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My shoulders slump. “I know. I don’t love it, but we decided it’s easier this way, right?”
He nods, his mouth a firm line. “I know he’s going to be pissed at first, and we only get a couple weeks off before we start official workouts for the fall season. I don’t want to be the reason his head isn’t in the game. But as soon as football is over in the fall, we’ll tell him.”
I zip up my suitcase and cross the room, sit on the edge of the bed, and I grab his hand. “We’ll drive out to Maryland together if you want.”
Jace exhales, staring down at our intertwined fingers. “I don’t know. I think maybe it needs to just be me. Man-to-man.”
“Okay.” I nod. “Whatever you want.”
He lifts my hand and kisses my palm. “We just have to keep him from finding out in the meantime.”
CHAPTER 32
JACE
The drive home goessurprisingly fast, despite not having Brynn with me. After she left for the dorms to say goodbye to Charlotte and Samantha, where she also planned on waiting for Teagan to pick her up, I headed out. Without her there, it felt kind of depressing, and there was no use in hanging around in an empty apartment when I’d see both her and Teagan soon enough.
The miles pass quickly, and before long, I pull into the long curve of our driveway. I park the car in front of the huge garage, rather than inside it. Dad keeps his Porsche in there when he’s away on trips, and even though our garage is huge, I’d rather not hear about how I parked too close to his second child.
I hop out, staring at the sprawling brick exterior of the home I grew up in. Inside, it’s filled with more rooms than we need. All of them are professionally decorated and outfitted with only the best furnishings. Most of the space sits untouched, the furniture as pristine as the day it was purchased. Outside, the lawn is lushand green, the landscaping perfectly manicured. I know without checking, the pool out back is as clear and blue as the sky above me.
Such a waste for a family that’s never in it.
I exhale and head for the front of the house, a strange mixture of wariness and hope at spending time with my mom spreading through my body. Part of me is hoping Harriet will be here, though it’s not her typical day to work. Still, it would be nice to see her and I make a mental note not to spend every waking moment at the Nichols’ household after my mom leaves so I can catch up with her while I’m home.
For some reason, opening up to Brynn about my parents made me look at Harriet in a whole new light. I always enjoyed having her around, but I hadn’t realized until recently how much her presence in my life meant to me.
I walk up the flagstone path and use the pin pad to enter the combination, and when the lock clicks open, I head inside. The same cavernous foyer greets me. A console table with a vase of fresh flowers sits in the middle. To the right, the sprawling staircase winds out of sight like a set of wooden teeth.
My shoes squeak on the floor as I walk through it and head for the kitchen where I’m greeted with dozens of black cabinets, a massive island, and marble countertops. I lean against the island, contemplating what to do with myself while I wait for my mother. If she’s on time, I still have another hour until she gets home.
On a whim, I head to the refrigerator and fling the door open, pleased when I see more than a dozen containers of food, each labeled with yesterday’s date. A yellow sticky note clings to the outside of one of them, and when I pluck it off, I read:
You look like you lost weight! Better eat. Besides, you probably need a break from all that cafeteria food I know you’ve been consuming.
Enjoy.
Harriet
With a laugh, I pull out the first container to find my favorite chicken burritos. I know how much Harriet loves to feed me, and I love to eat, so it works out.
After I heat up some food and eat until I’m stuffed, I decide to head outside to the pool. It’s beautiful out, sunny and hot; the perfect day for a swim and a good way to waste the rest of the time until my mom gets here.
I open the French doors and pad my way out to the stained concrete surrounding the pool. I set my cell phone down on one of the little tables beside the lounge chairs and remove my T-shirt, opting to swim in my athletic shorts rather than take the time to change into swim trunks. The water is cool and silky over my skin as I dive in and begin to swim some laps.
My brain races as I glide through the water. I think about Brynn and what she’s doing at this very moment. I imagine she’s on her way home with Teagan and think about how awkward it will be talking about me as if nothing’s changed between us. I wonder how hard it will be for us to play it cool in front of her family. Part of me is glad to have a couple days to prepare. Keeping my hands off her is going to take a lot of restraint. Acting too friendly might be enough reason alone to arouse suspicion. Falling back into our old roles won’t be easy, but I can’t stand the thought of simply avoiding her these next two weeks, so I’m left with little choice but to put my acting shoes on and pray for the best.
After I’m sufficiently exhausted and my muscles tired, I push up out of the pool and head to the pool house, taking a towel from the stack Harriet keeps there and wrapping it around my waist. I wander back to the table where my phone is and check the time. It’s half past one, which means my mother’s late.
I frown but try not to let it get to me. She’s never been punctual, so I’m not sure why I expect her to be now.
Lying back in one of the lounge chairs, I decide to wait for her outside while I dry off. But sometime later I startle awake by the sound of a lawn mower next door, and realize I fell asleep. I check the time again and see almost another hour has passed, so I rise from the chair and head inside.
Maybe she got here, saw me sleeping and didn’t want to wake me?
I find no sign of her downstairs, so I take my bags up to my room, then quickly shower the chlorine from my skin and change. By the time I’m finished, she’s still not here, and she’s nearly three hours late.
A sinking in the pit of my stomach tells me she’s not coming, but I don’t want to believe it. I make a million rationalizations for why she’s not here yet, for why she doesn’t care. She hit traffic, ran into a friend which held her up. Maybe she had an emergency that delayed her getting home after driving Dad to the airport. She might have had an appointment that ran late. Maybe she stopped for groceries. Maybe I got the time wrong, and she’s not late at all. But deep down, I know they’re just excuses, and when my phone rings thirty minutes later and I see Mom’s name on the screen, I know without a doubt why she’s calling.
