Denver: Clothes optional. 10-4.
“What a dork,” Jenny said, from right over my shoulder.
I jumped, and my phone jumped out of my hands before I reclaimed my grip on it. “Jen, don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“I was standing right here. You had phone blindness.”
Ihadbeen concentrating awfully hard, debating whether to warn Denver that my family could be intense or just let it be a surprise. Maybe, as good natured as Denver was, he wouldn’t notice.
“What’s this about a clothes-optional barbeque?” Jenny reached around me and grabbed a yogurt.
“I was inviting Denver to my family’s thing on Sunday.”
Jenny put her hands on her hips. “I thought you didn’t want your dad to meet him.”
“I don’t.” I took out the milk and put it on the table before getting a bowl and spoon. Cereal for dinner, baby. “I got tricked into it.”
Jenny sat across from me and tucked her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. “This ought to be good.”
I relayed my dad’s evil plan to make me choose between two things I didn’t want to do. The more I thought about it, the more diabolical it seemed. My dad had clearly missed his true calling as a CIA interrogator.
Jenny reached over and took a handful of Honey Nut Cheerios out of the box next to me. “Who comes to these Sunday lunches? I mean, besides your brothers and your sister-in-law and the kids? Is that it?”
“Maybe the O’Dells. They’ve lived across the street from us since I was in diapers, and they love free food and family drama. We provide large helpings of both. And Clay sometimes…” Shoot. Clay might be there. Since I’d never brought a guy home, that had never bothered me before, but there was no way I’d bring Denver over if Clay was there to observe us like specimens in a jar.
I looked up to see Jenny watching me, eating another handful of Honey Nut Cheerios like it was buttered popcorn and I was her favorite movie. “Clay and Denverandyour family. Have fun with that.”
“Not Clay. I’ll make sure he’s not there.” If luck was on my side, I wouldn’t have to say anything, and he wouldn’t show up. But luck was rarely on my side, especially when it came to Clay. Considering he had responded with “make me” after I asked him to wear a seatbelt, I wasn’t getting my hopes up.
7
___________
Clay
Parker and I hadn’t been on a road trip together in years, and it felt like we were slipping back into old times, except that I spent most of the time working on my laptop rather than trying to beat my record in Angry Birds. John only let me come on the condition that I take an online certification class while we drove home. It was one of those classes that wouldn’t let you continue to the next page until their clock said you’d spent enough time on the quiz at the bottom. I don’t think I could have physically sat through all ten hours of this class anywhere else but in the cab of a bucket truck.
“Thirty miles to Las Vegas. We might be home by midnight after all.” Parker shifted in his seat. “Do you remember the girl in our science lab I was always partnered with? Denise?”
“Junior year?”
“Yeah. I ran into her at the grocery store the other day, and she asked me out. She asked about you, though.”
Oh,thatDenise. I remembered her. She had used Parker’s crush on her to try to get close to me in high school. Not cool. “So, are you going out with her?”
Parker scoffed. “No. If you were happily married and living in another state, yes, I’d totally go out with her, because she’s still hot. But no. She’s also still completely interested in stalking you. I gave her your address and the passcode to turn off your security system.”
I lightly punched him in the arm and stole a Starburst from the bag he had perched on the console. “It’s too bad you didn’t run into the other Denise. The one from college.”
Parker frowned. “No, that ship has sailed. I do still like short, angry brunettes though.”
“I’ll keep my eyes peeled for one.”
“Keep an eye out for yourself. When was the last time you dated anybody?”
“Too long.” I did not want to have this conversation with him, especially while picturing Lauren, wondering what she was up to right now. She liked us to think she was out having fun all the time, but Lauren was a homebody at heart. She was probably sitting on her couch in front of her TV, balancing dinner on her lap, wearing yoga pants, fuzzy socks, and a tank top. That’s what she’d worn to bed in high school. Not that I’d noticed or anything. I focused back on the page of technical jargon and flicked myself in the jaw for good measure.
“You getting tired?” Parker glanced at me. His sharp eyes missed nothing. “I’m good to drive the rest of the trip.”
