Whitney (9 page)

“You get to name the slides?”

I felt myself blush. “I get to offer suggestions. They don’t use all of them.”

“That’s awesome, though.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

I should have known Jake wouldn’t be bothered by the truth. What did it matter if my dad owned the park?

“Listen, Robyn invited me to her place tomorrow night to break in her mom’s media room. She said you might need a ride. True?” Jake asked.

I had a limo at my disposal. When did I ever
need
a ride anywhere? Still, I’d rather ride with Jake than David.

“True.”

“So can I give you a ride?”

He asked it like he thought I’d say no. How could he not know how much I liked him?

“I’d love for you to give me a ride, but I have to warn you. My dad’s coming home tonight, which means you’ll probably have to meet him tomorrow night when you come to pick me up.”

“You make that sound like it’s a bad thing.”

“My dad is a little overprotective. He might make you take a drug test.”

“Seriously?”

“Have you ever watched
Meet the Parents
? I think Robert De Niro’s character was based on my dad.”

“So I may have to take a lie detector test, too?”

“Not that bad. But you’d probably get a
lot of questions, so I understand if you don’t want to go through that.”

He shrugged. “I’ve got nothing to hide. Besides, I’ve taken a lie detector test before. No big deal.”

“Why did you take one?”

“My dad gave me one when I was about eight. To show me how it worked and to show me that if I ever lied, he’d find out. So I’m a pretty honest guy.”

An honest guy. But would he tell me the truth if I asked him if he really liked me? Or would he avoid answering? And how could I still doubt how he felt about me? We were going to do something else together. He was going to risk meeting my dad. He
had
to like me, didn’t he?

“Okay, then,” I said, smiling, really glad that he wasn’t afraid of my dad. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

My dad was standing on the steps leading up to the front door when David pulled the limo to a stop in front of the house. I knew David had sent a message up when we were at the front gate. I didn’t wait for David to come around and open the back door. I was out of the car and rushing up the steps before David had even gotten out of the car.

“Hey, Kitten,” Dad said, smiling.

“Dad!” I knew I was too old for certain behavior, but I still leaped up to hug him. It worked because I was short and he was tall.

Laughing, he wrapped his arms around me, squeezing tightly. I wasn’t upset with
him about all that had happened at the water park. I hadn’t lied on my employment application, because that would have been illegal and I’d gone to the park numerous times with Dad when he had meetings, so the staff, like Mr. T, knew me. I was pretty sure that the order to keep me happy had come from park management — not my dad. Dad wanted me to feel normal after my bad experience with Marci, so calling for special favors would have been against the purpose of his idea.

Dad set me down, put his arm around my shoulders, and led me into the house. “Tell me everything.”

“Oh, there’s so much.”

We went into the living room. I sat on the sofa, my feet tucked beneath me. Dad sat beside me, stretching an arm along the back of the sofa. I got my blond hair from my mom, my green eyes from Dad. Dad’s hair was brown, always fashioned in a business-cut style, never a strand out of place. His personal trainer kept him in
shape, made sure he ate healthy. Unlike Aunt Sophie, Dad didn’t do Wicked Wednesdays. He never strayed from his proper diet. Which I guess is admirable, but is also slightly boring. Especially when I’m the one sharing meals with him.

I told him all the good things that had happened at the park. When Dad first gets home from a trip, I don’t usually lay all the bad stuff on him. My mom had taught me that — when you first see someone, share the good stuff. Because first impressions last the longest, and if the first thing you do is gripe, they’ll stop coming around. Not that Dad would abandon me or anything. Mom was just trying to make a point. She was full of wisdom.

I really missed her sometimes.

It was later, while Dad and I were having dinner at a fancy restaurant with Aunt Sophie that I brought up my plans for Saturday night. I thought it was a good idea to mention them while Aunt Sophie was around to give Jake her seal of approval.

But I didn’t need it. To my utter shock when I mentioned Jake, Dad was totally cool with him giving me a ride to Robyn’s. Who would have thought? He did say that he expected Jake to come inside, no honking in the drive. But other than that, Dad seemed to think Jake wasn’t a problem. Jake wouldn’t even have to take a drug test.

Of course, the fact that he was an employee at Paradise Falls indicated he had already passed a drug test. They took safety pretty seriously there, and all employees — including me — had taken drug tests before getting hired.

I was feeling so good about Dad being okay with Jake that I decided not to bug him about Marci. Besides, she wasn’t really my problem anymore since I wasn’t part of P&E. I knew that if I told Dad about my abrupt move to souvenirs that he’d arrange for me to be moved back to where I really wanted to work. But I didn’t want him interfering. I managed to get a couple of real
friends on my own. And now, quite possibly, I was going to have a boyfriend. Jake would pass Dad’s inspection — no problem.

*  *  *

The next morning, I was back at the Treasure Chest. I heard through the grapevine that a final meeting had been held to discuss the luau. We were going to have a bonfire, hire a local band, and have a laser light-show.

Caitlin was my source about the laser light-show, because they talked to her about talking to Michael to see if he could set something up on short notice. He could. He even knew a local band that was looking for a gig.

I wasn’t bothered about not being included in the meeting, because it meant I wouldn’t have to deal directly with Marci. She never sent me an invitation. And I was cool with that as well, because I wouldn’t want to be at the party without Jake. Besides, we would both be working. The staff got paid extra for after-hours events so there was actually a
good bit of excitement in the air around the water park.

Jake was still serving ice cream near the Treasure Chest but I was a little self-conscious now that we were going to get together that night, and he was going to meet my dad for the first time — and Dad was going to meet him.

Jake and I could be taking our relationship to the next level.

I could hardly wait.

*  *  *

“So you and David?” I asked Aunt Sophie.

She was in my room doing the whole makeup-so-it-doesn’t-look-like-makeup thing. It was Saturday night and I was getting ready for what was almost a date. Usually she stayed at an apartment in the city when Dad was home, but she’d decided to hang around a few more days. I could think of only one reason for that development. She wanted to be close to the chauffeur.

“Is there more to that question? Because I’m not sure where it’s going,” she said.

“Are you two an … item?” I prodded.

“Uh, yeah. You have a problem with that?” She leaned back and looked back at me. She had green eyes like mine.

“No. I think it’s kinda cool actually.”

“Good.”

“So how long have you been dating him?” I asked.

“Oh, about a month now.” She tapped my forehead. “Don’t bug your eyes like that.”

“But how did I miss it?”

“We’re very discreet.”

“Does Dad know?”

“Not yet.”

“I think he’ll be cool with it,” I assured her. “I mean if he was cool with Jake, he should be cool with David and you.”

She furrowed her brow, looked like she wanted to say something, then shook her head as though she’d changed her mind.

The doorbell rang. Jake was here!

“Hurry up and finish,” I told her, no longer interested in discussing David and her.

“Relax. You know your dad’s going to want to talk to him.”

“But I don’t want him to scare him off.”

“Who do you think is going to be doing the scaring?”

“Dad, of course. I don’t want Jake to have to be alone with him for too long.”

“Oh, all right,” Aunt Sophie said, rolling her eyes and stepping back. “You’re beautiful.”

“Thanks, Aunt Sophie.” I hurried to my bed and grabbed my tote. I looked back at my aunt. “If you get married, will I get to be a bridesmaid?”

“
If
I ever get married. Let’s not rush this, okay? I just discovered I like him and we’re taking it slow.”

I rushed out of my room and down the stairs. I glanced around. No Jake. Had Dad run him off, just like I’d been afraid would happen?

I looked out the window. Jake’s truck was
still there. I peeked into the living room. Empty.

Then I realized where they’d be. Dad’s library. He always met with people in there. It was his favorite room. He always had business meetings there, and even though this wasn’t a business meeting, I had a feeling that he’d treat it like one.

I felt a little like Caitlin because I was feeling nosy. I wanted to know what they were talking about, what they might be saying about me. Specifically, what Jake might be saying. This could be the moment I’d been waiting for, when I found out what he really thought of me.

Was he telling Dad how much he liked me? Was he explaining that he wanted us to get serious?

I knew what Dad was saying — that I was his princess and he’d do anything to see that I was happy.

As I neared the library, I slipped off my sandals so Dad and Jake wouldn’t hear me coming. I crept to the open doorway. I
peered around the corner. Dad was sitting at his desk, leaning back in his leather chair, looking calm and relaxed.

Jake was standing in front of Dad’s desk, his hands stuffed into the back pockets of his jeans. Even from my angle, he looked like he was stiff, nervous. I’d never seen him nervous. He always seemed to be a guy in control.

“Jake —” Dad began, and his voice rumbled like it did when he was talking to a business associate. It was authoritative, left no room for arguing.

“I’m sorry, Mr. St. Clair,” Jake said, obviously not recognizing the tone of Dad’s voice. “But I can’t keep taking money for being with Whitney.”

I was surprised that they didn’t hear my heart slam against my ribs.

I spun around and pressed my back to the wall. I could hardly breathe. My lungs just didn’t want to draw in air. I thought maybe I was dying. I sure felt like I wanted to die.

From the very first day at the water park, I had noticed Jake, because I had spotted him watching me. All summer Jake had been there for me. He worked near wherever I worked. We started doing more things together. I had fallen for him — hard.

I thought he liked me. I thought he wanted to be with me because he liked me.

Only now I knew the truth.

My dad had been paying him to be with me. Dad had been buying me a boyfriend.

I slipped out of the house, knocked on the door of David’s apartment above the garage, and told him that I needed to go to Robyn’s. He didn’t question me, probably because when Dad hired him he told him that he was supposed to take me wherever I wanted to go, whenever I wanted to go — as long as it was before ten o’clock at night.

He may have thought the black truck in the drive was unusual, but he didn’t say anything about it.

I had him take me to Robyn’s, because it was the only place I could think of that might offer me a safe haven. Not that I could
hide out there. David would tell Dad where he had taken me if Dad asked him. After all, Dad was paying him, too.

On the way over to Robyn’s, I called Aunt Sophie on her cell phone and told her what I had overheard. I also explained that I just needed some time away, was fine, was going to Robyn’s, and wasn’t going to do anything foolish.

Aunt Sophie understood. After all, Dad was her brother. She had known him her whole life and knew he liked to control things. But even she admitted that this time he had gone too far.

“Buying you a boyfriend? You can get one on your own. What was he thinking? He told me there was a guy at the park named Jake who might want to do things with you, and that it was okay for you to be with him, that your dad trusted him, but I had no idea he was paying him!”

Like that confession was supposed to make me feel better. It only confirmed what I had heard, and it explained so much, like
why Jake’s name seemed to mean something to her and why she’d been perfectly okay with me going out with him. Aunt Sophie probably would have gone on a little longer but I’d told her I was losing my reception.

When I got to Robyn’s, she, Caitlin, Sean, and Michael were already there, waiting to start the party, waiting for Jake and me to get there. Only there would be no Jake.

Now they were all sitting around on the couch or a love seat, united, while I sat on the floor feeling so very alone. I knew those feelings weren’t fair to them. But everything made sense now.

The reason Jake always seemed to be working wherever I was. The reason he hadn’t kissed me.

“I thought he liked me. But my dad hired him. All this attention he was giving me was because my dad paid him to pay attention to me.” My cell phone rang. I ignored it.

“So what — your dad staked out the water park, noticed who came and went, then hired Jake?” Caitlin asked.

“He owns the water park, Caitlin. He could have looked through all the applications and picked the person he thought would be best. Or maybe he took out an ad. Who knows? Jake’s dad is a cop so maybe my dad thought Jake had the serve-and-protect gene. I don’t know. I just feel betrayed by Dad
and
Jake.”

Another cell phone rang. Not mine. Sean, looking sheepish, took his cell phone out of his pocket and looked at the display.

“I have to take this.” He stood up and started walking to the far side of the room while flipping open his phone. Then he started talking really quietly.

I concentrated on him as a really awful thought started to form.

Robyn reached across and touched my knee. “Go on. Finish explaining.”

“In a minute.”

She looked over her shoulder at Sean. “He won’t mind.”

“Who do you think he’s talking to?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I think he’s talking to my dad.”

“You’re just getting paranoid now,” Caitlin said. “Why would he be talking to your dad?”

“Because my dad knows people, knows things, and has contacts.”

Sean closed his phone and returned to sit by Robyn on the couch.

“Were you just talking to my dad?” I asked Sean.

“Yeah. He wanted to know what was going on and if you were okay. I said you were fine.”

Typical guy. I wasn’t fine. Couldn’t he see that? Or maybe it was just that right now I was upset with all guys.

“Why did he call you?” I asked.

“Because he was worried.”

I shook my head. “No, I mean why
you
? How does he know who you are? Was he paying you, too?”

“No. Absolutely not. Although he may have known I was your supervisor, because
he talked to me about you working in my section of the park.”

Great. Was there any part of my life that my dad hadn’t tried to control? I looked at Michael. “So did my dad pay you to come to the water park, introduce yourself to me, and sell me on a laser light show that he’d already paid you to put on?”

He looked at Caitlin, looked back at me. “What?”

“Now that I’m thinking about it, you being at the water park and telling me about your dad’s light-show company, and a customer canceling on the Fourth of July just seems way too coincidental all of a sudden.”

“You think your dad manipulated things so you would get credit for bringing an amazing laser light show to the water park?” he asked, his voice echoing incredulity.

Was that what I thought?

“Talk about your conspiracy theories,” he went on. “First of all, you came over to me —”

I held up my hand to stop him from going on. He was right. So many different things had happened about the light show. My dad couldn’t have been responsible.

“I’m sorry. I’m doubting everything I know right now,” I told him.

“Not our friendship, I hope,” Robyn said.

“No, that’s the reason I’m here. I trust you guys.” They had been stunned to learn that my dad owned the park. Thinking back on it, Jake hadn’t even questioned it. Now I knew he wasn’t surprised because he already knew. Like his dad, he’d been working undercover.

Sean’s cell phone rang again. He looked at the display and said, “Jake.” He answered, talked for a minute, then lowered his phone. “Jake wants to know if he comes over whether you’ll talk to him.”

“No.”

“He says he can explain.”

Shaking my head, I fought back the tears. What was there to explain? I knew the truth.

Sean talked into his phone. “Maybe another time, dude.” He hung up and looked at me. “What now?”

“I don’t know.”

I got up, took a couple of steps toward the door, walked back. I had nowhere to go and no way to get there. I had told David to go on back home. So here I was. In a pinch, I figured Sean could take me somewhere, but again, I had nowhere to go.

I was mad at my dad for thinking he
had to pay
a guy to be with me, and I was angry at Jake for
taking
money to be with me. Was I really such a pathetic loser? Did my dad think I couldn’t get a boyfriend on my own? Did he think he had to buy everything for me?

I just wanted to curl into a ball and cry.

“Do you want to spend the night?” Robyn asked, like maybe she knew what I was thinking.

“Would it be okay, do you think?”

“Absolutely.”

“Your mom wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not. We don’t have any plans.”

“I didn’t bring any clothes.”

“I’ve got some stuff you can wear. It’ll be fun. We’ll have a sleepover.”

I called Aunt Sophie. She gave me permission to spend the night. She also said that Dad was upset that I heard him and Jake talking. He never meant for me to find out that he was paying Jake to “look after me.” According to Aunt Sophie, those were the exact words he had used. My conversation with her didn’t make me feel any better. It only confirmed that Jake had been hanging around me because my dad had paid him to.

I felt like such a loser knowing my dad —
my dad
— thought he had to pay a guy to be my friend.
“Here’s five bucks. Hang around with my daughter.”

Only knowing my dad, knowing how much money he had, I figured he had paid Jake way more than that.

And for Jake to be working wherever I was working, to always be in sight of me, the people in management had to have been in on it. They knew what Dad was doing, that he was paying Jake to hang around with me, so they made it easier for him to be wherever I was. It was a conspiracy, a conspiracy to ruin my life.

I didn’t think I could ever show my face at the water park again. I knew how gossip worked, and while this secret had been held tightly, I knew it would come out eventually. I didn’t want to be around when it did.

After Caitlin and the guys left, Robyn took me up to her room. It was really different from mine. Smaller, for one thing, but it still had space for two twin beds.

“Caitlin spends the night a lot,” Robyn said as though she wanted to explain the beds.

All the furniture was white, and the room was painted yellow. It was like stepping into sunshine. She had pictures of actors and bands — obviously the torn-out
centerfolds from teen magazines — stapled to her wall. All the art on my wall was framed and original.

Her room looked and felt lived in. Mine was like a showroom. I never really realized that before.

“Here. You can sleep in these.” She handed me pink cotton shorts and a white tank top with pink flowers on it.

I went into the bathroom and changed into them, even though I didn’t think I’d do a lot of sleeping. I figured I was going to spend most of the night brooding.

I don’t know how long I stayed in the bathroom wondering about my next move. I knew I couldn’t stay at Robyn’s house forever, but I didn’t want to go home either. And I certainly wasn’t going to work. Maybe I’d stay with Aunt Sophie in her apartment. Maybe she could adopt me.

When I finally left the bathroom, I was surprised to see Caitlin sitting on one of the beds with Robyn. Both were in shorts and tank tops.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Caitlin. Hadn’t she just left?

“You don’t think you and Robyn are going to have a sleepover and not invite me, do you? I just had to go home and get my stuff.”

That’s when I noticed the large tote bag on the floor by the bed.

I guess I was surprised that Caitlin was there, but glad, too. At a moment like this, I needed friends. I sat on the other bed, with my legs tucked up beneath me, facing them. “Now what?”

“Well, we used to talk about boys —” Robyn began.

“Until she started dating my brother.” Caitlin held up her hands. “I don’t want to go there. Tonight we’re here for you. What do you want to do?”

“Truthfully? I just feel like crying.”

Caitlin reached across Robyn and grabbed a box of tissue that was on the nightstand. She tossed it at me. “Have at it.”

I smiled sadly. “I haven’t cried since my
mom died. Talking to my aunt about boys — it’s just not the same.”

“So talk to us,” Robyn said.

She made it sound so simple, so honest. I was used to everything being complicated, and looking for ulterior motives. But with her and Caitlin, maybe I could simply tell the truth.

“I really liked Jake a lot.”

“I don’t get why he was taking money to be with you,” Caitlin said. “I mean, at Pizza Palace, it looked like he was totally into you.”

“He was just pretending.” It hurt to say that but I knew it was the truth. Just like Marci had pretended to be my friend. I had shared my life with her and she had plastered it on the Internet and sold it to a gossip magazine.

“What if he wasn’t?” Robyn asked.

“I know he was taking money because I heard —”

“No. What if he wasn’t pretending? What if he did like you? Maybe the money was for something else.”

“I don’t think so. I know what I heard. And if I was wrong? When I called Aunt Sophie, she would have told me to come home.”

“So what are you going to do?” Robyn asked.

I flopped back on the bed and stared at her ceiling. At home, I would be staring at the canopy of my bed. My room was designed for a princess. Right now, I didn’t feel like a princess. I felt like someone in need of a fairy godmother. But those existed only in fairy tales.

“I’m not going to work tomorrow,” I said, my mind made up. “I may never go to the water park again.”

“You’ll have to call in with an excuse,” Robyn said.

She was a rule follower. I rolled my head to the side and looked at her. “What do you think they’ll do? Fire me.”

“They might.”

“Yeah, right. And even if they do, so what? I’m probably going to quit anyway.
Besides, they won’t even notice that I’m not there.”

“Sure they will,” she insisted.

I sat back up. “I’m inconsequential. I’m a token employee. You heard what Sean told us earlier today. They put me at Splash because they knew if there was a problem, you’d take care of it. You saved a kid. Caitlin saved a kid. I took pictures at parties. How important is that?”

“You give people memories, and you come up with awesome ideas,” Robyn argued. “Like the laser light show for the Fourth of July.”

I shook my head, doubting everything. “They did it because of who my dad is. Who knows if it was really a great idea?”

“People loved it.”

“Maybe. I guess.” I shook my head and lay back down. “Tomorrow is Marci’s party. I don’t want to be there. Can we talk about something else?”

Avoiding my problems seemed like a really good idea at the moment. Somehow
I had fallen into an alternate universe where I was living the year that nothing went my way.

Robyn didn’t want to talk boyfriends, because she felt funny talking about Sean with his sister. Caitlin didn’t want to talk about Michael since Robyn and I weren’t talking about guys. So we talked about how in just a few more weeks, summer would be over and we’d all be going to school again.