Cheyenne looked at me and raised her eyebrows. “You know this is a library, McDermott.”
“Yeah.” I shrugged and doodled in the margins.
“What is that?”
“What is what, Cheyenne? Don’t you know this is a library?” I pressed my finger to my lips, and she glared at me.
“That, dipshit.” She planted her finger on my notebook.
“That would be an arrow. Maybe Princeton is too hard for you, and you should return to kindergarten for shapes.”
“Oh, ha-ha.” Cheyenne rolled her eyes.
Gabi and Shelby leaned over to take a peek at what I was working on.
“What she meant is, it’s good,” Gabi whispered.
“I didn’t know you could draw,” Shelby said.
“I can’t draw. I drew a fucking arrow in the margin of a notebook.”
“Okay,” Shelby said, putting her hands up in defense. “It was a compliment.”
I went back to my notebook and tried to ignore them. The thought of Ari was making me draw things now. God, I’m such a pussy.
“So, what are you getting Ari for her birthday?” Cheyenne asked.
“What am I—what? When is her birthday? I was just getting caught up on fucking Valentine’s Day.”
“Aw,” Shelby crooned. “You have Valentine’s Day plans?”
I closed my eyes and breathed in heavily. What the fuck had I gotten myself into?
“Let’s focus on one thing at a time. Birthday?”
“You have time, lover boy. It’s March fourth,” Cheyenne said. “We were thinking of throwing her a surprise party.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I fished it out and saw that my cousin, Sydney, was calling. “I’m in, but I have to take this,” I said. I walked away from the table. “Hey, Syd.”
“Grant, I’m glad you answered.”
“Of course I answered.”
“I can barely hear you. Why are you whispering?”
“Sorry. I’m in the library.”
There was a pause on the other line before she started laughing. “I’m sorry. I was trying to reach Grant McDermott with something important. Can you put him on the line?”
“You’re fucking hilarious,” I drawled. “You know, while we’re talking, what are you doing on March fourth? I’m throwing Ari a surprise birthday party. You should fucking fly up for it.”
“That sounds great. I’m sure I can make it.”
“Good. I’m thinking the League.”
“Grant,” she muttered, “that’s not why I called.”
“What’s up? You fucking too many dudes right now?”
“Grant!” she cried. Her voice wavered and then broke. “I-I’m sorry.”
“What’s going on?” It was as if she’d flipped a switch, and suddenly, I was in big-brother mode. No one fucked with Sydney on my watch.
“Have you…have you heard from my dad lately?”
“No. Should I have?”
She hesitated before responding, “I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but I think this is too big to keep from you.”
My heart sped up as I waited for whatever she was about to say. “Tell me what?”
“Your dad came by the restaurant tonight.”
“Sorry,” Grant said, peeking his head into the room. He looked right at me and tilted his head out into the hallway.
Everyone stared at me, and I sighed.
Jesus. I had too much work to do to deal with this right now. I wanted to flirt and have sex with him in the stacks, but couldn’t he wait until after my study session? I knew I’d led him on to believe it would happen soon…but not right now.
“Give me a minute,” I said. I put one finger up and finished writing in my notes.
Grant stood by and waited for me.
How embarrassing.
“I’ll be right back.” I hurried out of the room and after Grant. Closing the door quietly behind me, I groaned in frustration. “What? I’m in the middle of this session, and things aren’t going that great.”
“Ari,” he said softly. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he wasn’t meeting my eyes. He had this hollow look on his face as if he’d seen a ghost.
“What’s wrong?”
“Sydney called. My dad showed up at Duffie’s.”
My hand flew to my mouth. “What did he want? Why didn’t anyone tell you that he was out already? Last we heard, he was going to get out on parole, but—”
“Well, it looks like he’s out. Sydney said that my uncle called her to see if she had spoken to me. She thought that was weird, and he ended up telling her that my dad had called a couple of times. Today, he showed up at the restaurant.”
“What does he want?”
Grant sighed and then finally looked at me. His eyes were hard when he answered, “Me.”
I blew out the breath I’d been holding. Great. Just when things were finally going right, his dad had to force himself into the picture. Why would he even think that Grant would want to see him? After killing Grant’s mother and attempting to blame the whole thing on Grant, didn’t his dad realize he’d done enough damage?
“So, what does this mean?” I asked.
“I…I don’t know.” He walked down an empty row of books empty of people.
It killed me that he was going through this. All I wanted was to be there for him, but I didn’t know where to start. It wasn’t as if I could call his dad up and tell him to leave Grant alone.
“Grant,” I said, following after him. I latched on to his shirt and stopped him in place. “Talk to me. Tell me everything that Sydney said.”
“That’s it. She didn’t really know anything.”
“Are you going to call your uncle?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“I know this is hard,” I said, rubbing my hand up his arm, “but you can’t ignore it.”
“I’m not ignoring it. I’m trying to fucking deal with it. The thought of him being out of prison, stalking me…” He breathed in heavily and ground his teeth together. “You don’t know what it’s been like the last thirteen years he’s been locked up. I carry this guilt with me that I’m somehow responsible for my mother’s death.”
“You’re right,” I said softly. “I’ll never know what that’s like.” I looked down at the ground and then back up at Grant. I needed to be strong for him right now. “But I’m here for you…for everything you’re going through.”