He said… “You and Jeff talked about him cheating?”
“Yeah—” The screen door opened again as three guys left Manny’s. Jackson glanced around, then gestured to a table and chairs in the corner. “Can we just…do you want to…I don’t know. Could we talk…a little? After what happened and last night, I feel like we should talk. Maybe for some closure or something.”
“Yeah.” That sounded good. He was right. Closure. As he sat down, I sat across from him.
I stared.
He stared back.
This was going wonderfully. “So…”
At the same time, he said, “Yeah, so—” He laughed. “Man. This is awkward, huh?”
“Little bit.” I curled my hands together on my lap. “It’s probably me. I don’t socialize much. I don’t have to. Pretty much everyone knows me by now.”
A keen look came into his eyes, and he leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table. “Yeah. Jeff said when you guys broke up, it wasn’t long before you were with Mason Kade. Since I’ve been here, I can tell that probably sent some shockwaves through school, huh?”
“You could say that.” I grinned. “Things are fine, for the most part.”
“That’s good.” His head bobbed up and down. His smile never left his face. “And your boyfriend is at Cain U?”
“Do you know that because of the gossip or—”
He shook his head. “Football. It’s known where the big recruits go. Signing day and all.”
“Signing day?”
“Yeah…” He trailed off. “He would’ve committed then, well officially committed.”
“Oh.”
“You didn’t know?”
I shook my head. “Mason never said anything.”
He scratched his ear and tilted his head to the side. “I think he only had his mom and some old guy there. Yeah. I’m sure of that. It’s televised…” I felt like I’d been punched in the chest. His eyes widened. “And you didn’t know that either.” He glanced down to the table. “I was going to say it’s weird that his brother wasn’t there or I would’ve recognized Logan.” His voice quieted. “Signing day’s a big deal too…I’m not being helpful, am I?”
Signing day. Helen and another guy had been there. It was televised. My jaw clenched. More things Mason had kept from me.
“Sam?”
He said that so softly, so tentatively, I wanted to melt. Feeling my throat choke up, my fingers pressed into my palms, and I willed all the weakness to go away. I wanted to scream, but I didn’t. As I forced everything down, I gave Jackson another smile and brushed that damn little tear away. I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t going to act like it anymore.
I forced out, “What were you saying?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, an extra layer of earnestness in his eyes. He leaned forward again. “It’s always February fourth. Maybe something was going on, and he didn’t want to bother yo…” He trailed off again. A look of concern came into his eyes as he noticed that I winced.
That was around the time I was in the hospital. Mason hadn’t said a word.
“I didn’t want to talk to cause problems. I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s fine.” Change of topic, please. “So your parents are getting a divorce?”
He winced, gritting his teeth at the same time. Lifting a hand to run it through his hair, he blew out a puff of air. His shoulders slumped down, and he started to pick at the tablecloth with his fingers. “Yeah. Uh. My dad kicked us out.”
I frowned.
“Not me, but he kicked my mom out. He can be a huge asshole.”
“It must run in the family.” Memories of Jeff flashed in my mind.
“Yeah. It does, but this is what I wanted to tell you.” His tone dropped to a serious note, and he lifted his head. When his eyes found mine, I saw an intensity in them. “I didn’t set out to sleep with you that night. I’m sorry if it came across like that. I’d been drinking. My parents were having problems, and I wasn’t a real nice guy that year at school. I was kinda like my cousin. I was a whore, but anyway, I didn’t mean for anything to happen. I want you to know that. You were just so nice, and you were hurting. I knew Jeff had done something to upset you and we hugged and …”
I swallowed over the knot in my throat. “I’m aware of what happened that night.”
“I liked you.”
“What?”