TMI

by Patty Blount

  She dropped his hand and covered her ears. “I swear that was louder than the gunshot.”

  Chase drew his hand back, put it on top of his thigh, and stared at the dingy carpet. “You’re not five years old anymore, Megan. People have kids they didn’t plan all the time and don’t kill themselves. He was sick. It had nothing to do with you. If not you, he’d have found some other reason.”

  She winced at his tone. “Yeah, that’s what my therapist says,” she murmured, and his head snapped up.

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I’m seeing a therapist now. It was sort of Bailey’s idea.” She gave a tiny smile, and his eyes popped.

  “You and Bailey are friends again?”

  She rocked her head sideways. “We’re trying. We have a lot of work to do. Therapy for both of us was part of the deal—along with a fashion intervention.” She waved a hand over her dress, her face burning.

  “So where do I fit into this plan?”

  She almost winced at his choice of words. Instead, she took a deep breath and stared him right in the eye. “Chase, the time I spent being with you was so amazing, it was like I was painting even when I wasn’t. And then when you told me about the new baby, I freaked out.”

  “Let me guess…this master plan you and your dad constructed…it has a spot for the 2.5 kids, a dog, and a white picket fence somewhere between age thirty and thirty-five?”

  Her dark eyes filled with hurt. “No. No, Chase, you don’t get it. I was going to live my life alone. College, career, financial independence. No one to answer to. No one to worry about. No one to sway me from my goals. The kids, the dog, the white picket fence, the minivan with vanity plates—”

  His lips twitched into half a smile.

  “All that showed up on my plan after you tucked me into your bed and made me Rice Krispies. I woke up the next day, and suddenly, I was part of this big noisy family expecting me for Sunday dinner. I was scared and unbelievably touched and confused and hurt with all the Bailey crap and then you dropped the baby news on me by asking me to run away with you and…and I couldn’t stop thinking, What if it was us? What if I got pregnant? Damn it, Chase. It was all…all just too much.”

  Chase flung himself back against the cushions and stared at her. “I don’t get why you’re telling me all this now. Nothing’s changed.”

  “Uh…yeah, it has.” She retorted. “I have. Or…well, at least, I’m trying to. And that’s why I’m here. I want us to be together.”

  That muscle in his jaw twitched again. “Megan, I don’t have a plan. I don’t know what I want, what I want to be. I don’t know when or if I’ll ever have kids. There are just so many possibilities, you know?”

  She nodded once, swallowed hard, and shifted. It was time to leave. Maybe she never should have come. Just as she’d finally accepted that her father’s life plan was wrong, it hit her that Chase’s idea of no plan wasn’t much better. Bailey’s last words as she dropped her off at the train station replayed in her head. Just see what happens. Let it play out. She’d done that. And supposed it was good to know one way or the other.

  Even if it felt like a steel-toed kick to the gut.

  “But I can promise you this. We can figure all these things out as they come.” He waited a second. “Could you live with that?”

  She didn’t reply. Could she live with unknowns?

  Instead, she stood up, held out her hand. “I want to show you something.”

  He didn’t take the hand she offered but stood anyway. That hurt too, but she moved to the window. “Look. See that building over there?” She pointed west. “That’s the dorm for the Cooper Union. That’s where I’ll be staying next year if I make it in.” She turned, took his hand in both of hers. “But if I don’t get in, I have to have a new plan.”

  He sighed, so she reached out and squeezed his hand.

  “It’s pretty short. It has room for kids some day—a whole bunch of them. I didn’t even know I wanted kids until I woke up in your house. I know I want to paint. I want to surround myself with art. It used to be just a hobby, just something I did to keep myself busy. Now it’s going to be my job. I don’t know how yet. Artist, curator, appraiser maybe—I have no idea. So besides Cooper Union, I’m applying to a bunch of other schools. I may end up living at home, commuting to school, or, hopefully, staying right over there.” She jerked her thumb at the window. “So there’s a lot of wiggle room in The Plan.”

  “That’s it?” He crossed his arms, angled his head.

  Meg understood that part of her plan wasn’t enough for him. She lifted a shoulder. It was time to reveal the next part. “No, that’s not it. There’s you. You’re part of The Plan. I mean, if you want to be.” She managed a small smile. “I don’t know how we can do this if we’re in different towns, but we could try.”

  Chase stared out at the brick facade on a building a few blocks over and said “Binoculars.”

  “What?” She looked worried when he grinned.

  “Nothing. Come on.” He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the bedroom. He shoved a pile of dirty clothes off a metal folding chair by an ancient battered desk, sat down, and logged into Facebook. She watched him click his profile, tap a few keys. Finally, he looked up at Megan and said, “Okay. You sure about this? I’m not deleting it this time.”

  She turned her gaze from his monitor to enchanting green eyes and swallowed once. “Told you…I’m making this up as I go.”

  “I like this plan.” Chase clicked Post and smiled when his status updated.

  Epilogue

  Forty miles away, Bailey’s cell phone buzzed. She unlocked it, saw a new Facebook update from Chase, and clicked it.

  Chase Gallagher is in a relationship with Megan Farrell.

  “Oh, my God!” she squealed and did a little chair dance, and this time, Gran didn’t shout at her to stop.

  TMI Discussion Guide

  Questions about TMI:

  1. What are TMI’s main themes?

  2. Pick one trait that describes each of the main characters. Do you think the same trait still applies by the end of the story? Why or why not?

  3. How do you think Megan’s family life influences her? How does Bailey’s family influence her? Compare the girls’ families to Chase’s family.

  4. Why do you think Megan denies how she feels about Chase for so long? What finally prompts her to admit her feelings?

  5. How others perceive us often determines how we act in certain circumstances. How do Bailey’s decisions reflect the way others think of her? How do Meg’s decisions reflect the way others think of her?

  6. Why do you think Megan and Bailey are friends? Do you feel the girls respect each other? Why or why not?

  7. Let’s talk about Ryder. Why do you suppose Bailey trusted him? Why do you think she believed him instead of Megan?

  8. Do you feel the characters changed by the end of the book? In what ways?

  Questions about You:

  1. Which of the characters is more like you? Would you be more likely to be Bailey’s friend or Megan’s?

  2. Bailey blogs about secrets that girls have. Do you agree with her that secrets are the foundation of a friendship? Why or why not?

  3. Consider the friendships you have. Do your friends know your secrets? How would you react if a friend revealed your secrets online?

  4. What do you think it was like for Megan and Bailey to return to school after their secrets goes viral? Have you ever wanted to skip school because of an embarrassing moment?

  5. How we perceive ourselves is often different from how others see us. Does Bailey think she is smart? What about Meg? How is people’s perception of you different from how you see yourself?

  6. Have any of your views and thoughts changed after reading TMI? Which ones?

  Acknowledgments

  We did it again!

/>   I used “we” because even though it’s my name on the cover, this was not a solo endeavor. Hugs, kisses, and head rubs to my guys, Fred, Robert, and Christopher, who picked up the household slack while I tried to complete TMI a few weeks after my mom passed away. Know this would never have been possible without you. An extra cuddle to Chris, who introduced me to Assassin’s Creed and helped me nail many of the game references, and to Rob, who introduced me to a friend willing to beta-read.

  To Kelly Breakey, Alex Newcorn, and @Alyssa-Susanna, big hugs for reading TMI so fast and providing the incredibly insightful feedback that helped me make Bailey into a character I am proud of. You all rock!

  To all the members of the Long Island Romance Writers, RWA Chapter 160, *mwah*! Thank you for your support, advice, cheerleading, and sanity preservation as I juggled this project while I was saying good-bye to my mother. Special thanks to Jeannie Moon for not only reading early drafts of TMI but inviting me to join her and her own BFF under the guise of “research.” I’m so touched that you shared your oldest and bestest friendship with me. *grins*

  Enormous thanks to Aubrey Poole and the Sourcebooks team for giving me this opportunity, for the time I needed to mourn, and for making sure I’m not a one-hit wonder! *laughs* The Gallagher twins were named for my agent, Evan Gregory at the Ethan Ellenberg Agency, to whom I send extra special thanks for continuing to be a fount of wisdom, humor, and patience (especially patience!) as I learn the ins and outs of publication. I am so grateful to you. *high-fives*

  Finally, love and gratitude and all the chocolate to my Twitter friends for your continued guidance, humor, and support, especially Ali Trotta, the sister of my heart (she knows why), and my Book Hungry ladies—Kelly Breakey, Abby Mumford, and Karla Nellenbach—for their cheerleading, feedback, and outstanding taste in books. *winks*

  Thank you to Janet Reid, Brooks Sherman, and Jeff Somers, for rallying around this debut author in ways too big to ever adequately express my gratitude, and to Bill Cameron…just because.

  About the Author

  On a dare by her oldest son, Patty, who writes software instruction manuals during the day, wrote her first novel in an ice rink during his hockey practices. Though Penalty Killer was never published, Patty figured if she could do it once, she could do it again, and she finished several more novels. Her big break came in 2012 with SEND, a story about a former bully learning to cope with his guilt after one thoughtless click led to a classmate’s suicide. SEND was published by Sourcebooks Fire in 2012. Fueled by a serious chocolate addiction, Patty is always looking for story ideas and wrote TMI after she read a headline about a fake Facebook account.

  Patty lives on Long Island with her family and is currently writing a ghost story set there. Visit www.pattyblount.com for more information.