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Her eyes brightened a little. “We can go to the clubhouse?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
“Okay.”
I gave her a reassuring smile and shut the door. “Come on, Ham. We’re going to the clubhouse.”
He frowned as he walked toward me. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
I sighed. “I know. But right now, she needs to know someone has her back. And who better to be behind her than the boys?”
He screwed up his nose and looked past me to the car. He was silent for a minute before I finally saw him cave. “Okay. But this is on you.”
I grinned as I skipped around to the driver’s side of the truck. “No problem.”
The truck rumbled to life and we pulled out, Ham in front of us.
“So… friends of yours?” I tried to ask casually.
Meyah scoffed. “Ex-boyfriend.”
“Well, I can see why he’s your ex. He’s a douche bag.”
She cleared her throat. “Actually, he broke up with me last week.”
Nodding, I kept my eyes focused on the road. “Do you know why?”
She sniffed quietly. “I finally said yes and we…” she cleared her throat nervously, “…then afterward he was weird. Like he wanted to do it all the time. I kept telling him no, and he got really angry. Then he broke up with me, and told me he’d just get it somewhere else.”
My heart ached for her. I remembered high school. Relationships then seemed like they would last forever. You couldn’t see past the infatuation. That’s when most people had their heart broken for the first time.
“I thought he was different,” she whispered.
I remembered the smile that had been on her face when she’d walked into the house the day I was there with Leo. It was one of pure puppy love.
“He was always so sweet, holding my hand in the corridors and bringing me cute candy and stuff.” She sighed, and her hands tightened around the strap of her backpack. “Was it all fake, or did he just change overnight?”
“From what I saw back there, honey, he really isn’t a nice guy, and you should think of this as a lucky escape. Sometimes you think you know someone, but you only know what they want you to see.”
I knew that from experience.
We sat in silence. I didn’t mind. I knew how hard it was at that age to not feel like it was the end of the world just because a guy didn’t like you, or your friends moved on.
“Do you think Uncle Leo will be angry?” she whispered as she stared out the window.
I smiled softly. “At you? No. You forget, he was a teenager once, too.”
“He and Aunt Kim were high school sweethearts. I remember how perfect they were together.”
My heart warmed. “I bet.”
She sighed deeply. “I wanted that. I thought I had it with Nick.”
“Sometimes people find their match quickly. Others have to wait a lot longer. But I promise, once you find him, you’ll be glad you didn’t settle for dickwad Nick.”
She giggled softly.
When we pulled through the gates and parked, I told Ham to go in first and make sure there was nothing around that Meyah shouldn’t see before we went inside. When Leo stepped back out the doors with Ham, we both sighed in relief and Meyah ran toward her uncle.
