tell it.
“Stupid how?”
I was pretty sure my eyebrows hit my hairline. I looked at him. He glanced at me, saw my expression, and frowned.
“What?”
“You want to know my stupid-guy story?”
“Considering you are the way you are, and you look the way you do, yet I’ve never seen you with a guy … yeah, I want to know.”
I was the way I was? I looked the way I did? What did that mean? “Uh … I thought I liked a guy. I told Lorna. We plotted to get him to notice me—”
“Like you need to plot,” he muttered.
Huh? Did he mean what I thought he meant? My heart raced a little faster. “Anyway, that was his parents’ beach house and tonight was supposed to be the night …”
Jamie turned to look at me so fast, it surprised me he didn’t get whiplash. “The night you what?”
Realizing where his thoughts had gone, I smacked his arm. “Not that.”
His hands tightened around the wheel. “Good,” he bit out.
“Tonight was supposed to be the night that we kissed. Maybe agreed to go on a date. Instead …your sister pounced first. And now he’s texting me to say that he didn’t mean to stick his tongue down Lorna’s throat for fifteen minutes and that it’s me he wants.”
At Jamie’s silence, I suddenly felt idiotic telling him. “It’s whatever.”
“It’s not whatever.” He shook his head. “You’re her best friend. Why would she do that to you?”
“It’s not as though I really liked him,” I confessed, not wanting Jamie to come down on Lorna for anything else. Even when she was horrible to me, I still found myself protecting her. It was confusing. “I just wanted to like him. Does that make sense?”
Jamie frowned. “Are you … are you not into guys?”
I laughed at his assumption. “Yes, I am. Just not anyone in my class.”
He seemed to relax a little. “Well, that’s fair enough. Still, Lorna thought you liked him. She shouldn’t have done that.”
“She’s possessive of me.” I tried to explain her reasoning. “She doesn’t want anyone to take my attention away from her.”
“And you think that’s okay? Jane, that’s not okay.”
I knew that. I sighed. Heavily. I tried to change the subject. “Are you enjoying college?”
He smirked and flicked me a knowing look. That smirk set off a flutter of butterflies low in my belly. “Four more years of school. Should I be enjoying it?”
“Yes,” I insisted. “Jamie, you’re surrounded by other students passionate about literature and writing. You’re among your people.”
His lips twitched. “My people?”
“Your people.”
He considered this, nodded, and then asked, “You read anything good lately?”
Ask a bookworm that question and expect a lengthy answer. “I found a new author to obsess over. Haruki Murakami. I read A Wild Sheep Chase first, and I’ve just finished Norwegian Wood. Now I’m starting Kafka on the Shore.” From there, I waxed lyrical about the Japanese writer’s prose and how I loved the surrealism of the worlds he created, of the fatalistic loneliness of the characters.
When I realized I was rambling, I abruptly shut up.
“What is it?” Jamie asked in confusion.
“I was talking too much.”
“No, you weren’t.” He smiled at me. Again. “I’ll need to check out his books. Recommendation to start?”
“Norwegian Wood.”
“Then I’ll read that first.”
Something about the way he said it, his voice deep, his expression almost affectionate, made me squirm hotly in the passenger seat.
Jamie returned his attention to the road. His eyes flickered to the rearview mirror. “She’s following us. Good.”
I realized that I hadn’t even thought to ask if Lorna was making her way home too.
“Hey?”
There was a question in his voice. “Yeah?”
“I know I’m two years late with this, but I’m sorry I was a dick the night you told me about being adopted.”
My breathing stuttered and my cheeks grew hot. Why was he mentioning this now?
“I …” He let out a little huff of laughter. “What you said really got to me. I didn’t know how to react, and I was a dick. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.”
“You did.” I didn’t know who was more surprised by my honesty, him or me.
Remorse softened his features. “Shit, Jane, I’m really, really sorry.”
Something that had been aching inside me for a while finally soothed. “You’re forgiven.”
There was a moment of silence between us, and then, “You schooled me that night. You know that?”
Shocked, I shook my head. “In what way?”
“Reminded me that I wasn’t the only one who’d been through something. And that having a shitty dad or being