The Best Man (Blue Heron #1)(113)

The trouble was, Levi Cooper had said heart in his fist. She loved him, the big dummy. No one—no one—could’ve done what he did the night he went out to the accident site and...oh, crap, just the image of him walking around in the middle of the freezing, dark night, measuring stuff, then doing an entire accident reconstruction, then knocking on her door at three o’clock in the morning...a little squeak escaped her throat, causing Blue to put his paws on her lap and lick away the tears.

Men. How could they do stuff like that, and then be completely unable to say, Please come back soon, I’ll miss you so much, I love you. Huh? Why? Any answers? Anyone? No?

Blue whined.

“You’re right, you’re right,” she said to her dog. “We’ll deal with him when we get back.” He wagged his tail.

You know what? This trip back to California...this was her farewell to the city she loved. She’d design the common area and enjoy doing it, stick her chunky fee in the bank and say goodbye to all her pals and associates. She’d go to Golden Gate Park again with Liza and Wonderful Mike, eat butter-drenched sourdough toast, have sushi, go to Rafael and Fred’s wedding, and pack up her apartment.

She wasn’t going to waste her trip crying over Levi Cooper.

Well, okay, she’d give him ten more minutes of weep time. And then she really was going to stop.

Someone sat next to her. Faith looked up, ready to apologize for her tears and/or dog, and saw Jessica Does.

Jessica saw her at the same instant and gave a near comical twitch. “Holland. What are you doing here?” She glanced around, then frowned at Faith.

“I’m going to California for a few weeks,” she said, wiping her eyes. Jess didn’t ask why she was crying. That would be too human of her. “How about you?”

“Arizona.”

“That’s nice,” Faith said. “Beautiful weather out there, huh?” For heaven’s sake. Was she condemned for all eternity to trying to make Jessica like her? “So why are you going out there? You look really nice, by the way.” Question answered.

Jessica didn’t speak right away. If she ever would. Then Blue put his paw on her foot, and she smiled a little at the beastie. “College,” she muttered. “This low-residency program.”

“Really? That’s great.” Faith opened another tissue pack. “What are you studying?”

“Marketing. Better late than never, right? I mean, we don’t all have families who send us off to beautiful schools, do we?”

Sigh. “I guess not.” Faith looked at her a second. She might be kind of a bitch, but the woman was beautiful. “Jess, why have you always hated me?”

“Why do you want to know?”

Faith ignored the hostile tone. “Because my plane doesn’t leave for an hour?”

Jessica started to smile, then seemed to remember she was with Faith. After a second, she shrugged. “The usual reasons. Wearing your old clothes to school, that sort of thing.”

“Which made it okay to bully me at recess and make fun of me behind my back?” What the hell. Time to be honest.

“No.” Jessica paused, petting Blue with her foot, then looked at Faith and sighed. “You weren’t the only one in love with Jeremy, Super-Cute.”

Holy guacamole. “Oh.”

Jess rolled her eyes. “Yeah. But you know...clearly he was gonna go for you and not someone like me.”

“Because you’re so mean?” Again, what the hell.

To her surprise, Jessica laughed. “Not exactly what I meant, but who knows?” Her cheeks grew pink, and she looked away. “I was jealous. Whatever.”

Faith felt a pang of sympathy. Imagine being Jess, serving Jeremy and his super-cute girlfriend back in the day. Imagine seeing him adoring someone else, all that tender attention, that perfect teenage love. Having to wait tables at their rehearsal dinner, and then being a guest at the fairy-tale almost wedding. “I’m sorry, Jess. If I was ever a jerk, I’m sorry.”

“You were actually always pretty damn nice, Holland.” She glanced at Faith and shrugged.

“We should be friends,” Faith said. “We’ve been in love with the same boys.”

“Well, I was never in love with Levi,” Jessica said.

“I don’t see how you could avoid it,” she said, and just the thought of him made her eyes fill.

Jessica gave her a condescending stare. “Wow. You’ve got it bad.”

“I know.” She gave a hiccupping sob.

Jessica started to laugh. “I always sit next to the crazies,” she said. “Sure, Holland, let’s be friends. What the hell.”

* * *

“SARAH, I DON’T CARE! You have two weeks left! You’re not coming home to study.”

“I’d get better grades if I could study from home.” His sister was at the whining phase of their daily conversation.

“No. I mean it.”

“Levi! Don’t you even care how I’ll do on finals?”

“Of course I care!” he snapped. “But you can study there, Sarah! You’re surrounded by entire buildings devoted to studying!”

“Fine! I’m so sorry to be such a huge pain in your ass.”

He sighed. “Don’t cry. You’re not a pain.”