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  “We’ll figure this out.” It was what she’d always told her boys whenever they faced a problem they couldn’t immediately solve. It seemed to be the right answer now, too.

  Nick’s fingers tightened in the hair at his temples and he answered in a muffled voice. “There’s nothing to figure out, Bess. I can’t leave. If I try, it kills me all over again.”

  She didn’t think he knew he’d started to vanish in front of her eyes. She wasn’t sure she wanted him to know. “I’m sorry.”

  He pulled his face from his hands to look at her. “Are you? Really?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Her retort stung her tongue.

  “I think you know what the fuck it means.”

  She refused to blanch at his language or his anger. Besides, she knew, even if he didn’t or wouldn’t admit it. “Of course I don’t want you to leave. But if you’re saying I’m happy that you can’t go beyond the beach—”

  “You don’t want me to leave,” he said in a low voice, without looking at her. “I get it. I know, Bess.”

  She was not the one who’d done this…was she? She would never have wished him pain. Her voice, when it came, sounded faraway. “I’m sorry it hurt you.”

  He shrugged wordlessly. She put her head on his shoulder. Nick stiffened at that but relaxed a moment later. Bess felt a small but certain victory when he turned to her, put his arms around her and buried his face in the side of her neck. When he kissed her mouth.

  When he told her he didn’t want to leave her, anyway.

  CHAPTER 24

  Then

  The next time Nick had a party, he seemed to think there was no question about Bess attending when he showed up at Sugarland to tell her about it. And, in fact, there wasn’t any question in Bess’s mind, though apparently Missy had a few.

  She was there, eating a soft pretzel dipped in mustard, when Nick came in. He tossed a few words her way, but unlike the one he gave Brian and Bess, his invitation to Missy was less than enthusiastic. He even called back to Eddie, though everyone knew Eddie didn’t go to parties. Then Nick winked at Bess, flipped Brian the finger and sauntered out, leaving the shop desolately empty.

  Brian fanned his face. “Damn, that boy makes a sex vacuum wherever he goes.”

  Bess laughed. “A what?”

  Missy glared. “If you’re saying Nick Hamilton sucks, Brian, you’re right.”

  “Don’t I wish,” Brian declared with a simper. “But what I meant, Miss I’m-Not-Queen-of-the-Science-Fair, was that he makes a sex vacuum—you know. An empty space. He sucks all the sex right out of the room when he goes… Oh, forget it.” Disgusted, Brian stomped into the back room.

  Bess’s grin faded as she turned to Missy. “What’s the matter with you?”

  “Nothing’s the matter with me. But don’t you think Andy might have a problem?”

  “Andy’s none of your business.” Bess wiped down the tables and ignored her.

  “I can’t believe you’re going to dump your boyfriend for a fling with Nick the Prick, that’s all.” Missy’s softened tone didn’t lend any sincerity to her words.

  Bess straightened and fixed the other girl with a steady gaze. “Don’t call him that.”

  “What, Nick the Prick? How about Nick the Dick?”

  “I refuse to discuss this with you.” Bess went back around the counter to rinse out the washcloth.

  “You’ll see. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Missy hopped off the high stool to toss her trash. “Nick fucks around. He fucked around on Heather—”

  “First of all,” Bess interrupted, “I’m not Heather.”

  She didn’t expand on that, just allowed Missy to figure out the comparison.

  “Second,” she continued, “he’s not my boyfriend. I’m not his girlfriend. What we’re doing isn’t anyone’s business but ours, and it’s between us, okay? Third, he says Heather cheated on him.”

  Missy flipped her hair back over one shoulder. “Well…”

  “Yeah. Well.” Bess rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Missy. Really. Lay off. Just because you’re jealous—”

  Missy gaped, then flushed, then tossed her hair again. “Oh, right!”

  Bess glared. Missy glared. Missy looked away first.

  “Whatever,” she muttered. “He’s a prick and you’re my friend. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Nobody’s going to get hurt, Missy.”

  Missy stepped aside to allow a pack of ice-cream-addicted zombies get to the counter, and by the time Bess had finished waiting on them, she had gone.

  Bess took more care with her hair and makeup and clothes for this party. She even put on matching underwear, a pretty emerald-green satin set she’d bought herself for her birthday.

  “You look pretty.” Benji, her cousin Danielle’s oldest son, poked his head into the laundry room. With just a sink, mirror and toilet it wasn’t as nice as a fully equipped bathroom, but it was private. Mostly.

  “Thanks.” Bess touched up her eyeliner, a smoky gray that made her eyes look much bluer. She glanced at Benji, who wore a pair of Spiderman pj’s and had chocolate fudge smeared at the corners of his lips. “What are you guys doing?”

  “Mama and Daddy said we have to go to bed.” The affront he felt was clear.

  Bess smiled as she smoothed gloss over her lips. “You’d better listen to your mama and daddy then.”

  “Do you have a boyfriend, Bess?”

  She capped her gloss and tumbled her scant makeup sup plies back into their bag, then turned to look at her small relative. “Sort of.”

  He laughed. “Gross!”

  She ruffled his hair. “Someday, Benji, you’re going to have so many girlfriends you won’t know what to do with them.”

  He squinched up his face. “Why won’t I know what to do with ’em?”

  Good question. “Trust me,” Bess said. “You’ll see.”

  Déjà vu struck her as she biked to Nick’s place, but it faded as soon as she went inside his apartment. This party was like a night at the opera compared to the bass-thumping, booze-riddled bash of last time. Bess saw a couple familiar faces, Brian, Missy and Ryan among them, but the other few guests were strangers.

  Nick greeted her at the door. “C’mon in.”

  “Wow. You have real food?” She looked at the kitchen table, set with a platter of subs and a few bowls of chips.

  Nick laughed. “Yeah. Hungry?”

  She was starving, actually, but felt shy at first about helping herself. Nick led her to the table and filled her plate with food. She stared at him across the table as he layered chips on top of the sub.

  He caught her looking and grinned. The moment broke a second later when most everyone else from the living room pushed into the kitchen, which wasn’t big enough for them all.

  They ate, they laughed, they played an ancient game of Trivial Pursuit. The drinking was kept to a minimum. It took Bess until halfway through the game to realize this was a couples party. She counted mentally, blanking out the sound of Missy asking another girl a question about the Soviet Union. One boy for every girl. Or in Brian’s case, one boy.

  She was Nick’s date at his own party.

  For some reason this caused her palms to sweat and her lips refuse to do anything but smile. She didn’t win Trivial Pursuit. She also didn’t care.

  The party ended earlier than the other had, too, at some hour late enough to officially be morning, but which still felt like the middle of the night. Nick waved goodbye to the last of his friends, then shut the door and turned to look at Bess, still sitting by the coffee table.

  “I’ll help you clean up,” she offered. It wouldn’t take long, and she didn’t want to leave. She didn’t know how else to suggest she could stay.

  Nick didn’t turn down her offer, but pulled out a bag of white bread from his fridge and popped some into the toaster. “Want some toast?”

  “Are you still hungry?” Bess couldn’t have eaten a thing.