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“Yes! What is it that you think Levi may have shared with my seven-year-old?”
I grin—widely—professing my innocence. But as I can see not only Coco but my face too through this call, it’s clear that I don’t look innocent at all. Just a little crazy.
“Meredith, one of the things I admire most about you is the fact that you don’t pull punches. You speak your mind. So, what’s with the cryptic talk?
I swallow. She did say she admires when I speak my mind. “Alice said Levi tells her everything, and while you didn’t know that he was taking me to see the butterflies, Alice did. So, I wondered if he also told her that he kissed me,err, no, I kissed him. Well, that we kissed.”
Coco blinks, her dark lashes fanning out. She takes off her glasses, rubs the corner of her right eye, and blinks again. “You kissed?”
“We did. On your doorstep. Right after we saw you.” I nod. “Then all the way back to my house. And then on my doorstep for maybe thirty minutes longer.”
“Huh.” She doesn’t look pleased—but then she doesn’t look unpleased. No, she looks confused.
“What doeshuhmean?” I bite down on my thumbnail. “Okay, now you need to talk. What does thathuhmean? Coco—”
“Nothing. It means…” She shakes her head, no words leaving her mouth to explain the noise I know that I heard. I didn’t imagine it. “Just… I’m just surprised.Pleasantlysurprised.”
“But now he isn’t answering my text.”
“Levi,” she grunts under her breath. “Typical Levi.”
“Typical? How long have you known your brother again?”
“Long enough,” she says. Lulabelle fusses behind her, and she’s walking, then propping the phone on a nearby dresser and picking up her infant. “Don’t worry. Okay. This is good, Meredith. I know he likes you. And for the most part, when he isn’t being a total dummy, Levi is the best.”
“Right.” Somehow those words do not encourage me at all.
“I need to change Lulabelle. Please don’t stress. I’ll talk to Levi—”
“Oh, you don’t—”
“And I’ll call you later. Okay? Bye, Mer.”
I blow out a sigh. “—have… to do… that,” I say, finishing the sentence I started, but it doesn’t matter. She’s gone.
Do I want Coco talking to Levi? I mean, we aren’t in seventh-grade.
We aren’t.
Later on, when I get to Nikki’s, I ask my actual seventh-grade friend that exact question.
“Heck, yeah, you do,” Nikki says. “He’ll be honest with her when he might not be with you.”
“You think Levi isn’t being honest?”
She shrugs and dumps another cup of flour into our maraschino cherry cookie dough. “How would I know?”
“I don’t think he’s a dishonest person.” I stare into the batter, letting Nikki do all the work.
“All I know is even though Jonah Phillips was talking to Avery Hymas, he still kissed DD Rapinoe.”
“Huh.” I sound exactly like Coco did early today—only, she knew something. I know she did. While I have no idea what Nikki is talking about.
“I mean, that’s why Jamie and I aren’t friends anymore.” Her brows bounce once and she mixes our cookie dough as if it has personally offended her. “Alex said we were talking, but then he kissed her.”
“Talking?” I feel like an old lady who knows zero lingo. But I’m a twenty-three-year-old who might as well be an old man for all the lingo I know—aka, none.
“Yeah, like dating without dating.” She blows out a sigh and so many light bulbs are going on inside my head. So many tears. So many sad days. Her mom telling me that kids are cruel. This Jamie, this Alex–this is why for weeks whenever I saw Nikki she looked as if she’d forgotten how to smile.
