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My cheeks burned from the blush that was no doubt rising. “My imagination is never as good as the real thing.” I stepped back. “I’ll speak to you later?”
“Yeah, baby. Later.”
I backed away another step, then spun around, and headed outside. It wasn’t until I exited the doors and saw Hope’s face that I remembered what I’d promised her earlier.
“I thought you’d stood me up again.” She planted her hands on her hips and pushed her bottom lip out.
“Sorry, I had to talk to…Mr. Easton.” I jogged down the steps, not seeing Mom’s car anywhere. “Come on.” I grasped her arm and pulled her to the side. “I’ll fill you in.”
Once we were in a spot where no one could overhear, I gave her a rundown of the last weekend. Her facial expressions were a vast range of excitement, shock, awe, and lastly, something in between all three.
“So you’re together together now?”
“Yeah. I think? I’m not one hundred percent sure, to be honest.” I leaned against the wall and stared at the parking lot entrance. Mom was late, but at least it had given me time to tell Hope what had happened. “He’s taking me away this weekend. Can I tell my mom I’m staying at your house?”
“You want me”—she pointed at her chest—“to cover for your romantic weekend away with a…” She glanced around and whispered, “Teacher?”
“Erm…yes?” I pushed up off the wall as Mom’s red car peeled into the lot. “Is that…can you…”
“Hell yes!” She squealed and threw her arms around me. “Oh man, I’ve never been part of a plot like this. I got this covered. I’ll plan the entire weekend out with fake things we’re going to do. No one will ever know.”
I chuckled. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Maybe we could go pretend ice skating. Or maybe see a pretend movie.”
“My mom is here, I gotta go.” She waved me off, not really looking at me as she continued to name things we could go and do on our pretend weekend. “See you tomorrow!” I shouted, running toward Mom’s car and jumping inside. “Hey.”
“Wow. What put that smile on your face?”
I shrugged, knowing exactly who put the smile on my face. “Just excited to go try the dress on.”
Mom sighed as she pulled out of the lot. “I can’t wait. I can’t believe, this time next week, I’ll only be days away from being married to Sal. And the diner is so close to being finished too. It’s all coming together now.”
“I can’t wait to see when it’s all done,” I told her, leaning back in my seat. “Oh, before I forget, is it okay to stay at Hope’s this weekend? Her sister is going away again, and she doesn’t want to be on her own.”
“Again?” She took a turn. “Yeah, that’s fine. Sal and I won’t be home much this weekend anyway, so it’s kind of perfect.”
My stomach fluttered at the lie I’d just told her, but it was nothing in the grand scheme of things. There was so much more she didn’t know about, and even though I knew I was going to tell her after she got home from her honeymoon, it didn’t make it any easier.
For now, I’d bask in her happiness as well as my own, and take each day as it came.
Chapter Thirteen
CADE
“This is the key to the front door, and this is the one to the back door.” Dad handed me two keys, each marked with fobs that said precisely what he’d just told me. “The housekeeper hasn’t been for a couple of weeks, so you may need to dust or something.”
“I got it,” I told him, pocketing the keys.
“What are you going up there for
anyway?” he asked, his dark-brown eyes telling me he already knew.
I shrugged, acting like it was no big deal. I was taking Aria away, and not just to any place, but to my great-grandparents' lake house. The house had been passed down to my dad, and he’d owned it for years. The first time I’d been there was the summer Lola was pregnant, and I’d fallen in love with the small town right away. “Just haven’t been there in a while, so I wanted to go and spend the weekend.”
“You know, the first time I went back there was with Lola. You taking a girl there, son?”
“I—”
