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“… you’re thinking about all the crazy ragers you’re going to throw as soon as I’m out of town,” I said as I retreated.
She recoiled with a playful gasp. “Rust! I’m hurt you’d think that about me.”
I snickered. “I’m kidding. I know you won’t throw any big parties. I can tell you’re a good girl.”
She pressed her lips together and made the smallest noise, likemm.
“Since we’re on the subject,” I said, “I don’t mind if you have guests over occasionally. Just try to limit it to people you trust, obviously.”
“Oh, thanks! I’d probably only bring my two best friends, April and Farrah, over. We all live together. Crazy as it sounds, I think the hardest part about staying here with Minka is going to be all the time spent away from my girls.”
“Hey, listen, if they’re good people, you can have them over as often as you want.” I paused. “Wait, what about your boyfriend? What’s his name—uh, Cable? Cojack? Cuthbert?”
“His name was Cody. Cable, Cojack and Cuthbert all sound like interesting guys, though.” Her shoulders shook with her laughter. “Seriously, where the heck did you come up with those names, Rust?”
“I got it fromyouguys—where else? You kids have the weirdest names.” I rattled a few off. “Hunter … Fisher … Gatherer.”
“Gatherer?! No one is named Gatherer. No one.” She laughed. “But who do you thinkgaveus those names, by the way?”
She’d bested me, and I could only chuckle. “Fair. I guess it’s my generation’s fault. But hey, I don’t have any kids, so you can’t exactly blame me.”
“Anyway,” she said, changing subjects, “I won’t be bringing Cody over.”
Hearing that shouldn’t have made me feel so good… but man, did it ever. Pride reared its ugly head, sinful rays bursting in my jealous heart.
Take that, Cody. You’re not getting any in my house.
“Why not?” I asked, trying to disguise my happiness.
“Because we broke up.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I lied.“When?”
“Last week. That’s why he wasn’t with me at the game.” She chuckled. “I guess my birthday dinner was the ideal time to tell me he wanted to break up?”
My jaw dropped. I was sure she’d dumped him. It was hard enough to believe a guy would break up with Isabelle at all—but to do it on her birthday?
“Damn, that’s heartless. I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s okay. It felt like it came out of left field, but it shouldn’t have. Things were kinda bad for a while for us both.” She shrugged. “That was my first ‘real’ relationship.”
“Those always hurt,” I said, and I gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Look, Isabelle, boys your age are idiots.”
“Oh, I’m aware.”
“See, this kid had a girl like you, so in his mind, he’s probably thinking he can getmoregirls like you. But what he doesn’t realize is you’re wayout of his league; you’re the best he can ever do. He’ll regret it. Trust me. He’ll probably come crawling back to you in a few months. Be ready for that.”
She started to smile, but before it could spread too wide, she snuffed it out.
“That’s nice of you to say, but trust me, I don’t think he will.”
I wasn’t sure why she’d say that. She must not understand how truly beautiful she was.
“But don’t worry, I won’t be having any other boys over, either,” she added. “This place is way too nice for guys my age. They’d just trash it. Maybethey’d be worthy if they put a ring on it—but even then, onlymaybe.”
I thought I liked hearing she wouldn’t have Cody over—butman, did I ever love hearing that.
“You’re such a good girl. Your dad’s got absolutely nothing to worry about.”
