The Rest of the Story(81)

“Great! The party is at April’s, which is just down from the Station,” Bailey told him. “It starts at around seven. And we’ll have Roo drive her back. He’s got to leave early too, for work.”

Okay. Now I really wanted to go.

“Roo?” my dad said. “Is that a person?”

“His real name is Christopher,” I explained. “He’s Chris Price’s son.”

“Price,” my dad repeated. “Wait. Chris Price?”

“Yes,” I said. Tracy raised her eyebrows, not following, and I added, “He was a friend of my mom’s.”

“Really.” She smiled at me. “Well, I’m sure Matthew will agree, if he’s a good driver and—”

“I don’t know,” my dad said. “Maybe it’s not the best night for you to go out.”

Roo was the deal breaker? That wasn’t fair. “You just said it was okay,” I protested.

He snapped his fingers. “Hey, I know. Why don’t we go back during the day, when I can take you. Or we can drive together! Get in some practice. I’d like to see Mimi anyway.”

“Mr. Payne,” Bailey said, still in her best-behavior voice, “Roo’s really reliable, if that’s what you’re worried about. He works for my mom doing night stocking at Conroy Market, and he has to be there at midnight. So he won’t be drinking or anything.”

I winced. Crap.

“Well, I would hope not,” my dad said. “You are all underage, last I checked. Are you saying there will be beer at this party?”

“No,” I said quickly. “But even if there was—”

“Saylor doesn’t drink,” Bailey finished for me. “Like, at all. You know that, right?”

Now, my dad looked at me. “She’s not supposed to. She’s seventeen.”

“Dad, I can’t control what other people do!” I said.

“If there’s beer there, you’re not going.” When I opened my mouth, he repeated, “That’s it. End of discussion.”

There was that wall again, but this time, I could see it, not just sense its presence. Bailey, however, was not giving up that easily.

“It’s your call, of course,” she told my dad as Tracy, choosing wisely to stay out of this, bent back over the cooler and began to unpack sandwiches. “And we’ll miss her. But for what it’s worth, Saylor’s a good girl, Mr. Payne. The kind of girl my mom wishes I was, if I’m honest.”

“Her name is Emma,” my dad told her.

I knew, in my rational mind, that he was just correcting her. I was Emma to him, I always had been. But as I heard him say this with such certainty, I could feel my temper rising. He could keep me from the other side of the lake. From Roo. But I would not let him take the weeks I’d already had, and the girl I’d been then, as well.

“It’s Emma Saylor,” I corrected him. “And I told you. They know me here as Saylor.”

My dad looked surprised, although whether by this statement or my tone was hard to tell. For a moment we just looked at each other, both of us silent. “Why don’t we have lunch,” he said finally. “I’m starving.”

I felt tears spring to my eyes as I turned, walking across to the other side of the raft so my dad wouldn’t see. A moment later, Bailey stepped up beside me.

“You can always say you’re going to the Pavilion and then come over,” she said in a low voice. “We’ll get someone to pick you up.”

“Blake already offered me a ride,” I said.

“Really?” Realizing she’d almost yelped this, she lowered her voice, shooting my dad a glance. “He’s coming?”

“Taylor invited Rachel and Hannah, and they invited him,” I told her.

A pause. Her unasked question boomed between us, loud to the point of deafening. I sighed.

“Colin, too,” I added. Her face lit up. “But he’s showing up later. I said I wouldn’t ride with him, because I still hate him.”

“Well, sure,” she said easily, waving this off with one hand. “But seriously, now you really have to get there. I need you! It’ll be the first time we’ve seen each other since Club Prom, and you know Jack and Roo will be all shitty to him, and—”

“Bailey?”

She stopped, mid-sentence. “Yes?”

“Do you remember when I said it seemed you only cared about Colin and not about me and my problems at all?”

“Oh, right.” She exhaled. “Sorry. But look, if you want to go to the party, you can absolutely do it. Just tell them you’re doing something else, take up Blake on the ride, and make it back before they check. No one is the wiser.”

“This already sounds like a bad idea,” I said.

“Why?” Which is what the planners of bad ideas always say. “Look. There’s a movie outside on the beach at eight. Tell them you’re going to that. It’ll give you till at least ten. Oh, and make sure you mention the crappy reception on the Lake North side, so if he does demand you come home, you can say the message took a while to come through.”

“How do you even know all this?”

She shrugged. “I like the Club. I may absorb any and all facts about it for that reason.”