Well that hurt a little. But I knew from experience that once Tommy made the effort, the rest would follow. I just had to be patient. Fortunately, I was good at that. “Okay. But did you want some tickets? Pick a date, I’ll get tickets, and we could hang out afterward.”
He looked up, his hazel eyes bright with tears. “I’d like that. Jill would, too, if that’s okay.”
“That would be fantastic,” I said with a grin.
Then he smiled at me, and I knew we were okay. Finally, I had my best friend back.
“So, um, there’s something else. That girl reporter. The Chinese one. She talked to Jill.”
I winced. Of course she did. Because Heidi would never let a story go even when I begged her to.
“What did Jill say?”
“Everything. The honest truth. And then she called me and chewed my ass out.”
I made a sympathetic sound. “Jill does know how to make a guy feel like shit.”
“Ain’t that right?” he groused. “The thing is, that Chinese girl? We all know you were seeing her in Broken Bow. We all know she’s important to you.”
So much for dating Heidi incognito. I thought we’d been so careful.
“Anyway, Jill said that while they were talking, she got an email.” He took a deep breath. “Something about her application to UCLA.”
My heart lurched. UCLA was Heidi’s first choice in law school. The one with a program for journalists. Could she be planning to go there? To Los Angeles which was a hell of a long way from Indianapolis.
“Oh shit,” I mumbled, my mind already racing. “I have to call her.” I had to find a way to fix things between us before she moved to California.
Fortunately, Tommy took the cue and held out his hand. “Good luck, Rob. I’m sorry I’ve been a shit.”
I took his hand, but it wasn’t enough. I pulled him into a hug and it felt damned good. He must have felt it, too, because he was slapping my back just like he had when we were in high school. And when we separated, he got me with an old jab.
“You still drop your shoulder too much when you throw.”
He was right. “And you still smell like cheese farts.”
He snorted. “You try sitting in a company truck for sixteen hours. You won’t smell pretty, either.”
I laughed. “I’ve sat on a Bobcats bus. That’s disgusting enough.”
He was still chuckling as he left. I watched him until he got on the elevator, but the moment the doors closed, I was back in my apartment and firing up my computer.
Three years ago, I hadn’t had Heidi’s phone number and I’d let that stop me from finding her. This time, I was pulling out all the stops. No matter what, she and I were going to talk.
Chapter Nineteen
Heidi
No one could serve up food with as much guilt as my mother. And what was worse? She didn’t even know she was doing it.
It was nine in the morning and I was sitting in my parents’ kitchen eating my favorite feel-better food: egg drop soup with noodles and corn. It was a carb-and-cholesterol deathtrap, but it always made me feel better. She’d made it from scratch the moment I’d told her I wasn’t going to law school.
Naturally, my parents had assumed I’d done poorly on the LSATs and I didn’t correct that impression. Hence the guilt as I sat there scarfing down soup for breakfast while she tried to make me feel better by giving “helpful” suggestions.
“There are classes to help with the LSATs. You should take one of those and ace the test. Your father and I could help pay for that.”
“It wasn’t my LSAT scores, Mama. They were fine.”
“But they could be better, yes? Unless it was your essay.”
