When I made no reply, she said, "Youdoknow, Flynn thinks of you as a sister, right?"
"I know." I smiled through my distress. "He feels like family to me, too."
"And I'm just saying, if you want to take the summer off, you wouldn't need to worry about anything."
It was an old debate, one we'd been having for months. But I didn't want to be that person – someone who couldn't stand on her own two feet.
I asked, "Will I be getting college credit, too?"
She hesitated. "I don't know. I mean, maybe we could—"
"It was a joke," I said.
"Oh." She paused. "But my offer was serious. Will you at least think about it?"
I didn'thaveto think. "Thanks, but no."
"Why not?"
"Because of my internship. It'll be good experience." And, I silently vowed, I was going to earn every penny – while proving to Jack that my positionwasn'tsuperfluous.
My sister was still trying to convince me when a knock sounded at the powder room door. I turned and called out, "Who is it?"
"Jack," he said. "I've got the shirt."
Into the phone I whispered, "I've gotta go. But trust me, everything's fine."
"But wait," she said. "First, let me give you the number to my new phone."
"Just text it to me, okay? Now sorry, but I'vereallygotta go." And with that, I ended the call and shoved my cell phone back into my pocket.
Clutching the borrowed jacket tight around my torso, I opened the powder room door. When I did, Jack thrust a colorful wad of clothing vaguely in my direction.
With my free hand, I took it and shook out its folds. "What's this?"
"A shirt, like I said."
I frowned down at the thing. "Are you sure?"
"I’m sure enough," he said. "The signing starts in five minutes. You gonna be ready?"
I was still looking at the shirt. I didn't want to complain, but it reallywashideous. It was like a checkerboard had gotten drunk and fathered a love child with a medieval clown.
Yikes.
When I gave Jack a perplexed look, he said, "Hey, it is what is." His gaze dipped to my torso. "And I don't trust the jacket."
I didn't either. But that wasn't the point. More confused than annoyed, I said, "But I gave you the key to my room."
"So?"
"So I had lots of shirts in the closet. And I guess I'm a little curious why didn't you just grab one ofthose."
"Because I didn't have time."
How was that possible?He'd been gone for forty minutes. My hotel room was only a ten-minute walk away. There and back would've taken him twenty minutes with another twenty to spare.
I stared up at him. "So, did you stop off for coffee or something?"
