“Oh, you know,” I said, trying to make light of the fact that I hadn’t made a single friend yet and I’d spent my lunch hour hunkered down in Mom’s car.
He eyed me sideways like he knew I might be having a tough time. “The girls here can be kinda cliquey.”
“Yeah, so I noticed.”
He frowned. “I’ll introduce you to some people.”
Some of the tension I’d carried the past two days eased from my shoulders. “That would be very cool of you.”
I heard someone call his name from behind us and we both stopped to see a kid maybe a year or two younger run across the parking lot toward us. “Cole!” the kid called again.
“Hey, Rory,” Cole said when the young man caught up. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t do Mrs. Kingsley’s tonight,” Rory said, his face twisted into an anxious knot. “My mom has to work late, and she needs me to watch my sister.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Cole told him. “I’ll cover for you. Did you get my text about the new lawn on Mercer this Saturday?”
Rory bit his lip. “I lost my phone,” he admitted. At the mention of his lost phone Rory looked so sad.
Cole reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, which was fat with cash. He tugged out several twenties, handed them to Rory, and said, “Take it.”
Rory shook his head, but Cole pushed the money into his chest. “You’ve been doing a great job, bro. Take the cash and get yourself a phone, okay? Text me when you get it, and I’ll send you the address for the new lawn.”
Rory reluctantly took the money. “It’s a loan,” he said, clearly uncomfortable with the offering.
But Cole merely squared his shoulders and said, “No, bro. It’s a bonus. Don’t fight me on this or I’ll fire you.”
Clearly, he was joking because Rory broke out into a relieved grin. “Thanks, man. Sorry about tonight.”
“It’s cool,” Cole said, as though it was nothing. Rory then bolted away and I was left to put the puzzle pieces of their conversation together.
“He works for you?”
“Yeah,” Cole said as we started walking again. “I mow a bunch of lawns in the area. Been doing it since I was, like, twelve. It started to take off when I was a sophomore, and I had to hire a few friends to help me. Rory’s a good guy. I hired him last year. His dad walked out on the family, and money is always tight, so I give him some extra lawns and pay him a little more than some of the other guys on my crew.”
“And hand him a bonus when he loses his phone,” I said. Cole’s generosity had moved me. Tanner, my ex, used to caddy during the summer. He was always complaining about having to split his tips with other caddies, especially the younger ones, and I knew for a fact that he would often skim a little off the side of his daily tip total.
But Cole shrugged it off like it was no big deal. “He’s worth it. Like I said, he’s a good guy.”
We got to his car, which was impressive. The vintage black Mustang with a raised cowl hood, waxed to a glossy sheen. No doubt his lawn business was fairly successful.
Cole paused next to the car to dig into the pocket of his backpack, presumably fishing for his keys. I waited as he ran his hand around the inside, but there was no telltale jingle to indicate that he’d found them.
He shifted to another pocket, and I leaned against his car. That’s when I noticed a something glinting in the sunlight. “Uh, Cole?”
“Yeah?” he said, still searching through his backpack.
“Are you looking for those?” I pointed into the car, and he leaned forward to look at the keys dangling in the ignition.
“Aw, shit,” he said. I stepped out of the way so he could try the handle. The car was locked.
“Do you have a spare set?” I asked.
Cole rested his forehead on the roof of the car. I felt for him. It had to be embarrassing. “I do. They’re at home.”
“I can take you there to get them,” I said, pulling my mom’s key fob out of my backpack.
“You have a car?”
“It’s my mom’s,” I said, pointing the fob at the car in the middle of the lot to unlock it. “Come on.”
Cole and I settled into my mom’s Subaru and I drove us out of the lot. He still seemed really embarrassed so I tried to make light of it. “At least you didn’t try to take me out on a skateboard,” I said.
“A skateboard,” he repeated. “What does that even mean?”
“My ex,” I told him. “He first asked me out on his skateboard.”
Cole snorted. “What were you, eight?”
“Fourteen,” I told him.
He laughed. “Okay, but you still said yes, right?”
“I did,” I admitted. “I was dumber back then.”
“Why’d you guys split up?”
I shrugged. “Oh, you know, girl meets boy, girl dates boy for two years before boy dumps girl for girl’s best friend.”
Cole stared at me. “He hooked up with your best friend?”
I stared straight ahead. “Yep.” Thinking of Sophie and Tanner brought a fresh stab of pain, which I was trying hard to brush off. I didn’t want Cole to see that I was still hurt.
“That had to suck,” he said.
“It did.”
He was silent for a minute, then said, “Want me to beat him up?”
I smirked. “I don’t know. He’s a pretty big guy.”