“How am I supposed to do that?”
“Between the two of us, we’ll figure it out.”
I raise an eyebrow, not sure how I feel about that.
“So, I guess we’re at zero contact for the next four weeks?” I say, not liking it one bit.
“Can you do that?” Claire asks, looking at each one of us. “Can you stay away from Starlee until the probation hearing?”
Since we’re doing it together, I don’t feel as lost as I did the day before but as we each say yes, that we can do it—we can stay apart—there’s the nagging desire that never leaves me, hasn’t left since that day I kissed them all by the waterfall.
Saying we’ll stay away from one another is one thing.
Doing it is something else entirely.
8
Starlee
The first test comes on Thursday night. Supernatural night. The show is on winter hiatus but that doesn’t mean the ritual is forgotten. I was willing to let it go, as were the boys and I suspect Sierra, but Leelee? She has other plans.
“I thought we could have dinner at our house,” my grandmother says the day before. I’m working on homework in the front of the office. It feels better not to be alone right now.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I confess. She still doesn’t know that Sierra has forbidden Dex and Jake from seeing me. “Everyone is still pretty upset about the twins.”
“I can call their dad and invite them too.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I’m not sure it works like that.”
“Well that’s just foolish.” She shakes her head. “Those boys worked for me. They were like family. I’m supposed to just cut them off?”
I rest my pencil on my notebook. “Apparently, yes.”
“I don’t like it.”
Join the club, Leelee. Join the club.
The next day, I get off the bus and walk into the office and find Katie at the desk. “Where’s LeeLee?”
“Prepping for your TV night,” she says without looking up from the computer.
“Wait, she’s doing that?” I thought she’d taken the hint. Did this mean she called Mr. Evans? Sierra? “Call me if you need any help. I’m going to go check on her.”
Katie grunts and I make the quick walk to the cottage. Crowley’s out in the backyard and he barks at me as I go down the path. Once inside, I find Leelee in the kitchen. The oven is on, the stove is hot. “Oh good,” she says when she sees me, “They’ll be here at seven. Go ahead and get your homework finished.”
I tilt my head. “Who is going to be there at seven?”
“Everyone.” She smiles. “Well, hopefully everyone. Obviously, Sierra and the boys next door. I called Mr. Evans.” Her smile vanishes. “He’s a tough one. But the invitation is out there. I hope he lets them come.”
I stand in the kitchen doorway, confused at what’s going on. We agreed to stay away from one another. And we had. For two full days. Two long, torturous days of seeing Dexter walk down the hall, his dark hair feral from being shoved under his cap. And catching a glimpse of Jake’s broad shoulders as he took out the trash next door. And the constant worry I have over the twins, noticing the dark shadows grow under Charlie’s eyes and wondering if George got his applications turned in. It pains me not to be with them. Touch and support them. Before I had them in little doses—tiny bursts in my day, but this? This
is a different level of torture. It was easier when I was across the country. But I did it, for them, and I’ve pushed through all of that. Managed it, and now my grandmother is forcing us together?
It’s like the fates are working against us.
I’m even more convinced of this two hours later when Leelee shouts at me to open the door and I’m face-to-face with two gorgeous boys and all their freshly showered smells and pink kissable lips and all my willpower threatens to crack.
“Hi,” I say, forcing myself to look past them and at Sierra. I haven’t seen her since she told me not to come near the boys anymore.