Love, Lies and Texas Dips (18 page)

It had to be so juicy and believable that it’d be hard to convince anyone it wasn’t true once it leaked. Jo Lynn needed to sleep on it. This wasn’t the kind of thing she wanted to rush into. She had to mull it over first.

“I don’t know.” Jo sighed, feigning disinterest. “Maybe Laura’s past will catch up with her without any help from me at all.”

“It’ll all work out,” Cam said.

Like clockwork, Trisha chimed in, “Doesn’t it always?”

They didn’t stick around much longer, and Jo Lynn waved off Trisha and Camie as the two got into Camie’s sapphire-blue Lexus coupe and drove away. She started her Audi but wasn’t sure where she wanted to go. So she sat there, parked in the Starbucks lot for a few minutes with Finger Eleven playing on her iPod, hooked up to the hands-free stereo, until she pulled out her iPhone and dialed Dillon.

He picked up immediately. “Hey,” he said. “What’s up? I thought you had your first deb meeting tonight?”

“I did. Cam, Trisha, and I just finished our post-orientation lattes.” She ran a finger down the curve of stitched leather on her steering wheel, wishing it were Dillon’s abs. “I’m just missing you is all, and I was hoping I could drop by—”

“Right now?”

That was hardly the answer she’d expected.

“I haven’t seen you since the barbecue yesterday,” she reminded him, not wanting to sound desperate even if she
felt it, “and you know I like hooking up face to face. Texts and phone calls aren’t exactly personal.”

“It’s late, Jo, and I’m beat,” he begged off.

Late?
It was barely nine o’clock, for God’s sake.

Tempted to grovel, she stopped herself. “Sorry I bothered you,” she said, her heart clenching at his relieved “That’s okay.”

She started to say “I love you,” something she tried to do every time before they hung up, but Dill murmured, “G’night, babe,” and suddenly he was gone.

Jo Lynn sat there for a moment, staring at the cell phone in her hands while Finger Eleven’s “Paralyzed” surrounded her, thinking that if Dillon would rather go to bed alone than see her tonight … well, screw him. Maybe she’d just go see someone else instead.

Jo put the car in gear, slipping out of the Starbucks lot and heading toward the house in Hunters Creek where Avery Dorman lived with his parents and two younger sibs. She was afraid to call him in advance to warn him she was coming because he’d tell her it was too late
for sure
. Jo knew how his ultra-strict dad put him under lockdown on school nights.

She didn’t dial Avery’s cell until she’d pulled her car against the curb in front of the two-story French-style home with the mansard roof. She turned off her headlights, cut off the music, rolled down the window, and shut off the engine. The occasional car passed by with a sweep of headlights, but otherwise it was quiet except for the twitter of a bird or the chirp of crickets. The night air smelled of lemon, which Jo knew was from the clumps of lemongrass in the Dormans’ landscaped front yard. The flowers and shrubs that curved alongside most of the stone path leading to the front door
looked shades of gray in the dark, with only a few glowing windows illuminating the facade. But in the daylight, the gardens were a riot of color.

Avery had told her once that his mom was a master gardener and had a green hand, not just a green thumb. Jo Lynn couldn’t even keep a houseplant alive to save her life.

Jo Lynn’s pulse picked up at the sight of movement beyond the bay window. Someone obviously was awake. She just hoped it was Avery.
Please be up
, she thought, plugging in his number and waiting through two long rings before hearing his voice.

“What’d I do?” he groaned. “Is Camie bitching about me again?”

“This isn’t about Camie,” she told him. “I need to talk to you right now. It’s personal.”

He sighed, clearly not getting that it wasn’t a request. It was a summons. “It’s late, Jo and I’m brat-sitting. My folks are out. Some bank function. Why don’t you just tell me what’s on your mind, and I’ll see if I can help.”

“No,” she said quickly, her heart skidding. She couldn’t risk him hanging up, and she had to see his expression. When it came to a guy, the look on his face was worth a thousand words. “I’m right outside your house, Av, sitting in my car,” she said, and within seconds, she saw the drapes pull back and he stood in the window. “Can I come in, or you want to come out?
Please
. It’s important.”

“Daisy and Lily are already asleep. I put them to bed half an hour ago.” His drawl didn’t sound welcoming so much as reluctant. “I’ll come out, okay? But just for a few minutes. I don’t want to leave them alone for long, and not just because my dad would rip my head off if he caught me sitting in your car when they got home.”

“A few minutes is all I need,” Jo told him before he hung up and disappeared from the window, the drapes dropping.

Soon after, the front door opened and Avery emerged barefoot, wearing jeans and a Longhorns T-shirt. He jogged across the front lawn and ducked into her Audi, closing the door with a firm thump. He filled the space so solidly that Jo Lynn felt crowded in for a moment, like there wasn’t enough air for them both. He was nearly the same size as Dillon, she realized, but they were so completely different. One had made a mistake that had changed their lives, and the other … well, she was hoping that Dillon wouldn’t ever do anything nearly as heartbreaking as Avery had done to her.

“Hope you don’t mind,” he said, and moved the seat back so he could stretch out his legs. Then he turned to look at her, the lack of light creating shadows beneath the strong bones of his face. He brushed brown hair from his brow, unconsciously flexing rock-hard muscles in his arm. “Okay, what is it?” he asked without even a “Hey, how’re you doing?” first. “And make it short and sweet. I need to get back inside.”

His eyes were usually so easy to read, but she couldn’t read them now, and she didn’t think it was because of the dark.

She wet her lips, wondering how to approach this, wishing she knew how to be delicate about things, but she didn’t. “I need you to be straight with me,” she said, diving right into the heart of the matter. “Did you and Laura hook up—I mean,
really
hook up—when she got back from fat camp? Because if you did, I’ll know that everything I’m imagining is wrong and she’s just messing with my head.”

Usually so quick to flash his dimpled smile, Avery frowned at her instead. “How can you ask me that?”

“You owe me the truth, Avery,” she insisted.

“Owe you?” he said, and shook his head. “I don’t have time for this, Jo Lynn. You can’t keep trying to run my life just because of something that happened a long time ago. I did all I could … nothing’s ever enough. Oh, hell, forget it.” He was reaching for the door handle when she put her hand on his knee, stopping him.

“Wait! I’m sorry. I just.… I’m worried about Dillon, Av. I think he might be cheating on me.” She hesitated, grimacing as she got out, “With Laura.”

Avery’s fingers let go of the handle, and he stared at her. She withdrew her hand from his leg. “You think Laura hooked up with Dillon behind your back?” He made a noise of disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding. You’re trying to make me as crazy as you are, is that it?”

“I’m dead serious. I think he’s screwing around with Laura Bell,” Jo Lynn said, laying it all on the table, because she had no choice. “I found her number in his cell, and I found a recent call to her. Very recent.”

Avery laughed. “Well, you just called me, and that doesn’t mean we’re sleeping together, at least not anymore.” He shrugged. “It probably means nothing.”

“There’s more to it than that,” she pressed her case, her shoulders tensing as she opened up to him. “Dill’s been kind of distant all summer and then, right before school starts, he suddenly decides to slow down our relationship. He’s blown me off a couple times and he comes up with the lamest excuses—”

Avery butted in, saying, “We had two-a-days most of the summer, and he works out like a madman. His dad’s on his case to be the next Tom Brady.”

“Isn’t Tom Brady the one who got that actress knocked up and then hooked up with Gisele?”

Avery gave her this look like she was impossible. Then he rubbed his chin. “I don’t know Dillon all that well except as teammates, but I haven’t heard any rumors about him and any other girls. I’m not sure when he’d have time.” He shook his head. “And there’s no way he’s seeing Laura.”

Jo Lynn would’ve loved to believe every word, but, she didn’t, plain and simple. “Camie and Trish saw Dillon at the club yesterday, working out. They said Laura was there too. That call on his cell was made to her yesterday morning. What if he’d arranged to meet her there?”

“Whoa.” Avery braced a hand on the dash. “You’re way off base, Jo. I know what this is. Laura said something yesterday about Dillon helping her get in shape so she can kick ass in her gown at the deb ball. That’s all it is. She didn’t act like it was any deep, dark secret.”

Whaaaat?

Jo hoped her eyes weren’t bulging, but she couldn’t hide her shock. If Dillon had agreed to whip Laura Bell into shape—and that would take
some
whipping—and it meant nothing to him, why hadn’t he mentioned it? Why’d she have to hear it from Avery first? And wasn’t it a little too convenient how the Lard-Ass suddenly wanted to exercise? If she wasn’t sure before that Laura was trying to come between her and Dillon, she was certain of it now.

“Someone’s been sending Laura gifts,” Avery went on when Jo Lynn didn’t respond. “Apparently, she has a secret admirer. She thought it was me, but it isn’t. I can’t believe it’s Dillon.”

“It’s not.” Jo jumped in so fast that Avery seemed taken
aback. “I mean, he wouldn’t do something like that … sending Godiva and brownies with anonymous notes,” she stammered. “It’s not his style.”

Avery arched his thick eyebrows. “I didn’t say anything about Godiva or brownies.” He narrowed his eyes on her. “What’s going on? Are you up to something?”

Uh-oh
.

Jo quickly changed the subject. “Laura’s trying to get back at me,” she asserted, hoping she hadn’t said too much already. “She wants to tear my heart out and embarrass me in front of everyone just like—” She stopped herself and took a deep breath, glancing down at her fingers, tightly curled around the steering wheel.

But Avery calmly filled in the blanks. “Just like you did to her?” He shook his head. “God, Jo, it’s like you’re out to destroy her because something about her pisses you off. I’m not even sure you know what anymore. Is it because I started dating her right after you shut me out, or because she’s who she is, and she doesn’t give a damn whether you approve or not?”

He reached toward her shoulder, like he wanted to grab it and shake her; then he drew back his hand, dropping it helplessly onto his thigh. “You
have
to let it go. You and I, what happened between us, that was years ago. And you can’t keep punishing Laura. She had nothing to do with what broke us up. You need to get over it.”

Let it go? Get over it?
Jo Lynn couldn’t believe he’d even suggest that, not after what she’d gone through.

Her chin trembled and she glared at Avery, emotions flooding her like a tsunami. She had to fight to keep tears from her voice as she told him, “All I want to know is did you sleep with her or not, Avery? Yes or no? Which is it? It’s
not like I’m going to tell anyone, because it’s not like you don’t have a reputation as a player anyway, so who would care? I just need to know for me,” she lied, “because then I can be sure Laura’s not after Dillon, and I’ll stop worrying that she’s coming between us.”

Avery’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “What if I did?” he said quietly. “That’s no one’s business but mine and hers. At least, it shouldn’t be.”

If he’d screamed “Yes, I slept with Laura,” it wouldn’t have been any clearer in Jo’s mind. And it gave her a brilliant idea.

Jo turned away from him, hoping he didn’t see the sudden look of triumph on her face. She fully intended to use the truth against Laura and twist it into the most believable lie. Now she had all the ammunition she needed to set in motion her plan to smear Laura Bell’s name so throughly that the GSC wouldn’t want to touch her. It was too perfect.

“What’s going through your head?” Avery asked, sounding worried. “You’re way too quiet.”

Jo Lynn composed herself before she faced him again. “You’re right,” she told him. “I need to stop looking behind me and focus on what’s in front of me.”

He shifted his oversized shoulders so he could better face her. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch,” she told him, and took her hand off the wheel long enough to give his leg a squeeze. Even through the denim of his jeans, she could feel the tension in his thigh. “What’s the matter, Av? Don’t you trust me?”

Avery looked at her without saying anything for what seemed an eternity. He finally gave a nod, said, “Promise you’ll be good?”

“Oh, I’ll be better than good.”

He squinted at her through the dark. “Why does that scare me?”

Jo Lynn took her hand off his thigh and put it back on the wheel. “Thanks for coming out to chat. I feel completely reassured. So go on back inside to your brat-sitting,” she said. “I’d better get home.”

She had things to do, like tear a girl’s reputation to shreds.

“Jo.” He had such a serious look on his craggy face.

“Get out.” She laughed and practically pushed him out the door.

Just wait and see what happens to your darling Laura Bell now
, she mused, giving Avery a wave as she started the Audi and put it in gear. Then she hit the gas, peeling away from the curb, leaving Avery splashed red in the flash of her taillights.

A lie will go round the world while
the truths pulling its boots on.

—Old Proverb

Guys can break your heart,
but girls can cut you in two.

—Laura Bell