Lainey’s List Chapter Forty-two

 

Lainey

Nick’s hand is raised, ready to knock, when I whip out of my apartment. “Going somewhere?” he asks as he lowers his hand to his side.

“I have an errand to run. Why are you here?” The downside to living in the same building as Charlie is that she still lives with Nick. I see him everywhere, and since moving back to Dallas two months ago, he’s been constantly underfoot. One would think in the off-season, he’d have something better to do than hang around here.

“I, ah, think I forgot my phone here last night.” He peers past me. “Did you have a good time on your date last night?”

“Your phone,” I repeat skeptically.

“Yeah, Cass and I were playing, and it must’ve dropped out of my pocket.” He smiles brightly and pushes the door open. “Where’s Cass?”

“Sleeping. I’m going downstairs to get a coffee.” There’s a Starbucks across the street, and I desperately need some caffeine. Later today I’m going to the nursing home, and those visits are always emotionally draining.

“Great.” He steps by me. “I’ll look around while you make the coffee run. I’ll take a flat black.” He hands me a twenty and then shuts my own door in my face.

I stare at the door for a second before spinning around and making my way to the elevator. That man is up to something but I don’t know what it is.

A text alert dings.

Call me.

It’s Charlie. Yesterday we moved her from the Del in Coronado to a different hotel in La Jolla after she’d run into her ex again.

“What’s up?” I ask. “Is your room okay?”

“Yes.” She sounds breathless. “Did you give my location to Nick?”

“No. I’ve barely spent any time with him. I was late for my date with Rudolph last night so when Nick showed up, I jetted out of there.” The elevator drops to the first floor.

“Okay, good.”

“Why?” I push open the lobby doors and dart across the street.

“Nate’s going to find out where I am from Nick who will wheedle it out of you, somehow. But I just need some space. I’ve called in reinforcements.”

“My suggestion was to not sleep with him. Sleeping with a guy encourages them in unpredictable ways.” Inside Starbucks, there’s no line. I give my order to the barista while Charlie spouts off excuses in my ear.

“I couldn’t help myself. I’m weak when it comes to Nate. We both know this. Heck, everyone knows this. It’s why I had to run from the Del to La Jolla!”

“So what’re you going to do?” I pick up the two coffees with a nod of thanks to the coffee clerk. Hurrying back across the street, I try to envision if I’ve left anything out in my apartment that would give Charlie’s location away.

“I haven’t decided yet. I’m so confused,” she laments. “Men are the worst.”

“Maybe it’s just the Jackson boys that are terrible.”

“Is that why we love them?” She sighs softly. “Don’t answer that. I love you, babe. I’m going to try to lie down and get some sleep before Colin arrives.”

“Mr. Hollywood is your reinforcement?” Inside the condo building, the elevator takes forever to arrive.

“Yes. Who better to combat a decorated Navy SEAL than someone as rich and famous as Colin?”

“Send him my way once you’re done with him,” I order.

“I’m not sure he’s an effective Jackson repellant. I’ll report back.”

The elevator doors slide open. I hop inside and press the fourth floor button. “I guess I’ll make do by myself until then. Get some sleep, babe.”

“I will,” she hesitates. “Nick and Nate are both really good men. I don’t know why they’re so hard on a girl’s heart.”

Wealth, privilege, overweening ego? Who knows. But Charlie’s absolutely right. The two of them are brutal, even if they don’t mean to be.

Inside the apartment, I find Nick lounging on the sofa watching ESPN.

“Why are you still here?” I ask suspiciously. Glancing around, I don’t see anything incriminating that he could share with his brother.

“Waiting for my coffee.”

I look down and see his flat black in my hand. Shoving it toward him, I scowl, “Here you go. You can leave now.”

“I’m in the middle of last night’s highlights,” he protests.

“Watch them upstairs.”

“It’s too quiet without Charlie. You don’t know where she is, do you? I called the Del last night, and they said she’d checked out.” Nick takes a slow sip as he watches me over the top of the cup.

“Ha! I knew you were here fishing for information. I do know where she is but I’m not telling you.” I stomp into the kitchen, drop my stuff on the counter, and throw open the fridge door to get fixings for a snack. Cassie will be hungry when she wakes up.

“So what’s your password again?” Nick asks casually.

Spinning around, I see him fiddling with my phone.

“Give that back,” I order. I make a grab for it but Nick dances away easily. Damn his professional athlete skills. “I need just one thing.” He holds up a finger and taps a few buttons. “Ah ha! Cassie’s birthday, Lainey? Really?”

“I know what you’re looking for.” I lunge for him again but he’s nearly a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier. I’m getting nothing from him unless he allows it and right now, he’s only interested in a single thing—discovering where Charlie is so he can give her information to his terrible brother.

“He hurt her,” I remind Nick as he scrolls down the screen. “He hurt and abandoned her for nine years.”

A shadow crosses Nick’s eyes. “I know but he’s sorry.”

“Oh, he’s sorry,” I spit back. “Five letters don’t erase nine years of rejection, asshole.”

He tosses me the phone. “Are we still talking about Nate and Charlotte?”

His words make me fumble the catch, and the phone lands on the floor. “Yeah, of course.”

“Still not going to ask me about the post Super Bowl pics?”

The question shakes me. I’ve put those pictures out of my mind. Nick tried to explain that they were fake, done up so he could throw Chip off the scent. The scent of what, I wondered, but then, for my own sanity, I dropped it. Nick brings it up, occasionally, and I pretend I don’t care. Like now.

I fake concern about my phone, rubbing the screen against my pants until I think my voice is steady enough to reply. “I operate under the don’t ask, don’t tell policy.”

“That policy was eliminated on the grounds it wasn’t healthy for anybody involved.”

“Well, you’re entitled to your life.” I say with forced carelessness.

“And that’s that,” he says with a tinge of exasperation.

Equally frustrated, I brush past him. “The last thing I want to talk about is pictures.”

“Because of Chip, right?”

“Right.”

“You know I don’t care about that shit. I was no angel in college.”

Even his words of re-assurance bother me as I envision Nick as part of one of those drug-fueled orgies. This is exactly why I don’t want to talk about it.

“I’d like to keep the past in the past.” I say on my way to get Cassidy up. “I did regrettable things, and it sounds like you did too. Right now I want to prevent my best friend from getting her heart broken.”

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt—not Charlie, not Nate, not you, either.”

“Then don’t give him the number,” I beg. “Leave her alone. Let her start new.”

He follows me down the hall. “I still can’t tell who you’re talking about.”

I pause at the door. “Charlie.”

“So you say.”

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