“All right!” A figure stepped out from around the rosebush, clapping their hands together. “I was holding outduring the first bout of back and forth, but I think I’ll interrupt the second.”
It was a voice I hadn’t been expecting in the slightest. A voice I’d heard earlier this week, though only for a moment, and through the crackle of Dad’s phone.
Destelle.
And when I lifted my head, I found myself looking directly at my sister. Her brown hair was curly and a little frizzy in the humid night air, pulled out of her face to give me a clear view of amusement there. She wore a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, so completely different from the attire of everyone else, but there was still something elegant about her, like just an air she possessed.
Except her presence made no sense, nor the affectionate look on her face. “What—what are you doing here?” I asked.
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “They’re looking for you to blow out the candles.”
“What are you doinghere?” I tried again, taking a step forward. This time, Beck’s hand slipped off my wrist. “At Alderton-Du Ponte. I—I thought—I didn’t think you were coming.”
“You think I’d miss your eighteenth birthday?” Destelle quickly frowned. “Well, not intentionally. My flight was delayed twice out of Tulsa. Remind me to never have a layover there again. That’s why Dad was late, and why I’m dressed like this—he had to pick me up straight from the airport.”
I-N-T-E-N-T-I-O-N-A-L-L-Y.
F-L-I-G-H-T.
L-A-Y-O-V-E-R.The words whizzed by me, making less sense in my mind than they had when she’d spoken them. “You?—”
“Unless you want Mom and Dad coming out here and finding—whatever it is that’s going on—” Destelle walked up and grabbed my hand. “We should go blow out your candles.”
I resisted at first, looking over my shoulder. Beck hadn’t moved, still looking at me with wide eyes and slightly swollen parted lips. For some reason, the sight had me feeling panicked. “Don’t leave,” I told him.
Beck, swallowing hard, only nodded.
Destelle didn’t waste a second before pulling me away, out of the serenity garden. Daisy was hot on our heels, but Lydia and Beck didn’t follow. I peeked over my shoulder, holding Beck’s gaze until a rosebush cut off our view.
“That went well,” Daisy said as she came up on my other side. “Right? Did that go well? I mean, itlookedlike it was going well when we got to the garden?—”
I couldn’t answer her, though, my head too filled to the brim with everything that’d happened. Chess with Beck. Kissing him. Him kissing me back. Carter. Destelle.
“That your boyfriend?” Destelle asked as we hurried back toward the country club, jostling me closer to her. Her hand was warm on my shoulder, and the familiar scent of her had the tension in my shoulders easing. Despite everything, when I looked over at her, I felt my lips tip toward something like a smile. “Your big sissoapproves.”
CHAPTER 22
Everyonehadbeen waiting for me to blow out the candles. They’d all been gathered around the cake with the lights dimmed, candles lit, and the chair beside Jamie had been empty and waiting for me. AscowlingJamie, with a paper birthday hat on his head. Mom must’ve forced him to wear it.
When I’d hurried to sit beside him, he’d muttered under his breath, “You suck.”
Yeah. I’d left my introverted brother to manage our birthday party alone. I kind of did suck.
The Pembletons didn’t stay after that, to no surprise. But Dr. Pembleton did swing by the ballroom to shake Dad’s hand. “Here’s my personal number,” he’d said, passing Dad a business card. “Call me, Dave. Let’s actually find the time to catch up.”
And he’d shot me one last amused smile. “I’ll look for you on campus in the fall.”
The birthday party kind of dissolved not long after that.
Mostly because Lydia stormed out, and word had spread thatsomethinghad gone down out in the serenity garden, souring the Sabrina Carpenter songs the DJ had started to play. Most of the kids from school bailed after eating their fill of cake, and by the time it was ten o’clock, the only ones left in the ballroom were my family, Daisy, and Ms. Jennings, who was dancing with a cup of wine she’d brought.
“On the bright side,” Daisy said as we watched Ms. Jennings bob to the beat, completely uncaring how she looked. We sat at a table, and Daisy’s heels were off, her legs in Jamie’s lap. “It wasn’t a total fail.”
Jamie frowned at her. He didn’t seem to mind that she was using him as a footstool, his hands resting on her shins. “It totally was.”
“Nuh-uh. I mean, Phase One was all about impressing the Pembletons for Carter’s sake?—”
“Which she didn’t do,” Jamie cut in.
