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“I’m not planning to ride the train back.” Rachel grabbed her toiletry bag from the shelf and moved toward the door. All the while we’d been talking, her hair had shielded her face. She was hiding something and avoiding looking at me.
“What’s going on?” Concern whipping through me, I grabbed her arm before she could slip out the door.
“Nothing.” She wouldn’t look at me.
“It’s not nothing when you’re being evasive like this.” I had a terrible thought. She seemed in an unusually buoyant mood lately. “You’re not doing drugs, are you?”
“What?” Her blue eyes wide, Rachel met my gaze and shook her head. “No, Addy. I’d never do drugs.”
“Good.” I exhaled my relief. After finding out about Collin, I was spooked, imagining I saw the specter of drugs everywhere.
“I met someone,” she said softly, and her eyes brightened. “A guy.”
I rolled my eyes. “You meet a lot of guys.”
Rachel was always getting hit on. Little slips of paper with phone numbers scribbled on them fluttered out of her guitar case whenever she opened it. Being in the band was bad enough, but singing at the coffee house gave her even more exposure to guys vying for her attention.
“This one is different.”
My big-sister radar went on flashing red alert. “How is he different?”
Rachel shrugged. “He just is.”
“What’s his name?” A million questions flooded my mind, and I blurted them out rapid-fire. “How well do you know him? How well does he know you? Does he know our situation?”
“His name is Daniel Walsh. He’s tall and handsome.” Her tone turned wistful, and she blushed. “He goes to UDub, but he’s graduating this month. He has a job offer already lined up with Aranco.”
“What kind of job?” I narrowed my eyes. A degree from the University of Washington opened a lot of doors, but not all of them paid well. It depended on the candidate and the degree program.
“He’s going to be a wildlife ecology consultant.”
“He likes animals?” Wow, this guy did not sound like her type.
“Yes, but he loves birds the most.”
Sonot her type. “Did you sleep with him?”
“No.”
That was totally unusual for Rachel. My sister was into serial hookups. She never let any guy close.
“Why didn’t you say anything about him before now?” I asked, suspicious as hell about this guy.
“Because you just broke up with Collin. Because our mother just died. Because I knew you’d probably disapprove.”
Her matter-of-fact statements hit me like blows. “You have nothing in common, honey.” I was reeling at the knowledge that someone else I loved had kept a secret from me, a big one.
“Because he’s Lakeside,” she muttered. “And I’m Southside trash.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Because you’re a beautiful, talented young woman, and he sounds like a rich nerd.”
Rachel was underage, much younger than he was. But I knew better than to bring that up.
“Daniel says he’s in love with me.”
I snorted. “After he’s known you what, a week?”
She lifted her chin. “He told me he was falling for me after the first time we talked.”
