The Rules of Dating My Best Friend's Sister(50)

CHAPTER 13


Lala



Twenty-four long hours passed, and I hadn’t seen or heard from Holden. Even though I couldn’t seem to stop my mind from visiting him, I’d managed to keep a physical distance. Since my well-behaved streak needed all the help it could get as of late, I decided to stop downstairs and ask Owen for the ride I was going to need later, rather than knocking next door.

He opened with his toothbrush in his mouth. “What’s up, Lala? Come on in,” he mumbled through foam and stepped aside for me to enter, holding up one finger. “Just give me a second to rinse.”

“Sure. Take your time.” I walked a few steps into the apartment and froze, finding that Owen wasn’t alone. None other than Holden leaned against the kitchen counter. “Uh…what are you doing here?” I asked.

He lifted a coffee mug to his mouth. “Owen has a fancy new cappuccino maker. He needed a ride this morning, so I traded him the ride for being my bitch, which included making me this deliciousness and avocado toast.”

Owen walked back in the room. “Sorry about that. What’s going on, Lala?”

Ugh. This sucked. I knew Holden wasn’t going to be happy that I’d come to ask Owen for a ride instead of him. And it also seemed Owen wasn’t going to be able to help. “Uh, I was hoping maybe you could pick me up from the PATH train later?”

Through my peripheral vision, I saw Holden frown. “The PATH? You going to Jersey?”

I nodded. “Today is the first day of interviews at one of the nursing homes where the participants in my research study live. The oil light in my car is on, so I don’t want to drive that far without getting it checked. I’m also overdue for an oil change. Tia is picking me up so we can drive together, but she’s visiting her mom who lives in Jersey after. So I’m going to take the PATH home. But I’ll have a bunch of boxes on the way back, so the subway will be kind of difficult to navigate.”

“Makes sense you’d ask Owen to pick you up,” Holden said evenly. “You know, with your arms full of boxes and all.”

“Right. Well, I figured the PATH isn’t too far from his office…”

“Sorry, Lala,” Owen said. “Holden’s actually dropping me off at the airport in a little while. I have to go up to Boston on business for the night.”

“Oh.” I forced a smile. “No biggie. I’m sure I can just grab an Uber or something.”

Holden lifted his mug to his mouth. “Or I can pick you up.”

“No, it’s fine.” I waved him off. “I don’t want to impose any more than I already have. I was only asking Owen since it was near his office, and I know sometimes he drives because he picks up clients.”

“Where in Jersey is the nursing home?”

“Hoboken.”

“Well, you’re in luck. I’ve been putting off going to The Heights, which is right next to Hoboken. I have some equipment the band borrowed from a friend that I need to return. I can do that this afternoon and then swing by and pick you up right from the nursing home. That way you don’t have to take the PATH or the subway.”

“Oh, no. I don’t want to put you out.”

Holden’s jaw flexed. “I insist. Text me the address, and I’ll be there.”

Damn it. This was exactly the reason I’d come to Owen and not Holden. Now I was already excited for the day to end, just because he’d be picking me up. The man was like kryptonite. I forced a smile. “Thanks, Holden.”

Owen put his coffee mug in the sink and thumbed back toward his bedroom. “I gotta finish packing. Sorry I couldn’t help out.” He narrowed his eyes at Holden. “But I’m sure Holden will be on his best behavior when he picks you up.”

Holden glared back at his friend. “Aren’t I always?”

Owen sighed. “Have a good day, Lala.”

“You, too, Owen.”

Left alone with Holden, I motioned toward the door. “I should be running too.”

He nodded. “Don’t forget to text me that address.”

“I won’t.”

“Oh, and Lala?”

“Yes?”

Holden smiled. “Owen’s office is nowhere near a PATH stop. So if you’re going to pretend you’re asking one of the guys because it’s more convenient for them and not because you’re trying to avoid me, you should probably look at a train map first.”

***

“Don’t you worry about that.” Theodore Mills waved me off as I straightened the covers on his bed after helping him up. “My Clara does that. She hides a piece of chocolate every day while making up the bed and pretends it wasn’t her. Been doing it since we were sixteen.”

My heart warmed. “Wow, since you were sixteen?” I walked around the bed and offered my arm. “The nurse said it’s either me or the walker. You don’t want me to get in trouble on my first day here, do you?”

Theo made a face, but took the arm I held out nonetheless. We walked side by side, at a snail’s pace, to one of the lounges and sat down on the couch. Today had been about assessing the participants’ memories, so I’d sat in on some standard tests the neurologist had given each patient—things like being asked to remember a few random words, answering a series of questions for five minutes, and then having to repeat the initial words at the end. But standardized tests didn’t always tell the full story, so I wanted to get to know the subjects a bit more.