“No, I usually go to the Starbucks by school.” He came up beside her, the heat from his body fusing with hers, making her pulse skitter. He stepped even closer, near enough their arms brushed. Her blood turned amazingly thick. “I figured you needed a break, so the longer drive over this way, you know?”
Lexi nodded as she took another sip of her mocha latte. He was so easy to be with. No nosy questions, just understanding. Like a friend. Who knew there were guys who weren’t sex crazed or controlling?
Ash tipped his head and started walking down the row of shops again. Lexi jogged a couple of steps to catch up then matched her stride to his. They went past a pink and white bath and body shop, then Williams Sonoma.
The setting sun glimmered off the reds and oranges of the tree branches arching across the sidewalk and sparrows hopped around, picking up crumbs left under café tables. Beyond the sidewalk, freshly washed cars pulled in and out of the spaces down the street. Bright-colored delivery trucks rumbled past, wheels humming against the brick-paved streets that led to rows and rows of pretty houses. Typical life in Cherry Grove. Everything just right.
He gave her a nudge with his elbow. “So what was the deal on the phone? You sounded stressed.”
There was no point lying. Besides, she needed someone to talk to. Someone who wasn’t going to judge her or use the information to talk about her behind her back. “My stupid stepdad, asking stupid questions—as usual.”
Ash stopped short, the expression on his face unreadable. “You two don’t get along? All the guys on the team think he’s okay.”
Maybe she’d read him wrong. He wasn’t someone she could talk to. Lexi, hoping to keep him from seeing her disgust and resentment, kept walking, swinging her arms and looking around.
“No, really, I want to know.” He stopped her, wrapped his free hand behind her back, pulled her snugly to him and guided her forward. “What’s the deal?”
That liquid heat came back and she relaxed. After all, he’d never had a stepdad, so how could he know what it was like? This was her chance to explain. “He actually thinks I care about his opinion.”
“But you don’t care what he thinks, do you?” His voice was light, teasing, and that warmth of understanding encouraged her to look at him.
When she glanced over and spotted his dimple, she grinned. “How’d you guess?”
They paused and moved aside to let a mom wrestling with an overloaded stroller pass. The toddler tagging along behind was squeezing a drink box, making grape juice spurt out of the straw. The purple liquid streamed down her little arm, dripping from her elbow and leaving a drizzly trail on the sidewalk. The mom was trying to capture the girl’s hand with one of her own while pushing the stroller with her other. Lexi would’ve let herself laugh aloud at the awkwardness of it if the poor woman hadn’t looked so stressed. Finally the mom scooped the girl up, drippy juice box and all, and carried her toward the parking lot. Her giddy laughter turned to something deeper. She and her mom must’ve been like that once. The two of them together all the time, her mom looking out for her.
When they started walking again, she shook the thought off, brought herself back to now.
Ash leaned close, practically whispering in her ear, “I sat behind you in zoology last year, remember? You acted like you owned the place, bossing Zoë Weinberg and Sheryl Banter around, making them clean up after every lab.” His body vibrated with his low laugh, sending tiny pulses of yummy electricity skittering across her skin. “I don’t think you care about anybody’s opinion. And you’re really, really good at making people do what you say.”
Grinning, she bumped him with her hip. “Shut up.”
“But I’m right.” He lifted his eyebrows and lowered his voice. “Admit it.”
“Okay,” she said, glancing away because it freaked her out that he actually understood her that well. “It’s kind of true.”
When she finally got the nerve to look at him again, he was downing the last of his coffee, his throat jerking with the swallows. Once the cup was empty, he pitched it into the trash can at the end of the walkway. It hit the metal rim and thumped to the bottom.
He howled, raising one arm above his head, his whole body shaking as he punched the air. “Who’s the man!”
Her body bounced with his, making her snicker. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
He howled again, pulled her against him, and she laughed more. For a couple of minutes they walked along, looking at each other and laughing like they were in third grade, except for that awesome tingling inside her skin and the deep thudding in her chest.
After a while Ash broke the silliness with a very brief, light kiss on her cheek, so quick she could have imagined it. Except that warmth came back and she felt protected, secure.
He looked down at her. “Don’t worry about Dale, you’ll find a way to take care of him.”
The giddiness fell away, and she found herself remembering how Dale made her feel. Little. Weak. “You think so?”
“I know it. Losing somebody you don’t want to makes you like that. Strong. In control. Capable.”
Lexi had never thought of losing her dad that way.
“It makes you different from other people, remember that.”
All she remembered was the never-ending pain. “It was a long time after my dad died before I could deal,” she said. “At first I didn’t even want to talk about it. Think about it. Anything.” Remembering about the way Ash had come back to school, only a couple of days after his father died last spring, Lexi added, “But you totally handled it. Everyone was amazed.”
“They were?” he said, stiffening with surprise.
She bumped into him, grinning. “Yeah. Of course. That’s about the time you really started to stand out.”
He lifted an eyebrow, silently asking her to continue.
“It was like you…all of a sudden…” There wasn’t a way to say he stopped being a nobody pretty much overnight, so her words hung between them.
He didn’t seem to notice her unfinished thought. “I had to grow up all of a sudden,” he said. “I guess I wanted…”
They reached the Village Bike shop, the end of the business section, so Ash looped her around and they started back to where they’d left his Mustang. Lexi finished her latte, tossed her cup into the trash can then wrapped her arm behind Ash’s back. His muscles were thick and hard. Strong.
“Wanted what?” she asked. “What were you going to say?”
“It sounds lame now, but the whole time growing up, nothing I ever did was good enough for him. So when he died, it was like I wanted to show him how wrong he was.” His steps slowed until he stopped moving altogether. She stopped too, waiting silently for him to continue. “I decided I wasn’t going to lose anyone ever again and I wasn’t ever going to let anyone get in my way.”
“Who was in your way?” she asked, amazed that they had that goal in common.
“Doesn’t matter anymore. I found a way to take care of it and you’re going to help me.” Lexi slid him a glance but he was staring ahead, still talking. “Even though he isn’t around, I still want my dad to know I’m good enough. I’m going to prove it. It means a lot to me, even though, like I said, I know it sounds lame.”
She was going to help him? What did he mean?
“That’s not lame,” Lexi said, trying to think of a question to keep him talking, anything to get him to explain more.
“Enough about me.” His fingers flexed on her waist, bending to match the curves just above her jeans. “You always get what you want. From everyone.”
“We’ll see,” she said, glancing over, wondering what he was getting at, then wondering what he’d say if she asked about Peter.
He started moving again, slowly, as he asked, “You still waiting to hear who Taylor’s going to recommend for president?”
She’d have to find a way to get back to that other topic later because this one mattered too. “Yes.” She came up behind him and smacked his s
houlder with her hand. “And you aren’t helping any by not signing for me.”
“I’ll let the other players— Hey, did I tell you? We have a new guy coming.”
They started moving together again. “I don’t care about a new guy. I want you.”
“I hate that stupid auction.” He glanced over at her, a gleam in his eyes. “What if some loser buys me?”
She couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. “I’ll buy you.”
Ash halted, his gaze fixed across the street on the small square building tucked behind a row of tall pine trees. “Hey, isn’t that Monica Sanders?”
Across the street, Monica was rushing out of the family counseling center, her mom close on her heels, saying something the girl obviously didn’t want to hear. Monica stayed a few steps ahead, texting like mad as she hurried across the parking lot.
Lexi’s stomach rolled. “What’s she doing coming out of there?”
“What do you think?” Ash smirked. “Everyone knows that girl is crazy.”
Monica climbed into her mom’s white sedan and slammed the door so hard the whole car shook. Her mom lingered in the parking lot, digging her keys out of her purse. “But Monica does everything right. The teachers love her.”
“Oh yeah, she’s everyone’s favorite, that’s for sure.” He paused, his mouth twisting as he nodded slightly. “But she’s messed up.”
“I didn’t know you knew her.”
Ash’s face settled into a blank expression, and he shrugged. “I bet there’re other people from school that go there.”
Lexi watched Monica’s mom. At least she cared enough to get her daughter some help. “I never hear anything about anybody getting help like that.”
Ash chuckled, low and soft. “Guess they keep each other’s secrets.”
Lexi’s attention shifted to Monica.
“Come on, don’t look like that.” He nudged her, making her move along with him as he took a few slow steps forward.
Monica’s mom pulled the keys out and marched to the driver’s side door. Her back was stiff as she yanked open the door and got in. She slammed her door and again the car shook.
Lexi forced a smile.
“Stop thinking about Monica Sanders being screwed in the head. You of all people should be glad.”
She turned away from Ash, watching Monica and her mom flash past in Monica’s mom’s Sebring, their rigid shoulders obvious even from a distance. Once the car was out of sight, she turned back to Ash. “Why do you say that?”
“You aren’t friends with her anymore, right?”
“Um, yeah, um, no.” She laughed, pretending that none of it mattered while she scrambled to figure out how he knew anything about them being friends at all. They’d been careful, not posting anything, especially pictures, of what they’d been up to.
The expression in Ash’s eyes was understanding, not judgmental, and heat from his body wrapped around her, offering comfort and that indescribable electric sizzle. She caught a glimpse of their reflection in one of the shop windows. They looked perfect together—him wearing black leather and her in a pale pink corduroy jacket. She slid out her phone and took a picture of their reflection.
“That’s more like it,” he said, nudging her with his leg.
“We’ll look even better together tomorrow, at Coach’s funeral. And everyone will be jealous.”
She took a couple more shots. He laughed, grinning as he forced his chest forward, doing what he could to appear bigger.
“Maybe you should make a video of us,” he said, making faces and watching his reflection in the window.
Her blood cooled and her stomach turned to stone. Making videos, that was something she never planned to do. Ever again.
She laughed the suggestion off, giggling in a silly way that she knew sounded fake. Thank God he didn’t notice because his phone was starting to hum.
Still holding on to her, he pulled it out and hit the screen. The lighthearted humor on his face fell into something close to despair. Maybe it was panic. Worry? With Ash, she was beginning to realize, it was tough to tell what he was thinking. “Oh, God—no.” He scrolled down, reading and talking to Lexi at the same time. “Cops found Jon’s bike. In the dumpster by the old Westerville diamond.” He looked up, his gaze searching. “You know the field I’m talking about?”
Lexi swallowed hard. “Um, yeah. Maybe, I’m not…sure.”
Ash tapped his screen, replying without looking up. “The one by the party store with the guy who doesn’t check IDs?”
Images of that last night with Monica flickered through Lexi’s head, starting with a scene at that exact party store and ending with her and Monica waking up, losing their minds, her putting on Jon’s bike gloves and both of them working together to toss his banged-up bike into that very dumpster. “Right. Yeah. I’ve heard of that place.”
“Just heard of it, huh? You never went there to buy?” That causal, easygoing expression came back onto Ash’s face. He shoved his cell back into his pocket. “You are sitting with me tomorrow, right?”
“Sure, right,” Lexi said, checking her own phone. A text from Jazz, saying her parents weren’t going to let her go to the funeral because of the cops finding Jon’s bike. No doubt everyone in town knew about the bike by now.
“Meet there a bit before.” Ash leaned down and kissed her check. “I want you with me.”
Lexi leaned back, sliding into the new connection they’d formed and pretending like his erratic moods weren’t weird at all and that she knew nothing about that party store, Jon’s bike, the dumpster or Jon.
Chapter Six
Reasons to Be Sorry
Jon’s bike getting found stirred everything up, and reporters were chasing down kids, taking pictures and trying to get them to talk. So Saturday afternoon, when Lexi pulled into the parking lot of Willows Chapel and Cemetery, TV cameras, reporters and morbid onlookers milled around in the sharp, cold sunshine. The breezy air snapped with menacing excitement and even though the cops had told everyone to come to them with anything they knew, and keep their mouths shut, kids were standing in clusters, their faces inches from the rolling cameras as they repeated speculation and rumors. In a matter of minutes, the clips would be online, a collage of guesses spoken by pretty but mournful girls and grim-faced teen guys in dark suits. Within hours those bits would be spun together in a series of possible scenarios.
Even though Lexi was supposed to sit with the boosters she waited back, watching the girls merge with the baseball players. The girls clustered around the chapel, a dreary-looking hilltop building made of fat gray stones. The walls of the chapel were grim and dusty-looking, as though the place had been built by medieval druids, or at least designed by video game creators. The contrast with the well-dressed crowd was something else. Any shots the cameramen managed to get of the people inside were going to look great. Most of the boosters were wearing black, even after all the conversation about whether it was really necessary to be traditional. Zoë, always one to do things right, was even wearing black tights and plain black flats. Betty Ann Thompson, who followed behind Zoë, had obviously pulled the charcoal gray suit she was wearing out of her mom’s closet—the shoulder pads were so square she looked like SpongeBob. Yet she still had a sexy-secretary look that was turning heads.
Lexi needed to get Monica alone, but the girl was nowhere in sight. Lexi scanned the crowd slowly and carefully. Row after row of stunning Cherry Grove residents, men, women, the high schools kids and even children, all looking fantastic and poised. Another sweep with her gaze and Lexi knew for sure. There was no sign of Taylor either.
One by one the rest of the boosters went in, moving out of the gray day into the gray building. The players followed them, suddenly shoving each other so wildly that the girls had to dodge them to keep from getting knocked down. The guys’ nervous laughter cut through the wind, breaking the silence inside the chapel. After Andrea, the last booster to cross through the arched doors, disappeared inside
, Lexi wrapped her second-hand Marc Jacobs pea coat tightly around herself to cover her boring, black Ann Taylor dress, and ducked under the low, mostly bare branches of the willow trees.
Three steps later, her cell hummed.
Ash.
You here?
She checked the camera crews, making sure none of them were paying attention to her. They weren’t. She went back to her phone but turned away from the crowds still lingering in the parking lot.
Sit in the back row, behind the players.
Where are you?
Be there in a minute, she replied.
Leave together?
Lexi sent ‘kk’ then started down the walk, tucking her phone into the black bag she’d borrowed from her mom. When she looked back up, a sudden movement caught her eye.
A man, maybe it was a young guy, walking alone toward the chapel door, fighting the autumn wind. His lumpy navy suit hung loose. As he got closer to the chapel doorway, he lifted his head, scanning, searching for something—someone. Lexi couldn’t see his face, but something about him was familiar. Maybe it was the way he walked? Or his silhouette?
With his rumpled suit and messed-up hair, he didn’t look like a teacher. Maybe a sub?
Somebody working for the media, ready to catch the latest rumor about Jon?
Lexi slowed, watching him as she, too, headed for the door.
He wasn’t part of the press. Not dressed that way.
Maybe a coach from one of the other schools?
Whoever he was, something about him gave Lexi the creeps. The way he kept pulling his collar over his face and tugging on his suit—ick. Inside, he merged with the crowd, and she quickly lost track of him.
Finally Lexi went in, slid in next to Troy Donaldson. He looked over and winked, then whispered, “You make an awesome Goth chick.”
She rolled her eyes but still smiled. “Gee. Thanks.”
Best Friends Never Page 6
