“Hey, sweetheart. Is everything okay?”
“Oh yeah, great.” I look over at Jace as he easily slides in behind the steering wheel. When his eyes land on my face, I hold a finger to my lips in a silent plea for him to be quiet. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, just sitting around with your aunt, drinking coffee. We’re going to head to the mall this afternoon to do a little shopping,” she says as Jace starts the engine of the Jeep.
“That’s fun.”
“What are you up to?”
“Um….” Oh, Lord. I hate lying to my mom, but if I tell her what I’m actually doing, she will be on the next flight back to San Francisco. “I’m just hanging out.”
“Please tell me that you haven’t been sitting around watching TV all day?”
“I’m not. I promise.” I fiddle with the handle of my bag. “I’ve been keeping busy.”
“All right.” She sighs, sounding like she doesn’t believe me.
“So how have you been feeling? Are you taking all your meds?”
“Yes, Mother.” She laughs. “Stop worrying about me.”
Like that’s going to happen. “All right.”
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too, Mom.” I turn to look out the window. “Have fun with Aunt Lucy today.”
“I will. And please, Penny, do something fun.”
“Okay.”
She hangs up after a quiet goodbye, and I rub my lips together.
“Where’s your mom?” Jace asks, and I look over at him.
“In New York, visiting my aunt.”
“Are you two close?”
“Very.” I nod. “So how far is the drive?”
“We should be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes?” My stomach muscles tighten. I don’t know why I assumed we would have longer before we got to our destination. “Is your family already there?”
“They are.”
“Wait.” I shake my head frantically. “Don’t you think we need to come up with a plan? I don’t even know anything about you besides where you went to school and what your job is.”
“You didn’t read the papers I gave you?” he asks, glancing over at me with an annoyed expression.
“No.”
“That’s why I gave them to you. That way, you’d know about me and the story of ‘how we met,’” he says, finger quoting with one hand, the other staying on the steering wheel, and I seriously have the urge to punch him in the arm.
Digging them out of my bag, I flip to the second page, because the first is just some basic information about him. As I read the first paragraph, I feel my nose scrunch. “We met at a gaming convention and had our first date at In-and-Out Burger.” I snort. “Did you make this up?”
“Yes.”
“How about we met through a friend and had our first date at a coffee shop?”
“You can’t just change the story.”
“Well, since I’m not going to be able to memorize all this crap in the next fifteen minutes, we need to change it.” I flip through the pages and shake my head. “There is nothing about me in this.”
“What?”
“You have all kinds of information about you here, but there is nothing about me.” I look over at him. “Did you even know anything about food-poisoning girl?”
“What is there to know?”
“I’m just going to pretend you’re joking.” I fold the papers in half and tuck them back into my bag. “Okay, some stuff about me. I went to USF. That’s where I got my Master’s in Teaching. I wanted to be a high school history teacher but decided to start out teaching younger kids.”
“You’re a teacher?” he asks, his tone one of shock, and I look over at him in just as much disbelief.
“Yes, Jace. I teach first grade.” I shake my head. “Now be quiet and listen.”
“All right, all right.” I catch a half smile flit across his lips, and I ignore how much I like it.
“I live in Modesto about two blocks from my mom. As I told you, my dad passed away when I was four, and my mom has never remarried. My favorite cuisine is Indian, favorite color is yellow, and favorite song is forever ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses.”
“Seriously?”
“What? You don’t like that song?”
“I’m just surprised you do.”
“Why?” My eyes narrow.
“You look like your favorite song would be something by Taylor Swift.”
“I love Taylor, so I’m not going to be even a little offended by that statement.” I shrug, and he laughs.
He actually laughs.
“All right. Is there anything else?” he asks, snapping me out of my shock that he does, in fact, have a sense of humor.
“About a million things, but we don’t have time, so it’s your turn.”
“It’s on those papers you just shoved into your bag.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Fine. I went to NYU and moved to San Francisco when I launched my first video game, which was Crimson Son. My parents are still married and have been together for thirty years. My favorite food is In-and-Out Burger, favorite color is black, and favorite song is ‘Believer’ by Imagine Dragons.”
“Relationships?”
“Had a serious girlfriend in college, but she couldn’t deal with me working all the time and cut her losses.” He looks over at me. “You?”
“I was engaged my last year of college, but my ex couldn’t deal with sleeping with one woman, so I cut my losses.”
“Dick,” he mutters, and I nod, because I couldn’t agree more.
Silence descends over us, and unlike other times I’ve been with him, I don’t feel the need to fill it as I watch us drive through a valley of trees and take an exit for Wenatchee Lake. When we pull off the highway, a gorgeous lake surrounded by trees and mountains comes into view. It’s beautiful, like something you’d see on a post card.
“Have you been here before?” I glance over at him as we pass by residential streets that lead to homes along the water.
“Every year since I was a kid, our annual family reunion is always here,” he says, and alarm bells start to go off inside my head.
“But that’s not happening this week, right?”
“No, it is.”
“Oh my God!” I cry out in disbelief. “You want me to lie to your whole family?”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“It is! I mean, it was already a big deal lying to your parents, but now you want me to lie to what… a dozen people?”
“One hundred and thirty-six,” he says under his breath, but I still hear the number so loudly I’d swear he yelled it.
“I think I’m going to pass out.” I lean down and tuck my head between my knees, forcing myself to slow my breathing as I feel a panic attack coming on.
“It’s going to be okay.”
It’s not. It’s totally not going to be okay. This was stupid, and I don’t know why I even agreed to do this. I squeeze my eyes closed.