“For my mom,” Hanna answered quickly. “She lives on them.”
Down on the golf course, a group of older guys teed up, along with one young good-looking guy in fatigue shorts. He looked a little out of place with his messy brown hair, cargos, and…was that a…Rosewood Police polo? Oh no. It was.
Wilden scanned the terrace and coolly nodded when he saw Hanna. She ducked.
“Who is that?” Mona purred.
“Um…,” Hanna mumbled, half under the table. Darren Wilden was a golfer? Come on. Back in high school, he was the type to flick lit matches at the guys on Rosewood’s golf team. Was the whole world out to get her?
Mona squinted. “Wait. Didn’t he go to our school?” She grinned. “Oh my God. It’s the girls’ diving team guy. Hanna, you little bitch! How does he know you?”
“He’s…” Hanna paused. She ran her hand along the waistband of her jeans. “I met him on the Marwyn trail a couple of days ago when I was running. We stopped at the water fountain at the same time.”
“Nice,” Mona said. “Does he work around here?”
Hanna paused again. She really wanted to avoid this. “Um…I think he said he was a cop,” she said nonchalantly.
“You’re kidding.” Mona took out her Shu Uemura lip moisturizer from her blue leather hobo bag and lightly dabbed her bottom lip. “That guy’s hot enough to be in a policeman’s calendar. I could just see it: Mr. April. Let’s ask if we can see his nightstick!”
“Shhh,” Hanna hissed.
Their salads came. Hanna pushed the Styrofoam container of sweet potato fries to the side and took a bite of an undressed grape tomato.
Mona leaned closer. “I bet you could hook up with him.”
“Who?”
“Mr. April! Who else?”
Hanna snorted. “Right.”
“Totally. You should bring him to the Kahn party. I heard some cops came to the party last year. That’s how they never get busted.”
Hanna sat back. The Kahn party was a legendary Rosewood tradition. The Kahns lived on twenty-some acres of land, and the Kahn boys—Noel was the youngest—held a back-to-school party every year. The kids raided their parents’ extremely well-stocked liquor supply in the basement, and there was always a scandal. Last year, Noel shot his best friend James in the bare ass with his BB gun because James had tried to make out with Noel’s then-girlfriend, Alyssa Pennypacker. They were both so drunk they laughed the whole way to the ER and couldn’t remember how or why it happened. The year before that, a bunch of stoners smoked too much and tried to get Mr. Kahn’s Appaloosas to take hits from a bong.
“Nah.” Hanna bit into another tomato. “I think I’m going with Sean.”
Mona scrunched up her face. “Why waste a perfectly good party night on Sean? He took a virginity pledge! He probably won’t even go.”
“Just because you sign a virginity pledge doesn’t mean you stop partying, too.” Hanna took a big bite of her salad, crunching the dry, unappetizing vegetables in her mouth.
“Well, if you’re not gonna ask Mr. April to Noel’s, I will.” Mona stood up.
Hanna grabbed her arm. “No!”
“Why not? C’mon. It’d be fun.”
Hanna dug her fingernails into Mona’s arm. “I said no.”
Mona sat back down and stuck out her lip. “Why not?”
Hanna’s heart galloped. “All right. You can’t tell anyone, though.” She took a deep breath. “I met him at the police station, not the trail. I was called in for questioning for the Tiffany’s thing. But it’s not a big deal. I’m not busted.”
“Oh my God!” Mona yelled. Wilden looked up at them again.
“Shhh!” Hanna hissed.
“Are you all right? What happened? Tell me everything,” Mona whispered back.
“There isn’t much to tell.” Hanna threw her napkin over her plate. “They brought me to the station, my mom came with me, and we sat for a while. They let me off with a warning. Whatever. The whole thing took like twenty minutes.”
“Yikes.” Mona gave Hanna an indeterminate look; Hanna wondered for a second if it was a look of pity.
“It wasn’t, like, dramatic or anything,” Hanna said defensively, her throat dry. “Not much happened. Most of the cops were on the phone. I text-messaged the whole time.” She paused, considering whether she should tell Mona about that “not it” text message she’d received from A, whoever A was. But why waste her breath? It couldn’t have actually meant anything, right?
Mona took a sip of her Perrier. “I thought you’d never get caught.”
Hanna swallowed hard. “Yeah, well…”
“Did your mom totally kill you?”
Hanna looked away. On the drive home, her mom had asked Hanna if she’d meant to steal the bracelet and earrings. When Hanna said no, Ms. Marin answered, “Good. It’s settled then.” Then she flipped open her cell to make a call.
Hanna shrugged and stood up. “I just remembered—I gotta go walk Dot.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Mona asked. “Your face looks kind of splotchy.”