8

As if the night hadn’t been degrading enough, I had to go back to Templeton to pick up everyone after the game. Apparently I’d become a spy service and a chauffeur service, all wrapped up in one big, loser package.

To make matters worse, Kendall spent the entire car ride making Nick and Charlie swear they wouldn’t tell a soul about the “work” she had me doing for her.

“It doesn’t matter that we’re at different schools. You never know who’s talking to who.” She motioned to Charlie and me to illustrate her point, then looked from Charlie to Nick and back again. “You guys swear you won’t say anything, right?” It had to be the eightieth time she’d asked since we’d started driving.

From the way Charlie’s fists were clenched in her lap, she was ready to seal her oath with a backhand.

Kendall unbuckled her seat belt and scooted forward, sticking her head between the driver’s and passenger’s seat. “Pull up there, Marisa. It’s the one at the end of the cul-de-sac with the Corvette in the driveway.” She slid back. “Anyway. You guys promise, right?”

“You know she’s not finding the hidden city of frigging Atlantis for you, right?” Charlie snapped.

Kendall shrank. “Just making sure we’re clear,” she replied through gritted teeth. She told me again that she’d make it up to me as she got out of the car, to which Charlie yelled, “Fudgie’s gift card!” as the door slammed, trapping a breeze of almond-and-anise perfume in its wake. Before I could pull out of the Keene’s circular driveway, Charlie looked at me in disbelief.

“Seriously, how were you ever friends with her?”

In the back seat, Nick fake choked and fanned his hand in front of his nose. “I think I’m high from her ten gallons of eau de spaz. No wonder her boyfriend won’t go near her. She’s hot but you need a damn gas mask.”

“Come on, guys,” I said. “Kendall’s a drama queen, but she’s not a bad person. She’s going through a tough time.”

“Be a dear and pull up to my mansion,” Charlie said in a high, mimicking voice. “Farther up, please, my quarters are in the east wing. And careful not to sideswipe Daddy’s ’Vette on your way out.”

“Her dad refurbishes cars as a hobby. Having fancy sports cars in the driveway is the norm for the Keenes.”

Kendall’s dad used to take us for rides around town in his latest projects, and we thought we were the coolest kids on wheels.

Charlie rolled her eyes. “One, that was not a refurb. Two, no one does that for a hobby without some serious cash to spare. And three, holy God complex living in a house like that! It had turrets, for Christ’s sake!”

My hands tightened around the wheel. “You know it’s her parents’ house, not hers, right?”

Charlie might’ve had her reasons for disliking Kendall, but she was being downright unfair. I was half tempted to ask if hating people because their parents had more money was something she’d learned in her fancy honors program. Because if Charlie’s parents had paid to send her to Templeton when mine couldn’t, did that mean I was supposed to despise her for it?

She ignored the question I’d asked out loud. “Damn, I should’ve told her to get you a gift card to Prints Charming. That’s way more you, but she probably wouldn’t be caught dead in there.” Prints Charming, in addition to being my summer job, was also my favorite craft and fabric store, one I’d dragged Charlie to on many an occasion. I usually made it up to her by letting her pick out beads and charms for her next Marisa specialty. She gave me a pointed look. “If she’s really your friend, she’ll figure out the best way to say thank you herself.”

Nick scoffed. “Fat chance, Char. Don’t you know this is Planet Kendall? The rest of us are just taking up space.”

I started to open my mouth, ready to defend Kendall again, but it seemed pointless. Once upon a time, I’d felt the same way. And I still wasn’t entirely sure I’d been wrong.

• • •

My eyes felt like someone had switched out my contact solution for sulfuric acid when my alarm went off on Monday morning. I knew little red threads branched out from the brown of my irises like tiny tree roots without even looking in the mirror.

As I fumbled with my alarm clock, I shot a dirty look in the direction of my makeshift craft table in the opposite corner. The top was strewn with sketch pads, pencils, strands and boxes of beads in all sizes, bottles of colored glitter, and a handful of heart pins, most undecorated or half-decorated. Those pins used to represent how much Jordan cared, how well he knew me.

Now they’d become sorry-your-boyfriend-sucks consolation prizes. Ironic and appropriate at the same time.

I’d stayed up way too late the night before finishing Kendall’s pin. I must’ve felt guilty about the whole car-ride experience, and maybe I felt a little guilty that I hadn’t turned up anything on TJ too. Not that it was my fault or for lack of trying. And maybe it was that guilt that nagged me to talk to him, though it might’ve been me just itching to know what his deal was. He still hadn’t mentioned having a girlfriend, and I still didn’t understand his bitterness toward his old school. Nor did I know if I needed to be concerned with the decaled car that kept popping up wherever he was.

Not that I was being nosy. My curiosity was strictly professional, of course.

My interest in his gorgeous leather jewelry, however, was all my own. I’d been eyeing his pieces ever since I noticed the bracelet he had on the first time I’d semi-grilled him. He had it on again today, a thick band of deep, rich color, like burned wood, lined with silver studs. It gave me the perfect excuse to pull up a chair next to his computer.

“So I’m dying to know where you got that.” I pointed to his wrist as I sat down.

TJ lifted his forearm from the keyboard and looked at the bracelet. “This?” He smiled. “I made it.”

My jaw almost unhinged it dropped so fast. “You made that?”

“Sure did.” He undid the closure and handed the bracelet to me. “I make all my own stuff. Well, most of it. I tan the leather and everything.”

I turned the bracelet over in my hand. I didn’t see a single indication that it had been made by anyone other than a seasoned professional. The studs weren’t glued on; they were punched, neatly and evenly, into the leather, which felt strong and pliable at the same time. And that color—like butterscotch and coffee and smoke all mixed together in some glorious cowhide potion.

“This is phenomenal. Really, really phenomenal. I’ve never made something this nice. I mean, I made these”—I pushed my hair behind my ear and angled my head to give him a better view of my earring, a Murano glass charm I’d flanked with silver beads—“and I make other jewelry and sew a bit, but this is real craftsmanship. You have some serious talent.”

TJ flushed at my babbling and looked down at his keyboard. “Thanks. Your stuff is nice too.”

I handed him his bracelet, embarrassed that he’d deign to compliment my trinkety creations. “Not like this. I’d love to know how you made it.”

A light came on in his eyes as he snapped the bracelet around his wrist. He looked like a new father talking about his baby. “I have a workshop set up in the barn. My uncle taught me some of what I know, but I mostly taught myself. I buy my own materials and create all my own designs. I’m working on setting up a website so I can take orders too.”

The corners of his mouth twitched in an odd sort of grimace, like he’d said something he shouldn’t have.

I eyeballed the bracelet again. “I’d definitely be interested in buying some of your stuff. Hell, I’d love to learn how to do it so I can make my own.”

The bell rang and TJ stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “The next time you’re at the farm, come find me.” I froze, then flashed a stiff smile as I realized he meant the next time I went to the farm for a Christmas tree or a hayride, not the next time I went stalking him. “I’ll give you a tour of my shop.”

I stood up too. “Sounds great. I’d really like that.”

As he waved over his shoulder on his way out, I could barely refrain from slapping myself. In the midst of my gushing, I hadn’t brought up a single topic that might’ve prompted him to mention Kendall or Templeton. He’d given me the perfect segue too, since I’d made the connection that the ankle bracelet Kendall had been wearing the day we’d crossed paths in the school parking lot had to have been one of TJ’s creations. I totally could’ve worked it into the conversation to see if he’d bite, and instead, I hadn’t been able to see past the silver-studded stars in my eyes.

Oops.

Still, I had a safety net. Because if he’d meant it when he told me to come find him at the farm, I’d given myself a guaranteed in.