I laugh. “No. But I do get to work on the moon project.”
“Really?”
I nod. “That part is cool.”
Frowning, she follows me to my room. “What part isn’t cool?”
I groan. Stella is way sharper than I give her credit for; she always sees through me. “The part where I am paired with Clark Moore.”
“Oh. I know you’ve generally said he was a jerk to you in high school, but what exactly happened to make you hate him so much?”
I toss my bag on my chair and take a seat on my bed. “Too many things. I don’t know. It’s all become so convoluted over the years. I suppose I wasn’t so nice to him either. I just wanted to be the best and I worked so hard at it, and then Clark would come along like a little puppy, being all cute and funny, and he wouldn’t work at all and would still get the same awards as me, the same good grades. It was frustrating.”
“And you like him,” Stella states.
My head whips up to look at her. “I…” I trail off because I can’t believe she’s calling me on that.
“Admit it, you like him. I saw you kiss him at the club. And I know it wasn’t just for show to get away from that guy. You like him.”
I sigh and fall back on my bed. “I did once. I really, really liked him. But now…I don’t know.”
“Well, I do. You like him. And the sooner you admit that to yourself, the better,” she says as she walks to my door. “And, Meg,” she adds as I prop myself up on my elbows to look at her, “it’s clear that he likes you too.”
Chapter Eleven
Clark
I sink into a lounge chair at Garrett’s house and pop a marshmallow on a stick.
“So, the internship is going well?” Lanie asks as Ash runs around the yard chasing fireflies with some jar that Di gave him. He claimed to be “too old” for doing that until Kent told him he did it until he was in college.
“Yeah,” I state. I stick my marshmallow over the flame until it’s encrusted in black and I pop it into my mouth.
“Ew. How do you eat them like that?” Di asks as she turns hers in slow motions over the flame.
“You’re wasting precious time,” I point out as I grab another.
Brixton looks over at Ash. “I give him thirty minutes before he crashes from both the running and the twenty marshmallows we just fed him.”
“You’re on,” Kent interjects, “I give him twenty minutes.”
“Forty-five,” Garrett says.
“People, focus!” Kylie yells.
Everyone stops and stares at her.
“Mom. Dad. Anniversary. Remember?” she says as she puts her marshmallow on a graham cracker.
“You could fly them down to my island,” Levi offers again.
“Uh, you could fly me down to your island,” I say.
He laughs. “Bro, you know you can go whenever. Just let me know.”
I grin. I’m rooting for Kylie to marry this one. He’s a keeper. And not just because he owns an island. I like him, a lot.
“Home reno, for sure,” Kent states. “That house is in massive need of an update.”
“What if we sent them to ComicCon while we renovate?” Lanie suggests.
Di frowns. “But that’s like forever away. We could get them tickets for it, I suppose. When was the last time they went?”
“For their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary,” Kent answers.
“Right. I forgot about that,” Di says.
“You forgot about Mom dressed as Superwoman? Or you purposefully blocked that from your brain because of the trauma? I was a kid and I still remember it,” I state as I roast another marshmallow.
Kylie swats me with her marshmallow stick. “Focus, you nerd.”
“My friend owns a construction company. I got a quote, and to remodel the kitchen, breakfast room, and family room, it would cost about eighty thousand dollars,” Kent states.
I drop my stick. “Eighty thousand!”
Kent sighs. “Yes, what, you think kitchen remodels are cheap?”
“Uh, no, but all those television shows do it for like twenty,” I say.
“I’m not giving them some cookie-cutter kitchen. It’s gonna be epic,” he says.
“Oh, Jesus. How epic?” Tabby asks as she rubs Vera's back. Vera is passed out in some sort of weird wrap device that’s affixed to her like a mummy.
I zone out as Kent rattles on about countertops, appliances, and strange things that I didn’t even know you could put in normal kitchens like a built-in ice cream maker. Who does that? Oh, wait, my brother who has an ice cream obsession. I’m shocked he hasn’t put one in his own kitchen.
“I think we should make sure it’s super user-friendly,” Lanie says because she’s practical as fuck.
“Duh,” I say.
She glares at me and I give her my patented cute smile. She rolls her eyes.
“OK, so we are sending them to the island?” Levi asks.
There’s a round of shrugs.
“Where else could we send them?” Di asks.
Everyone is quiet as we think.
“Europe?” Di suggests.
More shrugs.
Kylie pulls out her phone. “I got it,” she says. We all turn to her. “Antarctica. Oh shit. They wouldn’t be able to go until after Thanksgiving.”
We all groan.
“OK, I got it. Churchill, Canada,” she says triumphantly and sets her phone down.
“Dad would love it, but Mom would hate it, aside from the polar bears,” Lanie says.
“Ugh! Why do they have to be so fucking opposite?” Kylie groans.
Something I read online comes back to me. “How long do we need them out of the house?” I ask Kent.
“He said he could double up the crew and get it done in 3-4 weeks.”
I grin. “A cross-country RV trip.”
They all stare at me like I’m crazy.
“I’m serious. Dad’s been talking about it for years. And there are a ton of parks Mom always wants to visit.”
“True,” Di says.
“And what’s Dad’s favorite thing to do?”
Everyone groans and my grin widens.
“Exactly. And if we buy them park passes, then they can spend like three weeks traveling around. Dad has ridiculous amounts of time off that he never uses.”
“Do you seriously think they’ll leave for a whole month?” Kent asks us.
Lanie cocks her head to one side, contemplating the question. “Maybe. I mean if we have them leave on like a Monday and only miss three weekends. Dad has enough leave built up for sure.”
Lanie’s point about weekends is a big one because my parents freaking love hosting their weekly parties.
“We could take turns hosting it,” Lanie says. “I mean, one weekend at my house, one here, and one at Kent’s.”
Kylie rolls her eyes because she and Levi are holed up in an apartment until he finishes the house he’s building behind Kent’s property.
“What if we send the grandparents with them?” Kylie suggests. “They’ve all always wanted to go. It’ll get Mom and Dad to agree to it and then we’ll talk them into hitting up a bunch of parks. I’m sure Nana, Gran, and PopPop will agree to help us.”