Unexpected (29 page)

20

“Are you sure you’re not mad?” Willow asked.

It was Monday afternoon. We were at Common Grounds because Willow and Jamie both had the afternoon off. We were making final plans for the dance on Saturday night. It had seemed so far off. And now it was almost here.

“Will you stop?” I asked with a laugh. “I am not mad! In fact…I’m happy for you.”
Maybe happy was a stretch. More like
calmly ambivalent
.

Not only had
Corey readily agreed to go to the dance with Willow, but he’d asked her out. On a date. For the following weekend. She’d accepted. Then she’d panicked thinking I would be mad. I wasn’t. If they were already going to the dance together, what did a date matter?

“Will it be weird for you?” she asked.
Her brows were furrowed in concern. “I mean, if we all go together on Saturday night?”

I had to laugh at that.
It would be weird but it would be fine.

Jamie cut in. “
Excuse me? Weird for Britta? What about weird for me? I’m going to be spending the night hanging out with my
brother
.”

“Aw,” I said, teasing her, “you love your brother. You know you do.”
I smiled at her and then reached for my mint hot chocolate. I had converted to mint, possibly indefinitely.

She nodded. “Right. But that’s not the point.
I don’t want to see anything out of the two of you except maybe some handholding.”

“Hmm,” I said noncommittally.
I wasn’t going to be foolish enough to agree. Not that I planned on making a spectacle. But I wasn’t going to promise that I wouldn’t try to steal a kiss. Or readily hand one over if Tristan wanted one.

She took a loud, annoying slurp of her smoothie. “You’re just lucky Mom intervened.”

I nodded. I was lucky. If Robert had had his way, Tristan would’ve been grounded indefinitely. That wouldn’t have just interfered with his band, but with the dance as well. But Anna had stepped in. She’d decided that if they hadn’t been so strict in the first place, Tristan wouldn’t have felt compelled to lie to them. She told Robert they needed to use this as a learning experience in their parenting. She’d recently read a book that warned if you smothered your children, they were more likely to rebel.

Anna had decided that they were smothering.

And that Tristan was rebelling.

Therefore, it wasn’t entirely his fault. As parents, they had pushed him to it. Tristan didn’t entirely agree. But he was smart enough not to argue.

After a lengthy family discussion, it had been decided that Tristan’s transgressions would be overlooked this one time. This came with a required promise that they would all work at having a more open relationship.

Meanwhile, he’d been able to return to his band practice.
That
had only been agreed upon after Tristan did everything short of signing a legal agreement promising he wouldn’t forgo college. His parents weren’t exactly happy about it. But Anna had decided it was better he play now than rebel later by possibly not getting the education they so desperately wanted him to get.

So he was allowed to practice
. Their band, annoyingly named
Jayded
, would be performing at Pulse on Friday night. The night before the dance. Jamie, Willow and I all intended to be there.

“You are lucky,” W
illow agreed. “If it weren’t for Anna, you wouldn’t have had a date to the dance.” She paused and then gave me a teasing grin. “I’m not so sure I’d want to borrow Corey back to you.”

“
Haha
,” I said sarcastically. “Pretty sure I wouldn’t
want
to borrow Corey from you.”

“Okay, no bickering over boys,” Jamie said as she overtook the conversation again. “Back to our plans for Friday night.”

She had a small notebook in front of her. She was actually making a schedule for Saturday, broken down by the hour. Her mom had agreed to let us start out our day with complimentary massages, manicures and pedicures.

Yeah, we felt lucky for sure.

“We should be done by four,” Jamie noted. She tapped the pen against her mouth. “Then to my house? To get dressed and do our hair? Oh,” she said with a tiny frown, “maybe we should go to your house, Britta? So Tristan doesn’t see you getting ready?”

I laughed. “It’s a dance. Not a wedding. But either way is fine. I’m sure my mom would love it if we got ready at our house.”

“Sounds good to me,” Willow agreed.

“That gives us t
wo hours,” Jamie noted. “To do our hair, make-up and get dressed.” She must’ve decided that was enough because she didn’t make any adjustments to the schedule. “And then dinner at six-thirty.” She smiled sweetly at me. “At Luca’s. Tristan insisted and he made the reservation himself a few weeks ago.”

“We don’t have to go there,” I said. I was suddenly worried. Luca’s was pretty extravagant. I was worried about Willow. I didn’t want to point that out. Luckily, she jumped in.

“I’m dying to go to Luca’s!” she said. “Corey and I decided we’d pay our own way, you know, since it was a last minute thing. And because we’re not really dating.” She looked at me. “My parents were so relieved they didn’t have to come up with the dress or the shoes. So they said they’d give me money for the meal.”

“Okay, good,” I said. I let out a silent
sigh of relief.

“Sorry I’m late!” Krista
announced. She plopped her cardboard cup down on the table. I thought I could smell the scent of chai wafting out. Her cheeks were flushed, as if she’d been hurrying. None of us were surprised. Lateness was just a quirk we endured when it came to Krista. She didn’t even bother offering an excuse for her tardiness. “What did I miss?”

She
dumped herself down in the booth next to Jamie. Jamie slid the notebook over for Krista to peek at. “Did I forget anything?”

“Massages, pedicures, manicures, hair…” Krista kept mumbling to herself as she went down the list. “No. This looks good.
There’s enough time in between. It should all work just fine.” She turned to Willow. “I’m dying to see the dress you found!”

I was fairly sure Krista was under the impression that Willow and I went shopping without her. After Willow decided she wanted to go to the dance after all.

“Oh! Me, too!” Jamie said, cutting Krista off from asking anymore questions.

“Hey,
um…?” Willow said. Her tone was questioning and I glanced at her. She had a wrinkle between her brows. I realized she was looking toward the front of the coffee shop. I followed her gaze.

Tristan.

“Ugh,” Jamie said. “Doesn’t he know this is a girl’s thing? No boys allowed?”

I realized something must be up because I couldn’t imagine that Tristan would be showing up just to hang out with
us girls. His eyes met mine across the room. Yeah, I could tell by the look in them that something was definitely up. My heart slammed in my chest as I wondered what was wrong. Then he gave me a smile and it calmed a little. But not much. Because the smile looked a bit strange. It was off, strained and simply not his usual relaxed grin.

“Hey,” he said as he reached our table.

“Hi—,” I started to say but I was cut off by Jamie.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

I was already concerned that something was up. Tristan had never invaded our girl-time before.

He flicked his gaze to her and then straight back to me. “I know you’re busy meeting about
Saturday night. But I was wondering if you’re done yet? Could we go somewhere to talk?”

“That sounds serious,” Jamie accused. “Why does it sound serious? Is something wrong?”

I was wondering the exact same thing.

“Oh,” she said as her eyes narrowed at him. “You had better not
be canceling for Saturday night! Is that why you showed up during the middle of our dance planning?”

Tristan shook his head. “No. Nothing is wrong. I just need to talk to Britta.”

“Um…?” I started but I was already sliding out of the booth. “Sure.”

He looked at Jamie. “You were riding home with Britta, right?” Jamie nodded. “Here.” He handed her their keys. Then he took mine out of my hand. “I’m not sure if I’m bringing her back so just in case…”

Then he took my hand and towed me out of Common Grounds. I tossed a glance over my shoulder. My friends were watching me with confusion. I was sure my look mirrored theirs. I shrugged at them. Willow gave me a small wave and then Tristan pulled me out into the chilly air.

“Hey, Tristan?” I started.
My breath came out in an icy puff as we hurried down the ice-dappled sidewalk. “You’re kind of worrying me. Want to tell me what’s going on?”

“Oh, hey, don’t worry,” he said.
His face softened as he realized just how upset I was becoming. “It’s…I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. But we’ll talk in the car.”

He opened my passenger door for me. After he’d tucked me inside he went around to the driver’s door. He started my car to let it warm up.
Tristan rarely drove my car. I was wondering why he was now. Was I going to be that upset?

When he glanced at me, I was looking at him with raised eyebrows. It wasn’t like Tristan to act all mysterious. “So? What’s going on?”

He let out a weighty sigh. “I don’t know if I should be doing this or not. But remember the other night? We promised no more secrets?”

Suddenly, my stomach tangled itself into a knot. That preface just didn’t sound good. “Yes. Why?”

He hesitated, clearly unsure of whether or not he wanted to have this conversation. He finally looked at me. It was obvious he was feeling conflicted.

“Are we okay?” I demanded. “Did something happen? Is there something I should know about?” If there was, I needed him to just tell me.

He grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. And then as if he thought that might not be reassurance enough, he pulled me into a quick hug. “Yeah, we’re good.”

“Okay,” I said as he released me. “Then what?”

“Is it considered keeping things from you if I know something that isn’t my secret to tell?” he carefully asked.

It took what felt like several long, long seconds to process that. “What are you talking about?”

He grimaced. “Have you talked to your mom yet? About the guy she’s dating?”

Tristan was well-aware of my desire
not
to know. That’s why his words hit me like a mental brick. Something had to be wrong. Or at least,
not
right.

“What’s wrong with the guy she’s dating? There’s no way he’s married,” I pointed out.
I was certain of that. “She’d never date a felon,” I was only half-joking. I mean, I knew she would never but I was joking when I even mentioned it. I was trying to lighten the mood. Or maybe I was just trying to prove a point. “So…what?”

He tilted his head back in the seat. “I really don’t feel like it’s my place to tell you…”

“But you know…and you think I need to know,” I guessed.

He nodded and then looked at me again. “It’s more like I know
. And I don’t
want
to know if you don’t know. Make sense?”

He put the car in drive and we started out of the lot.

I nodded because it did. “Is it Mr. Gallagher?” I demanded. I was suddenly sure it was.

He ignored my question
as he drove through downtown.

“How about if I just show you?” he asked instead.

A thought slammed into me. “Omigosh…Is she dating Corey’s dad?! Because that would be so…
awful
.” His parents had been divorced since he was in grade school. His mom had walked out on them. He rarely saw her. His dad had raised him and his two brothers. “She wouldn’t…” I said under my breath.

The snow crunched under the tires as he turned his blinker on. We were turning into the lot across the street from
Ellen’s Coffee House. It was another coffee shop in town. While the college and high school crowd tended to fill up Common Grounds, Ellen catered more to the older generations.

Tristan muttered an expletive.

“What?”

“I
didn’t want to have to tell you. So I thought it would be better to show you,” he said. He pointed to the parked cars. He wasn’t pointing to any in the lot, though. He was pointing to those parked parallel on the street.

It took a second for my mind to wrap around what I was seeing. A silver Lexus. And a white Escalade. Okay. Not entirely unique cars. Except…

“No,” I muttered. “No way!”

“Yeah,” Tristan said with a grimace. “I just happened to be drivi
ng by on my way home. I saw them walk in together. I knew you were at Common Grounds…”