Surrendering to Us (14 page)

“So we’re doing dinner at Sloane’s with the rest of the girls?” Lucah said that night. I’d already told him about chatting with Dad earlier, and he agreed to keep going to dinner with me every week. He’d also agreed that Dad was being cagey, but it was best to leave it alone and wait and see.

“If you’re cool with that. Don’t you ever get sick of hanging out with us?”

“Not at all. I love seeing you together, and your friends are awesome. I’d like them even if they weren’t your friends.” I held onto his arm as we walked, and even though it was still summer, I could almost taste Fall in the air. Fall in Boston was one of my favorite times of the year.

“And speaking of spending time with people, Tate called and he said that the girls have been asking when you are going to come visit again.”

“That is so cute. I’d love to go see them again, but minus the candy this time.” I was never bringing candy again, unless April approved it, or asked us to bring it.

“Great. Saturday again?”

“Which means little to no drinking on Friday, but I’m okay with that. After that Thursday night wine binge a few weeks ago, I’m on an alcohol hiatus for a little while.” Lucah laughed.

“My little lightweight.” Drinking was probably the only category I could be considered a lightweight.

“Shut up.”

“This is a terrible game,” Lucah said as we played Cards Against Humanity that night after dinner. It was a traditional girls’ night activity, and once we’d explained it to him, he wanted to play. But then we actually started playing and he realized how awful of a game it really was.

“You were the one who said you wanted to play.”

“That was before I looked at any of the cards.”

I just laughed at him and pushed his hair back.

“Ugh, I have to go in early tomorrow. We had a bitch quit this week,” Chloe said. “So I’m out.” She got up and we all gave her hugs.

“I should probably go too. I think Fin is going to call me.” Marisol’s cheeks turned pink when she said his name. So adorable. Having an international love was not all it was cracked up to be. Especially with a huge time difference. We hugged and said good-bye and then it was me and Sloane and Lucah. The three Musketeers. Sort of.

“You haven’t heard from my brother at all, have you?” Lucah said, completely out of left field. We hadn’t talked much about Ryder lately, and I just assumed that either they hadn’t been talking, or things were going well.

“Uhhh, no.” She got up and didn’t make eye contact as she picked up the cards and put them back in the box.

“Very convincing, Sloane,” I said.

“Okay, he texted me. Once. Just asked if I wanted to meet him and gave me an address. I was in the midst of dealing with work chaos, and it was the middle of the day, so I said that I couldn’t and I haven’t heard from him since.” Wow. I was shocked. I thought she would have at least had more contact with him, or even that she’d hooked up with him, but she hadn’t. Progress?

“What was the address?” She got her phone and pulled up the message and showed it to Lucah, who typed it into his phone. “It looks like an apartment building. He’s been really vague about where he’s living. I’ve tried to get him a place, but he’d rather be a couch nomad.”

“Wow, sounds familiar,” I said, giving him a look. He sighed and got up from the floor where we’d been playing cards.

“Yeah, yeah.” He held his hands out to help me up and pulled me close for a quick kiss. Instead of glaring at us, or making a comment, Sloane wore a wistful look on her face. But as soon as I saw it, she hid it and went to put the cards away. I wondered if we were going to have another conversation where she cried about being a broken puzzle piece.

But she said goodnight and I gave her an extra-long hug and promised we’d do another spa day on Sunday.

“She’s so sad,” I said as Lucah locked the door of our place for the night. “I don’t know what to do to cheer her up. I feel like she’s been slowly getting sadder and sadder and I’m just now noticing it. I should have seen it sooner. I suck as a friend. I’m that girl who forgets about her best friend when she gets a boyfriend.” Lucah folded me into his arms and rocked me back and forth.

“You’re not a terrible friend. You’re one of the best friends I’ve ever seen. The best you can do is be there and listen, I guess. What would you do if it was me?”

“I’d give you coffee.”

“Okay, bad example.” And then he looked as if an idea had struck him. I could figure out exactly what that idea was.

“Perv.” I poked him in the ribs.

“No, wait, I think we need to discuss this further.” I pulled away from him and started walking to the bedroom.

“You can fantasize about me and Sloane, or you can come and have just me. Right now.” I pulled at the hem of my shirt, lifting it up over my head and tossing it on the floor.

“I’ll take the second option, please,” Lucah said, taking off his shirt as well. “I just want you, Sunshine.”

Sweeter words had rarely been spoken. So I let him take me to the bedroom and have me. Several ways.

I got to work a few minutes early the next day, partially because I was hoping to get a glimpse of Violet and maybe say hello before she got carted off for orientation. As luck would have it, Mrs. Andrews was chatting with her at the front desk when I got off the elevator.

“Rory, have you met Violet yet?” Violet’s hair was held back with a clip, but little tendrils escaped all over her face in a casual-yet-put-together way. Effortless, as was her pearl silk top and gray pencil skirt.

“No, not really. Welcome to Clarke Enterprises.” I got another great handshake.

“Thank you so much, I’m ecstatic to be here. Sorry, I’m a little nervous.” Bullshit. She didn’t look nervous in the least.

I was about to ask her something else when the elevator opened and Lucah stepped off. He went directly for me.

“Miss Clarke, you dropped your phone—” he abruptly cut off and stared at Violet. All of the color drained from his face, making his freckles stand out.

“Vi?” he said.

“Lucah?” she said with an equal mask of shock.

What. The. FUCK.

“You know each other?” I said and they both stared at me as if I spoke a foreign language.

Neither of them answered for a second and then Violet started to laugh.

“Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re here. I had no idea. How long has it been?” Her face went from white to red and Lucah’s did the same.

“Uh,” Lucah said, clearly flummoxed. I waited for him to get his bearings. I’d never seen him so off balance before, except the time when he was confronted by an ex-girlfriend. “It’s been a really long time.”

“Since high school,” she said, nearly finishing his sentence. Oh. Wow. She knew teenage Lucah. I’d gone through the photo album and there had been a few pictures of him as a gangly teenager (I still would have found him attractive, though), but apparently this girl had been there. Known him. How well? That was the ultimate question I was waiting for the answer to.

“Uh, Ror-Miss Clarke, Violet and I went to high school together. We, ah, we were friends.” I almost felt bad for him, because clearly he was freaking out. I’d never seen Lucah freak out like this before.

“Wow, small world,” I said.

“Isn’t it?” Violet wasn’t looking at me when she said it. Then Mrs. Andrews cleared her throat and the spell over Lucah and Violet shattered and they came back from wherever they’d been. Memory lane?

“Well, you two should catch up later, but I have to take you, Miss Cooper, down to see Dawn so she can get you all set up with your email and so forth.” Thank you, Mrs. Andrews. She hustled Violet down the stairs and I was left with a still-stunned Lucah.

Until I knew the entire situation, I was reserving. So I waited.

“Oh my God.” It seemed to be the only thing he could say. People kept walking by, and this wasn’t the kind of conversation we could have in the middle of a hallway. So I tugged on his sleeve and nodded toward my office. I could have a chat with my former assistant if I wanted to. And right now, I wanted to.

“I just have to ask Mr. Blythe about a project we worked on a few months ago,” I said to Lilia as I opened my office door and he stepped in. I gave her a look that I hoped she understood meant “hold all my calls” and shut the door behind me.

“Sit.” He sat. I poured a glass of water from the pitcher Lilia had set up on a little table. She also kept little snacks there and always had a fresh cup of coffee in my WORLD’S GREATEST BOSS mug. I handed him the glass and he sipped at it. His eyes were practically bugging out of his head.

“Calm down,” I said. “Just breathe for a second. No pressure.” He nodded and gripped onto the glass. He was shaken up. Was it just the shock of seeing her? Or something more? Questions tumbled through my brain at a crazy rate, but I kept them to myself and waited for him to pull himself together.

“We, um, we were friends in high school.”
How close?
I said in my head. Out loud, I said nothing. “She was one of my only friends. She lived in the same trailer park as us and we used to walk to school together. We got . . . we got really close, but when I bailed for college, I cut ties and never heard from her again. Until now. I . . . I really never thought I would see her again.” Clearly he didn’t.

“Wow.” What else was there to say? “She seemed just as shocked to see you, too.” I hoped Violet said something to Mrs. Andrews so I could go and talk to Mrs. Andrews about it later and try to piece this together.

Lucah coughed and drank more of the water.

“She was my first girlfriend.” There it was. The thing I knew he was going to say, but that I hoped he wouldn’t say. I mean, I couldn’t be jealous of him dating a girl in high school. That was ridiculous. Right?

“I never thought I’d see her again,” he said again. He looked off into space, as if waiting for some sort of revelation.

“She looks exactly the same,” he said in the same shocked tone. I almost snapped my fingers in front of his face, but I waited. I waited for him to pull himself out of it.

I didn’t have to wait much longer. He shook his head once and stared up at me.

“Oh God, Rory. I’m so sorry.” Why was he sorry? Hell, I hadn’t told him the entirety of my dating history either. There were some things that were better left unsaid. But I couldn’t help that little bitty twinge of jealousy and hurt that he hadn’t told me, irrational as it was.

“For what? For not telling me every single detail of your life? It’s not your fault that through some weird twist of fate she ended up here. That’s life. Unless you have control over the universe, then there’s nothing to be sorry for.” Wow, I sounded calm and collected and almost wise. Where the hell had that come from?

“We’ll handle it, like we’ve handled everything else. Okay?” I got up and got on my knees and took his hands in mine. “And there’s nothing really to handle. Isn’t this a good thing? Connecting with an old friend?” I didn’t say anything about the ex-girlfriend part. I was going to avoid that as much as I possibly could. Wait and see, again.

“I have to get back to work. We can’t be alone in your office. How long have we been in here?” He got up in a rush and went to the door.