Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
RACHEL
“ C an I have another cookie?” Jae asks, her words half-garbled because she still has angel food cake in her mouth. “No, not the sugar one. The chocolate chip one.”
I fish around in the box of leftover baked goods that didn’t sell in time at the bakery, and hand it to her, smiling at the gleeful, greedy noise she makes as she bites into it.
“Oh my God, that’s so good,” she mumbles. “I’m getting fat from all these desserts you keep bringing over.”
I shake my head. I’d have trouble finding a spare inch to pinch on her waist. Her genetics must be top-notch because she doesn’t exercise. “You were the one who asked me to bring them.”
“Yeah, but…” She trails off, looking up at the ceiling. “Okay, I can’t think of an excuse.”
There’s a crash from somewhere else in the house, and then Josh yells, “Nabi, I told you not to jump up there.”
I glance at Jae, who seems unconcerned. “Should we be worried about that?”
She waves it off. “Him and the cat need to work out their differences on their own.”
Okay. I look back at the movie on the TV, but we haven’t really been paying attention. That’s what usually happens when I come over to her house, though. Not that I’m complaining. It’s nice to decompress over here after a stressful day at the bakery.
Although Nick did make it less stressful helping us with the dishes and cleaning up. He didn’t have to do that. Especially after getting off a twenty-four-hour shift. I can’t even imagine working that, let alone washing dishes for hours afterward.
And he said it was because he wanted to see me.
My heart does an unsteady flip, squeezing painfully in my chest for about the millionth time today.
He’d said it nonchalantly, probably intending it to only be a friendly thing, but the words still clung to me, refusing to let go.
I’m crazy, obviously. Finding meaning in insubstantial wisps of nothing.
“Oh, I meant to tell you,” Jae says, thankfully interrupting my train of thought. “I saw Kyle today.”
Ugh. She should have kept that to herself.
“He was at the store buying vegetables. Acting all normal, as if he isn’t the world’s biggest jerk.”
I inwardly smile at her unwavering support. It’s good to have someone in your corner.
“I’ve had enough of him,” I mutter, reaching for a brownie.
“What, because of the pancake breakfast?”
“No, he texted me the other day.”
“Ew, seriously? Was he all hey babe, it’s been a while but I miss what we had. Autumn hasn’t been putting out lately and I need —”
“Oh my God, stop.” I throw a couch pillow at her, and she laughs. “No, it was really weird. He asked why I was hanging out with Nick. It was the day Nick came over to talk about the fundraiser.”
Jae frowns. “What, like Kyle knew Nick had come over?”
I shrug. “I guess. He texted almost right after Nick had left. Like he was… spying on me or something.”
Shivers race up my arms and I brush them away, hating the creepy crawly sensation.
Jae sits up straighter. “He’s spying on you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was a coincidence.”
“Was he parked outside your house?”
I throw my hands up. “I don’t know. I don’t have any answers for you.”
“Did you check outside after you got the text?”
“No, I…” I don’t want to admit how off balance it’d made me. Even though it wouldn’t matter at all to Jae. She can be fiercely protective when she wants. “I just wanted to forget about it.”
Her phone chimes, but she doesn’t pay attention, seeming lost in thought about my dilemma.
“Do you need to get that?”
“What?” She looks over at me, distracted. “No, it’s the doorbell alert.”
I glance toward the front door, but no one knocks or rings the bell. A moment later, Josh comes out of his gaming room from down the hall, waving his phone from side to side.
“My new mechanical keyboard came.” He opens the front door and pulls in a package. “It’s been sold out for weeks but was finally in stock—”
“You got the doorbell alert on your phone, right?” Jae interrupts. Thank goodness, because Josh could go on for a while about keyboards if we let him.
“Yeah,” he says, unphased.
“Okay, thanks, babe.” She smiles at him, and not so subtly dismisses him by picking up her phone and navigating to something.
He doesn’t seem to notice and happily carries his package back to his gaming room. Nabi meows once before he closes the door again.
“You have a video doorbell, right?” Jae asks me, still doing something on her phone.
“Yeah.” I rarely use it, though, keeping the alerts off since they annoyed me too much.
“What if—and this is going to sound crazy—but what if Kyle still gets alerts when someone’s at your front door?”
I blink at her, processing her words. “What? No. He moved out almost six months ago.”
“Did he have access to it when you lived together?”
“Yeah, but…” I trail off, not knowing where I’m going with it. The idea is preposterous, though.
“Okay, pull up your app.”
“I don’t have the app. I deleted it.”
Her lips purse. “Oh my God, you’re killing me. Give me that.” She takes my phone and taps away at the screen, but I’m still chewing on my lip, mulling over her suggestion.
Can she actually find proof Kyle is accessing my front door video footage? Why would he even want to? To keep tabs on me? He has Autumn now.
He was weirdly aggressive toward Nick at the pancake breakfast, though. Do they have some kind of beef?
Jae shoves my phone back in my hands. “Put in your email and password.”
I do it, my fingers trembling slightly for some reason, and hand it to her when I’m logged in.
“Okay, control center… shared users…” She pauses and shows me the screen. “He still has access.”
I stare at his name, dumbfounded. I guess it makes sense he’d still be there if I never removed him from the account.
I hadn’t even thought about the doorbell when he left.
I’d changed the locks, the utilities accounts, our streaming services passwords.
Thankfully, we’d never shared a bank account, though he’d been pushing for it.
But not the frigging doorbell.
“That doesn’t mean he’s using it.” I attempt to grab onto any excuse I can for why this isn’t happening right now.
She looks at me like I’m an idiot. “You said he texted you about hanging out with Nick directly after Nick left. Either he’s watching what’s going on at your house through this or he’s physically close enough to see. Would you rather have a virtual stalker or a physical one?”
Stalker? “Oh my God, he’s not stalking me. He’s just… I don’t know. Being crazy.” I hold my head in my hands for a moment, thinking it through. “Well, let’s remove him. Can we do that?”
“Wait.” Jae holds my phone out of reach when I go to grab it. A terrible, devious smile crosses her face.
Oh no. That can’t be good.
“If he wants to see what you’re up to so bad, we should let him.”
What? “How does that solve anything?”
She holds up a finger, indicating I should let her continue. “We’re going to play a prank on him. And hit him where it hurts.”
I eye her suspiciously. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but I’m intrigued.”
She pats my hand. “Of course you are. I’m a genius. Seriously, I’ve never had an idea this good.”
“Okay, spill.”
She tucks her legs under her on the couch, getting comfortable.
“You and I are going to go to your house. As if we were out somewhere and are coming back. You’ll pretend to search for your keys in your purse to give us some time in front of the doorbell, and I’ll ask you how your date with Nick went. ”
My brows pop up in surprise. “What date?”
She waves off my question. “There isn’t really a date. But Kyle doesn’t know that. And you’re going to go on and on about how great it was. And how Nick is so romantic and so much better than Kyle ever was. Lay it on thick, you know?”
I wanted to see you.
Nick’s words echo in my ears. Simple, meaningless, nothing words that I’ve somehow twisted into something vaguely romantic.
“I don’t know,” I say. “Involving Nick like that… What if it got back to him? And then he’d think I’m a freak who’s imagining dates with him.”
Her lips twist. “Okay, so let’s call him. See if he’s game.”
“W-what?” I stumble over the word. “No, he’s…” She’s already navigating to my contacts on my phone. Damn it. I should put a password on there. “He’s probably sleeping.”
“It’s eight o’clock,” she says drily. “It’s fine.”
And then she’s hit the green phone icon, putting it on speakerphone, and before I can stop it, he answers.
“Hey, Rachel.”
Butterflies erupt in my stomach at the warmth in his deep voice, as if he’s pleasantly surprised to be hearing from me.
No, not butterflies from his voice. Butterflies because I’m now an accomplice to Jae’s insane plan.
“Hey, Nick. It’s actually Jae. Rachel’s friend.”
“Is everything okay?”
I squeeze my eyes shut at the immediate concern in his voice.
“Yes, great. Rachel’s here with me.”
“Hi,” I say quickly, unable to get more out.
“We’re calling to get permission from you about something,” Jae continues.
“Uh, okay.”
“We want to play a prank on Kyle, but want to make sure it’s all right with you first if we tell a teeny white lie that involves you.”
There’s a pause and then Nick says, “I’m one hundred percent on board with pranking Kyle. What’s the lie?”
“We’re going to pretend Rachel went on a date with you and it was a million times better than anything she ever had with Kyle.”
“Of course,” he says, with no hesitation.
Jae grins and mouths to me, See? “Awesome, thank you. Rachel will let you know how it goes.”
“You’re going to see him again?” Nick asks me.
I clear my throat, which is suddenly parched. “No, I… I’ll explain it next time I see you.”
“Okay. Let me know when you want to make chili.”
“I will. Thanks, bye.”
I hang up before Jae can do anything else and take my phone back, clutching it securely.
“You’re making chili?” she asks, confused.
“It’s one of the fundraiser ideas for the fire station. A chili cookoff. But he’s never made it.”
She accepts my explanation without further question. “All right, we’re good to go. You ready?”
My jaw drops. “Wait, you want to do this tonight?”
She gets off the couch, brushing cookie crumbs off her lap. “No time like the present. And you’ll lose your nerve if we don’t do it now.”
Damn it. She knows me too well. “I never agreed to it.”
She shakes my shoulders. “It’s a brilliant plan, and you know it.”
I grumble about how her last plan stuck me making pancakes on a Saturday morning and starting up this whole thing with Kyle and Nick to begin with, but she goes selectively deaf.
“Come on, you told me you want to be in bed by eight-thirty so you can get up early, so we only have twenty-three minutes now. Let’s go.”
Well… I guess it’s go time.