“We’re back now,” I reassure her. “You know we’ll help.”
“Kyle’s already dragged her away from what – two parties?” Iz looks at me.
I release Myra, grin, and nod. “Boy did she kick off. So fun.”
My cell buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out. Roxy.
“Hey,” I answer.
“Kyle.” She giggles. “I need a flavor. No. That’s not right. I need a… A…”
“A favor?”
“Yes!” She giggles again. “I’m, um, kind of stuck in Portland. And I kind of am a little dunk.”
“You mean drunk.”
“That’s it! See. You always know what I mean.” Another giggle.
Iz, Myra and Ray all look at me.
“So you want me to drive to Portland and haul your ass back here?”
“No hauling needed. I’m coming willingly this time. Coming. Hah!” Another giggle. Jesus… She must be really drunk.
“Where are you?” I sigh.
“I am… I’m at McDonalds. Mmm, burger.”
“Is Selena with you?”
“No, silly. She’s at home. Boring boring booooring!”
“Okay. Are you alone?”
“No. I have this little Transformers guy from my Happy Meal.”
I don’t know if I should laugh or not.
“It’s Bumbleybee. He’s cuh-rap.”
“Okay, Roxy. Stay wherever you are and I’ll come find you.”
“Stay here? Right here?”
“Yep. Right where you are.”
“What if I need to pee?”
Is she for real? “You can go anywhere as long as you don’t leave the restaurant.”
“Okay.” She hangs up as abruptly as she called.
I stare at my phone and look at Myra. “Looks like I’m going to give your wayward daughter a ride home from Portland.”
~
“What took you so long?”
Roxy’s sitting in a booth in the back corner, her back to the window and her feet up on the seat. She’s holding a tiny toy I’m guessing is Bumblebee, and her eyes are focused on it.
“Hour long drive, remember?” I pick her feet up, sit next to her, and rest her legs over my lap.
“And you drove it just to get me.”
“Looks that way, doesn’t it?”
She spins the small doll. “Because it’s what Cam would have wanted.”
I ignore the bitterness in the statement and focus on the sadness she thinks she’s hidden from me.
“No,” I reply. “I came because you asked me to.”
Blue eyes meet mine. “Why?”
“Roxy, you have to know by now I’ll always do whatever you ask me to.” I put my finger open her open mouth to stop her replying. “Because it’s what I want to do. Not for Cam. For me. Okay?”
She nods, closing her mouth, and I drop my hand.
“Bumblebee was his favorite,” she whispers. “I ordered the stupid meal because I wanted him, but it’s not right. Cam should be sitting across from me and he should have stolen the damn toy before I had a chance to get it out of the plastic packet.”
“Like you used to do until you got all the Furbys that time.”
“Exactly like that.” Roxy’s lips twitch despite the sniff she gives. “I bought it, thinking if I got Bumblebee I could give him to Cam. Then I sat down and remembered. I remembered he won’t ever be around to take him.”
“Roxy,” I whisper, sliding up the seat and wrapping my arms around her. She curls into me as tears begin to fall from her eyes.
“How could I forget, Kyle? How could I forget he’s dead? Fucking dead!”
I sink my hand into her hair and hold her tighter. She shakes, and her tears soak through my shirt. I have no answer for her.
“Let’s go.” She sits up and mascara streaks her cheeks. “I want to go home.”
“Hang on.” I stroke my thumbs under her eyes. Seeing her cry breaks me. Her eyes are wide as I try to get rid of the black streaks. They’re wide and wet, shining under the harsh lights of the restaurant. Another tear drops out and I catch it with my thumb, swiping it away. I bring my lips to her forehead and touch them to her skin, leaving a gentle kiss there, before getting up and sliding her along the seat.
“Come on,” I say. “Let’s get you home, Roxanne Jane Hughes.”
She scowls but lets me pull her up. “Fine, Kyle Michael Daniels.”
I grin. I quite like the way my full name rolls off her tongue. I also like the way my tongue rolls off hers…
We climb into my car and she fiddles with the radio as I pull away from the parking lot. And she fiddles with the radio. And again. And again. I grit my teeth at the constant buzzing and searching as she twiddles the dial for forty-five minutes. I have no idea how I’ve put up with it for so long.
“Roxy. What are you doing?”
She drops her hand like the radio is burning her and looks at her hands in her lap. “Um. I don’t want to go home,” she whispers.
“But you said—”
“I want to go home to Verity Point, but not to my house.”
“Your mom is worried sick about you, you know.”
“When isn’t she?” she snaps. “I don’t want to go home.”
Fucking hell. I thought the girls at college were firecrackers, but Roxy would give them a run for their money. Her temper fires up quicker than a bush fire in the outback.
“Want me to pull over then? Sure you’d be comfy on the side of the road.”
“I take back what I said before. You’re not always a jackass, but when you are you’re a prize one.”
“Great. I’m right up your street, then.”
“What happened to “I’ll do whatever you ask?””
“I take back what I said before,” I throw her words back at her. “I’ll do whatever you ask when I feel like it.”
“You just climbed another rung on the jackass ladder.”
“Awesome.” I pull up outside my house and turn to her. “Does that mean I’ll get to f**k you one day?”
She opens her mouth to reply but no words come out. Instead she stares at me, her whole body frozen with shock. Good. That’s the response I was hoping for.
I get out of the car, slam the door, and walk around to her side. I yank her door open. “Are you getting out or you sitting in my car all night?”