Loving Lies

by Linda Kage

  “And I’ll make sure you will,” a new voice answered.

  He and Tess looked over to find Bailey, a book bag slung over her shoulder, strolling down the sidewalk toward them.

  When she flashed him a thumbs-up sign, letting him know she wouldn’t let anything happen to his girl, he sent her a grateful nod. “Thanks.”

  Tess, however, gritted her teeth and flashed her best friend a scowl.

  Then she turned to him. “I am proud to be seen with you, and I don’t care who knows we’re together.” Sweeping off his hat to reveal the parts of his face he’d been successfully shadowing, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him long and passionately.

  She had the power to pull him under and sweep him along the current of her desire; before he knew it, Bailey was clearing her throat. “Tess needs to get to class sometime today. You can see her later, Romeo.” She slipped his hat out of Tess’s grip and thrust it at him. “Bye-bye now.”

  As she hooked her arm through Tess’s, Tess sent him her sweet, angelic smile and mimed putting a phone to her ear as she mouthed the words Call me.

  He chuckled and waved goodbye as Bailey herded her inside Grammar Hall.

  As he drove to work, he couldn’t stop smiling. Then he began to whistle under his breath. At the diner, he ditched his cane entirely. The endorphins surging through his system gave him a pretty damn good high, because he barely felt a pinch in his leg at all.

  He was humming along to the song playing out in the diner when Dale scowled over at him. “That redhead must’ve gotten under your skin good. I’ve never see you so jolly.”

  The word jolly gave him pause, but then Jonah decided he liked it. Jolly was a nice thing to be. Made him think he was turning into Santa Claus or something, but who cared? He could be a lot worse than jolly.

  He sent Dale a smile. “Yes, sir.”

  His boss cracked a grin—the first Jonah had ever seen him give—and shook his head. “Yeah, those petite little redheads will get you every time. I was married to one for fifteen years before I lost her to cancer. She was the love of my life.”

  When a distant look entered his gaze, Jonah drew in a breath, wondering what it would feel like to lose the love of his life. Losing Sean had nearly cut him in half. But a partner, a soul mate. Tess.

  They hadn’t known each other as long as he’d known Sean, but already he knew she’d become an integral part of who he was. Losing her would be like losing himself.

  “How long has she been gone?” he asked quietly. He’d never discussed anything personal with his boss before, but now he felt a kinship with the man.

  “Let’s see…today’s the third. So, it’ll be three years next Thursday.”

  Jonah began to nod with understanding until he realized what Dale had just said. “Today’s the third? The third of May?” Spinning toward the nearby calendar hanging by the wall next to the employee time clock, he gaped at the date. “Holy shit.”

  “What? What’s the third mean?”

  “Nothing.” Jonah turned back to his grill and flipped the burger, which had been a breath away from burning. But, Jesus. Last year, he and Sean had been planning on how wasted they were going to get on each of their twenty-first birthdays. Sean’s had passed a month ago, and Jonah’s…hell, the last thing he cared about today was finding a bar or buying all the legal beer he could afford.

  He couldn’t believe it was his birthday and he’d completely forgotten it. His parents had never made a big deal about it. Only Sean had ever remembered and bought him presents, and even then, it had been pretty low key. But without Sean around…

  A fresh wave of grief filled him, making him miss his friend all over again. Sean probably would’ve gotten him some kind of corny gag gift, like he usually did. He’d gotten a box of tampons last year. But it had been the thought, the knowledge that someone remembered his one special day, that had always counted.

  The rest of his afternoon mellowed from there. He still had an overdose of euphoria flowing through his veins from spending the night with Tess and having her tell him to call her before he’d left campus. But that was now tempered with a dose of reality. It was his birthday, and probably no one would ever recognize it as such again.

  Still, as he finished his shift, he was looking forward to calling Tess once he reached his apartment. Being able to talk to her would make the day complete.

  Before leaving work, he purchased a bag full of Dale’s cinnamon rolls. No one else might know what date it was, but at least he could celebrate by himself. He used his cane to hobble his way to his door. Then he rested his shoulder on the frame, so he could hold his bag of baked goods with one hand and dig his hand into his pocket for his house key with the other. But as soon as he slotted the key into the lock, the knob turned from the inside, and the door was flung open.

  He nearly tripped in his haste to get out of the way as Aubrey came flying out to greet him with a crazy, happy smile and a huge bear hug.

  “What the hell?” He caught the kid with one arm, unintentionally hugging him back by bracing them both so they didn’t spill to the floor. “What’re you doing home so early?”

  “I took the evening off from rehearsal.” Aubrey grabbed his cane and bag and hooked their arms together to help him into the apartment.

  “Why? What’s going on? Is everything okay?” If someone else was giving Aubrey any more grief about this damn play, he was going to have to kick some ass.

  But Aubrey just grinned. “Everything’s fabulous. I just wanted to spend a couple hours with my favorite roommate on earth to help him celebrate his birthday.”

  Jonah jarred to a halt. “How did you—”

  “Know?” Aubrey sent him a saucy wink. “Well, someone had it written on his calendar in his bedroom.”

  Mouth falling open, Jonah could only gawk. He couldn’t believe it. Someone had recognized his special day after all. Emotions overwhelmed him, and he opened his mouth to thank his new friend for his thoughtful consideration. He probably would’ve totally embarrassed himself by hugging the kid, but half a dozen voices shouted from the darkened kitchen, scaring the holy hell out of him.

  “Surprise!”

  Tess was the first to pop forward, racing to him and hugging him. Shocked to see her, he hugged her back, pulling her close and breathing in her hair.

  Bailey was the next to spill out of the kitchen, then Logan, followed by Einstein’s friend, Paige. But the last person to fill the front room startled him the most.

  “Sam?”

  His counselor hurried to him to give him a hug as soon as Tess pulled away. “Happy birthday! I wasn’t sure if you wanted any, but I brought you some beer, since you’re legal now, though I think you, me, and Logan are the only ones here old enough to actually partake.”

  He shook his head. “You have to be the most unorthodox counselor I’ve ever known.”

  “But you love me for it.” She gave him a motherly pat on the cheek.

  “Yeah, yeah. So do I.” Bailey waved her hand to get their attention. “Now can we finally eat this pizza I’ve been forced to smell and not touch for the last half hour of waiting on Abbott’s slow ass to make it home?”

  “I’ve got paper plates and napkins.” Aubrey led the charge back into the kitchen. As everyone filed off, Jonah lingered behind with Tess.

  She glanced up at him and bit her lip. “Is all this okay? I know you don’t know Bailey and Paige and Logan all that well, but—”

  “They’re you’re friends.” He drew her fingers up to his mouth so he could kiss her knuckles. “That’s good enough for me.”

  She smiled and lifted up onto her toes to kiss him.

  “Oh, please.” Bailey groaned as she strolled back into the living room with a half-eaten piece of pizza in her hand. “Do you guys ever stop doing that anymore?”

  “Not if we can help it,” Jonah said into Tess’s hair.

  When she laughed, Bailey scowled. “What? What did he say?”

  “Noth
ing.” Tess ducked closer to him to hide her embarrassment.

  He held her face to his chest and couldn’t stop grinning, especially when Bailey rolled her eyes. “Damn, you guys are already making inside jokes. How sickening. Pretty soon, you’ll be as bad as ol’ Paige and Xander.”

  “What about Logan and me?” Paige’s question was muffled by her mouth full of pizza. When she paused to pat the side of her lip with a napkin, Logan walked into the living room behind her, only to lift his eyebrows with interest at her half-eaten slice.

  “Ooh, you got supreme. Is it any good?”

  “Here.” Turning to him, Paige lifted her piece. “See for yourself.” After he opened his mouth, she fed him, then dabbed his lip with her napkin.

  Bailey pointed at them. “Exactly.”

  Paige and Logan glanced at her with matching expressions of cluelessness. “What?”

  Together, Jonah and Tess burst out laughing. Then they looked at each other because they both knew they were laughing about how funny it was to watch Paige and Logan speak simultaneously. Realizing they were doing the whole synchronized laugh thing, they laughed even harder.

  “Oh, Jesus! Sam! Aubrey!” Bailey set her hand against her forehead. “Get your single asses in here. I’m being invaded by the couple-palooza.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  THE BIRTHDAY PARTY went better than Jonah thought it would. At first, he was wary of how Paige would treat him. All he remembered about her at college was how she’d scolded him to leave Einstein alone. If anyone blamed him for what had gone down on that campus, it would be Paige Zukowski. But she was Tess’s friend, and he’d been prepared to bend over backward and kiss the ground she walked on to make his girl happy.

  Except, Paige seemed surprisingly open to receiving him on friendly terms. He wondered for a moment if she even remembered who he was, though he couldn’t see how it would slip her mind. No way was he ever going to forget the way she’d twisted his finger and brought him to his knees in a split second. Total humiliation. But that was in the past, and he decided he was going to delete it from his memory banks along with a million other things he wanted to forget.

  Bailey, on the other hand, apparently wasn’t a fan of letting tense issues or huge elephants in the room go unnoticed. They’d all found places to sit around the living room, on the floor, couch, and rocking chair while Tess, the slowest eater, finished her meal.

  Bailey waited until there was a lull in the conversation before she struck. “So, are we going to talk about Einstein and the shooting and find out where everyone stands, because I’ve had to bite my lip about fifty times tonight to keep from mentioning something that relates to all that.”

  When Paige went sheet-white, Logan grabbed her hand. “Maybe we shouldn’t—”

  But Samantha broke in over him. “Sure. Let’s talk about it. I think it’ll be good for us.”

  Great. Get the counselor involved, and they were all going to have to open up and talk about their freaking emotions. Couldn’t they just stick needles in his eyes for the evening’s entertainment?

  Bailey blew out a loud, relieved breath. “Thank God, because Paige—” She twisted in her spot on the floor to face her suitemate. “I never know what I’m allowed to say around you, what will trigger some kind of downward spiral or put you in tears. I mean, am I allowed to say I hate Einstein, and I hate what he did, and I hate how it affected every single one of us?”

  Logan scowled like he might want to strangle Bailey, but Paige nodded. “You can absolutely say that. I hate what he did too and how we’ve had to stumble through the aftermath of his actions. As for Einstein himself, it was always an effort to be his friend, but after he turned the gun on us and shot Logan, it’s been even harder for me to forgive him. I don’t want to hate him, but I definitely do blame him.”

  Next to him, Tess began to run her hand soothingly up and down Jonah’s arm. “So, you never blamed Jonah?”

  Every muscle in his body tightened. He glanced at her, thinking she was crazy for putting that question out there. Of course, they blamed him. He—

  “Why would we blame Jonah?” Paige asked, wrinkling her brow in confusion. “I don’t remember him there, holding the gun and showing Einstein how to pull the trigger. That was one hundred percent Einstein. Besides—” she flashed him a small smile “—weren’t you a little too busy bleeding from your own wounds and falling into a coma right around that time?”

  She hadn’t even paused to give that answer. Jonah shook his head. “But what about the bullying?” he asked, his voice raspy with emotion.

  Paige shrugged. “I’m sure the way you treated him didn’t help the situation. But Einstein was messed up long before he came to Granton.”

  “Amen.” Samantha spoke up from her own cross-legged seat on the floor. “I never had the opportunity to speak to or meet the boy, but from listening to everyone talk about him, he came from a family who didn’t understand his differences and probably didn’t deal with him in a way that helped him emotionally. I’m not blaming his parents, per se, but his problems stemmed from way back. They didn’t start after he arrived on campus.”

  Jonah glanced at Tess when she squeezed his knee. They shared a relieved smile until Bailey said, “Well, I blamed you. I pretty much blamed anyone and everyone I could. The world had gone to shit, and I was ready to start pointing fingers. And after Tess got mixed up with you, and you turned her world upside down, I was ready to aim a firing squad at you.”

  “So, what changed your mind?” Tess asked, as if she were just learning this little tidbit about her friend as everyone else was. “Because I know you don’t still blame him, or you wouldn’t be sitting here right now, supporting my relationship with him.”

  “You’re right. I wouldn’t. I think I stopped blaming him the moment I visited him at the hospital to majorly bitch him out, and he ended up bawling all over me.”

  “I didn’t bawl.” Jonah scowled as he leaned against Tess and squeezed her knee right back. But if Bailey went on any longer, he was likely to strangle the girl tonight.

  “Well, what about you, Aubrey?” Samantha asked, scooting toward the rocking chair he sat in to pat his thigh. “You’re being awfully quiet over here. What do you think about all this?”

  “I think I totally love you guys,” he said, covering his eyes with his hands. “My family never talked about this stuff or opened up about their feelings. I just had to keep it all repressed down deep until I felt like I was going to explode. I’ve been asking myself for months and months why this all had to happen, why God had to take such a beautiful person like S-Sean. But sitting here with you people and listening to you talk makes me realize something beautiful can actually come from something ugly and awful.” Jonah glanced at Tess and had to think Aubrey was right. The most amazing thing in his life had indeed come from the worst thing.

  Paige and Logan were the first to leave the birthday party, and Sam wasn’t far behind, kissing Jonah on the cheek and telling him she had two kids to get home to. Then Aubrey hugged him good night and disappeared down the hall. When only Bailey, Tess, and Jonah remained in the living room, Bailey shuffled her feet and reached into her back pocket and yanked out a small wrapped package.

  “Here.” She shoved the gift at him, nearly stabbing him in the chest with it. “Happy birthday.” She didn’t look too happy about delivering her well-wishes, but he was coming to learn she liked to be moody and sarcastic.

  “Wow. Um…thanks.” He took the box and slowly unwrapped it. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone but Sean had given him anything.

  His chest hurt thinking of that, making him miss his bud all over again. But he flashed Tess’s best friend a grateful smile as he tore away the last of the wrapping paper. Then he looked down to find a flashlight in his grasp.

  “It’s not a flashlight.” Bailey scowled as if she could read his mind. Yanking the item out of his hand, she turned it on.

  It totally looked like a flashlight to
him when a bright yellow beam blared out one end. He arched his gift-giver a curious glance. “Okay,” he said. If she wanted him to call it a blue-horned pig, he would. But it still looked like a flashlight to him.

  Bailey huffed and rolled her eyes. “Okay, but it’s not just a flashlight.” She pressed the button again and a piercing red light shot out above the flashlight’s ray. “It’s also a flashlight with a freaking laser beam on it!”

  “Oh…cool.” Genuinely intrigued, Jonah yanked it out of her hand to play with it himself and aim it at objects around the room, after clicking the button to toggle between flashlight, laser beam, and both.

  “I know, right?” For once in her life, Bailey looked excited. With a proud grin, she nodded. “I designed it myself.”

  “Bailey’s an electrical engineering major,” Tess said, sounding like a bragging parent, which reminded him she’d told him this information before. “She’s always creating cool electronic doo-hickeys.”

  “Whoa. You actually made this?”

  When he glanced up, Bailey blushed—the first time he’d ever seen her do anything like that. “Well…” She cleared her throat and glanced toward the door. “It’s kind of my thing.”

  “This is so boss.” He glanced back at the object in his hand and brushed his thumb over the plastic surface. “I love it. Thank you.”

  She nodded and shuffled a step in reverse. “Yeah, well…this is about all the gratitude and nice crap I can handle, so I’m gonna jet.” Glancing at Tess, she winked. “Don’t do anything unless you can totally give me every detail about it tomorrow.”

  And then she was gone. He blew out a breath and fiddled with the button on his new present, hoping Tess didn’t make him confess he how much he thought the loud-mouthed Bailey was okay after all.

  But instead of needling, she clasped her hands together and grinned. “So…are you ready for part two of your present from me?”

  Jonah instantly forgot about the flashlight-laser in his hand. “Part two? Jesus, Tess this is already more than enough. The whole supper, inviting everyone over, and a laser flashlight. Really, I don’t need—”