Signs Point to Yes (9 page)

“I appreciate your concern.”

“Oh for the love of—here comes your shadow,” Jane said.

“Who? Keegan?” Teo asked, turning to look in the wrong direction.

“No, the other one.”

Teo lit up as soon as he saw Ravi. He jumped up and practically hugged him.

“Well, if it isn't my old pal Jane Connelly,” Ravi said as he took the seat across from Jane and dragged Teo down next to him. In an ideal world, Teo would have fought Ravi's pull and sat back down next to Jane. “She who kicked me out of my best friend's house.”

Jane sat up straight and looked Ravi in the eye. “I'm not going to apologize. You were making me uncomfortable in my place of employment.”

Ravi placed both his hands palms down on the tabletop. “Then I have some very good news for Jane.” He looked at Teo sadly. “And some bad news for you. My grandma's sick, and I, being the exemplary son that I am, will be traveling to Sri Lanka as my mother's companion. Because obviously she can't function without me.”

Jane rolled her eyes. On the one hand, she felt bad for his grandmother. But on the other hand, she'd met Ravi's mother, and Jane was pretty sure it was Ravi who couldn't function without his mom, not the other way around.

“When do you leave?” Teo asked.

“In about an hour,” Ravi said, looking at his phone. “In fact, I gotta get out of here. My mom just texted me, like, eighteen times, but I knew I had to say good-bye to you in person, even if it meant having to see Jane the Pain before I left.”

“‘Jane the Pain'? I feel like you're slipping,” Jane said.

“I'll work on it and get back to you,” Ravi said, standing up, and this time he and Teo did hug. And then he was gone.

“I know you're not going to understand this, but I'm really going to miss him.”

Jane looked over at Teo, shocked. “Of course I get it. My best friends are off at sleepaway band camp for the summer, where there's no cell service and the Wi-Fi signal is on serious lockdown, while I spend my days regretting that I quit playing the glockenspiel in fifth grade.”

“So you do get it,” Teo said.

“At least we have each other,” Jane said, taking a calculated risk.

It paid off when Teo smiled so broadly his dimple made an appearance.

Jane sat on her hands so she wouldn't push her finger into it—that was how adorable his dimple was. She could barely resist the urge to touch it.

“So did you save me any cookies?” Teo asked, gesturing to the empty plate in front of her.

“No,” Jane said seriously. “But I did hear that your mom made you a plate of leftovers and put it in the fridge.”

“My fridge?”

“That's the rumor.”

“Want to come watch me eat?”

“Only if I can bring more cookies.”

“What about brownies?” Teo asked, looking over at the dessert table. “Or maybe that apple pie no one has even touched yet.”

“It's hard to say no to pie,” Jane said.

They stood up and walked over to take the pie.

“Wait,” Teo said, grabbing Jane's arm. “Is there ice cream available for the pie?”

“I don't think so. Ice cream doesn't really go with this amount of heat,” Jane said.

“Ah, take the pie anyway. I think we have ice cream at my house.”

Jane grabbed the pie, and Teo walked in front of her like a bodyguard until they were around the corner and safely inside his house.

He held up his hand to high-five Jane, but she got so flustered she fist-bumped it.

“That's an interesting option.” Teo looked at his hand where Jane had basically just punched him.

“I hate myself sometimes,” she said.

“Do over?” Teo offered.

“Do over.” Jane held up her hand, and this time Teo fist-bumped her palm.

“Thanks for that,” she said.

He winked dramatically and then went to rummage in the fridge.

“She took a lot of food for me,” Teo said, surveying the plate that was piled high with various salads and three different kinds of meat.

“I think she might be trying to fatten you up.”

He patted his abs. “Probably.”

After about an hour of eating the block-party leftovers and more than their fair share of pie, Jane and Teo decided it was probably time to rejoin their neighbors.

“Are you going to the fireworks?” Teo asked as they exited his house.

“Honestly? I'm tired of basically everyone. I think I've had enough togetherness for one day. I had been planning to go inside and watch the Macy's fireworks on TV.”

“Are you tired of me, too?” Teo asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Jane from the corner of his eye.

“Well, no. You don't count.”

“Then what if we watched them from your roof? I bet we'd have a sweet view from up there.”

Jane glanced at her roof and then back at Teo.

“Seriously?”

“Sure. I don't really feel like going down with my family, but I don't really feel like sitting around by myself, either.”

“Especially with your shadow Ravi out of the country,” Jane said, a teasing lilt to her voice.

“Exactly,” Teo said, playing along.

When their parents left for the fireworks, Teo begged off by saying he was tired, and Jane said she would keep him company. It was that easy.

“Now we have to get onto the roof without killing ourselves, and we're golden,” Jane said as they walked up her front steps.

“Jane, even if you fell, there's no way you would die. You might break your legs, but you would survive.”

“Not helping,” Jane said.

“Your house is exactly the same,” Teo said as they entered her front door.

“My parents painted. And put in new carpeting.”

Teo shrugged. “It looks nice. I like it more than what my mom and Buck did to our house,” he muttered as they walked up the stairs. Jane mentally took stock of how her bedroom looked at that moment and hoped that she'd at least made her bed that morning.

“I think your house looks awesome. Like something from a magazine.”

“Yeah, but is that really a good thing? It has no character. It's cookie cutter.”

Jane giggled. “I think you've been watching too many episodes of
House Hunters
.”

“Maybe I have,” he said with a grin.

She peeked into her room before letting Teo in and let out a sigh of relief when she realized it wasn't a total disaster.

“How are things with Buck?” Jane asked as they climbed out her bedroom window and then settled on the roof with their backs against a dormer.

“What do you mean?” Teo asked, tensing up a little.

“I don't know. It's weird because you guys seem to get along, but sometimes he's like…” Jane paused, searching for the right word. “Just trying way too hard. Like a brand new teacher who's just got out of college and wants to talk about how he was a big football hero a couple years ago.”

Teo threw his head back and laughed. “Wow. You totally nailed it. He's really weird around me, right?”

“Oh, totally. I think he really wants to be bros with you.”

“Gross. I don't want to be bros with Buck.”

“But think about it. Like, when he tries to talk to you about baseball or lifting weights. Or the other morning when he tried to bond with you over the supermodel on the
Today
show.”

“You're so right. I never put it into those words before, but that's totally it.”

“I'm intimately familiar with awkward family dynamics.”

“You, with the two parents and the sister and the actual white picket fence?” Teo asked.

“Well, that's from the outside. The inside is a whole other story.”

“What kind of story?”

“I don't know. You'll think it's weird,” Jane said quietly.

“Oh come on, you totally called the Buck thing. You might as well share your family crap.”

“I don't know. It sucks being the idiot in a family of geniuses.”

Teo looked less surprised than Jane would have liked.

“Yeah, I get that, too.”

“Keegan and the twins are in Mensa?”

“No. I don't mean the genius thing. I mean, like, um…” He shook his head and looked at the sky, and Jane had the keen feeling that Teo wasn't going to say much more that night about anything of importance. And she wouldn't push him.

“Ah, you know. The stepfather crap. Them being my half sisters,” Teo said, waving a hand as if to clear the air. “But your family aren't all geniuses. I mean, they're nice people, but they're normal smart. You're just smart in a different way.”

Jane accepted the subject change. “I'm average at best. And they're all like—”

The boom of the first firework swallowed up the rest of her sentence.

“To be continued,” Jane said. Teo smiled.

Teo lay back on the roof with his arms under his head, and Jane mirrored him.

“This would be extremely romantic with the right person,” Jane said.

“And I'm the wrong person?” Teo asked with a devilish grin.

“What? No! I didn't mean it like that. I just meant … Well, I didn't even really mean to say it out loud.”

Teo nodded.

“I'm a freaking mess sometimes.”

“Aren't we all,” Teo said.

Jane closed her eyes and imagined what a different kind of girl would do in this moment, the kind of girl who was confident and didn't feel the need to consult a fortune-telling toy before making any decisions. She let out a deep breath and opened her eyes to find Teo watching her.

He grinned sheepishly.

Grins like that should be illegal
, Jane thought.

They sat quietly for a moment after the show ended. Everything seemed darker than before the fireworks started, like there wasn't any light in the whole world.

“Guess I'd better go,” he said, slipping back through the window. He extended his hand to help Jane through.

It was sweaty and made Jane feel better about not being the only nervous one.

Or maybe her hand was sweaty.

It was hard to tell, so she pulled away fast and rubbed her hand on her shorts.

They stood in the middle of her room, and the bed seemed to loom large in front of them, making Jane have thoughts suited more to fan fiction than to real life.

She shook her head, trying to clear away the weird thoughts that seemed so loud she wouldn't be shocked if Teo could hear them.

“Well,” he said.

“Well,” Jane said, nodding.

Teo took a deep breath, opening his mouth like he was about to say something important and memorable, something that might change the course of everything.

Instead, he hooked a thumb toward the bedroom door and left without another word.

Jane peeked out the window and watched him walk home. He glanced up and caught her there, peering out at him, and he waved.

Normally she would have been embarrassed, but right now she was happy that he was the kind of guy who looked back one more time.

 

Chapter 10

On the fifth of July, Margo was up early, waiting for her sister to emerge from her bedroom cocoon so Margo could ask her a favor. By nine a.m. Margo was getting antsy. By ten she couldn't sit still.

“Margo are you having some kind of episode?” her father asked.

“I wanted to ask Jane something,” she said innocently.

“Why don't you go wake her up instead of flitting around here like some kind of possessed hummingbird?”

Using her father's words as permission, Margo flew up the stairs and knocked on Jane's door until she finally heard a muffled “Come in.”

“Janie,” Margo said.

“Margo, I'm busy,” Jane said, rolling onto her stomach and pulling her covers over her head.

“Jane,” Margo whined.

“No.”

“You don't even know what I was going to ask.”

Jane huffed and flipped over. “What? What do you need from me?”

“You have a pool pass, right?”

“Yeah, Connie bought it for me,” Jane said, leaning on her elbows.

“Can you bring guests in?”

“Yes. A day pass is, like, five dollars.”

“Can you bring me in?”

“Why do you want to go to the pool?”

“I don't know—it's something different to do.”

“We could go to the beach,” Jane offered.

“No way,” Margo said. “It's Fourth of July weekend. The place is crawling with Bennies.”

“Good point. Let's avoid the out-of-towners,” Jane said, lying back on her pillows and yawning.

“It'll be fun,” Margo said.

“Yeah, I'm not so sure about that.”

“Maybe Teo will be working.”

Jane sat up straight and narrowed her eyes at her sister.

“I mean, because you guys are becoming friends, not for any other reason,” Margo added, wanting to hedge her bets. Even though she was sure that Jane was nursing a big old crush on Teo, she didn't want to freak her out about it. And she didn't want Jane to say no to taking her to the pool.

Jane chewed her lip for a second. “Fine. We'll go. But I need food first.”

“I'll buy you a bacon-egg-and-cheese bagel.”

Jane hopped out of the bed and patted her sister's head. “You've won me over with your generous spirit.”

“Awesome,” Margo said. Since Jane seemed so pleased, Margo didn't mention that the bagel would cost her all of two dollars.

“I'll drive,” she offered when they were outside.

“No way. I want to drive,” Jane said, snatching the keys out of her sister's hand and racing for the car. Margo had to admit it was nice to let someone else drive for a change.

It was the kind of day where the sun didn't just beat down on the cracked pavement—it pulsed. Ordinarily, the pool would be packed from one end to the other. But since it was Fourth of July weekend, people had other things to do.