into both their glasses. “I’ve got an idea! Let’s call him!”
“Who?”
“Luke! Just like we used to in high school!” She dissolved into a fit of giggles. “Remember when we called Kenny Harrison and had him convinced that we were aliens who were coming to get him at midnight?”
Grace couldn’t help laughing with her. Although Jenna had been the one doing the calling and the talking, Grace had listened with fascination on the other line as Kenny had asked what to pack.
“Come on, let’s call Luke,” Jenna persisted, taking the cordless phone from the table and pushing the Talk button.
Grace wrestled the receiver from her grasp. “No way. We’re not teenagers anymore. We’re mothers. Mature women. We don’t pull that kind of prank.” The dial tone blared between them. “Especially not with caller ID and Star-Sixty-Nine technologies out there. And especially not with Luke Stewart. Our relationship is bad enough.”
Jenna took her hand off the phone. “You just had a little spat. You guys always had spats, and, as you know, there was a definite attraction.”
It was hard to deny, at least to Jenna, who had always known the truth. “Yeah, well, we’re not always attracted to the people who are best for us, are we?”
“No, that’s true,” Jenna agreed. “But sometimes you just don’t know until you give someone a chance. Even someone like Luke.”
“Even if I were willing, and I’m not, Luke doesn’t have any interest in me. He hates me.”
“I don’t think so. And I know you don’t hate him.” She wasn’t going to give up. “Let’s go to his house. Look in the windows and see if he has a girlfriend.”
Grace tossed the phone onto the sofa several yards away. “I couldn’t care less if he has a girlfriend or not.” She tried to sound nonchalant, but she did kind of wonder about his private life.
“Come on, admit you’re curious. Let’s go.”
Grace shook her head. “On top of the fact that it’s illegal to spy on people through their windows, we’ve been drinking. We can’t drive.”
“We’ll walk.”
“We’re not interested.” Grace hesitated. “Although there is one thing I’m interested in. Do you have any idea why Luke didn’t go off to college at Stanford, like he was supposed to?”
Jenna looked blank. “I didn’t even know he was supposed to.”
“Yes, you did—he got a scholarship, remember? It was a huge deal.”
“Hmm. That sort of rings a bell. But I don’t know. Why?”
Grace shrugged. “He mentioned the other day that he hadn’t gone but he wouldn’t say why. The whole thing just seems strange to me.”
“So you do care about him.”
Grace felt her face grow warm. “I’m just curious. Aren’t you?”
“Not particularly. But if you really want to know what happened, we could ask the cards.”
Grace snorted. “Oh, come on, the cards don’t know squat.”
“I don’t know, Grace, it seems to me they were uncannily correct for you.”
“About what? About a man in my life? There isn’t one. A journey? Not going anywhere. And a great fortune? Please. If I had that, I wouldn’t be driving a bus.”
“You have to be a little patient,” said Jenna, unflappable. “This is the future we’re looking at. The cards clearly said—”
Fortunately, Jenna was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell, although Grace had the uneasy feeling that she was going to be hearing a lot about what “the cards said” in the future.
“I was in the neighborhood,” Luke said when she opened the door. “I tried to call, but the line was busy. I hope you don’t mind me dropping by.”
The champagne hit her full-force as soon as she saw him.
“Uh. N-no,” Grace stammered. “I’m just surprised.”
“Look, about the other day. I shouldn’t have said that stuff. It wasn’t my place.” It wasn’t quite an apology, but she thought it was as close as she was going to get to one.
“Forget it.” She tried to gather her wits as they scattered like cockroaches in the light. “Do you want to come in? Have a drink?” She stepped back and gestured into the house.
He didn’t move, though his eyes flicked briefly behind her. “No, thanks. Did you pass the test?”
She smiled. “Yes, I did.”
“Good.”
“What, did you expect me to fail?” she demanded happily.
He gave a short laugh. “Since the day you walked into the garage at school, I haven’t known what to expect.”
Grace felt light-headed and silently cursed the champagne.
It was making her giddy. “Is that all bad?”
The porch light gleamed off his glossy hair. He looked like a model or something. A shampoo ad.
“Why are you looking at me that way?”
“What way?” She pulled herself together. “I wasn’t looking at you any way in particular. I just…I thought I saw a spider.”
“Ah.” He nodded as if he were talking to a crazy person.
“It’s gone now.”
“Oh, my God, Luke Stewart?” Jenna gasped from behind Grace. “I can’t believe it, we were just talking about you.”
“No, we weren’t,” Grace said quickly.
“Yes, we—”
“No, that was something else,” Grace said. Then, with a pointed look at Jenna, Grace stepped out onto the front porch with Luke, closing the door behind her before Jenna could say anything more. “Don’t want to let the bugs in,” she explained with a fast smile.
“You were talking about me?”
How did he do that, that almost-smile of his? How did he manage to look amused and above-it-all at the same time?
He was cool, that was how. He’d always been cool, even though he’d been an ace student, which was normally not considered cool at Bayside High School. But Luke gave off an aura of not needing anyone or anything.
Girls
