Deeper Read online

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Great!” He grinned and took one hand from his pocket to give her a salute. “See you!”

  He didn’t go any farther, just stood there with one hand on a parking meter, watching her pull out. He waved as she started to drive away. Bess waved back.

  She liked Eddie. Always had. She liked talking with him even more now that, as adults, they weren’t caught up in the awkward melodrama of teenage crushes and working together. Becoming Eddie’s partner might bring all that back. On the other hand, as much as they’d remained the same, they’d both also changed. A lot. She’d said she’d think about it, that was all, and that’s what she did all the way back to the house.

  She’d had a good time with Eddie, but by the time she pulled into the carport, her entire world had once again become Nick. Every breath, each pulse, every step took her closer to him. By the time she got to the door she could already taste and feel him, and she wondered how she’d ever managed to spend even one minute without him next to her.

  CHAPTER 16

  Then

  “I know he got home from work hours ago.” Bess didn’t wait for Matty to try to cover for his brother. “Matt. Please. I need to talk to him.”

  Andy wouldn’t be expecting Bess to call him tonight. They usually phoned each other Mondays at ten, unless she was working late. Andy didn’t like her to call after ten, saying he had to go to bed in order to be up on time for work.

  He’d snagged a final internship in a comfy law office ten minutes from his house. He worked nine to five and had an hour lunch, when one of the partners usually treated him at a nice restaurant, and they’d already started talking about finding him a permanent position when he officially graduated at the end of the summer. It was as different from her job at the Sugarland, and would be as different from her future career in social work, as mushrooms from Mozart.

  “Bess…” Matty sighed. He had been in her grade at school, though they’d never really hung out much until she started dating Andy. “He’s in the shower.”

  Bess paused. At nine o’clock on a Friday night, chances were good Andy wasn’t in the shower getting ready for bed. “Did he tell you not to let me talk to him?”

  Matty made an uncomfortable noise.

  “Matty? Did Andy tell you he didn’t want to talk to me if I called?” The need to know burned inside her.

  Something shuffled on Matty’s end of the phone. “He’s my brother, Bess.”

  “So that gives you an excuse to be as shitty to me as he is?”

  She should’ve felt like a bitch for saying it, but Matty sounded guilty, not offended.

  “I’m sorry.” His voice dipped low. “He really is in the shower.”

  “Getting ready to go out?”

  “Yeah, I guess so. It’s not like he runs his agenda past me for approval,” Matty said. “He goes out a lot. I don’t always know who he’s with.”

  “Sometimes you do,” Bess muttered. She looked into the living room, where her aunt Jamie and uncle Dennis were busy laying out a new game of Monopoly. They’d just arrived for their week’s vacation and always played a marathon game. Bess turned her back and twirled the phone cord around her finger. “Is he out of the shower yet?”

  Matty sighed again. “Yeah. Let me get him.”

  “Thanks.”

  Matty said nothing, but Bess heard the clatter of the phone, more shuffling, and a muffled, “Here. I’m fucking sick of being your messenger boy, Andy.”

  “Fuck you, Matty.”

  “You, too, bro. You, too.”

  Usually Bess would have smiled at the banter between brothers, something so foreign to her as an only child. Tonight she only stared hard at the linoleum, counting the flowers in the pattern while she waited for Andy to get on the phone.

  “Yeah? What’s up?”

  “Hi. It’s me.”

  “Yeah. I know it’s you. What’s up?” Andy sounded distant and distracted.

  “I miss you.” Bess, mindful of the house always full of people, pulled the phone with her into the small broom closet. She sank onto the floor with her back to the door, which didn’t close all the way because of the cord, and pulled her knees to her chest. “I miss you, Andy, that’s all.”

  “You just talked to me a few days ago.”

  Bess tried to keep her voice light. “Yeah, I know, but I still miss you. Isn’t that okay?”

  “Sure.” She could picture his shrug and his frown. He was probably looking in the mirror, brushing his hair. Flexing his biceps. Typical Andy.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Out.”

  Don’t ask with who. Don’t ask him. Don’t be the jealous girlfriend he accuses you of being.

  “With who?”

  “Some of the guys. Dan. Joe.”

  She’d never met either of them. “From work?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m going out, too.” Bess gnawed her cheek but stopped when it stung. She put her fingertips to the spot and they came away bloody. “To a party.”

  Andy’s voice sounded faraway, then got closer, and she imagined him putting aside the phone to pull a shirt over his head. “Have fun.”

  “Yeah, this guy…Nick. He invited me.”

  “Have a good time.” More muffled shuffling. She heard the clatter of something metal. His watch, maybe. “Bess, I gotta go. The guys are waiting for me.”

  “But I’ll see you next week, for the concert, right? I got the weekend off.” Andy had scored tickets to see Fast Fashion at the Hershey Stadium. It was supposed to be one of the biggest shows of the summer.

  “Yeah, about that…”

  Bess’s stomach sunk. Laughter reached her as her aunt and uncle and the couple who’d joined them for the week started mixing drinks and serving food. They were having a party of their own.

  “What about it?” It couldn’t be good.

  “I don’t have a ticket for you.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t have a ticket for you,” Andy repeated. It had been bad enough the first time. Hearing it a second twisted her stomach into knots.

  “What do you mean you don’t have a ticket for me? We talked about it. I got the weekend off—”

  “I could only get five tickets, Bess.” Andy sounded annoyed, but not defensive. “You said you weren’t sure about getting the time off. I asked some people from work to go.”

  Bess chewed on her answer instead of her cheek before she spoke. “Who?”

  “Dan. Joe. Lisa. With Matt and me, that’s five.”

  The name, the same as in the letters, stabbed her in the stomach. “Who’s Lisa?”

  “We all work together. She likes Fast Fashion. I told her she could come along.”

  Bess chewed her words harder this time, tattering them. “So…what you’re saying to me is that you’re going to take some girl from work instead of me? To a concert we’ve been talking about all summer long? You’re going to take some girl you just met, instead of me. Your girlfriend.”

  “I knew you’d be like that.”

  “Like what? Upset?” She spat the words like gristle.

  “Why do you have to be like that?” Andy sounded disgusted. “Shit, Bess. It’s just a fucking concert.”

  “Forget it.” She got to her feet. The air in the closet was stifling, but she felt cold. “Never mind, Andy. I’ve got to get to my party.”

  He sounded relieved she was dropping it, not concerned. “We’ll see Fast Fashion another time—”

  “Don’t.” It was all she could manage to say through the ribbon drawing tighter and tighter around her throat.

  “Be careful at that party. You know you’re not a big drinker.”

  Bess said nothing.

  “I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Tomorrow isn’t Monday, Andy.”

  He gave a long-suffering sigh. “Goodbye.”

  He hung up.

  “I miss you, Andy,” Bess said again, and c