She glanced over at Sam and realized that he was clean-shaven.
He only did that every three or four days. Sam answered with: “Let’s get this over with as fast as we can.”
Emily reached over and took his hand. “Agreed. The whole thing should take an hour, tops. Right?”
Minutes later, when Robb Ellis got in the car, it was obvious that he was wearing a new shirt. Emily knew because the fabric still had the fold lines from the store packaging.
Her eyes drifted down to her sandals. Her toes felt all tight. They were curling and uncurling.
What was going on?
Why were they all suddenly putting in so much effort?
After driving in awkward silence, the three walked into Thai-Dishes to find Destiny Verbeck already sitting in a booth in the corner. She had a half-empty glass of beer in front of her and jumped up from the red vinyl like she’d been shot from a cannon.
Emily could see that she was wearing a sleeveless pink top that was made of flannel, with a pattern of sleeping teddy bears. She had on matching pink shorts. On her feet were funny little orange high-heeled boots.
Emily had to admit to herself that the girl looked incredibly cute.
Destiny broke the ice by giving each of them a tight hug, pulling Emily closest and whispering into her ear:
“I’m in love with your necklace. It’s a-mazing.”
Her exuberance, Emily realized, had a way of making them all feel more at ease. Or maybe it was something about her energy level that was distracting.
Destiny next struck a pose as if she were a store mannequin. She put her hands on her hips, turned to the side, and pushed her pelvis forward.
“Just so you all know, I’m wearing pajamas.”
All eyes were now on Destiny’s snug, pink flannel outfit.
“I buy most of my stuff in the children’s department. And they had these totally cute pajamas, and I couldn’t resist. I bought three pairs. Different colors, of course. Once I love something, I just want as much of it as I can get.”
Robb Ellis stared at the pajama top for what felt to Emily like way too long. Sam, she noticed, kept his eyes focused on a spot on the floor.
Interesting.
Destiny slid back into the booth and took a deep swallow of beer. It was as if she hadn’t seen liquid in days. “I started drinking without you guys! Now you have to play catch-up.”
Robb Ellis eyed the now empty glass, lowering his voice. “I’ve got my fake ID.”
Sam and Emily exchanged a look as a waiter appeared. “Can I get you started with something?”
Robb tilted his head toward Destiny. “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Emily looked up at the waiter, feeling guilty even though she hadn’t done anything. “I’m good with water.”
Destiny piped up, “And I need another Singha. Thai beer is amazing. Don’t you guys want to try one?”
“I’m driving,” Sam responded, but Emily stayed silent. “We’re both good with water,” he said, and put his arm around Emily as the waiter left the table.
Destiny leaned forward as if she were a detective. “So how’d you two meet?”
Sam stared down at the menu. Emily was confused. Why was he being rude? “At church,” she answered.
Destiny looked surprised. “You’re both from religious families?”
“No,” Sam responded, and his voice now sounded harsh. “And I didn’t grow up here.” He pulled his arm back, and his body language seemed to suggest that he was in full defensive retreat.
But none of that deterred Destiny, because she flashed him an easy grin. “So, Sam, you’re a newbie to this place—just like me!”
Sam looked back down at the menu, but under the table he took Emily’s hand. She could feel tension in his grip. Why was he letting this girl bother him?
And then Emily had to ask herself why the word newbie was so irritating to her. And why suddenly everything happening at the table seemed to matter so much.
Destiny did most of the ordering, because she appeared to be some kind of food expert. She said that she’d eaten in Thai restaurants all over the country and pronounced the names of the dishes in a way that made the waiter smile.
But it turned out that she liked really spicy Thai food, and that meant she needed a lot of beer to wash it all down.
None of that kept her from conducting the meal as if she were a radio talk show host and her three companions were calling in to seek advice. Except they never asked her for any of it.
The girl in the teddy-bear pajamas explained that gum helped keep you awake when you’d been driving for hours. Cats didn’t travel well in trucks. And no one should ever leave home without a roll of quarters.
She was also certain that there was no sight as beautiful as the sunrise in the desert after it had snowed. And that it was essential to wear sunscreen even if you were driving all day.
Destiny finally stopped her monologue to heap her plate with a second serving of green curry. She then flagged down the waiter, ordered her fifth beer, and wiggled her way out of the booth. “I’m gonna take a leak.”
The other three watched silently as Destiny, not moving in exactly a straight line, made her way to the back of the restaurant. Pretty much everyone in the place was eyeing her at this point, which only made Destiny add a strut to her swagger.
“She’s completely wasted,” Robb Ellis said, once she was behind the door of the restroom.
Sam nodded. “Smashed.”
Emily had to agree. “We should have stopped her.”
Robb tentatively took a bite of the green curry. He had barely touched his meal. “She doesn’t seem like the kind of person you tell what to do. And I know this is off topic—but this is the hottest food I’ve ever eaten in my life. My mouth is on fire.”
Sam, who up until that moment hadn’t thought much of Robb, found himself agreeing. “It’s pretty spicy.”
Robb started to laugh. “It’s possible I now have a hole in my tongue.”
Emily could feel herself relax. She looked at the two boys. “What are we even doing here?”
They both shrugged.
And then Emily decided that maybe Destiny intervening in their lives was a good thing.
Sam and Robb/Bobby were now talking, and the stiff weirdness between all of them had simply disappeared.
Because they were now on one side, and Destiny was on the other. And nothing united a group like a common enemy.
She had been gone a long time. Too long.
Emily knew that something was wrong. She had a way of getting inside a person, even when she didn’t want to. And now she had a feeling that Destiny needed her help.
“I better go check on her.”
Sam reached for Emily. “Em—I’m sure she’s fine. Give her some time to sober up in there.”
But Emily was already out of the booth and moving across the room. When she was just outside the bathroom, she heard a loud thud on the other side of the door.
She was too late. By seconds.
Emily entered to find Destiny on the floor. She was bleeding from her forehead and had vomited a massive amount of Thai food. About half of it ended up in the toilet.
The diminutive girl looked up through glassy eyes as she leaned her bloody forehead against the wall and whispered, “It’s a good thing I’m wearing pajamas, because I’m ready for bed.”
Emily pulled Destiny up onto her feet and led her to the sink. Destiny saw blood gushing from her hairline and gasped. “I’m dying.…”
Emily was surprised at how much her voice sounded like her mother’s as she said, “You’re going to be fine.”
Emily lifted the top off a wall dispenser and removed most of what was inside. She then pressed a handful of the brown paper towels against Destiny’s wound, all the while keeping her upright.
“The cut’s not deep. It’s along your scalp. And that area of your body really bleeds.”
Destiny took a look at Emily in the mi
rror. “Are you a nurse? You’re a very pretty nurse.”
“I’m not a nurse. But my mom is.” Emily put the paper towels into Destiny’s hand, instructing, “Hold this.”
The sight of her own reflection seemed to sober the wobbling girl. She had green-curry puke on one side of her white-blond hair.
“Whoa. I look like a fighter. And I am a fighter. I’ve had to be a fighter. Because if I wasn’t a fighter, I’d be… I don’t know what I’d be. But it wouldn’t be a fighter. Right? Hey, do you feel that? The room’s moving.”
Emily couldn’t believe that, even in her current state, Destiny was still a chatterbox.
“Try to relax. And breathe deep. Slow inhales and exhales.”
Emily repositioned Destiny up against the wall and, with another handful of paper towels, returned to the toilet, where she did her best to mop up the just-puked Thai food.
When she finished, she turned around to find that Destiny had slid down the wall. She was now lying on the green linoleum bathroom floor as if it were a lawn.
Emily was as alarmed at this as at anything else that she had witnessed in the bathroom. “Destiny, get up off that floor!”
Destiny kept her eyes shut. “Do I have to?”
Emily squatted down and pulled the girl up to her feet. “Bathroom floors are gross.”
Destiny was as wiggly as a worm. She wasn’t vertical for long before she suddenly flopped over, resting her head in the sink.
Emily took the opportunity to turn on the water and wash the vomit out of Destiny’s hair.
“Is the water too hot?”
Destiny tried to answer and got a big mouthful of soap. It seemed to sober her up. Her choking then morphed into crying as she pulled her head out of the sink.
“Are you going to leave me?”
Emily looked at the front of Destiny’s teddy-bear pajama top. It was soaked. Her cut had stopped bleeding, but her dyed wet hair around the injury was pink. Thick black eyeliner ran down her cheeks, and some of her green eye shadow was in her eyebrows.
Destiny was a sad clown. Her face squeezed up, and she whimpered: “Emmie… don’t leave me!”
Emily felt her whole body tense. Since when did somebody call her Emmie? Only her little brother used that name.
But she tried to be reassuring as she took a paper towel and started scrubbing Destiny’s face, working hard to get the makeup off.
When she spoke her voice was both compassionate and irritated. “Don’t worry. We’re going to take you home.”
The word home, however, had a bad effect on Destiny.
Her eyes opened wider, and she flung her arms around Emily’s neck and started to sob. Emily tried to comfort her while at the same time pushing her away.
And that’s when Destiny’s fingers slipped under the coral necklace, snapping it right off.
Emily stared down at the green floor as the petite orange beads scattered. They were no bigger than sesame seeds, and several dozen bounced to the drain centered in the floor, where they then disappeared forever.
Emily tried to stay calm. Her lucky necklace was gone. She was a rational person and didn’t believe that the jewelry had some kind of secret power. Just like she knew that losing it wasn’t a bad omen.
But then she looked over at weeping Destiny, and suddenly Emily was crying with her.
Sam watched Emily, with an arm around Destiny’s waist, lead her back to the table.
He got to his feet, and Robb took the cue and did the same. Robb’s alarm made his voice high-pitched. “What happened?”
Destiny was crying but managed: “I broke Emmie’s necklace.”
“It was an accident. Forget about that now.”
Sam met his girlfriend’s gaze and realized that she’d been crying as well. What was going on? Suddenly it felt as if all of them were out of control.
Sam helped Destiny back into the booth as Emily explained to the boys, “She fell and hit her head. The necklace broke later.”
Destiny’s hair was wet. Her lips were pursed up in a pout. Her makeup was mostly gone, and her soaked pajamas now clung like a body stocking.
It was impossible for the boys not to stare.
Before, Destiny was trying hard to look sexy. But now she was vulnerable and exposed, and Sam found himself wanting to pull her close. He couldn’t believe that he found the idea of touching the flannel teddy-bear top so appealing.
Sam pushed the idea as far out of his mind as possible, turning away from the table. “I’ll get the check.”
Robb was at his heels. “Right. I’ll go with.”
Emily kept Destiny propped up in the booth as Sam and Robb crossed the room to find their waiter. They were both agitated.
As they walked away, Emily could feel something else coming off the two boys.
Desire.
She felt a punch of jealousy hit her gut. She turned back to Destiny, and the girl took her hand, whispering:
“They’re both in love with you. How does that feel, Emily?”
Once the bill was settled, Emily and Robb led Destiny, now sandwiched between them, to the car.
Sam went ahead and unlocked the doors. The Bells had bought a third vehicle, and he shared it now with Emily. But mostly it was his, because she walked to work and he had summer school.
That’s how good the Bells were. After the thoughts he’d had in the restaurant about Destiny, Sam knew that he didn’t deserve any of it.
He put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot. Destiny had shut her eyes and was leaning her head out the window like a blond puppy dog that had spent too long at a dog park.
Robb Ellis then stated the obvious: “We’ve got to get her home.”
Emily leaned closer to the boys. “She told me in the bathroom that she doesn’t have a home.”
Robb glanced in the rearview mirror. “She has to live somewhere.”
Destiny lifted her chin up from the window and said: “I keep my things in the basement. In Whitesell.” Then she fell back against the door and returned to a stupor.
Robb and Emily knew that Whitesell was one of the large dorm complexes on the college campus. Robb’s gaze went from Destiny to Emily. “So she’s a college student?”
Sam kept his eyes on the road. “No.”
Robb shook his head. “How do you keep your things in a dorm if you’re not a student?”
Sam pulled the car to the curb. He turned around and with a firm voice said, “Destiny.”
She didn’t open her eyes, but she finally answered.
“Yeah…”
“You don’t have a house or an apartment because you don’t have money for rent or to pay for utilities.” Destiny appeared to be listening. “And you don’t have a car to sleep in. So you just find a place to get through the night—right?”
Destiny’s body seemed to tense up.
“Is your mom alive?” Sam continued. Destiny shook her head. “And your father, do you know where he is?”
She seemed to come to life at the question. Her voice now had an edge. “Yeah, and I know where he’s going to be for the next ten years. And so does the state of Nevada.”
Inside Sam felt a pang of guilt and shame. No wonder someone like Destiny Verbeck had come into his life.
On the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, she’d seen right through him.
They were two of a kind.
11
“It’s bedtime, you two.” Debbie Bell carried a laundry basket, which she now set down on the couch in the living room. As she began folding clothing, Riddle got up.
“I’ll take Felix out for his last sniff of the yard.”
Debbie smiled as the boy and dog headed out of the room. Jared scowled. “Riddle should sleep at the apartment. It has two bedrooms.”
They’d obviously been over this before. Debbie continued pairing socks. “You know he likes to be with you.”
Jared rolled his eyes. “He likes to be with the dog.”
His mother lowe
red her voice. “I’m sure that’s part of it, but he feels safe here with us.”
Jared never cared about sleeping with Felix until Riddle won the dog’s heart. Then it became just one more injustice.
“Felix sleeps on Riddle’s bed. Not on the floor.”
“I don’t want you to worry about that.”
Jared dug in. “But Mom, the rule is no dogs on the bed.”
Debbie went over and put her arm around her son. “Riddle’s still adjusting, sweetheart. You understand that, right?”
Jared squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to scream to the room that the person adjusting was him. He was the one who had to share everything now. His room. His dog. His sister. His mom and dad.
Share. Share. Share.
Was there a worse word in the world? It rhymed with despair. That was a grown-up word. Didn’t they understand it?
Jared slipped out of his mother’s embrace and got to his feet. He wanted to make his footsteps heavy. Like he was pounding his heels into the floor. He tried hard to stomp. And not in a little-kid way. In a way to show he had power in this house, even if he didn’t.
The problem was that it was impossible to really stomp when you were thin and had small feet.
So he headed up the stairs and didn’t even say good night, because maybe that would make a point.
But as far as he could tell, his mom didn’t even notice.
Minutes later, staring up at the ceiling, wondering if anyone in the house cared that he hadn’t used toothpaste when he brushed his teeth, Jared had to admit that his secret wish had always been for a brother.
And somehow he now had two.
He was going to be very, very careful in the future about what he wished for. Because no matter what anyone said, Riddle and Sam weren’t real brothers, which was what he really wanted.
Riddle was more than two years older than he was. And even though they were the same size, older was older.
Jared knew what was going on. His parents were adopting the kid. They had gone to a lawyer and everything. It was just unbelievable. What were they thinking? Riddle couldn’t even read. It was so embarrassing.
Jared had moved the cards that his mother made, because he was trying to make a point. Riddle was too far behind to ever catch up.