Chapter 24
Lily
I called up my home landline from my contacts and connected. “Do you want to be alone?” Stick asked. I shook my head. I wanted some reinforcements in case my courage failed me. I would be brave in front of Jane.
She seemed to sense it, because she slowly walked around the room, picking up a couple of things and putting them in the bag.
“Lily?” my father answered. “It’s after midnight. What the hell—”
“Lily, honey, are you all right?” my mother said from the extension. That was why I’d called the landline; they each had a phone on their bedside table and I knew my mom would get on the phone as soon as she heard my dad say my name. And I might need her as a buffer.
“I’m fine. I’m sorry to call so late, but I need some help.”
“Jesus Christ,” my dad muttered. I could hear the rustle of sheets and knew he was sitting up, his legs over the side of the bed, rubbing his face, turning on the bedside lamp.
It was not the first crisis call he’d gotten late at night. It wasn’t even the first one from a daughter. It was just the first one from his do-no-wrong middle child.
“Lily, baby, are you sure you’re okay?” my mom asked.
“She said she was fine, Susan.” I knew that my father was looking over his shoulder at her and they were staring across the bed at each other, both of them with a phone to their ear.
“A friend of mine did something stupid tonight and I was hoping you could, I don’t know, maybe call someone here in Schoolport and see if there is anything you can do?”
“Is it Jane?” my father asked. Jane must have heard, because she stilled for just a moment, then continued on, this time going into our bathroom. Grabbing my damn toothbrush, I assumed.
“No, not Jane. Jane’s actually in the room now, and we’re all fine. It’s for…this guy I’ve been seeing.”
“Christ, Lily. A boy? What did he do?” There was a long-suffering sigh from him, like I asked for this kind of favor all the time.
“He…he stole a car. But it was—”
“What the hell? Why would a Bribury kid need to steal a car? Was it a joy-riding situation? A prank or something?”
“No, not like that. And he doesn’t go to Bribury. He lives in Schoolport.”
There was silence to that bit of news. “Just how good of friends are you with this boy?”
“I’m in love with him,” I said with no hesitation. It was the strongest, the surest my voice had been since that girl had knocked on my door and told me Stick was waiting downstairs.
“But Lily, you just went out on one date with this boy for the first time last night,” my mother said.
“That wasn’t exactly the whole truth. Last night was our first date-date, but we’ve actually been…together for about six weeks.”
“Jesus Christ. A campus full of boys with connections and you date a townie? And a car thief at that?”
“He’s not really a car thief, it was a—”
“Yes, yes, he’d never done anything like it before, and would never do it again. They all say that, Lily.”
It wouldn’t be worth my breath to say that it was true in this case…at least about not doing it again.
I cleared my throat to make sure my voice didn’t crack. “Will you help? I’m sure all it would take is one—”
“I know the DA in Schoolport well, Lily. You don’t think I’d let you and Jane go to school in a town where I didn’t have any connections, did you?”
The thought that he’d chosen my college based on DAs he could call if I was in trouble had never crossed my mind, but I suppose it should have.
No loose ends for Grayson Spaulding.
“I think this kid should just take what he gets, Lily. You can go on with your life and just—”
“But that’s not what will happen,” I said, drawing on my inner Spaulding.
“What will happen is I will go over to his apartment and take care of his little brother while he’s in jail.
Because Lucas is Andy’s guardian and raising him.
” I didn’t need to add that their mother was still in the picture, hopeful she’d be able to stay in rehab until she was ready to be a fit parent to Andy.
I must have really sounded like a little Grayson, because Jane popped her head around the doorway to the bathroom and raised a brow at me, then did a silent golf clap in my direction.
“Not only do I love Lucas, but I’m very fond of his little brother, so if Lucas stays in jail, I’m going to take care of Andy. Which will probably mean a lot of missed classes, maybe even flunking out.”
“Lily,” my father said with warning in his voice.
“And I certainly won’t be around the dorm to keep an eye on Jane. Who knows what she’ll get into?”
Jane smiled at that and mouthed, “Burn!”
There was a moment of quiet. I could hear Stick’s breathing as my father played out all his options in his head.
But I had him with the Jane thing, and I knew it.
“Okay, I’ll make the call and get this kid out, as long as you’re telling me the truth and it was just car theft and he doesn’t have eight outstanding warrants or anything.”
“He doesn’t,” I said. “Thank you, Dad. His name is Lucas Kade. Kade is spelled with a K.”
I heard him write it down, the pencil scratching on paper. “But Lily, I will only make the call if you do something in return. That’s how these things work, I know you know that.”
I did. I’d grown up listening to my father—and mother, for that matter—making deals.
I thought he’d ask again for me to get Jane to stand in the wedding, and my heart sank, knowing there was no way Jane would do it, not even for Lucas. Not even for me.
But that wasn’t his price. “You have to promise me, Lily, that if I get these charges dropped on this kid that you won’t see him again.
I can’t take the risk of you being tied to him if it comes out that I stepped in.
Let people just think…well, shit, I don’t care what they think, but it can’t be tied back to you. ”
“I…I…” My moment of victory was crashing around me. The thought of giving up Lucas making me breathless, hardly able to speak.
“Besides, clearly this boy isn’t a good choice for you.”
“But…Mom?” I said, hoping, pleading that she’d intervene on my behalf.
“I think your father has a good point, Lily. Obviously this boy, though you might love him, does not seem to be…good for you.”
I thought of all the times I lay in Lucas’s arms and felt strong, felt myself becoming the person I was meant to be. How could that not be good for me?
“But you don’t—”
“It’s a deal breaker, Lily,” my father said.
“Okay,” I said on a whisper, finding it painful to even breathe.
“Okay. I’ll text you after I’ve spoken—”
“Wait. Wait. I need one more thing,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“I need to see Lucas one more time.”
“Lily…”
“To break up with him in person. I have to do it in person. Anything else would be…cowardly.”
“Okay,” my father agreed, quicker than I would have guessed. “I admire you wanting to do that, Lily. And I admire your negotiating skills, young lady. We may have another Spaulding in the political arena yet.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, and he just laughed, happy that a simple phone call was getting an undesirable boyfriend out of his daughter’s life and discovering that she might be as politically savvy as himself.
Yeah, he was happy. And I was devastated.
“And Lily, I won’t be able to know for sure that you’ve stopped seeing him. There are all kinds of ways around that. I’m taking you at your word.”
I looked at Stick, and then at Jane, who had come all the way out of the bathroom. They’d been able to hear my parents’ side of the conversation in the small room. I knew that from hearing countless conversations between Jane and her mother.
“You have my word,” I said.
The phone call ended. I held my hand out to Stick for his phone, which he gave me.
It was just like that first night when Lucas had taken my phone and called his phone with it.
I did the same thing now. The noise of my phone ringing startled me, even though I’d just dialed it myself. I handed the phone back to Stick.
“Now you have my number. Call me when Lucas is out and we know for sure the charges have been dropped.” He nodded. “And don’t say anything to Lucas about what you just heard.” He opened his mouth to protest. “I need to tell him myself.”
“He’s going to want to know why the charges were dropped.”
I waved a hand. “You can tell him I called my father and he called the DA. Just don’t tell him…the other.”
He nodded, and placed a hand awkwardly on my shoulder. “That was well done, Lily, really.”
“Yay, me,” I said with absolutely no emotion. My feelings were going into shut-down mode, I could tell. Self-preservation. “If it’s not cleared up by morning and Lucas isn’t home by the time Mrs. Jankowski wakes up, call me and I’ll go over there.”
He nodded. “Got it.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Nothing Basic about what you just did,” he whispered in my ear, then kissed me on the cheek.
He nodded at Jane as he left. She nodded back, their claws for each other subsiding for the moment.
I went to my bed and sat on the edge. Jane dropped the bag she’d packed and came to sit beside me.
“You know you can totally still see him. Just do it on the sly, like your dad said.”
I shook my head. “No, I can’t. I gave my word.”
She put her arm around me and pulled me close to her side.
“I know you can’t,” she whispered as I turned into her and started crying.