SIX DAYS (13 page)

“Devastated. She bawled, and then drank herself to sleep.”

“Sounds normal—coming to get you,” Hazel said, and hung up.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back out. Repeating my mother’s behavior was more of what I was in the mood for. A good cry and a shot or three of whatever was in the decanter downstairs, so I texted Hazel that I felt like staying in.

I should have known better. Hazel didn’t have any authority figures in her life and probably hadn’t heard the word no in so long that it had completely vanished from her vocabulary—unless she was the one saying no, of course. I also should have known that if she was determined to do something that it was going to happen.

Hazel let herself inside with my mother’s ill-hidden spare key. “I brought reinforcements,” she said, holding up a bottle of Jack Daniels and a joint. “Let’s go outside.”

Once I stepped out the back door, I could breathe again. It was hard to believe that I could feel claustrophobic in ten-thousand square feet. I sucked in a deep breath, filled with chlorine and jasmine, and slowly released it.

The night was remarkably quiet. The party Hazel’s mother and her friends were having had apparently ended or everyone had passed out. When Kasey dropped me off, there were only a few cars left in her driveway.

I went to the pool house, dragged out a double rocker float, and slung it into the water. That float was also something the designer my mother had hired said we couldn’t live
without. I was totally beginning to appreciate her taste—in the kind of glass I should drink my booze from and the pool essentials I should have. I thought she’d made everything else in the house look too frufie, like beauty queens or models lived there. She hadn’t done too much in my room because I’d kept most of my things from our old house. Suddenly, I felt like hosting a bonfire and burning those things, along with any memories attached to them.

“Hey, were you worried about those people being in your house tonight?” I asked Hazel once we’d settled onto the float.

“Not really. I mean, anything someone might have taken, or broken could be replaced. I don’t worry about that crowd much. They like to get stoned, get laid, and get the hell out.”

“Huh,” I frowned, surprised. I would have worried about a bunch of strangers spread out all over my house while I wasn’t there.

“I used to live with them, remember? I know how it goes. Trust me, the only thing those sleaze balls would be interested in stealing is my weed,” she laughed.

“Well, it is really good weed,” I snickered.

“That it is,” Hazel hooted, and passed me the whiskey. I took a drink and breathed out fire. Hazel laughed. “What the hell would you even be doing right now if you hadn’t moved in next door to me?”

“I definitely wouldn’t be getting stoned in a swimming pool,” I smiled.

“I know!”Hazel gasped. “You’d be out with Derrick sharing an ice cream cone, holding hands and playing kissy face,” she laughed.

“Wrong,” I sang.

“Bullshit!” she accused. “You would, too.”

I laughed. “It’s three thirty in the morning! Baskin Robbins is closed,
biotch.” 

“Oh my god!
Baskin Robbins sounds so good right now,” she cooed.

“Here—
have some Jack Daniels instead,” I said, handing her the bottle.

“I guess that’s a suitable substitute.” She took a swig, and then looked at me. “Do you think your mom’s going to be okay?”

“Don’t know. She’s pretty upset. I wish I could set her up. I think it would be easier for her to move on if she had someone to move on to. Having a new man in her life would give her something else to focus on besides my father and Nico’s impending spawn,” I said, one hand sweeping over the water’s surface. “But I’d want to do it without her knowing. She’d never agree to it right now.”

“You think Nico got knocked up on purpose?”

“Possibly, I mean, now it’s guaranteed that she’ll be connected to my father’s money for the rest of her life.”

“Confront her!” Hazel bucked up as if ready to fight.

“I think picking a fight with a pregnant woman is frowned upon by, like, law enforcement and shit,” I laughed.

“Ha-ha,” Hazel laughed. “You’d never survive in jail.” She pointed her manicured finger at me, a big fat smile on her lips.

“Neither would you,” I accused.

“You’re right,” she snickered. “I love boys
way
too much
to go to jail.” We looked at each other knowingly and laughed.

“Now that that’s settled,” Hazel announced. “Let’s concentrate on getting Carolyn distracted.” She rose up and looked at me. “There are some really good dating services out there that specialize in matching people with money.” 

“I don’t know if she’d go for signing up for something like that. And really, my father’s the one with the money.”

“For now, maybe.
But there’s about to be undeniable proof that he cheated. Your mother could probably take his fucking dental floss in their divorce settlement if she wants it.” I laughed at that, as far fetched as it sounded. Once she sobered up, my mother would probably add that to the list of his things she wanted to take in her mission to punish my father for being a total douche.

“Your dad is giving your mom massive amounts of his money, which then become hers, so she does have money. If she won’t sign herself up, we’ll scope out somebody and force an accidental meeting. I’ll get Luke started on it in the morning. He can hack into Jillian’s files.”

“Jillian—with the matchmaking TV show?”

“Yeah, all the guys she sets up are millionaires. We’ll borrow
a few names and who knows? We might get lucky.”

“Doubt it. Those men usually have something wrong with them. Why else has a wealthy, attractive man in his late forties never been married?
Because he’s fucked up somehow. He can’t commit, has mommy issues, acts like a child, or is looking for a woman that could only exist in his imagination or a comic book, or is just a bastard in general. The list of shit goes on.”

Hazel laughed. “Most men are a little bastardly, it’s what separates us from them.”

“Well, my mother is working on ridding of one bastard; the last thing I want is to hook her up with another. I mean, she’s not even divorced yet, and has just found out that her husband wants to marry someone else. Someone he’s starting a new family with.”

“Maybe we should have an intervention.”

“I might need an intervention,” I laughed. “I’ve smoked pot and drank every night this week so far.”

“I could pull some strings; get Dr. Drew on the phone. Maybe get you a bed at the Pasadena Recovery Center.” I looked at her; we burst out laughing.

“Trust me. You’re good—for now, but call me if you start putting whiskey in your Wheaties.”

Who the hell actually ate
Wheaties
?

I glanced over at Hazel. One of her arms was hanging off the float, dangling in the water; the other had a
choke hold around the whiskey bottle. Her strawberry blond hair was sprawled out everywhere and she was laughing. She looked so perfect that it was still hard for me to believe she had a single problem.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure?”

“Your necklace—” “Nope.”
She cut me off, shaking her head.

“You didn’t even let me ask anything,” I whined.

“Because that subject is off limits.”

“What about the whole no secrets thing we’re supposed to have going on?” I yelped.

She laughed. “It’s not a secret. I just don’t want to talk about it.”

“Not fair.”

“Nothing is, Hallmark.”

“I’m not as wholesome as you think,” I snapped.

“Not anymore.” She gave me a sinful grin. “Not since hooking up with me and my friends.”

“So what do you consider me now?
A slut?” I griped

She laughed out loud. “No. We consider you normal.”

“Thanks,” I moaned.

She quieted herself. “You do still have this innocence about you…something that the rest of us lost a long time ago.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means that if what you’re going through with your family is the only trouble you’ve had in your life then you’re going to be fine. The rest of us have seen and done things that have scarred us, that have broken things inside of us that can never be fixed. And as fucked up as that sounds, sometimes I think that’s what keeps us so close.” Hazel looked at me, blurry eyed. “There are just some things you’re better off keeping to yourself,” she added and put the bottle back to her mouth.

“You can trust me,” I said. “I just unloaded on you, you can tell me anything,” I added, sounding more desperate than I’d intended. Hazel winked at me and then laughed. “So, how freaked out would your mom be if she found us floating out here with our good friends, Jack and Joint?”

Even though I didn’t want to, I let Hazel change the subject. “I don’t expect that to happen. She was pretty out of it when I left her. But if she did, the mood she’s in, she just might join us.” The thought made me laugh.

“No way! Hazel howled. “You could show her how to roll one. Play the song!” she commanded, and the two of us cackled loudly, cutting into the morning silence.

DAY FIVE

When I got up the next afternoon, my mother wasn’t home. She’d gone shopping. I called to check on her and unfortunately, she sounded like she’d returned to her
new-old-self by making me feel like I had truly inconvenienced her by calling. She told me she’d left money for me on the kitchen island before hanging up without saying goodbye, which was becoming super annoying.

I decided that I would go shopping, too. I needed to get out of my own head for a while. I wanted to stop thinking about my dad and Nico doing it.
Gross
.

I mean, why not go shopping? My dad was paying for all of
Nico’s needs. In six months, he would be funding their spawn’s needs, too.

I took the keys to my Cadillac from the top drawer of my nightstand and headed downstairs to the kitchen. There was a large manila envelope on the island and nothing else. I laughed when I realized it contained the money my mother said she’d left for me. There was so much cash crammed in the envelope that it looked like payment for a professional hit or something.

I dumped the contents on the counter and took one of the eight stacks of hundreds banded together, put the rest back, and stuck the envelope in a drawer. I went to the garage, got in my car and melted into the creamy leather seat. The car wasn’t as soccer mom as I’d imagined it to be on the inside. I turned the stereo up and started backing out of the garage, then stopped, and ran back in the house to grab two more stacks of hundreds before speeding off to buy new clothes.

Before we moved, I wore jeans and t-shirts religiously and never imagined I’d ever be the kind of girl who would enjoy shopping for girlie things like sundresses and high heels. Before I met Hazel, I think the only time I’d worn a dress since I was a kid was for my high school graduation and I’d borrowed it from my mother because I didn’t have one of my own.

I felt like Julia Roberts in
Pretty Woman
—minus the whole hooker thing, as I whirled around town buying anything and everything that I wanted, along with a few things I didn’t, strictly because my father was footing the bill.

I was in the middle of tossing out my old wardrobe to make room for my new one when the doorbell rang. Whoever it was was anxious. The bell rang three more times before I made it downstairs.

I opened the door to an agitated looking boy with bad skin wearing a purple shorts uniform. “Delivery for Ryen Wiley,” he said, with so little life in his tone that I wondered if I needed to check his pulse.

“I’m Ryen.”

“Sign here.” He shoved an electronic clipboard toward me so hard that it gouged my middle, and then he whistled loudly and waved his arm forcefully at someone in the driveway.

“Where do you want ‘em?” he asked me.

“What what?” I asked. I didn’t know what I was getting. 

“These,” he said, as another boy with a much better attitude appeared, holding two gigantic vases of flowers that were the most beautiful hues of orange. I instantly melted, automatically smiling. Kasey had asked me on our date what my favorite flower was. I told him anything orange because that was my favorite color.

“Uh-hum!”
The first boy looked at me with very wide eyes; his lips smashed together creating a hard line, letting me know that he didn’t have time for me to swoon.

“Here will be fine,” I said, pointing to the table in the foyer.

“Okay, so where do you want the rest of ‘em?

“What do you mean the rest?”

He pointed to the truck backed in my driveway. “They’re all for you,” he said, sounding unimpressed.

“All of the flowers on that truck are for me,” I gasped.

“That’s what I said. Now where do you want ‘em?”

I looked at the nicer boy. “Just anywhere in the living room will be fine. Thank you.”

The two of them disappeared inside the back of the truck and returned with flowers in both hands about a dozen times. Each new arrangement was more beautiful than the one before it. I hunted through all of them for a card, which I wasn’t handed until the final arrangement was brought inside. I was so anxious to get to the card that I ripped the envelope. I yanked it away from the mangled envelope and turned it over twice to be sure, but the card was definitely blank—on both sides.

The doorbell rang again. Instead of the delivery asshole I expected, Kasey was standing there. He noticed the wadded up envelope and card clutched in my hand.

“I’m sorry about the card. I tried to write something...” I instantly thought about what I’d said to him last night. That shit about feelings. I should have kept it to myself. It was way too early for me to blurt out something like that. It made me think that maybe he’d thought about it and decided that he was done with me. Because who talks about feelings during the first date? Or gives it up
before
the first date? Or gets stoned for the first time on the night you met?

Kasey stepped inside and looked at me as if he didn’t know where he should start. I couldn’t read his expression, which made my insides sink. Unsure if I was about to have my world rocked or
my ass dumped I said, “Thank you for the flowers, they’re beautiful.”

“You’re welcome.” He looked at me for a moment before nervously cutting his eyes away, and then he took my hand and began leading me up the stairs. He stopped us just before we reached my room and sweetly kissed my mouth in a way he never had.
In a way that saddened me, and filled my heart with fear.

We were over. I was sure of it.

“Are you dumping me?” I sighed, my eyes still closed.

“Is that what you think?” he asked, his voice almost pained.

“Maybe.” My eyes opened. “I mean, you sent me a truckload of flowers with a blank card, and you just kissed me like you’re trying to say goodbye without actually having to say it or whatever.”

Kasey smiled, a hint of laugher coming through.

“What the hell is so funny?” I asked, my voice shaky, pushing him away from me. I felt like such an idiot. He was dumping me and I was about to make a fool out of myself by crying over him.

“What’s so funny is how badly I suck at this. I sent so many flowers because Chase told me that
Devan sent you a gift yesterday and I didn’t want that weird bastard to be one up on me. I laughed because I ruined fifteen cards before I decided that I should say what I feel in person and because you think that kiss was meant to say goodbye when it was supposed to tell you that I feel for you, too, without me actually having to say it or whatever.”

The tears that had welled up in my eyes spilled over and rolled down my cheeks. Kasey sweetly wiped them away, and then cupped my face in his hands. “So, no, I’m not dumping you,” he breathed, and kissed me again. That time in a way that made his intentions crystal clear.

Kasey and I were lying in my bed tangled up in each other’s arms and the clothes I’d been packing up for Goodwill when my phone rang.

“I would ignore it, but it might be my mother,” I said, swiping my phone from the nightstand. “Ugh,” I breathed and laid it back down.

“What? Who is it?”

“My dad. I’m not ready to talk to him yet.” I was sure my mother had let him know that she’d told me about the spawn.

“What’s going on with you and your dad?”

“Hazel didn’t tell you?”

“I haven’t talked to her today.” That surprised me. I figured everyone would have known Nico was knocked up by now.

“My dad’s girlfriend is pregnant and he asked my mom to speed up their divorce so he can marry her before the baby comes. He was supposed to tell me himself, but bitched out. I can’t say I blame him though. I wouldn’t want to be breaking that news to anyone either.”

“How did you find out?”

“My mom told me last night after you dropped me off. I can’t believe Hazel didn’t tell you. I called her; she came over and didn’t leave until almost five o’clock this morning.”

“Five o’clock—she’s probably still asleep,” he joked, but had a point. She was sort of a night owl. Kasey stroked my hair. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s just so…weird. It seems like my dad and Nico are going against nature or something because of their age difference. It creeps me out that she’s only three years older than I am. It feels a little dirty, like I just found out my dad is one of those jerks who screws his kid’s babysitter in the back seat before taking her home.”

“My dad screwed my sitter—when I was eight,” Kasey admitted, somberly. “I remember hearing him and my mother fighting about it. My mother threatened to not only call the girl’s parents and tell them, but to go to the national news,” he laughed. “I guess today a thirty-four-year-old man screwing a sixteen-year-old would be national news.”

I felt so bad for what I’d said. I knew his father had had affairs, but I had no idea he’d done one of the worst things I could think of.

“I’m sorry, Kasey. I didn’t mean—” “He made that choice and I think what he did is just as disgusting as you do. Sometimes I don’t know how that man lives with himself.”

Suddenly, the mood felt very heavy. I didn’t want to talk about parental bullshit anymore, partly because I was sick of it, but also because I didn’t want to stumble across any more of Kasey’s father’s indiscretions.

“Do you feel like going out?” he asked. “I’ll take you anywhere you want,” he sang. I was glad for the change in subject, but also for a chance to get out and wear some of my new things.

“Anywhere?” I smiled widely.

“Anywhere,” he confirmed, smiling back.

“Valentino’s?” I asked, my eyes tightly closed. We’d eaten Valentino’s last night, so I wasn’t sure he’d go for it. But that pasta was amazing and I wanted more.

“Let me make a call,” he said, and smiled at me as if he knew he’d created a monster.

“Thank you,” I chanted, and bounced off to get ready. I pulled my hair back, swept my bangs to the side, dusted myself with bronzer, and applied a little eye shadow and lip gloss. I put on a black and sapphire printed halter dress I’d bought earlier, put in some earrings, slid on a few bracelets, and a new pair of peep toe heels.

Even though it was
fairly early, Valentino’s was wall-to-wall crowded.

“Popular place,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s pretty hard to get a reservation.”

“So, how’d you manage it?”

“I know the owner.” About the time he got the words out, a well-dressed, middle-aged, auburn haired woman appeared. “Two nights in a row, I can’t believe it. I haven’t seen you in months and now twice in one week,” she gushed, and then gave Kasey a hug.

“Well, my girl is in love with your pasta.” His words made me smile.

“Oh,” she cooed, and smiled at me. “Such a beautiful girl, too.”

Kasey introduced us. “Stella Greer, this is Ryen Wiley. Ryen, Stella is Asher’s mom.”

“Oh, wow.” I felt my eyes go wide for a moment. I was surprised, but didn’t want it to show. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” she nodded. “Come, sit, have anything you want,” Stella offered as she seated us at a candle lit table in the back of the restaurant. “Lawrence will be taking care of you. I’ll send him out with drinks and hot bread.” She looked at Kasey. “It’s so good to see you looking so happy.”

“Thank you.”

She smiled at me, told us to enjoy our meal, and then disappeared.

“She’s so nice,” I said.

“She’s great. I practically lived at her house in junior high. There was just too much going on at mine for me to want to be there.” He held his hands up. “Wait. Forget that I said that—family stuff is off limits. Let’s focus on the food and each other.” He reached across the table and covered my hand with his. He smiled and our eyes met. For a moment, I wondered what he was thinking. Then I quickly decided that I didn’t want to know. I felt bad that Kasey had had such a hard time at home, but I didn’t want to talk about family stuff either.

“I think if I was Asher, I’d eat here every day,” I finally admitted.

Kasey laughed. “We used to come here a lot, but after things got rough between him and Hazel we stopped.”

“She was telling me a little about them. It sounds like he sort of broke her heart.”

“From the way he talks about her sometimes, I think she sort of broke his, too.”
Talks
?
Sometimes
? That made me wonder if Asher was still a little hung up on Hazel as I’d suspected she was on him.

“He won’t say much. Neither of them will. They don’t know I know this, but the two of them spent last summer together in Hawaii. Hazel told us she was going to track down her mother, who’d up and disappeared. Which she often does, but Hazel hadn’t ever been too concerned about it before. Asher said he was going to stay with his dad in Texas, but I was at his house after he came back and the airline tag on his luggage was marked Honolulu. I don’t know what happened, but whatever it was didn’t make a difference in their relationship. Sometimes they act almost as if they’ve never met before. They used to be really close, but now they seem to just tolerate each other.”