“Oh my God, Ryan. Please stop.” I turn away. I’m so embarrassed I can’t even look at him.
He laughs. “Fine. I won’t say anything more about it. Now tell me your news.”
I turn back to him. “Garret and I are getting an apartment together next fall.”
I’m expecting a lecture followed by a fight, but instead he says, “Yeah, I figured you would.”
“You did?”
“Sure. I know you don’t like living in the dorm and you two are living together this summer, so Dad and I assumed you guys would be getting a place together next year.”
“And you’re not mad? Frank’s okay with it?”
“He’d rather have you stay in the dorm and do stuff with other girls instead of always hanging out with your boyfriend, but there’s not much he can do about it. But how does that work with your scholarship?”
“We’re going to ask Garret’s dad to put my room and board money toward the apartment rent.”
“How will you get to campus?”
“Mr. Kensington got me a car.” I wasn’t going to tell Ryan that yet, but he took the moving-in-with-Garret news well so maybe he’ll be okay with this, too.
“He got you a car?” From his tone I can tell Ryan’s not okay with it. Crap! I should’ve waited.
“Yeah. A few weeks ago. I’m not supposed to drive yet, so it’s still parked at their house.”
“So this isn’t a car he’s just letting you borrow. He actually bought you your own car?”
“Yes.” I really wish I’d waited until later to tell Ryan this.
“Why did he give you a car?”
“I’ve been babysitting Lilly a lot so he wanted to thank me.” That’s the lie I’d planned to tell Frank and Ryan when I shared my news about the car, but now that I’ve said it out loud it sounds ridiculous.
“He gave you a car for babysitting his kid? That doesn’t make sense, Jade.”
“To you and me it doesn’t, but to a billionaire it makes perfect sense. He knew I needed a car and he felt he owed me for all that babysitting so he got me one.”
“What kind of car is it?”
I hesitate as I consider lying again, but he’ll find out eventually so I tell him. “A BMW convertible. Garret and I are taking it to California this summer.”
Ryan coughs like he’s choking. “A BMW? He got you a BMW? What kind?”
“I told you. A convertible.”
“I mean what series? Like a three series?”
“Oh, um, I think Garret said something about it being a six series. What does that mean?”
Ryan practically chokes again and I offer him the bottle of water sitting next to him on the seat.
“A six series? Are you kidding me? That’s like an $90,000 car.”
“It is? Damn, that’s a lot of money.”
Ryan swigs his water and hands it back to me to put the cap on. “Yeah, that’s a shitload of money. That’s more than our house cost. You can’t tell me he bought you a car like that just for babysitting.”
I should’ve made up a better lie. This one sucks. But what was I going to say? I can’t tell Ryan the car was a gift for finding Lilly in the woods after her family thought she’d been kidnapped by bad guys wanting revenge for Garret’s dad killing a presidential candidate. Yeah, that would go over well.
