When Stars Collide (Light in the Dark 2)

“Maybe we should send her a gift basket of wines and cheese. Everyone loves wine, right?” I reason.

“Yeah, and maybe while you’re at it you could send her a singing telegram.”

“Oooh!” I snap my fingers. “A stripper. We’ll send her a stripper.” Sobering, I say, “I don’t know what we can do beyond talking to them and hoping for the best.”

He shakes his head. “That’s one conversation I wouldn’t want to make.”

I glare at my brother. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Just being honest,” he defends.

Rae comes in the front door, her body drenched with sweat from her morning run. Her earbuds dangle from her iPhone as she winds them up.

“Hey,” she says rather breathlessly.

“We’re going to breakfast,” Cade tells her.

She nods and starts for the stairs. “I’ll take a quick shower. Promise.”

An hour later, we all pile into Cade’s Jeep and head down the road to a local place.

The floors are always sticky and the air smells like syrup, but the food is the best so I don’t complain.

I slide across the plastic booth and Xander sits beside me, resting his elbows on the table.

Cade slides in across from me and his legs bump mine in the narrow space.

Menus are already on the table and we each pick it up, scanning it even though that’s really unnecessary.

Our usual waitress comes over and flashes a smile before sitting our drinks on the table. We didn’t order them yet, but she knew what we’d get regardless.

“The usual?” she asks, tucking her tray under her arm. We all nod and shuffle the menus to the end of the table. “I’ll have that right out for you.” She smiles again and heads off to another table.

Cade’s phone starts going off and he looks at the screen before clicking ignore. Before I can ask who it is, it goes off again. He answers this time.

“Stan, I don’t know who the fuck gave you this number, but if you call one more time—” He rolls his eyes and taps his fingers against the table impatiently. “I’m not doing an interview for you. Why not? Because you’re a dick.” He laughs but there’s no humor in the tone and I can hear Stan grow irritated on the other end. “Mhm,” he hums. “Fuck you too.” He hangs up and drops his phone on the table before covering his face with his hands. “I’m going to strangle Stan,” he mutters from between his fingers. His phone starts ringing again and he groans, “Going to have to change my number.” He looks at it anyway and his eyes widen in surprise. “Mom?” he answers. He listens for a few beats, nodding his head. “Yeah, of course that’s fine. Head on over whenever.”

He hangs up and looks across the table at me. “Looks like Mom’s had enough of his bullshit and she wants to leave him.”

I breathe out a sigh of relief—one I think I’ve been holding for years.

“It’s about damn time.”

“We need to talk to your mom,” Thea announces from the bathroom.

I sigh heavily. “I know.”

“We can’t keep putting it off,” she continues.

“I know,” I say again.

It’s been three days since the Fourth of July party, and I’m still puzzling out what to say. Nothing I come up with sounds any good, but I guess I just have to be honest.

Right now, though, I have to head to practice, and I’ve managed to get my coach to agree to let Thea and Cade come watch. I think the only reason he agreed was because of Cade. They really wanted him for their team and were saddened when he didn’t opt to go pro. I think my coach is hoping if Cade sees a practice that he can sway him and pull some strings to get him on the team.

But I know Cade doesn’t want that. His dad pushed football onto him, and instead of being something he loved, it became something he hated.

“We should get her flowers,” Thea says, peeking around the bathroom doorway. “Do you know her favorite?” I shake my head and she curses. “Okay, I’ll guess then. Where’s her favorite restaurant? We could ask her to meet us there.”