6

“I don’t know, Kendall.” I sighed into my cell phone. “This is different from what I’ve done before. You’re not asking me to follow him for a night or two. You’re basically asking me to stalk him. This feels…sneaky.”

“How is it any sneakier than trespassing on private property and aiming a camera inside someone’s living room?”

She had a point. Still, I didn’t feel quite right about this “assignment” to trail TJ, if that’s what we were calling it now. I’d phoned her after school to confirm that I’d gleaned an inkling of what she’d described in her car that day and to find out how she wanted me to prove something was amiss. I’d expected her to give me a day and time when she thought I might snag him, oh, having pizza with another girl. Instead, she wanted me to watch him. Like, all the time.

“You don’t understand, Marisa,” she said, desperation creeping into her voice. “TJ is different. You’re not going to catch him sneaking off at a party with some drunk girl. It’s not how he’s spending his time. It’s how he’s acting when he’s finally spending time with me.”

“Are we sure this is a cheating issue?” Because it sounded a lot more like a communication problem, and I wasn’t a relationship counselor. Then again, I wasn’t really a private investigator either.

“I don’t know.” Her voice shrank into weary resignation. “I don’t know anything anymore. Maybe he is chasing drunk girls at parties. The TJ I know would rather be holed up in that shitty old barn than do something like that, but who am I to say? I’m only his girlfriend.”

I flopped into the purple papasan chair at the foot of my bed. “So let’s go over this one more time. You want me to drive over to the tree farm this Saturday night, park between his house and the white barn, turn off my car, and watch.”

“I told you I’ll pay you.”

“I don’t want your money. I want to make sure I understand your request.”

“Then yes.”

“Do I need binoculars?”

“I don’t know. Do you have a pair?”

I balked. “I was kidding! Geez, do you want me to wear camouflage and paint my face too?”

“Ha-freaking-ha, Marisa. Are you going to do it or not?” And there was the bossy, impatient Kendall I knew and loved. Sort of.

I stopped myself from making a joke about designing a special camo line of jewelry called PI Jane, knowing I’d be the only one amused. Instead I asked, “Why aren’t you coming with me again?”

She sighed. “Now that I’m not going to the dance, I have to go to New York with my mom for my cousin’s bridal shower. No sense in letting a two-hundred-dollar dress go to waste, I guess.”

I almost dropped the phone. I could tally the cost of all the jeans in my closet and not come close to two hundred dollars.

“What if he leaves?”

“Then follow him.”

“What if he doesn’t leave?”

Kendall paused. “Then make sure no one goes to him.”

• • •

It occurred to me as I sat in my car at the edge of the tree farm that I really needed to get a life.

As if she’d read my mind, Charlie said, “We’re either the coolest people ever for doing this, or the world’s biggest losers. I haven’t decided which one yet.” She pulled her corduroy jacket tighter around her torso. It hadn’t taken long for the chill of the early November night to find its way into my jalopy.

“Well, let’s see. We’re hanging out on the side of a tree farm on a Saturday night, ready to freeze our butts off for an unspecified amount of time, while alternately staring at a house and a barn that a guy we barely know may or may not come out of, all for a girl who can’t be here because she’s breaking in a new dress. What does that tell you?”

Charlie grimaced. “That you should’ve let her pay you.”

“Come on. How can I take money for this? ‘Hey, I’m sorry your heart is broken, but go ahead and make the check out to Marisa—one s, please—Palmera.’ That’s so tacky!”

“It’s not tacky! Not only are you giving up your free time for free, but you’re also probably giving her gifts like she wasn’t the one who asked for your help in the first place. Tell me you’re not making a pin for this girl too?”

Yup. Pink, yellow, and ocean blue, all the colors I associated with Kendall.

“Sort of.”

Charlie shook her head. “You’re a lost cause, Palmera. But at least it’s interesting fodder for your scholarship essay.”

“Do you think TJ’s cheating?” I asked, steering away from the essay comment. “You know him, right?”

“He was in one or two of my classes last year, but I only knew him as the quiet dude in the back of the room.” No sooner had the words left her mouth than she jerked in her seat and pointed. “TJ’s walking out the front door!”

I swiveled and ducked behind my steering wheel, even though we were parked at least thirty yards from TJ’s house.

“Is he getting in his car?” I hissed back, readying my hand to start the engine in case we were about to go on pursuit.

“No, he’s…” Charlie’s nose wrinkled. “He’s walking across the street?”

We watched in silence as TJ’s shadowed form headed away from the softly lit windows of his evergreen-colored house, hands jammed in the pockets of his pants, shoulders hunched against the cold, and trotted in the direction of the aging white barn set about fifty feet into the property on the other side of the road. A moment later, the cloudy windows were illuminated from within.

“Are you kidding me?” Charlie’s head whipped back and forth between her window and me. “Is he really about to hang out in his barn all night?”

I shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”

“What’s he doing in there?”

“How the hell do I know?”

She squinted, leaning so close to the glass that it fogged with her breath. “We’re too far away. I can’t see inside. How long are we supposed to wait here?”

“Cool your jets. I’m not staying all night.” I reached for my keys. “At least now we can turn on the car and get some heat going—” I stopped short as the glare of headlights approached on the other side of the road.

Charlie ducked behind the dashboard. “Who is that?”

“You know I’m not actually psychic, right?”

She stuck her tongue out at me and we both fell silent as the car parked facing us, in front of the Carusos’ house, and the driver’s door opened. A moment ago, I’d been grateful for the remote location and lack of street lamps lighting the road, but now it made it almost impossible to see the person getting out of the car. But I could see enough in the moonlight to be sure of one thing—the person who emerged from the driver’s seat and headed in the direction of the barn definitely wasn’t a girl.

“Is that a friend of his?” Charlie whispered.

“Actually, it’s his cousin, Aloysius.”

“I hate you.”

We stifled giggles as the tall, hooded frame of the mystery guy disappeared around the corner of the barn. When a few minutes passed and nothing else happened, Charlie squinted out the window.

“Did Kendall say anything about him ditching her to hang out with friends?”

“No, she said he’s been distant. She doesn’t know if he’s cheating, but if he is, I’m pretty sure she thinks it’s with a girl.”

Charlie’s eyebrows collided with the brim of her knit cap. “Oh my God, do you think he’s into dudes?”

“That’s not what I meant! Holy hell, Char, that’s how rumors start. That guy could be anyone.”

“Anyone sneaking into a barn with a cute guy smack in the middle of a Saturday night, when said guy should be with his girlfriend but isn’t. I smell a red flag.”

“Red flags come in scents now?”

“And with a free pair of camouflage earrings.”

We were so busy laughing we almost didn’t notice Hood Boy jogging back through the clearing toward his car. His headlights flashed as he unlocked it, and we crouched in our seats again.

“If he’s gay and they’re already done,” Charlie said, “then that explains a lot right there.”

“Geez, you’re on a roll tonight. I can’t take you anywhere.”

Charlie grinned. “And yet, you take me everywhere.”

Hood Boy jumped into his car, and Charlie and I scrunched even lower as his headlights flooded the street. He didn’t seem to notice us as he threw his car in reverse, made a three-point turn, and sped off in the same direction he’d come from. I knew Charlie had seen what I’d spotted on his back windshield when she grabbed my arm and said, “Whoa, did you see that?”

I sure had. A Templeton decal centered at the bottom of his rear window. I sank against my seat. “It must be one of TJ’s old friends from Templeton. Whoop-dee-doo.”

“No, not the sticker, dumbass. The thing hanging from his rearview mirror. It looked like one of your heart pendants.”

“Huh? What would some random Templeton guy be doing with one of my hearts?” I wrinkled my nose. “Are you sure you’re not seeing things? It’s pretty dark out here.”

Charlie’s lips twisted into a sarcastic pout. “Normal vehicle function dictates that the overhead light turns on when one of the doors opens.” She patted the dashboard. “Not flicker like it’s trying to induce a seizure. I definitely saw butt cheeks with a peak, a.k.a. a heart.”

“Point taken. But that doesn’t mean it was one of mine.”

She shook her head. “Jesus, Palmera, if you’re going to be a spy, you need to sharpen your powers of observation.”

I stared at the spot where the car had been parked, attempting to conjure a re-creation in my mind.

Nada.

“I was too busy trying to see his face,” I said dejectedly.

But I hadn’t. The sour feeling of failure curdled in my gut. What other details had I missed? And more important, why would TJ’s friend have one of my heart pins hanging inside his car?