Waldo stuff?”
“It’s better that you don’t know.”
“What does that mean?” Mia was starting to freak out a little, in what was probably a delayed reaction to adrenaline. She’d just witnessed her first bar fight, which had been stressful enough, but the fact that she still didn’t understand what it was about wasn’t helping her calm down. She had the unsettling impression there was some big, mysterious secret about Josh that no one wanted to tell her. And the more they didn’t want to tell her, the worse her mind imagined it to be.
Whatever it was that guy had been taunting him about, she assumed it was the reason Josh lived so much like a hermit. She wouldn’t want to go out either if being jeered at like that was a regular occurrence.
Andie shook her head as she checked her rearview mirror. “It’s nothing bad, I swear. It’s stupid. It’s one of those dumb, embarrassing things that only idiots like to laugh about. But people won’t let it go, and Josh is really sensitive about it. Not that you can blame him when he has to deal with shit like that.” She glanced over at Mia. “I’m sorry. I thought people would have gotten tired of it by now. I didn’t think that would happen when I talked Josh into coming out tonight.”
“Tired of what?”
Andie pressed her lips together. “I really don’t want to tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because Josh wouldn’t want me to.”
“But why? I don’t understand.”
“I’m asking you to trust me and leave it alone.”
“Are you kidding?” How could Mia leave it alone when she had so many unanswered questions? Especially when everyone else around her seemed to be in on the secret. There was no way she could forget about it. Was she supposed to act like nothing had happened the next time she saw Josh?
Assuming there was even a next time. After this, he might go back into hiding and never leave the farm at all.
“I promise you it’s not bad,” Andie said. “He’s not a pervert, or a criminal, or whatever else you’re worried about. I wouldn’t keep something like that from you.”
“Then what is he?” Mia asked.
“Just a regular guy who had a cruel trick played on him.”
“Cruel how?”
Andie sighed. “Okay, look. Imagine something really embarrassing—like, say, your diary or a super sappy love letter you’d written—had been made public, and everyone you knew had seen you at your most vulnerable and all had a big laugh about it.”
“Is that what happened?”
“No. But it was sort of like that.” They’d reached Birdie’s house, and Andie pulled into the driveway, rolling to a stop in front of the garage and putting the car in park. She didn’t turn off the engine.
Mia stared out the window at Birdie’s house. The lights were all off except for the back bedroom, which meant she was still awake. “Will Birdie tell me if I ask her?”
“I doubt it. She’s even more protective of Josh than I am.”
Mia unbuckled her seat belt and turned toward Andie. “You realize how unfair this is, right? Everyone knows but me.”
“I’m sorry. I know it sucks. But if you knew, you’d understand.”
Mia threw her hands up in frustration. “But I don’t know!”
Andie’s voice grew soft. “That’s one of the reasons Josh likes you. Because when you look at him, you don’t see his most embarrassing moment the way everyone else does.”
Mia’s brain filed away the information that Josh liked her, but it was hard to get excited about it because she didn’t know who Josh really was. She couldn’t, when she was missing what felt like a huge piece of information.
She stared at Andie and shook her head. “That’s seriously all you’re going to tell me?”
Andie sighed. “If you absolutely have to know more, you’ll have to ask Josh yourself.” She paused. “But if you care about him as much as I think you do, you won’t ask him.”
Mia gave up and got out of the car. Andie waited until she had gotten upstairs and unlocked the door. Then she backed out of the driveway, leaving Mia alone and frustrated and very confused.
Chapter Eleven
Josh visited Mia in her dreams that night.
In her dream, he knocked on the door of her apartment in the middle of the night. She answered in her rumpled, oversized T-shirt, not the least bit embarrassed for him to see her half-dressed.
He didn’t speak, but his eyes told her everything she needed to know. What that was, exactly, was difficult to discern in the dream