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"Not yet," I hedge. "But I'll tell her. After I convince her to like me."
Ella laughs. She finally sounds like her normal happy self. "If anyone could do it, it's you. I've gotta run. Good luck with that."
"Have fun, be safe," I say.
"You too."
After hanging up, I check my watch. I'm supposed to be downtown to meet Jack for lunch in half an hour. I swear, if it wasn't for him, I'd never leave my house. It's not that I'm antisocial, exactly. I just have everything I need here. Well, almost everything. The pull I feel towards Lilah Donovan is almost frustrating in its intensity. It would be so much easier if I could just forget about her and go back to a world where all I think about is my computer.
Easier, but much less interesting.
I find Jack in the rooftop bar at the address he gave me. A pretty blond server is trying to flirt with him, batting her hand against his arm and fluttering her eyelashes. Jack looks bored. Jack always looks bored, but he's usually just deep in thought. I sit down next to him and pat his knee.
"Sorry I'm late, sweetheart," I say with my best apologetic face. The waitress gives me a wide-eyed look and disappears faster than a fox down a hole.
"Thanks for that," Jack says wryly.
"Oh, you weren't interested. Don't act like I didn't just save you."
"Oh, thank you for rescuing me from the big bad waitress," he says sarcastically. "She was terrifying, and I never could have chased her off on my own. Whatever would I do without my big protector?" He shoots me a sarcastic look. "I needed a date for a fundraiser next month. She would have been fine."
I want to ask him why he'd settle for "fine”, but I know he won’t give me a straight answer.
"How's your mom?" I ask instead.
"Widowhood doesn't seem to bother her. She's taking up pottery," he says.
"Perfect, she can open a roadside stand with my mom and her wind chimes," I say as I flag the bartender down. I order an iced tea and a cheeseburger. My dad would hate the cheeseburgers out here. Everything has avocado and expensive cheese, and nobody squishes the bun down in tin foil.
Jack takes a drink of his iced tea, crunching on an ice cube with a thoughtful expression on his face. He opens his mouth to say something, but we're both distracted by a chorus of laughter. I look over my shoulder at the group of women out on the deck, they're sitting on couches, sipping water and there's something oddly familiar about a couple of their faces. I'm trying to place them when the woman closest to me leans back, giving me a clear view of the woman behind her. The sight sends blood pumping furiously through my body, so strong that it's all I can hear or feel.
Lilah, in a white dress, her hair shimmering in the sunshine as she laughs at something an older woman with incredibly blue hair is saying. I don't think I've ever seen her look so happy. My chest constricts uncomfortably, and I realize I'm jealous. I want her to look at me like that.
