When Stars Collide (Second Chance Romance #2) - Sara Furlong-Burr Page 0,35

from out of the corner of his. “If I go back to school,” he corrected me.

“What is it that you want to study?”

“Engineering.”

“I know absolutely nothing about engineering, but I hear it’s a great field to get into. With any luck, you’ll be able to find your way back to college, if that’s what you want to do, of course.”

“Of course. Thank you.” Peter raised his glass at Phineas and took a sip of what I guessed he was wishing was something a little stronger than water.

“Peter’s an excellent father,” I added, placing my hand on his. “He’s devoted to Jackson, a very precocious little boy just like his father.”

“I thought you mentioned he had a son. You’re a single father, then? How very admirable. No wonder you haven’t made it back to school. I’m sure you’re busy enough as it is.”

“Yeah,” Peter answered him, “no wonder.”

The rest of our lunch proceeded in much the same way, with Phineas and me making all the conversation, and Peter piping in a comment or two only when necessary. This change in him—from quick-witted snark to tame-to-the-point-of-being-sedated—made me uneasy. Initially, I tried not to let it bother me, believing that he was just tired from the travel and the whirlwind schedule we usually kept on our weekends together. But it persisted, the near silence, and my discomfort continued to grow throughout the rest of the day.

“You’re a filthy cheater, is what you are,” Jo proclaimed, hitting the buttons on her controller so erratically I wouldn’t have been surprised if she broke it in two.

“It’s not my fault you didn’t use your banana peel wisely,” Peter answered, calmly sliding his go-kart across the checkered finish line.

“See if I save the last hard cider for you again.” Jo tossed the controller down on the floor next to the game console and flopped down on the couch next to me, where I was sketching from memory a cardinal I’d seen sitting in a tree on our walk home. Drawing was something of a stress reliever for me—always had been.

“For the last time,” Peter said, shutting the game down, “I didn’t do you dirty. That’s how the game is played.”

“All I’m going to say is, next time you’d better prepare yourself for a red turtle shell straight up your exhaust pipe,” Jo warned, taking a drink from her bottle of whatever beer had been on sale this week.

Peter took a seat on the cushion next to me. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“I don’t need to know the details of your personal life.” Jo leaned over to peer at my notebook. “Wow, Mena’s good at doodling, but I guess I don’t have to tell you that.” She winked at Peter. “Seriously, though, she has that drawing thing down.”

Peter inched closer to me on the couch, placing his arms around my shoulders as he inspected my work.

“Whoa, babe, I don’t think I’ve ever seen your work before. I remember Elle saying something about your artwork while at Cogsworth, but I just figured you’d lost interest in it over the years.”

“Speaking of losing interest, it’s nice to see you’re speaking to me again.”

“On that note.” Jo got up from the couch and placed the empty bottle of beer on the counter. “I think that was my cue to go to bed. No boinking on the couch whenever you two kiss and make up,” she announced, pointing an accusatory finger between Peter and me.

“I assume you follow that rule when I’m out of town?”

Jo’s stare back at me was a bit too prolonged before she turned around to head into her bedroom. “Goodnight.”

Peter scanned the couch in disgust while I tossed my notebook on the coffee table.

“What is it?” he asked softly.

“You tell me.” The blank stare on his face told me that we could be here all night if I were to wait for a response from him. “Okay, I’ll go first. You’ve hardly said a word to me since lunch, and when you have spoken—to me, anyway—you’ve used nothing but one-syllable words and have done everything in your power to keep your answers as short as humanly possible. Listen, I know the fact that I had to work today wasn’t ideal, but—”

“I didn’t care that you had to work today … I mean, I did. I wasn’t upset by it, though.”

“Then what is it?”

He ran his hand through his thick hair. “Whenever you talked about Phineas, I would just naturally assume he was an older man in his