’s, I’m in.”
Jeremy groaned and his dad laughed. Adam still hadn’t closed his mouth.
Jeremy brushed past all of us, checking his brother in the shoulder. They exchanged a look that seemed to communicate volumes. “Whatever. Whoever is going, let’s go.”
We all went.
“How uncomfortable should I expect this to be?” I asked Adam as we trailed behind in the hallway. “Jeremy’s always beensupersubtle, but I have picked up on the fact that he might not love having me around.”
Instead of laughing like I’d wanted, Adam locked his jaw. “If he pulls any more of that tonight, I’ll shove his cheesesteak down his throat.”
I clasped my hands under my chin. “My hero.” Then I pulled a face and shoved Adam ahead of me.
Halfway down, we ran into Guy. I smiled, getting ready to introduce him and Adam even if that meant giving Adam a massively abridged version of the events surrounding how I’d met Guy. But then Guy did something weird—or, maybe not weird, just unexpected. He completely ignored me.
My smile slipped, making me feel embarrassed that it had ever been there at all.
“Hey, Paul. How’s it going?” Guy said to Adam’s dad.
