Out of Nowhere (15 page)

“You should’ve cooked those in the microwave, Riley. It’s too hot to have the stove on.”

“It’s better fried,” I said, even though that was just part of the reason why I didn’t want to go near the microwave.

Over dinner, Mom and I talked more about my appointment and took turns distracting Tristan while the other shoveled apple sauce into his mouth. He wanted no part of eating tonight.

“He’s cutting some teeth,” Mom said as Tristan systematically pitched every piece of food on his tray overboard onto the floor. “Rough day at daycare today.”

I reached over to feel his forehead, which felt sweaty but cool. “Poor kid.”

Mom stood up and almost tripped over Alice, who’d been skulking around the highchair, nibbling bits of cheese. “I know. He’s been a bear lately.” She smiled as she cleared the table. “He’ll cheer up when he sees Jeff on Friday.”

Oh right. Jeff was due home in three days. Wonderful. I wondered how long he’d be staying with us this time. So much for peace and quiet and a dry, always-down toilet seat.

“
I
know,” my mother said, her eyes bright like she’d just had the best idea ever. “Let’s have a barbecue Friday night to celebrate Jeff’s homecoming. We can grill burgers and hotdogs and I’ll make that potato salad you like so much.”

Jeff’s homecoming wasn’t exactly a rejoice-worthy event, at least not for me, but I nodded anyway. “Okay.”

She grinned even wider and went back to cleaning the kitchen. “Why don’t you invite Cole?” she said, keeping her eyes on the plate she was rinsing.

I stared at her back and wondered how much she knew. And
how
she knew. I’d never breathed a word about my new relationship status with Cole, because if she found out she’d never let me hang out with him in the house alone. And I enjoyed those moments with him way too much to risk having them taken away.

In the week or so that passed since our day at the beach, we’d been spending every spare second together. He drove into Weldon each evening to see me, no matter how tired he was from work. He’d drop into Jitters or we’d go for a drive, sometimes stopping for ice cream, which we’d eat sitting on the hood of his car. And this past Sunday, his day off, it was too chilly and wet for the beach or any other outdoor activity, so he came over to keep me company while I babysat Tristan. We played with the Little People farm and watched odd, annoying kids’ shows until it was time for Tristan’s nap. Then, while he was sound asleep, Cole and I went into my room, where we made out on my bed until Tristan woke up again.

But I was so careful. How did my mother know what was going on? Hidden cameras installed around the house? A neighborhood spy? Or maybe she’d noticed the dreamy expression I’d undoubtedly been sporting all week, the same one she got when Jeff was around. Apparently she didn’t like seeing that dopey, satisfied look on
my
face.

“Um,” I said now. “Sure. I guess so. I’ll ask him.”

She started scrubbing the counters. “Great. You’ve been spending so much time with him lately, it’s only fair I get to meet him properly. Right?”

There was only one answer to this question. “Right.”

Tristan let out an impatient wail and I lifted him out of the highchair, holding him against my shoulder. He played with my necklace, sniffling, while Mom crouched down to clean his dinner off the linoleum.

“I need to ask you something, Riley,” she said from her position on the floor. “And I want to hear the truth. How…how
involved
are you and Cole?”

I buried my face in Tristan’s hair and sighed. It was like Adam all over again. “Mom, my God. Do we really have to talk about this now?”

She stood up, her palm full of dusty, half-chewed food. “Yes,” she said firmly. “You deserve your privacy, Riley, but not when it comes to something as important as your well-being.”

“We went over this a million times last year when I was dating Adam. Nothing has changed.”

“Well,” she said, shooting me a sideways glance as she dumped the food in the trash. “You’re older now, and sometimes it depends on the guy.”

“The guy has nothing to do with it,” I said, even though I understood what she meant. On the outside, Adam was the polite, squeaky-clean type, a parent’s dream. Cole, on the other hand, looked like a consummate heart-breaker. But looks could be deceiving.

“I just need to know you’re being safe,” Mom said, glancing at the baby so I was sure to get her meaning. “It’s so easy to get caught up in the moment and forget about—”

I sighed again. “Mom, I’m a virgin. I plan to stay a virgin for a while. And whenever I decide to stop being a virgin, I’ll be sure to use ten forms of birth control. Okay?”

She gave me “the look”, a warning that my snark tank was a little on the full side. “Okay,” she said finally, and then took Tristan from me, carrying him down the hall to the bathroom. It was time for a bath and some Tylenol. I stood there alone in the kitchen, pinching the bridge of my nose and thinking a bath and some Tylenol sounded pretty damn good.

* * *

Mom wasn’t the only one who was good at detecting subtle changes in my demeanor. If anything, Lucas was even better at it than she was.

“There’s something different about you today, Riley,” he’d said the day after my first kiss with Cole. I’d shrugged at him like I didn’t have a clue what he meant, but—being Lucas—he kept buzzing in my ear like an incessant gnat. Still, I refused to budge. Not that it was this huge secret; I just wasn’t in the mood to hear him crow about how he knew it would happen, eventually. Sexual tension and all that.

I knew it would come out soon, though. I was a horrible liar, and Lucas would never let me live it down if he found out I’d been keeping such a significant piece of news from him. So when Cole showed up at Jitters on Thursday night, I figured the time had come for us to be officially “out”.

“Hey,” he said, coming up to the counter. We were alone. Lucas had gone in back for more coffee beans and the place was dead. “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” I replied, and then gasped when I caught sight of this right hand, which was swathed in a bandage. “What happened?” I demanded, plunking his coffee down on the counter and taking his injured hand in mine.

“Disagreement with a mower blade.” He kept still and let me examine it. “It’s just a scratch. Didn’t even need stitches.”

I ran my finger over the bandage, tracing a barely visible line of blood. “Did you clean it really well with soap and water and then apply some antibiotic cream?”

He picked up his coffee with his other hand. “Yes, doctor, I know the procedure. I’ve had more cuts and scrapes than I can count and I haven’t lost an appendage yet.”

I dropped his hand and glared at him. “Have you ever heard of blood poisoning? Infection is serious,” I said just as Lucas emerged from the back room.

“Who’s infected?” he asked, dumping two huge bags of coffee beans on the counter.

“Cole, if he doesn’t take care of that cut,” I said.

“I am taking care of it. Relax.” He reached over with his good hand to flick my ponytail.

Lucas laughed. “You should have seen what she did to me when I burned my finger on a coffee pot. Made me soak it in cold water for an hour. Don’t mess with Dr. Tate.”

“Stop calling me that.” I turned back to Cole and smiled. “The ‘don’t mess with me’ part is right, though.”

“No kidding,” he said. “Has she always been so strict, Lucas?”

“Since the day I met her,” he replied as he poured beans into the grinder.

I rolled my eyes at them. “So are we on for dinner at my house tomorrow night?” I asked Cole.

He nodded. “What can I bring?”

“Just yourself.” I glanced over my shoulder at Lucas, who was busy picking beans off the floor, and then leaned my upper body over the counter toward Cole. He met me halfway and we kissed. And not a little peck either.

“Hmm,” he said when I pulled back. “You deserve a raise.”

“Ha! I
knew
it!” Lucas exclaimed from behind me. “I
knew
something was different about you.” He breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Finally. I was getting so sick of you guys pretending you aren’t in love with each other.”

“Lucas,” I growled. He smirked and went back to his grinding. “Don’t mind him,” I said to Cole. “He was dropped on his head as an infant.”

The door opened and a group of middle-aged women funneled in, their loud chatter bouncing off the walls. Cole took this as his cue to leave. He leaned in for another kiss, a chaste one this time. “See you tomorrow,” he said, and then picked up his coffee and left.

Five minutes later, after the women were served and all was quiet again, Lucas went in for the kill. “How long has this being going on?” he asked, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at me suspiciously.

I brushed past him to get a clean cloth from beside the sink and began wiping down the counter. “About a week and a half,” I told him. “And don’t give me any crap about not telling you sooner. You just would’ve gloated.”

He placed both palms on his chest, offended. “
Moi
?” A few seconds passed, and he shrugged. “Okay, you’re right, I would’ve gloated. But only because I’m so happy for you.”

I studied his face to see if he was still teasing me, but he looked sincere. Like Jeff, he could be annoying the hell out of me one minute and in the next he’d do or say something sweet, disarming me completely. “Really?” I said, throwing the cloth into the sink.

“Of course.” He grabbed a filter and dumped in some freshly ground coffee, then placed it on the scale. Rudy liked them at a specific weight. Good coffee was all about precision, according to him. “I’m a little jealous too, I guess, of how easy it seems for most people. Dating, I mean.”

I linked my arm through his. “One more year until college. You’ll meet someone amazing there, and then it’ll be my turn to be happy for
you
.”

“That’s the plan.” He bumped my hip with his and grinned. “So Cole’s coming to your house for dinner tomorrow, huh? Must be serious.”

“You are such an eavesdropper.” I yanked out the empty urn and put it in the sink to rinse. “Yeah. My mom wants to meet him.”

“She’ll like him,” Lucas said, measuring another portion of coffee grounds. “Cole’s a good guy.”

I replaced the urn and stuck in a fresh filter, hitting the ‘on’ button. A minute later it was happily gurgling, filling the air with a rich aroma. “She liked Adam, remember? She’s not exactly a great judge of character.”

“You liked him too, even though he was a big douchebag.”

“Not at first,” I said, remembering the rush of those first few weeks with him, back when he was thoughtful and respectful and nice. Even over a year later, I still couldn’t pinpoint exactly when things changed and why. We’d just sort of deteriorated. Losing Adam had been gradual, like water dripping into a bucket over time, mostly ignored until it overflowed and made a mess. Sometimes I wondered if the loss would have been easier to take if I’d been blindsided instead.

Probably not, I decided. The aftermath sucked either way.

Chapter Twelve

Lucas had a dentist appointment the next morning so he’d talked me into covering his day shift. By the time I got home at two-thirty, I was already exhausted and the house was a mess. For the next two hours I dragged my weary body through the rooms, picking up toys, sweeping floors, and lugging laundry up and down the stairs. Ironically, Jeff showed up right while I was in the middle of scrubbing the toilet.

“Well, if it isn’t Rye Bread,” he exclaimed when I came out of the bathroom to greet him, reeking of Lysol. He didn’t seem to notice that as he crushed me into a hug. “How’s it going?”

“Fine.” I stepped out of his arms and immediately noted his luggage was once again piled in the corner of the living room. “Can you put those in Mom’s room?” I asked, nodding toward the bags. “I just cleaned in here.”

Even after a month-long reprieve from my bad attitude, Jeff didn’t even flinch at the curt request. Obediently, he picked up his luggage and started hauling it across the living room. I went back to my cleaning.

“It’s so good to be home, I can’t even tell you,” he said as he passed by the bathroom, where I was now Windexing the mirror. I heard a bang from the next room and a minute later, his large frame filled the doorway. “Can’t wait to see Tristan. Your mom said he’s been talking a lot more.”

I smiled in spite of myself. “Yeah,” I said, tossing a wad of paper towel in the trash can. “He just started talking like crazy one day. In sentences, even. His favorite is ‘no go bed’.”

Jeff laughed. “That’s funny. I wonder if he’ll remember me this time.”

He looked so hopeful I couldn’t bear to tell him the truth. Tristan had stopped mentioning him two weeks ago and seemed confused whenever Mom talked about “Dada” coming home. I could be rude, sure, but I wasn’t a downright bitch. “Probably,” I said, and he smiled.

“You almost done in here, Rye Bread? I need a shower.”

I gathered up my cleaning supplies. “It’s all yours.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep it neat,” he said as I left the room. “Hey, I hear we’re having company tonight. The kid with the sweet Camaro, right?” He made a fist with one hand and pounded it against the palm of his other hand. “Your mom suggested I put some fear into him.”

I froze in place. “What?”

His fierce glare dissolved into a grin and he started laughing. “I’m
kidding
. Gotcha! Ha, you should have seen your face.” He shut the bathroom door and turned on the shower, but I could still hear him over the noise, chuckling to himself.

“Doofus,” I muttered, and then went to empty the dishwasher.

* * *

When Cole arrived at six-thirty, my mother and Jeff and Tristan were already outside in the minuscule backyard, taking in the cool, perfect summer evening.

“Hope you’re hungry,” I said, breathing in his freshly-showered scent as he leaned in to kiss me hello. “There’s enough food to feed an army. Then again, Jeff eats enough for six people, so we might run out quicker than we think. How was work today?”