I look to Leo, hoping for a way out of the conversation, but he just shrugs. "It doesn"t really matter. Come August you"re not going to be around anyway."
In the car after the play, Lane tells me that her dad called, said he"s at home and wants to see her. He misses her, of course, and those many phone calls she"s been dodging? She says they"re all from him. And here I thought Cooper was a creep who couldn"t let go. But then maybe not such a creep because after dropping her at her house and making sure she gets in okay, I go straight to my apartment, jump into bed, and sniff the pillow she"d slept on. I do this for way too long, but I"d probably do it for longer if Leo wasn"t knocking on my door. "Laney"s on the phone," he says, eyeing me sideways, like he knows what I"ve been doing.
I take the phone from him, mute it. "Why is she calling your phone?"
"It"s Lane," he says, shrugging. "She probably doesn"t know how to unblock your number."
I unmute the phone, speak into it, "My number still blocked?"
"Can you come over," she rushes out. "Please?"
I break every traffic violation getting to Lane"s, which in our town is speeding and ignoring one yield sign. She opens the bas.e.m.e.nt door before I get a chance to knock and I can tell she"s mad and I take a step back in case I"m the one she"s mad at, but I haven"t done anything wrong. I mean, I"ve done a lot of things wrong and the majority have to do with her, but nothing recently. I think.
"Cooper went to see my dad today!" she whisper-yells.
I whisper, too, "Why are we whispering?"
"Because my dad"s upstairs and I don"t want him to hear, idiot!" Oh yay, Old Laney!
"Okay." I take her by the shoulders, and she flinches at the touch. "Calm down," I say, moving her to the bed. "Sit."
She sits.
I say, "I need a moment to wrap my head around what"s happening right now because when you called, I thought something really bad was happening."
I take the phone from her hand, unblock my number while she says, "This is really bad. Did you hear what I said?"
"My moment"s not over yet!"
She rolls her eyes, crosses her arms. She"s frustrated. She"s so cute when she"s frustrated. "Now?"
"Fine." I give her back her phone.
"Cooper went to see my dad today-"
"We"ve covered this."
"-And he offered him a job."
"What?" Now I need to sit down. I sit on the couch opposite her bed and ask again, "What?"
"Cooper"s starting his own construction company. Dad said that Cooper told him that his dad approved the business plan because they were wasting money using third-party companies, so soon, there"s going to be a Kennedy Construction and he wants my dad to oversee everything. He offered him double his current wage and a $25,000 transfer payment."
"What the f.u.c.k is a transfer payment?"
"I don"t know." She throws her hands in the air. "I guess to transfer from one job to another."
"What did your dad say? Did he say yes?"
"He said he"d think about it but, Luke... that transfer payment is a year"s tuition at UNC, and that"s all Dad can think about right now. He wants to take it. For me."
I drop my head in my hands, finally understanding her frustration. "He can"t take it, Lane. Anything to do with the Kennedys is bad news."
"I know that. And I tried to tell him that. I even told him that I broke up with Cooper-"
"He didn"t know?"
"No!" This entire conversation is whispered which makes it so much harder to communicate. "He asked when we broke up, and I said Monday when I got home because I didn"t want him to know about spending all that time in a hotel in Charlotte."
"And what did he say?"
She sighs. "He said that I was cruel for breaking up with him after he spent the week taking care of me."
"You have to tell him, Lane."
"I can"t."
"So he"s going to take the job?"
"I don"t know," she whines. "I can"t believe this. I"m finally free of him, and he still finds ways to dig his claws into my life."
"What do you mean free of him"?"
"Nothing." She shakes her head. "I"m just emotional."
"Maybe he"s bluffing?"
"How?"
I get up, sit next to her on the bed. "What if he"s making it all up? Like, maybe there is no business?"
She scoffs. "I wouldn"t put it past him."
I get out my phone, call Lucy.
"What are you doing?" Lane asks the same time Lucy answers.
"Did I wake you?" I ask Lucy.
"It"s 11:30, Luke, I have an early cla.s.s. What do you want?"
It"s 11:30! Holy s.h.i.t, I must"ve been sniffing my pillow for longer than I thought. "When you were working admin at Dad"s, you had to look up companies on some business register, right? Do you still have access to it?"
"What the f.u.c.k is this?"
"I need you to do me a favor."
"Right now?"
"Please, Luce."
She moans and not like, in an annoyed way, in a...
"Holy s.h.i.t, are you guys having s.e.x right now?"
"Cam will be done in two minutes. I"ll call you back."
I drop the phone. "f.u.c.king gross."
Laney"s laughing now, silent but pure.
"It"s not funny."
She flops on her back, holding her ribs from laughing so hard. I lean over her, take in all her features. I miss her smile, her laugh. Her. I reach up, run a finger across her forehead, move her bangs away from her eyes. I miss those eyes. "I miss your eyes, your smile." And without meaning to, I"m running my thumb across her full lips and licking my own and I want to kiss you, Laney.
"Luke," she whispers, her smile fading. "We can"t."
"Why not? Are you planning on getting back together with Cooper?"
"No."
"Then why?"
Her gaze falls between us. "It has to be different," she says, and I have no idea what that means. "And it"s too soon."
"It"s too soon" = Throwing a dog a bone.
I ask, "So a month from now, would you consider going out with me?"
Her smile"s back. It"s small, but it"s there. "Define going out?"
"A date?"
"One date?"
"Ten. Twenty. Fifty. A hundred! Whatever it takes."
"In a month"s time?" she asks, and she"s the fish and I"m reeling her in and I don"t even care that I just heard my sister having s.e.x because, in some f.u.c.ked up way, it brought us to this.
"I can wait a month," I tell her.
"I doubt it."
"Watch me," I announce. "I"m the f.u.c.king Felicity of waiting, and you"re my Ben Covington."
Her eyes go wide, her smile wider. "Did you just Felicity me?"
I nod, chuckle. "I"m that good, Lois Lane."
My phone rings and I blindly answer it, forgetting who it is and what they"re calling about because Laney"s still looking at me, smiling at me. Then Lucy says, out of breath, "What am I searching for, c.o.c.kblocker?"
"Kennedy Construction."
"Not that Cooper a.s.shole?"
"Yep."
I hear her typing the same time Laney reaches up, combs her fingers through my hair, and I close my eyes. She shifts beneath me until her mouth is to my ear. "I miss you," she whispers, and Lucy says, "Don"t say that, Luke. It"s so creepy."
I stifle my laugh and Laney does the same, falling onto her back again.
"Yeah, it"s here," Lucy says. "Registered business as of... four days ago."
"s.h.i.t."
"Why the urgency on this?"
I come up with a lie. "I just heard the rumors and wasn"t sure if it was true. I"m worried about them running Dad"s business to the ground."
Lucy scoffs. "They can try, but Dad"s been at this for a long time, and he"s built a ton of great relationships with loyal clients. Also, the entire world hates that family... besides Lane of course, but Cooper has that charming, hot, older, bad boy thing going for-"
"They broke up," I cut in.
She squeals. "So what"s the game plan?"
I smile down at Laney. "No game plan. I"m just going to do it right next time."
"There"s a next time? s.h.i.t. I have to go, Cameron"s asking for thirds."
"Thirds?"
Lucy"s voice softens. "Well, he thinks because my chances of getting pregnant are so low, the more s.e.x we have, the better our chances."
Lane"s brow knits, her eyes questioning.
"Makes sense," I say. "Enjoy."
As soon as I hang up, Lane asks, "Lucy can"t get pregnant?"
I nod.
She sits up, forcing me to do the same. "What happened?"
I try to hide my hurt by looking away because it"s painful to think about Cameron and Lucy and what all they went through. Plus, I"ve never spoken openly about it before. "Remember last summer, when I went to New Jersey? Lucy was there and something happened and I found her bleeding out on the bathroom floor."
"Oh my G.o.d," Lane whispers.
"They rushed her to the hospital and long story short, she had to have an ovary removed and they told her it"d be difficult for her to get pregnant."