Her sad brown eyes did me in. And my goose was cooked anyway. There was nothing for it but the truth. “He asked me to come today and give him my opinion on your guy.”
“And you’ve done this before?” She looked so hurt and vulnerable, that I reached out and gripped her ankle, holding it like I might have held her hand if I could.
“I’ve never talked to your dad about your dating life before this week, I swear.”
“Then why now?”
“I guess because he noticed how good I am at making fun of…”
“My boyfriends? And he thinks I broke up with them because of things you said? You wish you held that kind of power over me, Clay.”
“I’ve never held any power over you. Trust me, I know.”
Our eyes met and something potent passed between us. Something I shouldn’t have allowed.
“Lauren?”
We glanced over at the guy walking towards us who I could only assume was Denver. I released her ankle and jumped to my feet, brushing off the grass.
He put out his hand to shake mine. “You must be one of Lauren’s brothers. I’m Denver.”
“Clay.”
Lauren got to her feet and kicked at the ground. “Clay is like the extra brother I never wanted.”
Denver laughed. “Well, that’s rude.”
“No, I mean, he’s a neighbor kid who refused to go home. He’s best friends with my brother.”
“Oh, cool.” Denver glanced behind us at the back porch where the O’Dells and the rest of Lauren’s family were standing, watching us with rapt attention. “Um, your mom says lunch is ready, Lauren.”
10
___________
Lauren
The O’Dells had shown up just in time to make things extra awkward. Our life-long neighbors, Patty and Roger, had always teased Clay and I about how we were meant to end up together, and like the rest of their conspiracy theories, they’d convinced absolutely no one in the past. Well, I was secretly in agreement with them on the Roswell cover-up thing.
Patty put her hands to her cheeks and looked at Clay and me as if we had just fulfilled all her day-time soap opera fantasies. “Aren’t the two of you adorable? Absolutely adorable. Like I always say—” She cut off when she saw Denver standing next to me and blinked. “That uh, you young people are the cutest. Who’s this?”
“This is Denver. So, lunch is ready?”
I grabbed Denver’s hand and went to claim our seats at the table. Dad came around and shook Denver’s hand before sitting next to him and politely asking him about sports teams and hobbies and lots of totally normal things that made me suspicious. Dad never made small talk.
It was because he knew I’d overheard him talking to Clay and he wanted to make up for it. That was all. I took a long drink of lemonade before reaching out for Jax. My appetite had gone dormant, and I knew Melissa would relish the chance to eat with both hands. She handed him over like I’d volunteered as tribute for her in the Hunger Games.
It wasn’t just my dad. The whole family was super nice to Denver during the meal, and that only made me feel worse. It didn’t matter. Denver was already breaking up with me, or un-dating me, or whatever you did when you went on a handful of dates with a person and decided it was better to not call again.
I could see it in his body language, in the way he studied Clay when he thought no one else was looking. It didn’t stop Denver from eating steak. I think he ate three, along with two baked potatoes and a whole plate of salad. I almost smiled. Going out to eat with him had always been fun. He made food an event, a concept I could really get behind. And now it was all over. Back to meeting guys who thought it was romantic to text and ask for sexy pictures. I had an image of a warthog on my phone for just such occasions before I blocked their numbers.
“What happened with the alarm going off?” I asked Parker, realizing I wasn’t being a part of the conversation as much as I should be. I took my slice of key lime pie from Mom without meeting her eyes. She’d be able to read me if I looked at her too closely, and I wasn’t ready for that. I’d cry with her later, when I knew exactly what it was that made me want to cry.
“Nothing. A cottontail probably tripped it going through the fence.” Parker glanced from me, to Clay, to Denver, and back again, and I inwardly flinched. There was a curiosity there, a wariness. Clay washisfriend, not mine. I was getting in the way of Parker’s perfectly ordered life, messing things up. As the middle kid, Parker was naturally territorial. And as the baby, I was the one who got everything. Or so he thought.
But I wasn’t taking anything from Parker. Not this time. He was seeing something that wasn’t there, the way the O’Dells saw Elvis as alive and kicking and Bigfoot hiding in the woods, leaving trails of DNA for the Travel Channel to capitalize on. Yeah, maybe Clay found me attractive, but only enough to tease when nobody else was around to see it. I swallowed the lump in my throat and told myself I didn’t care.
“This key lime pie is amazing.” Denver shook his head. “Thanks so much, Mrs. H.”
