“The ho.”
“Apparently she’s filing for the front office, and she looked in Patch’s file.”
“Is it still empty?”
“It looks that way, since she wants me to tell her everything I know about him.” Including why he was hanging out in her driveway last night, gazing at her bedroom window. I’d once heard a rumor that Marcie propped a tennis racket in her window when she was open to payment for certain “services,” but I wasn’t going to think about that. Weren’t rumors 90 percent fiction, anyway?
Vee leaned in closer. “What do you know?” Our conversation lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. I didn’t believe in secrets between best friends. But there are secrets … and there are hard truths. Scary truths.
Unimaginable truths. Having a boyfriend who’s a fall en-turned-guardian angel fits into all of the above.
“You’re keeping something from me,” said Vee.
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
Thick silence.
“I told Patch I loved him.”
Vee covered her mouth, but I couldn’t tell if she was stifling a gasp or laughter. Which only made me feel more insecure. Was it that funny? Had I done something even stupider than I already thought?
“What did he say?” Vee asked.
I merely looked at her.
“That bad?” she asked.
I cleared my voice. “Tell me about this guy you’re after. I mean, is this a lust-from-afar thing, or have you actually talked to him?”
Vee took the hint. “Talked to him? I had hot dogs at Skippy’s with him yesterday for lunch. It was one of those blind date things, and it turned out better than expected. Much better. FYI, you’d know all this stuff if you returned my calls instead of making out with your boyfriend nonstop.”
“Vee, I’m your only friend, and it wasn’t me who hooked you up.”
“I know. Your boyfriend did.”
I choked on a Gorgonzola cheese ball. “Patch set you up on a blind date?”
“Yeah, so?” Vee said, her tone edging toward defensive.
I smiled. “I thought you didn’t trust Patch.”
“I don’t.”
“But?”
“I tried calling you to vet my date first, but to repeat, you never return my calls anymore.”
“Mission accomplished. I feel like the worst friend ever.” I gave her a conspirator’s smile. “Now tell me the rest.” Vee’s resistant tone dropped away, and she mirrored my smile. “His name is Rixon, and he’s Irish. His brogue or whatever it’s called kills me. Sexy to the max. He’s a little on the skinny side considering I’m big-boned, but I’m planning on losing twenty pounds this summer, so everything should even out by August.”
“Rixon? No way! I love Rixon!” As a standard rule, I didn’t trust fall en angels, but Rixon was an exception. Like Patch, his moral boundaries were drawn in the gray area between black and white. He wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t all bad, either.
I grinned, pointing my fork at Vee. “I can’t believe you went out with him. I mean, he’s Patch’s best friend. You hate Patch.” Vee gave me her black-cat look, her hair practically bristling.
“Best friends doesn’t mean anything. Look at you and me.
We’re nothing alike.”
“This is great. The four of us can hang out all summer.”
“Uh-uh. No way. I’m not hanging out with that whack-job boyfriend of yours. I don’t care what you told me, I still think he had something to do with Jules’s mysterious death in the gym.” A dark cloud fell on the conversation. There had been only three people in the gym the night Jules died, and I was one of them. I’d never told Vee everything that happened, just enough to get her to stop pressing, and for her own safety, I planned on keeping it that way.
Vee and I spent the day driving around, picking up employment applications from local fast-food joints, and it was nearly six thirty when I got home. I dropped my keys on the sideboard and checked the answering machine for messages. There was one from my mom. She was at Michaud’s Market picking up garlic bread, deli lasagna, and cheap wine, and swore on her grave she would beat the Parnells to the house.
I deleted the message and climbed upstairs to my bedroom.
Since I’d missed my morning shower, and my hair had frizzed to maximum height during the day, I figured I’d change into clean clothes by way of damage control. Every single memory I had of Scott Parnel was unpleasant, but company was company. I had my cardigan halfway unbuttoned when there was a rap at the front door.
I found Patch on the other side of it, hands in his pockets.
Normally I would have greeted him by bounding straight into his arms. Today I held back. Last night I’d said I loved him, and he’d bolted and allegedly headed straight for Marcie’s house.
My mood fell somewhere between injured pride, anger, and insecurity. I hoped my reserved silence sent him a message that something was off, and would be until he made a move to correct it, either by apology or explanation.
“Hey,” I said, assuming casualness. “You forgot to call last night. Where did you end up going?”
“Around. You going to invite me in?”
I didn’t. “I’m glad to hear Marcie’s house is just, you know, around.”
A momentary flick of surprise in his eyes confirmed what I didn’t want to believe: Marcie had been telling the truth.
“Want to tell me what’s going on?” I said in a slightly more hostile tone. “Want to tell me what you were doing at her place last night?”
“You sound jealous, Angel.” There might have been a note of teasing behind it, but unlike usual, there was nothing affectionate or playful about it.
“Maybe I wouldn’t be jealous if you didn’t give me a reason to be,” I shot back. “What were you doing at her house?”
“Taking care of business.”
I swept my eyebrows up. “I didn’t realize you and Marcie had business.”
“We do, but it’s just that. Business.”
“Care to elaborate?” There was a heavy dose of all egation crammed between my actual words.
“Are you accusing me of something?”
“Should I be?”
Patch was usually expert at hiding his emotions, but the line of his mouth tightened. “No.”
“If being at her house last night was so innocent, why are you having such a hard time explaining what you were doing there?” having such a hard time explaining what you were doing there?”
“I’m not having a hard time,” he said, each word carefully measured. “I’m not telling you, because what I was doing at Marcie’s has nothing to do with us.”
How could he think this didn’t have anything to do with us?
Marcie was the one person who took every opportunity to attack and belittle me. Over the past eleven years, she’d teased me, spread horrible rumors about me, and humiliated me publicly.
How could he think this wasn’t personal? How could he think I’d just accept this, no questions asked? Above all, couldn’t he see I was terrified that Marcie would use him to hurt me? If she suspected he was even remotely interested, she’d do everything in her power to steal him for herself. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing Patch, but it would kill me if I lost him to her.