Life in the Lucky Zone (The Zone #2) (14 page)

“So what do you do in the winter? I mean, you don’t play golf, do you?”

“Not when it’s this cold. If it’s in the fifties or sixties, I’ll go to the driving range. I usually just play racquetball in the winter.”

So he had at least one other interest. That was good.

“I know it’s not your favorite topic,” he said, “but I just want to say how impressed my dad and I have been by your father’s new plans for the golf course.”

“Um, thanks?”

“You don’t know anything about it?”

“Nope.”

“Well, they’re great. He’s got a real vision for the future.”

Why was he talking about my dad? This had to be a first. What guy wanted to talk about a girl’s dad? “That’s nice to know.”

He downed the last few drops of his coffee. “So do you want to go to a movie or something on Saturday?”

Part of me wanted to say no. He was so different from the other guys I’d been out with. But as Berger would say: he’d passed my test. He sat in the lucky zone. I couldn’t miss the chance to see if he really was my new lucky boy. I smiled. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

***

“No way,” Claire said when I called her later that night.

“I told you it would work.”

“Lindsey, there’s no freaking way Nick sat in the right place on the first try. It makes, like, zero sense.”

“That’s because it’s luck.”

She let out a scoffing noise. “Right.”

“Laugh all you want, but he was in the right place, and our time together didn’t suck, either.”

“Who else knew you were going to do this?”

“What? Nobody. Just you and Rose.”

“Well, neither of us said anything. And I couldn’t tell you where Adam used to sit if my life depended on it.”

I picked at the chipped edge of the dark blue polish on my thumbnail. “I doubt Rose knows either.”

“Well, somebody must have told Nick. There’s just no way he could’ve chosen right.”

“Stop saying that. The reality is he did.”

There was a long pause, and then Claire said, “What about your theater friends?”

I frowned. “I didn’t tell them anything.”

“I bet Parker and Mike could say exactly where Adam used to sit.”

“So? They didn’t know Nick was coming. Besides, they were talking to Mrs. Mac when he showed up. And they wouldn’t have told him anyway. They always act like grumpy little kids if someone asks me out.” I picked up Vivi and started pacing the room, holding her against my chest with one arm.

“What about Marta or one of the other girls?”

I laughed. “I doubt there’s a single girl in theater who’d want to do me a favor. Why can’t you just admit it was luck?”

Claire sighed. “Because it had to be somebody. Did anybody there know Nick was coming?”

Berger’s voice sounded in my head.
Another coffee date?
I stopped pacing and squished Vivi tighter, trying to get rid of the hollow feeling in my chest. Would he actually have told Nick where to go? Why? And how would he have known? It was too weird.

“Hey, you still there?” Claire asked.

“Yeah.” I went to my bed and sat, letting Vivi lie back on my lap. “Berger knew someone was coming,” I whispered. I couldn’t get the words out otherwise.

“Well, there you go.”

“Don’t act so smug. There’s no reason he would’ve told Nick where to sit. He didn’t even know what the test was. I never admitted there was one.”

“Whoa! He suspected? Lindsey, he figured it out. Berger is really smart, and he’s been spending a lot of time around you. I don’t know why he did it, but I bet you money he did.”

“But why, Claire? I don’t get it.”

“I don’t know. Maybe he thought it would make you happy or something.”

“Maybe.”

“You should ask him. Hang on.” A muffled noise sounded in my ear, and then Claire’s voice came out all tinny. “Be there in a sec, Mom!” Then she was back. “Okay, I’m here. Ask him, Linds. It’s the only way you’ll know for sure.”

“But what if he didn’t do it? Then he’ll know all about my test.”

“So?”

“He’ll make fun of me.”

Claire chuckled. “I thought y’all had gotten past all that.”

“We have. Mostly. But he still likes to give me crap about stuff.”

“Listen, I gotta go. My mom needs something. Just talk to him, and let me know right away what he says.”

“Okay, maybe tomorrow.”

We hung up, and I fell back across my bed. The Storm
boys grinned down at me, only sideways this time. I covered my eyes with my forearm. Why did I even care whether Berger teased me or not? He did it practically every day. And I liked to tease him too. What was different this time?

Was it because he’d crossed some invisible line in my personal life? No, I’d already done that by crying all over him last week.

I could actually picture him doing this. The big question was
why?
If he thought it would make me happy, then that meant he cared about me. Didn’t it? And if he did care, did I need to do something about it? Tell him to quit because it would never go anywhere?

Something heavy settled on my chest, and tears stung my eyes. What the heck? Was I about to cry over Trey Berger? I rubbed my eyes. No. This was ridiculous. Berger was my friend, practically my best friend these days, and I was not going to lose him. I was just being overemotional. Besides, he may not have told Nick anything.

But then, why wasn’t he in the wings when I was leaving today? His backpack was there.

I heaved myself to my feet and put Vivi back on the nightstand. I’d have to talk to Berger about this. Just not right away. I needed to see if he acted suspiciously tomorrow.

For now, I’d hold on to the possibility that Nick Somerset might be my new lucky boy. And that my luck was finally changing.

Twenty-Six

Berger

“Trey, you never told me what a good-looking young man Grayson has become,” Nana said, watching us consume milk and chocolate chip cookies at the kitchen table Saturday afternoon.

Gray and I laughed. “Yeah, Nana, sorry. I should’ve mentioned it sooner.”

She smiled at us. “You should have.”

Ashley walked in wearing glasses, her hair all piled up on the back of her head in that weird thing girls do. “Hello, everybody.”

“Oh, good,” Nana said. “Ashley will agree with me.”

“What’s that, Nana?” Ashley poured a cup of coffee that was probably hours old and stuck it in the microwave oven.

“That Grayson has become so handsome.”

Gray choked on the milk he was drinking.

Ashley came over and patted him on the back as he coughed. “He’s a regular cutie patootie, a puggy wuggums.” She ruffled his hair.

“Can we go now?” Gray asked out of the corner of his mouth.

I laughed.

“And this one,” Ashley said, reaching for my head, but I scooted my chair away.

“Get away from me! Go back to your study cave.”

Ashley laughed. “I’m just trying to be the encouraging big sister.”

Nana chuckled. “You’re doing a good job, dear.”

I snagged a couple of cookies and got up. “Let’s get out of here, Gray. It’s too dangerous.”

Gray practically leapt to his feet.

“But you haven’t finished your milk,” Nana said.

“We’ll take it with us,” I said, edging for the door.

Gray moved with me but then turned back. “Thanks for the cookies, Nana.”

“You’re welcome, dear,” she said.

We made it to my room with no milk spills or weird encounters from other family members. I sank onto the couch. “Sorry, man.”

“It’s okay,” Gray said, putting his milk on the TV stand. “Nana seems happier today.”

“Yeah. It’s weird. You never know what she’s gonna be like from one day to the next. But on Thursday we took her to this senior day care place. She got to hang with her buds.”

Gray snorted. “Senior day care. What a weird concept.”

“Yup. But she seemed to like it, so I think it’s gonna be a regular thing now.” I bit into a cookie.

“That’s good.” He leaned forward to grab the remote off the floor, but paused before sitting back down. “What’s that?” He motioned with the remote to an area by my desk.

“What?” I couldn’t see anything other than my backpack, sneakers, and a dirty T-shirt.

“Those multi-colored things. In that bag.”

I pushed my glasses up to the bridge of my nose. My backpack was open on its side. And—
Oh, crap.
Lindsey’s baggie of rabbits’ feet had fallen out. I did not want to explain that. “Uh, some rabbit’s-foot key rings.”

He frowned at me. “Like for luck?”

“Yeah.”

“Where’d it come from?”

Crap.
I’d better just confess. “It’s Lindsey’s.”

Gray’s frown turned into a look of disbelief, and he started laughing. “Holy crap, man. You’re carrying her stuff around now?”

“No, I’m not
carrying her stuff around now
,” I said, copying him. Might as well tell him what the deal was or I’d never hear the end of it. “She bought a bunch of stuff online for luck. Her parents found out and want her to send most of it back. She gave me that bag so I could give it to her at school and she wouldn’t have to send it back.”

“But you still have it.”

I turned on the Xbox. “We both forgot. We’ve been pretty busy at rehearsals lately.” Actually, Lindsey had been acting kind of weird around me for some reason. Every time I tried to joke with her, she’d give me a half smile, then wander off to talk to someone else. I’d only found out she was going out with the Golfer Dude tonight when I overheard her telling Mike and Parker.

Gray was still staring at me. “What?” I asked.

He smirked. “It’s happening to you too, isn’t it?”

“What’re you talking about?”

“You have a crush on Lindsey.”

I fumbled the controller and dropped it on the carpet.
Crap.
“I do not.”

He laughed. “It’s okay, man, it happens to most guys who hang around her. I didn’t even have to be close for her to get to me.”

This was ridiculous. “I don’t have a crush on her. We’re friends. There’s a difference.”

“I never thought I’d hear you say that.”

“Me neither, but stranger things have happened.”

He stuck his tongue in his cheek while he watched me, another grin growing on his face. “This is freaking awesome. You gave me so much crap about her last summer. Now it’s my turn. Karma for the win!”

“Shut up. I don’t have a crush—”

“Then prove it.”

“I don’t have to prove—” His smug look made me stop. “Okay, genius. How? How do I prove I don’t have a crush on her?”

“Stop hanging around with her.”

“I can’t. We’re both in theater. You know the teacher makes us rehearse together.”

Gray drummed his fingers on the back of the couch. “Hmm. The six of us haven’t hung out in a while. Let’s do that tonight. I want to see how you act around her.”

I shook my head. “You’re so full of crap. Besides, we can’t hang out tonight. She has a date.”

“With who?”

“That guy on the golf team who wears his letter jacket even when it’s seventy degrees outside.”

“Nick Somerset?”

“Yup.”

Gray looked confused. “But they have nothing in common.”

“When did that ever stop people from dating?” I didn’t bother to mention that I was partially responsible for her going out with him. And I wasn’t going to.

“Never, I guess. But we still need to hang out as a group. What about tomorrow night?”

“I think I have to work. Anyway, it’s stupid. You know that, right?”

Gray’s phone started buzzing. “You’re just afraid I’ll be able to tell how you feel about her.” He fished his phone out of his pocket and frowned at the number on the screen. “Speaking of work … ” He answered the call. “Yeah?” He listened for a few seconds. “I think so … Hang on, he’s sitting right here.” He covered the phone’s mic with his hand. “A couple of people called in sick for tonight. You wanna work?”

Not really, but I probably should. I hadn’t been putting in any hours during the week. “What time?”

“They need us by six.”

“Okay.”

Gray uncovered the phone. “We’ll be there … Sure, bye.” He hung up. “Yay. Saturday night at the Cineplex.”

I turned the TV on and picked up my controller. “I keep expecting them to fire me because I’ve cut back on my hours so much.”

“Me too, but I hope not. I don’t want to have to look for a new job next sum—” He burst out laughing.

“What?”

“It’d be so perfect if Lindsey and Somerset showed up at the Cineplex tonight. Then I could see if you’re crushing or not.”

“You’re hilarious,” I said, keeping my face deadpan. “Are we gonna play?”

“Yeah,” he said, but he kept chuckling.

I ignored him and selected my character off the screen. He was being so stupid. Even if Lindsey and Golfer Dude showed up, it wouldn’t bother me to see them together. Would it?

Twenty-Seven

Lindsey

Thank goodness for the movie. It didn’t matter that it was mostly car explosions and actors who could barely act frowning and pointing guns at each other. At least I didn’t have to listen to Nick say driver or green or hole in one or putt or nine iron. All through our quick dinner at the Burger Stop, the topic had trended toward his prowess on the course or the drunken adventures of the golf team when they went to tournaments.

Should I give him more time? Maybe if we dated a little longer I could see if he was able to talk about something else. It could be that he was just nervous and fell back on whatever he was comfortable with. I held back a sigh. It sure seemed like he wasn’t my new lucky boy. Because at this point, I couldn’t see us lasting more than two weeks. I’d probably kill him first.

I would miss the hand-holding, though. About a third of the way into the movie, he picked up my hand and didn’t let go. His strong fingers cradled mine, and occasionally he ran his thumb across the back of my hand. So for the rest of the movie, I pretended we actually had a connection. I hadn’t felt like that since Adam—a thought I quickly shelved in the back closet of my mind.