I couldn’t tell what Adam was making of my mother. She was on her best behavior. It was a show she was putting on for Tom, but I didn’t care about her motive so long as she stayed that way until we left.
Adam nodded to Tom before extending his hand to my mom. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Timber. Your home is lovely.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you, as well. Jolene has told me so much about you. Please call me Helen.”
I hadn’t told her squat about Adam, but I was too grateful for this moment of normalcy, however artificial, to contradict her. And really, what would be the point?
They schmoozed for approximately thirty seconds before Jeremy laid on the horn again, this time without any indication that he planned to stop.
Mom-bot surprised me again by responding with laughter when Adam apologized for his brother. “Must be eager to start dancing with his own date. I won’t keep you, but I do want one quick photo.” She held up a finger and dashed into the other room for her phone.
Our smiles were strained because Jeremy honked the entire time, but he did give us the excuse to leave the second the photo was taken. Mom-bot’s parting words that Adam take care of her baby followed us out.
The horn didn’t stop until Adam was opening the back door of the car, by which time he was redder than I’d ever seen him, not from embarrassment either. He didn’t say anything as he closed my door, then walked around to the driver’s side and opened Jeremy’s.
“If her mom wasn’t watching us right now, I’d knock your teeth out.” Then he slammed the door and slid in next to me. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Got us out of the house quicker.”
“You,” Jeremy said, turning around to face me, “are welcome.”
“And you,” I replied, “are a tool.” Then I noticed his date in the front seat and apologized.
“It’s fine,” she said, turning in her seat to look me over. That felt...weird.
I glanced at Adam, and it was possible that his face was ever redder.
“Oh, right,” Jeremy said, twisting to grin at his brother. “You two haven’t met. Jolene, this is my date, Erica.”
ADAM
The second Jeremy started the car and the music started playing, I leaned toward Jolene and whispered, “I swear I didn’t know until we picked her up.”
“Oh, I believe you,” Jolene whispered back, her gaze focused on the back of Erica’s head. “You said some guy asked her with a marching band?”
“He asked but she said no. And Erica is the girl from rehearsal...” I figured Erica would be at the dance and that she and Jolene would see each other, but I’d planned to keep them well apart. I’d tasked my friends, Gideon and Rory, with helping me if necessary, but sharing a car had been beyond anything I could have planned for.
Jeremy lowered the music. “What are you guys saying?”
Before Jolene or I could answer, Erica spoke up. “He’s probably trying to convince her that deep down I’m a nice person who lashes out in violence only when half the school tells me they saw my boyfriend cheating on me in the parking lot.” She turned her head a little, smiling so that we could see both rows of her teeth.
I was so screwed.
“No, he was explaining how his giant jerk of a brother failed to mention you were his date.” Jolene leaned forward. “And for the record, I’m fine with you slapping Adam. He never cheated on you, but I get that it looked that way.”
Erica turned more fully in her seat. “Just because he didn’t kiss you, that doesn’t make what you were doing okay.”
Jolene didn’t respond, and I swore to myself that I was going to make Jeremy hurt so bad when we got home.
The drive took forever and the tension in the car grew worse. I’d tried to talk to Erica at school a few times since we’d broken up, but the second I mentioned anything beyond the Beowulf project we’d already committed to doing together, she’d walked away. There had been a ton of rumors going around school—massively exaggerated rumors—but the fact that some of them held a thread of truth were enough to make me feel like I had deserved that slap.
“You know what, no,” Jolene said, breaking the silence. “Did it suck that people at school were talking about you? Yeah, but all Adam did was hug me. That’s all Adam’s ever done. And I don’t know if him not telling you about his friendship with me is any worse than you showing up on a date with his brother. And you—” she said, turning her attention to Jeremy “—seriously? Isn’t there, like, a code between brothers that you don’t go out with each other’s exes?”
“I told him he could ask her,” I mumbled, and saw Jolene slowly close her eyes and keep them that way. “He was always talking about her, and when we broke up, he wouldn’t let up about what an idiot I was.” Jolene went stiff. Her stunningly gorgeous hair slid forward over one shoulder, and I swallowed. “I told him he could ask her out if he wanted, just to get him off my back, but I didn’t think he’d do this.”
Everyone in the car stayed silent. I squeezed my eyes shut, realizing I’d just insulted both Jolene and Erica.
“Wow,” Erica said from the front seat.
“No,” I said, glancing at Jolene as I started to sweat. “I didn’t say it because he was right.” Then I looked at Erica. “Or that I didn’t care about you. I do. I just—”
“Care about her more. Thanks, Adam. It feels great now that you’ve broken it down for me.” She turned to Jeremy. “So you talk about me a lot, huh?”
Jeremy’s neck went bright red, and Jolene made a sound beside me. She was covering her mouth with both hands.
“Jo, please don’t be mad. I’m seriously messing this up.”
She shook her head and when she lowered her hands, I saw that she was smiling. “Look,” she whispered. “He likes her.” She nodded at Jeremy’s flaming-red neck.
I was too relieved that she wasn’t pissed at me to care about what was going on with my brother. “You’re not mad?”
“Not at you. Should we see how red we can make him?”
Jeremy was doing a bang-up job of that all by himself, and based on Erica’s smile, she was loving it.
“Or...does that bother you?” Jolene started braiding her hair as she looked from Jeremy to Erica, then to me.
“No.” I stilled her hands, making sure I didn’t glance at my brother or my ex-girlfriend, who were having their own whispered conversation in the front seat. “Jo, I can’t even see anyone else when I’m with you.”