He relaxed back on the bed. “So about next weekend—”
“What did you think of it? My Perky the Duck article?”
She felt him stiffen. Because she’d redirected the conversation, or because he was about to tell her something she didn’t want to hear? “The truth?” he asked.
“Of course I want the truth.”
He hesitated long enough that she almost thought he wasn’t going to answer. “I hated it,” he said quietly.
Her whole body ricocheted like she’d just been shot. Did he just say he hated it? No one hated that story! Even cold-hearted-publisher Ben Gallagher had tried to hide a watery eye after reading it.
“Excuse me?”
“I hated it because it was warm and funny and real, and reading it made me feel like you were talking to me. Only I couldn’t talk back. It was like looking into a one way mirror and seeing everything you’d become, but I wasn’t a part of it.” He let out a slow breath. “The truth is, I haven’t thought about you in twelve years. Not really. And now, the crazy part is that I can’t stop thinking about you at all.”
He couldn’t stop thinking about her?
“Wait. Did you just say you haven’t thought about me in twelve years. Not even once?”
He rubbed a hand down his face. “I don’t know if this is a good time to talk about this.”
“You’re the one who said I wasn’t leaving town until we had this conversation. Well, it’s now or never, Tom. Because believe me, as soon as I get my license back I’m out of here.”
A muscle twitched on the side of his cheek. “Remember the night of the senior awards banquet?”
“What has that to do with anything?”
“That night…” he shook his head. “Man, I was on fire. I won almost every award they gave out. Even that cushy scholarship from the Rotary Club.”
The memory of a packed high school gymnasium, Buela sitting on one side of her, Zeke, Mimi, and baby Claire on her other side, came flooding back. Allie had worn a purple dress and a new pair of sandals Mimi had helped her pick out at the outlet mall in Destin. She’d felt pretty and excited and full of senioritis energy—ready to leave one chapter in her life and begin another.
She had won the English award, and Nate Miller had won the science award, but Tom’s memory served him right. He’d scooped up every other academic award and had even been named top athlete. He’d looked so handsome in his navy blue blazer with the orange and blue striped University of Florida tie. She hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off him. Neither had anyone else. It was his night, all right. A tribute to Whispering Bay High’s star of the year.
“Of course I remember that night,” she said.
“Afterward, a bunch of us went to the beach. I’d swiped a bottle of rum from my dad’s liquor cabinet and we got pretty wasted on rum and cokes.”
“Buela and I went to the Denny’s in Panama City,” she said in contrast. “She used to love how they served breakfast even at night. She’d get the Grand Slam, although she could never eat even half of it, and I’d get the short stack with the strawberry syrup, bacon on the side. Which I definitely finished.”
He smiled. “You were always a good girl, Allie.”
“Getting drunk on the beach isn’t exactly bad ass. Every kid I know has done that.”
“Yeah, but not everybody gets their girlfriend pregnant.”
Bam! And there it was. The conversation she’d been dreading for over twelve years. But at the same time, she needed to hear it. She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax. She could handle whatever it was he had to say.
“You weren’t alone there, Tom. Lauren is just as much to blame.”
He shook his head. “No, she wasn’t.”
“But—”
“I’d just had the night of my life and I was dating the most popular girl in school. I didn’t have a condom with me, but hey, I was king of the fucking world. Lauren and I had had sex a few times, but never without protection. She didn’t want to do it, but I told her one time wasn’t going to get us in any trouble. She only went along with it because I talked her into it.”
Allie gulped. She didn’t have to imagine how persuasive Tom had been. Nor could she blame Lauren. Not when Allie herself had uttered those famous words of hers. Just Do Me took on a whole new meaning. If Allie had been in Lauren’s place, she wouldn’t have waited for a condom either. Stupid, but true.
“The next day Lauren broke up with me. Said she thought our relationship was moving too fast. And here’s the kicker. I was relieved because I was planning to break up with her before we left for college anyway, so she saved me the drama. I was a real prince, huh?”