Emily was watching him intently, chewing on her lip. “You’re not asking about me and Charlie, are you? You’re asking about Spencer. Right?”
She looked down. “Yes,” she whispered.
“He’d be stupid to want to be with anyone besides you, and I don’t think he’s that stupid. And he can wait a lot longer than four weeks. He’ll wait as long as he needs to. Okay? Feel better?”
“Okay,” she agreed. But he could tell she wasn’t really convinced. If Emily wouldn’t trust Spencer, what chance did he have of ever getting Charlie to trust him? Did it matter? Could he ever actually be good enough for Charlie Best?
“By the way, Emily? Does Spencer know I’m here tonight? I’m a little surprised he was okay with it.”
Her eyes widened. “I... I didn’t think. Do you think he’ll mind? Surely he won’t care.”
“Of course not. But, I don’t want him to beat me up because he thinks I’m chasing you again.”
“Ohmygosh! You’re right. I should call him now. I don’t want him to think I’m hiding something.”
He nodded and watched her pull out her phone to call Spencer. She waited and then her face fell when it went to voice mail. “Uhmm. Hi, Spencer. It’s Friday night, and I know you’re helping your dad with some project, but call me if you get a chance. Josh came over to keep me company.” After a pause, she added, “And so he could moan about Charlie, of course. Anyway, call if you get a chance. Bye.”
“How was that?” she asked, screwing her face to one side.
“I guess we’ll find out. If he comes over with a gun, I think I might be grateful. He could just put me out of my misery.”
Spencer cursed under his breath. He’d missed a call from Emily at eight o’clock. It was already after midnight, way too late to call her back. He listened to her message, and cursed a little lo
uder. He didn’t want her hanging out with Josh when he wasn’t around. But how could he insist she sit around alone when he was secretly working? And now, she was going to wonder why he didn’t call her back.
Rather than risk waking her, he sent a text. “Sorry I missed you. Accidentally turned ringer off. Project went long. Call you in the morning.”
He’d had a great night in tips so far. One Friday or Saturday night was probably worth two weeknights. But he couldn’t give up many weekend nights with Emily, or she’d get suspicious.
“Hey, Spencer! Can you get this one?”
Every car was one step closer to getting a ring for Emily. “I’m coming!”
*****
Becca scanned the hiking group, searching for Spencer. She was totally frustrated. He hadn’t come on a single hike in a month, not since the day he’d come on the hike looking for Emily. What did he see in her? She was so flat-chested she barely even looked like a girl. All the guys appreciated Becca’s assets and let her know about it. She was very popular, except with Spencer. She hadn’t been able to get his attention, and it really bothered her. Now her phone calls went straight to voicemail, and he never called her back. He seemed to be really angry with her, and it wasn’t even her fault.
It was all Emily’s fault. All she’d done was let him know Emily was going out with another guy. She’d never cheat on Spencer like Emily had. Emily claimed they were only friends, so she was obviously leading him on. She didn’t deserve Spencer. And then Mr. Gherring filed charges against her for slipping a ruffie in Emily’s wine. It was a good thing she’d gone home and flushed the extras down the toilet after he made some remark about her attempting murder. She wasn’t trying to kill Emily. Granted, she put three in the wine glass instead of one, but Emily wouldn’t drink the whole glass of wine. It took her over an hour to drink the first glass. And it wasn’t that dangerous, either—she’d used them herself and always had fun. Emily had probably faked being sick to get attention from Spencer.
Becca knew she could have any other guy in the hiking club, but now she was determined to have Spencer. Maybe after they’d been together a few times, she’d drop him, just to let him know what rejection felt like. It was almost time for the hike to start, and he still hadn’t shown up. Then she heard Landon mention his name to a group of girls.
“Yeah, Spencer needs a dance teacher so he can dance at some wedding in a few weeks.”
“What kind of dancing?” asked Marsha.
“He said everything, even ballroom dancing.”
“Oh,” she replied, “I don’t know of a teacher for that. Our place has like a hip hop class.”
“Me, neither,” said Leah. “But I could ask around.”
Spencer wanted to take dance lessons? Becca felt like she’d been given a gift—a second chance. “I know a place,” said Becca. “The studio where I take jazzercise has ballroom dance classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.”
Landon scrunched up his nose. “I thought you and Spencer weren’t speaking to each other.”
Becca adopted her most unfairly injured look; “He accused me of something I didn’t even do, but I don’t hold it against him. Some day I hope he’ll find out he was wrong about me, but I’ll just give you the information. He doesn’t have to talk to me or even know it was me that helped him out.”
“Okay, sure. What’s it called?”