“Something like that.”

“And you were protecting your mom. No one can fault you.”

Except me, I added silently. “He told me he loved me,” I blurted after a pause.

Jake was quiet for a few seconds before he returned to his former position and continued scrolling through my phone. “There’s a lot about you to love.”

It doesn’t feel like it, I wanted to say, but I remained silent. My thoughts were all jumbled and unfocused anyway.

“Thanks again for coming over,” I said after a while. “I hope it wasn’t too hard to cancel whatever you were supposed to do.”

“It wasn’t anything I couldn’t reschedule.”

“I still appreciate it, though.” I wanted to ask if his newly canceled plans were with Clover, but I kept it to myself.

“Anything for you.” He tilted his head back to smile at me, and I grinned. This was Jake and me at our best, just the two of us hanging out. It was familiar, comfortable, even reassuring. Jake was my constant. I couldn’t imagine my world without him.

I cleared my throat. “I saw Clover at the Bookish Bean.” Maybe you can tell me what’s going on between you two, I added silently.

“Oh, yeah. She mentioned that when she came in. Said you were sketching something.” He tilted his head again. “How’re the posters coming?”

I made a face and shook my head. I wasn’t happy with the work I’d done, and the whole thing with my dad made it near-impossible to think about Chicago again.

“They’re better than you think they are,” he said with a chuckle.

I grumbled. “Maybe.”

The opening chords of “Can’t Get Enough of You, Baby” played from my phone’s tinny speaker.

“You downloaded one of your songs for me,” I said when Zack’s voice began singing.

Jake froze for half a second. “Kind of. You know this isn’t an original Ephemera song, right?”

“Yeah, duh.” Sometimes I felt like Jake didn’t give me much credit. “It was in that movie.”

He laughed. “That wasn’t the original either.”

“Do people even write their own songs anymore?”

“Of course,” he said. “But some bands are so focused on touring, they don’t have time to write, too.”

“Seems like it takes part of the fun out of it, though,” I said, frowning. “Like, they’re just showing off other people’s work.”

“Most bands start out doing covers.”

“That’s different.”

“And lots of musicians got their breaks writing for other artists. Like Neil Diamond and Carole King both wrote songs for the Monkees.”

“I’d probably find that fascinating if I knew who those people were.”

Jake snorted. “Yeah, probably.”

I craned my neck to see what he was doing. “You aren’t changing your ringtone, are you? I like the Beatles.”

“Just trying to switch things up,” he said. “I don’t want you to get too bored.”

Avril Lavigne blared from my phone, and he held it up for me. “Video call,” he said.

“It’s Ally,” I said. “I’ll bet she wants to dish about her big date with Hunter.” I tapped on my phone to accept the call and held it at arm’s length. “So?”

Jake covered his ears as she let out an ear-piercing shriek. “I am in total like!” she cried. “Hunter is an absolute dream.” She blinked a few times and squinted at the screen. “Are you on your phone?”

“This is where you called me,” I replied.

“Well, your arm’s going to fall asleep,” she said with a pout, “and I have to tell you everything.”

I fought back a smirk. “Hold on.” I looked up at Jake. “Can you do me a favor and grab my laptop?”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Jake.”

He handed me my computer and slid onto the bed beside me, his head touching mine so he’d be visible via the little camera on my phone. “Hey, Al.”

She looked equally stricken and amused. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“Don’t be dumb,” I said with a flippant wave. “Hang on a sec. I can move this to my laptop.”

“Better idea.” She twirled a curl around her finger. “Why don’t you come over when you guys are done?” She laughed maniacally, almost as though she’d had way too much sugar and was more hyper than usual. And for Ally, that was saying a lot.

“You’re being weird,” I said at the same time Jake said, “Grow up.”

More laughter. I was close to ending the call when she calmed down and said, “I’m totally messing with you guys. Just come over whenever.”

“Okay.” I was wary because of the way she was acting, but I also wanted to be a good friend. I figured an hour or so wouldn’t kill me. “I’ll swing by in a few.” I ended the call and turned to Jake. We both shook our heads.

“At least I’m being spared the gory recap.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll share all the details with you later.”

“Oh, please don’t.”

I laughed, and he laced his fingers through mine. He rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb, tracing circles on my skin. I noted his thumb was the only finger on his right hand that wasn’t calloused. I rested my head on his shoulder with a contented sigh.

“Hey, I know I’ve been kind of cryptic about stuff lately, but I figured—”

Avril sang out from my phone again, cutting him off. I put a finger to his lips to silence him.

“Hold that thought,” I said before I sat up to answer the call. “Change of plans?”

“Kind of,” Ally said. “I texted Bianca, and she’s trapped at school with her parents watching some game against Xavier.”

“Are you asking me to pick her up on my way over?” I watched as Jake hunched over the side of my bed, reaching to tie his shoes.

“If you insist,” she said. “And can you help me with French? You’re way better at vocab than I am.”

“I haven’t even looked at homework.”

“Then you can do yours while you help me with mine.”

“We have a three-day weekend,” I said.

“You mean you have a three-day weekend. Riley gave the cast a ten o’clock call time Monday morning. I won’t be able to get any work done.”

“So much for MLK day,” I muttered.

“Anyway, I’m trying to get it all done early, and you might as well get it out of the way, too.”

Sometimes it was easier to go along with her. “Fine,” I said. “I’ll see you in a few.” I looked up at Jake as he put on his jacket by the door. “Don’t leave yet,” I said, scrambling to my feet. “What were you about to tell me?”

“It’s not that big of a deal.” He nodded to my backpack. “Go grab your stuff so I can walk out with you.”

“Okay,” I said, and a few minutes later, we were outside by his car. “You’re really going to leave me hanging?” I said as he unlocked his door.

“Just for a little bit longer,” he said. “As soon as I’m sure it’s something serious, I’ll tell you.”

I pouted. “I don’t like it when you’re all cryptic like this.”

He pulled me into a hug and said, “Have fun.”

His car disappeared out of view before I climbed into my own car. I was equal parts grateful to him and annoyed. Grateful because I wasn’t obsessing over my dad anymore, and annoyed because he’d just confirmed he’d been keeping something secret from me.

But that didn’t even irritate me as much as the sneaking suspicion Clover knew all about it.

Chapter Fourteen

“So, I’m holding the putter, right?” Ally was standing to demonstrate. “And he, like, stands behind me and corrects my grip and whatever, but then the windmill knocks my ball away, and he says something I don’t hear. So I turn and go, ‘What?’ and then he kissed me!”

My friends shrieked and clapped their hands. Ally jumped up and down as she did so, while Bianca bounced on the bed. I shook my head. I couldn’t understand how some guy could reduce her to a squealing, incoherent mess.

From my spot on the floor, I pulled my knees to my chest and leaned my head against the wall. “Who won?”

Ally looked puzzled. “Who won what?”

“Your mini golf game.”