Ex-mas (12 page)

A honk sounded from behind. Frowning, Lila twisted around, just as a familiar black Maxima slid into view. Her stomach twisted.

Erik had come for her?

Had he seen her at the party and realized the enormity of what he'd done? Was he about to beg for forgiveness? Beg her to take him back?

And the mil ion-dol ar question: Would she?

As the car pul ed to a stop, Lila peered inside, expecting to see Erik's blond mop. But the driver had jet-black hair and wore a hoodie.

"Beau?" Confusion washed over her.

"Get in," he said, his gaze connecting with hers.

"I'l get in, cutie!" the drunk girl on the sidewalk cal ed. "Is he cute, Ashley? He sounds cute!"

"He's cute," her friend replied. "But why are you stil lying there?" she asked the girl col apsed on the sidewalk with her clutch beside her.

Lila stepped toward the driver's window of Erik's car.

"Isn't this...?" She drifted closer. "This
is
Erik's car, right?"

124

Beau just looked at her.

"But--"

"I saw his keys when we looked in his room earlier," Beau said, his chin sticking out almost defiantly.

"So you just..." She gestured wordlessly at the car.

"I went back and grabbed them," he said. "He deserves to lose his car after what he did to you."

Lila felt a warmth in the pit of her stomach. In a way, he was saying he'd stolen Erik's car for her. It was the sweetest thing she'd heard al night. The irony of that made her want to laugh, or maybe cry.

Beau clearly interpreted her silence as disapproval, because he continued talking, like he was laying out his case.

"Also, we've already lost time," he said. "We'l lose even more time if we have to double back to San Jose to pick up my car. The train isn't going to wait for us."

Lila smiled. "I like the way you think," she said and climbed inside.

There was the familiar leather and pine smel . The usual fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror, which Erik had always claimed were a joke. There was a stack of CDs in the wel between the seats, probably classic rock like Journey. It was more than a little strange to be in Erik's car without Erik--not to mention
with
Beau. But then Lila remembered the way Erik had jammed his tongue in that girl's mouth, and decided it wasn't so strange after al .

125

"I don't know why I'm surprised," she said as Beau guided the Maxima toward the campus exit. "Grand theft auto kind of goes with the whole antisocial, edge-of-society thing you have going on."

He shot her a slight grin before returning his attention to the road. They were the only car on the road, and al the traffic lights were blinking yel ow.

"I love that you see me that way," he said. "Especial y when it couldn't be further from the truth"

"Are you claiming you're
not
antisocial?" Lila shook her head in mock disbelief.

"There's a difference between being antisocial and just having other stuff on my mind," he pointed out. "It's possible to not care about the latest North Val ey High scandal without it being a statement."

"If you say so." Lila looked down at her lap. "Anyway, thank you for stealing a car for me."

Beau laughed softly, hanging a right. "It wasn't just for you. I'm trying to get Tyler back, too, you know."

"Sure," Lila said. Of course Beau wanted to get his little brother home, safe and sound. "But your mom is so much cooler than my parents. She'l forgive you."

There was silence for a moment. Beau gazed out the windshield into the inky black night, fol owing the signs to the highway. "The divorce has been real y hard on her," he said

126

after a moment. "She's not exactly the person you remember. I think if she finds out that Tyler's halfway across the country, she'l lose it."

"What do you mean?" Lila asked, frowning. "Is she okay?"

Beau shook his head, his hands clenched the steering wheel. Lila thought she noticed a smudge of red on his right hand, but decided it was just the

glow of the brake lights from the car in front of them. "My dad completely bailed," he said matter-of-factly. "It turns out that al that crap he used to tel me about how to be a man and a 'responsible adult' was a lie. We haven't seen him in almost two years."

"Oh, Beau, I'm so sorry..." Lila whispered, stunned.

"I guess leaving my mom for some model-slash-actress-slash-whatever wasn't enough for him," Beau continued. His voice didn't sound bitter, though, just resigned. "He hasn't paid a cent in child support, and my mom doesn't have enough money to hire a lawyer"

Lila thought about the time Mr. Hodges had made her a bologna sandwich after she'd fal en off the monkey bars in Beau's backyard. He'd given her a

glow-in-the-dark Band-Aid and cal ed her scrapes battle scars. Her brain had trouble reconciling
that
Mr. Hodges with the now absentee one. She couldn't imagine how Beau pieced it al together.

"Did he move far away?" she asked.

Beau laughed, but it was a hol ow sound. "He lives exactly

127

fifteen miles away in Sherman Oaks. It's not that he's unreachable. He just wants to pretend he's some young guy with a hot trophy wife and a fast car.

An ex-wife and two kids would kind of ruin al that."

"God," Lila said. She absently grabbed the fuzzy dice off the mirror and squeezed them hard. "That's so disgusting."

"My mom is a wreck," Beau said simply as he turned onto the ramp to the highway. "She works al the time. She's never home. She tries to hold it together for Tyler, because he's too young to know how tough things are. He can barely deal with the fact that Dad won't return his phone cal s."

"He's just a kid!" Lila cringed at the familiarity of her words--it was exactly what Beau had said when she'd threatened Cooper with Santa's demise. Her cheeks flushed with shame.

"I don't care so much for me," Beau said, shrugging. "But it kil s Tyler. He thinks it's his fault. Which only makes my mom worry more. So I've pretty much taken over Tyler duty. It's seriously the least I can do, since she doesn't want me to get a job. She thinks I should concentrate on school, be a kid, whatever." He shook his head.

Lila squeezed the dice even harder, not sure what to say.

"We have our system down," Beau said, sounding brighter. He switched lanes, passing a car going fifteen miles under the limit. "I do the whole breakfast thing, get Tyler to school, pick him up, do al that after-school stuff. She's working two jobs

128

during the week, but stil , it was working out okay--until my grandmother wiped out on her steps last week and broke her hip."

"Oh, no," Lila murmured.

"That's where my mom is right now," Beau said. He stretched his arm out along the car window and smiled slightly. "This is al a real y long-winded way of tel ing you why I real y don't want the police involved in this runaway-brothers thing either. She doesn't need one more thing to worry about."

Lila's heart panged in her chest, and her fingers itched to reach out and hug Beau, to tel him it would be okay. She imagined him getting breakfast

ready in the morning for his mom and brother, packing Tyler's lunch and making sure his shoes were tied and his socks matched. No wonder he seemed

so much calmer, so much more grown-up. It was what he'd told her back at his house when she'd asked when he'd turned into Mr. Maturity--he'd had no

choice.

"Okay, so no police," Lila said. "For now, at least. Although our brothers may leave us no other option."

A smile twitched at the corner of Beau's mouth. "Tyler's pretty cool for a kid. And I have a sneaking suspicion that
your
little brother might grow up to be a criminal mastermind." Lila laughed at the idea. "But I refuse to believe that two eight-year-olds who stil believe in Santa can consistently outwit the both of us," he said.

129

"Oh, yeah?" Lila said mildly, remembering the boys' impish waves from the San Jose platform.

"For one thing, we have an iPhone."

Lila laughed.

"And for another, we're actual y working together now," Beau pointed out. Lila looked over at him. His eyes were blue and bright. "Which means we have a shot."

"Yeah," she agreed, smiling. "I think we do."

130

Chapter 14

***

OUTSIDE OF SEATTLE

DECEMBER 23

4:02 P.M.

***

sun overhead. She knew that if she dove in, the water would be as welcoming as a bath. But she wasn't near the water--she was leaning back against his chest, happy and safe in his arms. She could feel him behind her, his skin warm in the sunlight, and warmer stil against her own.

She sighed and settled back against him. She tipped her head to the side and felt his mouth move in a beguiling line down the stretch of her neck. She didn't have to see him to see him--those bright blue eyes, that inky black hair, the delicious smirk he always seemed to wear

Wait a minute

Beau?

131

Lila woke up with a start.

Her heart hammered against her chest, and she looked around wildly, trying to make sense of the fact that she was in a moving car--not on a beach--

though it seemed almost as bright. And much, much colder. Quickly, the events of the previous day came back to her. Cooper. Santa Claus.
Erik.
The endless road trip. Beau.

Beau, who, if she closed her eyes again, she could
feel
holding her like he had in her dream, his lips tickling her skin, sending shivers up and down her body.

She turned her head to see Beau smiling at her from behind the wheel. Same bright blue eyes. Same inky black hair. Same delicious smirk.

"Hey," he said.

"Um. Hey." She felt shy and sil y.
Leftover dream confusion,
she told herself.

"Good morning," he said. He laughed. "More like good afternoon."

"Afternoon?" Lila shook her head and couldn't help a yawn. She reached to cover her mouth just in time. "Where are we?"

"The last sign I saw said we were only about twenty miles outside Seattle. We're making real y good time."

"How long have I been asleep?" Lila asked, blinking. A little bit of research on Beau's iPhone back at Stanford had told them the last train to leave San Jose would take twenty hours to reach

132

Seattle, thanks to its various stops along the way north. But it would only take them twelve hours by car. Lila had directed Beau to Route 101, headed north, and taken the wheel just as soon as they'd gotten through San Francisco. The last thing she remembered was staggering into a bathroom in Ashland, Oregon, in a complete daze. She and Beau must have switched places again after that.

"A while," Beau said. "You missed Portland."

"Oh, bummer," Lila said. He cocked an eyebrow questioningly, and she shrugged. "I always wanted to see Portland. What was it like?"

"Cold," Beau said. "I mean, it
looked
cold. I didn't get out and personal y investigate or anything."

It hit Lila then that Beau had spent untold hours next to her while she slept, and who knew how gross she was in her sleep? Did she snore? Drool? Oh,

God--what if she'd drooled al over herself? Not that Beau would care. She knew he wasn't that kind of guy. Even if she
had
drooled al over herself, he'd probably just think it was funny.

She sat up and flipped down the passenger mirror. Needless to say, after an entire night and half a day cooped up in the car, she did not look her best.

There were luggage compartments beneath her weary-looking brown eyes. Her SoCal-tanned skin looked pale and dry. And, oh God, her hair. She'd

mastered the art of the blowout because her long, dark hair, if not properly

133

tamed, exploded into something one could only cal
wild animal.
What was staring back at her from the mirror was a
safari
of wild animal hair.

Lila attempted to minimize the damage. She smoothed her terrifying hair into something more like wild curls, and rummaged around in her bag for a

little bit of lip gloss.

"Please tel me you have gum," Beau said. "My mouth tastes like the last truck stop."

"Ew," Lila said, but she found her pack of Extra Mango Smoothie gum and handed it to Beau.

"Now my mouth tastes like a
tropical
truck stop," he said a few minutes later. Lila giggled.

The drive into Seattle was pretty. The winter day was cold and sharp. Beau had jacked up the heat inside the car to compensate for their southern

California clothes. She stared out the windows as they approached the city. El iott Bay gleamed in the afternoon light, with the snowcapped Olympic Mountains rising in the distance. The Space Needle poked up like something from
The Jetsons.
The huge red cranes down on the waterfront gave way to the city, and before Lila knew it Beau was pul ing up in front of the Seattle Amtrak station. The building was made of red brick and boasted a gorgeous tower that Lila thought looked out of place on a train station.

"Don't go anywhere," Beau said. He put the hazards on, and grinned at Lila. "I'l be right back."

134

Lila gasped at the slap of cold winter air that rushed into the car when Beau opened his door. He slammed the door behind him, but the cold remained.

It was seriously winter in Seattle. Cold that even her dad would acknowledge as true winter cold. The snow on the ground was real, unlike those faux-

winter scenes that Los Angelenos set up on their otherwise green and healthy lawns, beneath their palm trees. She shivered into her leather jacket, which was not going to stand up wel to any real kind of chil .

A few minutes later, Beau jumped back into the car, rubbing his hands together.

He turned the heat up higher, the air rushing at them from the vents. He looked over at Lila, his blue eyes sparkling and his cheeks slightly red from the outside air. "Their train is on time--which means we have about six hours to spare."