Shock - Marie Johnston Page 0,26
someone else.” He rubs a hand down his face. “Anyway, I think she’s more pissed because she can’t find fault with you.”
Ford talked about me that much with her? No, she’s just done her homework. Easy enough. A quick search on me and my parents would show her everything but the last year or so, and that she’d know from Ford. “The intro’s over. There’s that at least.”
His smile is weary. “There’s that.”
“But we still have my parents. And guess what? They want to meet you.”
“Okay.” He goes to the pile of blocks and starts picking up.
“Sunday.”
“What’s that?”
Perhaps he can’t hear me over the clatter of toys. I raise my voice. “They’re coming Sunday.”
Slowly, he turns. “I have to meet Elaine and Jensen Wescott that soon? Are we going to get a punch card for the country club?”
“I could’ve asked them to meet us at McClintock’s but I don’t think Hoskin’s vineyard will impress them.” It’s not Napa Valley so it’s at a disadvantage.
Ford’s quiet so long, I’m afraid he’s going to pass and leave me to explain why my new boyfriend flaked out. It’d be easy to go back to the way we were before. Tell everyone that nope, we didn’t work out but hey, we’re still friends. I’m already rehearsing the speech in my head.
Finally, he says, “I guess if we have to go on this call, we’ll do lights and sirens all the way. What time?”
Chapter 7
Ford
Is this what Lia felt when she was waiting in my house for Cass to arrive? My palms are sweaty, I’ve checked my hair in every window and reflective surface on the way here, and I have a strong urge to run.
I wasn’t this nervous when I met Cass’s parents. I was almost excited. Serious about Cass, I’d been intent on making a good impression. But there are so many differences between then and today.
The primary one being that Lia and I aren’t a real couple.
But despite all the differences, there’s one thing that feels all too familiar. I’ve been down this road before—and I crashed and burned.
From everything Lia said, her parents are doppelgangers for Mr. and Mrs. Pruitt. Image, prestige, and the social circles they run in define their life, and all of those parameters extend to their only child.
I’ve heard a lot about Samuel over the last year and met him only briefly, but we’re worlds apart. He has blue blood, lofty ambitions, and connections that I’ll never have—and that I don’t care to have. When I left a career as a physician and signed up with Sunnyville EMS, I never would’ve guessed that the desire to save lives doesn’t rank very high with some people.
I pull up to the curb in front of Lia’s place. The drapes in Mrs. Rosenthal’s windows twitch. I can’t see her but I wave anyway. Lia’s out the door before I come to a stop, wearing a simple black cocktail dress that hugs all the essentials and hints at the rest. I barely have time to put the vehicle in park before she gets in.
“They’re there already.”
“But we’re not meeting for a half hour yet.” And it takes ten minutes to get there. I’ve never been late in my life, but Lia’s said before that on time is late in her parents’ world.
“They got to town early and figured we’d just magically arrive because we obviously have nothing else going on.” The exasperated bitterness in her voice is a thousand times worse than any other time she’s talked about her parents.
“It’s a test?” I ask as I pull away.
“Probably.” She clutches her hands in her lap, the rest of her body also rigid.
I reach the corner and, on a whim, I take a turn in the opposite direction of the country club.
Lia frowns and points behind us. “Um, that’s the road we need to take.”
“We’re playing this different.” The more I think about it, the more I like my plan. “They already don’t like me. I’m not Samuel. So we’re not going to kill ourselves trying to please them. We stroll in on the hour, or even five minutes late, and we pretend that it’s no big deal.”
“I told them we’re on our way.”
I take another turn down a tree-lined boulevard. We pass more houses just like the one on Lia’s street. Simple color, white trim, with an occasional twin home between them. “We are.”
She stares at me, but I only glance at her before turning back to the road. A strangled