Escaping Perfect (6 page)

I glanced at Fiona. She nodded grudgingly. “They are pretty cool.”

“So tonight's Fun Run requires a bathing suit?” I asked.

Jasper raised his hands. “I still say strictly optional.”

Snap!
went Shelby's jeans.

“Jax, don't be corrupting our Fiddler here. She just got to town,” Tammy admonished.

I smiled. Her protectiveness felt oddly gratifying. And this Fun Run thing had gotten my adrenaline racing. It sounded like an adventure. Like just the kind of thing Cecilia Montgomery was never allowed to do, which meant that Lia Washington was all over it.

“Thanks so much, Tammy. For everything.”

“Anytime, Fiddler,” she replied. “And if you decide you
want those boots you've been eyeing, come on back and make me an offer.”

“Bet on it.”

I paid her for the clothes and slid the heavy bag from the counter. Along with my change, Tammy handed me a gold chain with a pretty bird pendant on it, wings spread out like it was taking flight. She must have seen me admiring it earlier.

“Gift with purchase,” she said with a wink and a look that told me not to argue.

“Thanks,” I replied.

Shelby stared me down so hard on my way out I almost flinched.

“Where you two off to in such a hurry?” Jasper asked. “I just got here.”

“Well, apparently I have to go find myself a bathing suit,” I told him.

“I suggest a halter style!” Tammy called after us. “It will totally flatter your figure!”

“Thank you!” I laughed as I followed Fiona out the door and on to the sidewalk. “She is awesome. How in the world did she produce Shelby?”

Fiona shook her head, eyebrows raised. “One of the many mysteries of nature.”

“Hey, Red Sox!” We turned to find Jasper holding open
the door, giving me a teasing grin. “You need any second opinions on those bathing suits, you give me a holler and I'll come running.”

I just about melted into the sidewalk. Luckily, before I could blurt out what was sure to be an incoherent response, Shelby appeared behind him.

“Are you coming back in, or are you just going to stand there wasting all the air-conditioning?”

Jasper laughed and gave us a little salute. “Ladies.”

He went back inside, letting the door swing shut behind them. I caught one glimpse of Shelby's scowl before Fiona started up the sidewalk.

“Ryan seems nice,” I said, trying to get my mind off Jasper. And Shelby. And the potential of Jasper and Shelby.

“He is. He's harmless,” Fiona replied. “Those two have been friends practically since birth. Started out as day-care buddies, and now they're each other's wingmen whenever they go out.”

Of course. It would come back to picking up girls.

“Is Jasper always that much of a flirt?” I asked.

“That's Jasper for you,” she said, looking at the ground as she walked. She was pink around her ears, and her posture had slumped. “Don't know why he does it in front of Shelby, though. It's like he's trying to make trouble for himself.”

Oh, for the love of . . . so it
was
true!

“Are he and Shelby, like—”

“Oh, right.” Fiona looked up and smirked. “For a second I forgot you aren't from around here. Allow me to fill you in on the on-again-off-again saga that is the Jasper and Shelby story.”

The saga of Jasper and Shelby? Ugh. This was a story I definitely didn't want to hear. But then . . . if he could go for a girl like her, it was just one more reason to write him off. I needed to stop thinking about that smile, stop seeing him up on stage with that guitar, stop fantasizing about what he looked like under those infuriatingly sexy cowboy shirts. Maybe imagining him with the awful Shelby was exactly the remedy I needed to get Jasper out of my system.

Resolved, I gave Fiona the nod. “Tell me every gory detail.”

Chapter Seven

Jay's Pizzeria and Italian Ristorante
, Home of the South's Best Pie, was all chrome and glass and lit by red and green fluorescent lights up front, with a candlelit restaurant in the back. The plan was for me to pick up the pizza and garlic knots that Britta, Fiona, and I had ordered for our postwork snack and bring them back to the apartment to await this Fun Run text, but I had other things on my mind. Namely, money math. After the shopping spree at Second Chances and splurging on sheets, bras, underwear, and the requisite Fun Run bathing suit at the Target three towns over, to which Fiona had kindly driven me, I had just over a thousand dollars left, three hundred of which would have to go to rent on July first. Plus Britta had just informed me that we were supposed to split the cable bill,
which was another twenty-five bucks a month. It looked like I was going to be living lean until my first paycheck, whenever that came, and I'd yet to buy shampoo, soap, or any sort of food to tide me over.

A tiny knot of dread coiled inside my gut as I pulled out a few bills to pay for the food. I'd never had to worry about where breakfast, lunch, or dinner was going to come from, let alone any of the other necessities of life. What if my mother was right? What if I couldn't hack it out here on my own?

As if my own thoughts had conjured her, Senator Montgomery herself suddenly appeared on the small flat-screen TV that hung behind the counter, walking briskly up the steps of our Boston brownstone above the flashing words
BREAKING NEWS
. My fingers curled tight around the money in my hand as my throat went completely dry. The blood rushed so loud and hard through my ears, it took me a minute to tune in to what the voice-over was saying.

“. . . still no leads on the whereabouts of her daughter, Cecilia Montgomery. Sources close to the family say that the FBI has recovered a set of suspicious fingerprints from inside the limousine in which Miss Montgomery was waiting when she was taken.” This statement came over video of the waterlogged limo being towed out of the bog where I'd left it.

Then the feed cut to my mom standing behind a podium
with about a dozen microphones attached. The shock of seeing her looking out at me was so severe I had to turn my back to the television.

“If anyone has any information as to the whereabouts of my daughter, please call the FBI's tip line,” the senator said.

“So far, no ransom demands have been received. It seems all the family can do is wait and hope,” the voice-over finished. “For channel four, this is Lacie May.”

I let out a breath and tears stung my eyes. What the hell was wrong with me? I didn't give a crap what my mother was thinking or feeling or doing, any more than she'd ever cared about me. She was probably loving every minute of this, being in the spotlight, having a constant platform to discuss her agenda. If anything, I'd done her a favor.

A loud laugh caught my attention, and I turned around again. The TV was playing a commercial for window cleaner. Following the greeter down the center aisle of the restaurant was Shelby Tanaka, and Jasper Case had his hand on the small of her back. She laughed again as they settled into a cozy table in the back corner, their faces lit by the dim flicker of a single candle.

Great. That was exactly what I needed to see right now.

“Yeah, you don't want to get mixed up in the middle of all that.”

I jumped at the sound of a voice at my shoulder. It was just Duncan, Fiona's brother, looking freshly showered with his dark hair wet and tossed back from his face. He wore a heather gray T-shirt, which showed off his pectorals quite nicely, and black athletic shorts that exposed his tanned, ­muscled calves. With his shoulders back and broad and his chin slightly raised, he gave off the air of a born athlete and someone who was completely comfortable in his own skin. But it was his smile that really caught the eye—big, and uninhibited.

“In the middle of all what?” I asked.

He chucked his chin toward Shelby and Jasper's corner. “That. Those two. They pretend like they're so fine being friends, but no one really believes it. It's a long story.”

I looked back over at the couple and saw them leaning across the table to whisper. Then Jasper cracked up laughing, and my heart about died. There was no way Shelby Tanaka was in the least bit funny. It just wasn't possible.

“Yeah . . . Fiona told me some of it,” I said. “Whatever. It's not like I care.”

Duncan laughed. “Yeah, right.” He shook his head as he twirled his keys once around his finger, then caught them in his palm. “Why do all the coolest girls always fall for Jasper Case?”

I caught his eye and blushed. Was he calling me cool? But wait, was he also saying he thought I'd already fallen for the town player?

“Order for Lia?”

I opened my mouth to reply to Duncan, but he gave me a quizzical look that stopped me cold.

“Order for Lia?” someone called out again.

“Um . . . that's you, right?” Duncan asked.

My heart lurched like I'd just been caught cheating. Crap. Yes. That was me. “I'm Lia!” I said, possibly a tad too loudly, considering the guy behind the counter was standing two feet away.

“All righty, then,” he said pleasantly. “One pie with pepperoni and two orders of garlic knots.”

I paid the man and waited for my change, which, I was disappointed to see, was not as much as I'd hoped for.

“You're eating with my sister,” Duncan said with a sage nod. “Word to the wise: If you want one of those knots, I'd eat it now.”

I laughed, trying to swallow back the nervousness left over from my moment of total oblivion. Rule number one when assuming a new identity: Answer to your own name.

“What're you guys up to?” Duncan asked.

I picked up the pizza box, the bag of garlic knots balanced
on top. “We were just going to eat and wait for this Fun Run thing to happen. Me, Fiona, and Britta.”

“Ah, Fun Run. It's amazing how this place just sucks you right in, isn't it?” he said with a smile.

“You don't hate it here like your sister does?” I asked.

“Hate it? Please. I'm never leaving this place. Hell, one day I'm gonna run for mayor.”

He was just about to push open the door for me when his phone beeped. In fact, several phones in the restaurant beeped. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Jasper and Shelby checking theirs. Duncan pulled his out of his pocket.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“Yep! We have twenty minutes to get to Little Lake with our bathing suits.”

Jasper and Shelby had already jumped up from their table and were rushing our way, giggling like little kids. The sight of his hands on her waist as he steered her toward the door—much as he'd done with me at the Mixer last night—hurt my heart more than I'd ever admit.

“Do you have to go home and change?” I asked.

“Nope. I have a suit in my car,” Duncan said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “You?”

I reached up and tugged the bow at the back of my halter-top one-piece out from under my collar with my
thumb. “Someone tells me to be ready, I'm ready.”

Shelby shot us an irritated look as she and Jasper blew by. Jasper cleared his throat and ducked his head. Somehow I wanted to throttle them both.

“I like it,” Duncan said, focused on me and only me. He offered me his free hand. “Fun Run, here we come!”

I hesitated just half a second before balancing my pizza and garlic knots on one hand and taking his with the other.

“Let's do this thing.”

*  *  *

Little Lake was exactly that—a pretty body of water that was somewhat larger than a pond and was so hemmed in by trees they seemed to be growing out of the water. By the time Duncan and I got there, him bumping the wheels of his VW over the dirt-and-rock parking area, there were already dozens of people milling around in bathing suits and shorts, drinking from red plastic cups and unloading food from their trucks and cars. On the skinny, rocky beach, a huge fire raged inside an open barbecue pit, where a beefy man in a chef's hat was throwing ribs on the grill. I heard a shriek and a splash and looked across the water. In the center of the lake were three huge bouncy houses with mesh walls and winding water slides. On the far side of the lake the sun was just starting to dip below the horizon, sending bursts of purple, yellow, and
orange light through the leaves in a blinding show.

“This,” I said, taking a breath, “is awesome.”

“Welcome to Fun Run!” Duncan rubbed his hands together as he moseyed into the crowd, slapping a hand here and giving a hug there. He seemed to know everyone, and everyone seemed to be happy to see him.

“Wow. You really are going to be mayor one day,” I said as we reached the water's edge.

Duncan laughed. “Hope you'll vote for me.”

“I will.”
If I'm still here,
I added silently.

Cars continued to pour into the lot behind us. Suddenly there was a loud peal of feedback. Ryan climbed up on the tailgate of a red pickup and lifted a megaphone to his face.

“Let the countdown begin!” he shouted. “Ten! Nine! Eight!”

“What's the countdown for?” I asked.

“The twenty-minute rule,” Duncan explained, taking two cups of beer from a passing tray and handing me one. “If you're not here within the twenty minutes, you're put to work.”

“Seven! Six! Five!”

“I thought that was a joke.”

Duncan took a sip and shook his head. “Nope.”

“Four! Three! Two! One!”

Everyone raised their cups and cheered as a few breathless stragglers raced to the beach. I saw Fiona and Britta among them. Britta bent over at the waist to suck in air.

“Sorry, ladies!” Ryan said, jumping down in front of them. “You're on keg duty for the next hour.”

“Oh, man!” Fiona wailed. “We were, like, two seconds late!”

Ryan shrugged and moved off to make other assignments. Just then Britta looked up and spotted me. “You!” she cried.

“What?” I asked.

“You're
here
?” Fiona groused. “We were late because we were waiting for you.”

My heart sank. “What? Why?”

“It's my fault, guys,” Duncan said, stepping in. “We bumped into each other at Jay's, so when the text came in, I drove her.”

“Duncan! You could have texted,” Britta muttered. She took out her iPhone and checked it, as if expecting to find that she'd missed his text.

“Sorry, guys,” he said knocking Britta's arm with his. “It's just an hour.”

“Are y'all ready to swim?”

Jasper appeared as if from nowhere and pulled his T-shirt off over his head. The sudden sight of all that skin and all those abs knocked the wind right out of me. I took a
step back and my foot came down on Duncan's toes.

“Ow! Okay! Okay! Maimed for life,” Duncan cried, lifting his foot up.

Jasper just grinned at me. Shelby was nowhere in sight. “Like what you see?”

“Um . . . no,” I said. “I just . . . no.”

His smile only widened. He tossed his T-shirt toward a backpack he'd dumped on the beach and clapped his hands. “You guys wanna race to the rafts?”

“We have to work,” Fiona groused.

“Oh. Bummer. D.? Red Sox?” Jasper asked.

“I think I'll sit this one out,” Duncan said drily, turning away to take another sip of beer.

“Red Sox?” Jasper said again, raising his eyebrows adorably. “You swim?”

“Of course I swim,” I said, hoping the waning light hid my lingering blush. I was a pretty strong swimmer, in fact, having been trained in the choppy ocean off Martha's Vineyard. I was pretty sure I could make it to the bouncy-house rafts in two minutes flat.

“So let's go! Strip down! Let's see this new bathing suit of yours!”

All four of them were eyeing me, waiting to see how I'd respond to the challenge. I handed Britta my beer and then
very quickly and self-consciously took off my glasses, dropped my shorts and pulled off my T-shirt. The air was warm, but I still shivered standing there in nothing but my black bathing suit. Hardly anyone had ever seen me in a bathing suit before.

Jasper whistled. Duncan stared. All I could think about was getting in the water and letting it close over me.

“Ready-set-go!” I said quickly, like a little cheating kid, and tore off toward the water.

“Hey! No fair!” Jasper whined, equally like a little kid.

I was laughing as we plunged into the water.

*  *  *

“This is the life.” I sighed, leaning back on the bobbing deck that was attached to one of the inflatable rafts.

“You said it,” Jasper replied.

It took all my willpower not to run my eyes over his half-naked body for the fiftieth time that night, but I took a tiny peek. Just the way his shoulder muscles tapered into his arm gave me shivers.

“You like what you see, you can always make an offer,” Jasper drawled lazily, closing his eyes.

I clamped my jaw shut and tried not to laugh. For two blissful hours Jasper Case had never left my side. It might have been the sky full of stars overhead, the giddiness of being free enough to swim under said stars, or the incredible cut of his
wet muscles as they shone in the moonlight, but I couldn't seem to make myself care about anything else. Shelby had been MIA all night, so I didn't have to think about her, and Britta and Fiona had thawed once their keg shift was over and they'd been allowed to swim out. Duncan had spent most of the night playing basketball in a floating hoop with a bunch of friends.

“Dude!” Someone slapped the side of the raft, and I sat up so fast I almost fell off. It was Ryan. He smiled up at me, his legs treading water beneath us. “A bunch of us are swimming over to the other side to go skinny-dipping. You in?”

A thrill of the forbidden went right through me. Last year, after the junior-senior dance, a bunch of kids had snuck out of the dorms to go skinny-dipping in the school's Olympic-size pool. I had told my friends I'd meet them in the lobby, just wanting to do something—
anything
—remotely wild. I'd been hoping against hope that the Tank would sleep through me sneaking past his room, but when I opened the door at one a.m., he'd been standing right in front of it in a full suit, staring me down. Apparently he'd heard about it through the bodyguard grapevine. Some of the other kids' handlers were letting them go. But an employee of Rebecca Montgomery's? No way.