Okay, that’s weird. Was it something to do with the call she needed to make? If it was something about the business, she’d tell me, right? I hope nothing is wrong with her. In case it’s something private, I don’t ask any questions. I’ll call her later and check in on her.
“Claudia is my ride, so I better go too.” My mother kisses me on the cheek. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Then she beams a smile at Lucas. “I hope to see you again. Keep my Penny with you for as long as possible. She needs the support of a good man like you.”
“Mom!” I groan.
Lucas chuckles, and I want to hide from embarrassment. “She can stay here as long as she wants,” he says.
He turns to me with a piercing gaze. When he looks at me like that, I never want to leave. Lucas feels like home. A feeling that is new to me. With Darren, we shared an apartment. A life. Yet, when I looked at him, I never felt a sense of belonging—a desire to put down roots.
“Who would have ever thought that the two of you—who despised each other—would now be playing house?” Claudia’s trill laugh—sounding anything but joyful—breaks through my musing. What is her problem? “How times have changed. It’s amazing what time alone in a secluded cabin can do.”
I don’t miss the innuendo in her words. Luckily, my mother is too starstruck by Lucas to notice. Then Claudia disappears into the foyer.
My mother hurries after her. “Goodbye, sweetheart,” she says as she sails from the room.
“Coffee?” I pick up Claudia’s untouched cup and offer it to Lucas.
“Thanks,” he says and takes it from me. I pick up mine from the coffee table and we sit on the couch.
“I’m sorry about Claudia. She’s not normally so frosty. Even after I told her you weren’t responsible for the photos, I don’t know why she’s still angry with you.”
Lucas takes a sip of coffee. “That’s the most she’s said to me since I turned her down at a party in high school, which was weeks before she thought I spread your photos around.”
My cup pauses at my lips, then I lower it. “What are you talking about?”
“Before the photos, and before I got expelled, we were at a party. She followed me into the bathroom and wanted—well, she gave me a lot of options to choose from.”
I lean forward and set my cup on the coffee table, no longer having the strength to hold it. Shifting in my seat, I hook my leg on the couch and face him. “She wanted to have sex with you?”
Lucas places his cup next to mine. “Yes.”
“I don’t believe you.” He must be mistaken. Claudia would never do that. Especially when she knew how much I liked him.
Shrugging, he says, “Well, she did.”
“She must have been drunk.” That’s the only explanation. She didn’t know who she was hitting on.
“From what I remember, she was steady on her feet and appeared sober. She told me what she wanted to do to me in detail without a slur or stutter in her voice.”
Shocked at what I’m hearing, I cup my hands over my cheeks. “What did she say?”
With a raised eyebrow, he says, “Something about starting on her knees and ending bent over the vanity.”
I gasp. My gut churns at the betrayal. “And you refused?” I can’t hide the cynical tone in my voice. How many eighteen-year-old boys would turn down sex?
“Yeah, I refused.” He looks affronted at my cynicism.
“Why?”
“Because I likedyou. If I fucked your best friend, what chances would I have of getting you?” he says like the answer is obvious.
My heart does a little jig behind my ribs.He liked me.“Why didn’t she tell me about this? We tell each other everything.”
“Maybe she was embarrassed she’d gotten rejected.”
“Or she was ashamed she hit on you behind my back when she knew I liked you.”
I thought I knew everything about Claudia. Every crush. Every hookup. Every heartbreak. Every dream. But all these years she’s kept this secret from me. Now I’m keeping one from her too. A big, fat one. I haven’t told her, and I’m not sure I will, that I’m liking Lucas more and more each day.
