I stare at Dylan with shock.
“I wanted to tell you about Nick,” she says. “But seeing you and Rachel together threw me off. I wasn’t prepared to see you, and then see you with a girlfriend? It was worse than jealousy. I was crushed.”
Rachel? Rachel.
Crap.
In all of the craziness of last few days, I completely forgot about my own lie. I start laughing.
“How is that funny?” she wonders.
I look at the fire and my smile falters. It’s my last defensive play and I toss it into the flames. “I’m not dating Rachel.”
I look over at Dylan and she’s studying me with a frown. I’m surprised to see anger in her eyes, but then I realize she doesn’t believe me.
“Get over yourself, Gray. You know, you should carry a sign with you that says ‘facetious’ on it, so you can hold it up after ninety percent of what you say.”
“Rachel. Is not. My girlfriend.” I sound it out for her in phonetically perfect English. Dylan’s eyes narrow and then they widen and I feel like I’m naked, standing in front of her.
“So it was just casual sex?” she asks.
I throw my hands up in the air. “I never slept with her,” I say.
She shakes her finger at me. “Don’t you dare use the gay line on me. It’s not funny. No way is that girl a lesbian.”
“She’s not gay. She’s completely off limits. First of all, she’s still in high school.”
Dylan’s eyes are suspicious. “She looks way too old to be in high school. She looks like she’s at least nineteen. And a half,” she adds.
I nod in agreement. “The over application of makeup can do that.”
Dylan considers this truth.
“Second of all, she’s my coach’s daughter,” I state.
“Oh,” Dylan says and pieces this together. “That was your coach we had dinner with?”
“Yes,” I say. “He offered to take me out to eat before I left town. We got pretty close this summer.”
She nods slowly. “Well, Rachel has a crush on you. You can’t deny that.”
“She has a crush on every guy on our team. She doesn’t know any better. You were right when you said she wasn’t my type. Horses? Are you serious?”
Dylan smiles. “You told me once you don’t have a type,” she reminds me.
I press my gaze on her. “Summer flings are not my type,” I say and she nods. That much she can understand. I stare at the fire and listen to the wood crackle and pop. I tunnel my fingers through my hair.
“All I wanted to do was give you a ride to Flagstaff,” I say. “That’s it. Just one, simple ride. But nothing is ever simple with you, is it Dylan? It all has to be one, big, crazy—”
“Epic adventure?” she finishes and looks over at me. She has the nerve to smile.
“Adventure? I swear you’re the only person I’ve ever met that gets less mature as you get older.”
She breathes out a sigh, but she doesn’t deny my claim.
“Since I’ve picked you up, I’ve almost died in a tornado,” I say.
She drops a piece of firewood onto the coals and sits back down on the blanket. “I couldn’t control the weather,” she argues. “Besides they were only F-2 tornados. I heard somebody mention it at the gas station this morning. That’s practically a baby.”
“What’s an F-2?” I ask.
“A tornado rating,” she tells me. “They’re categorized by their strength. They start at F-1, and go all the way up to F-7. Well, according to my uncle his farts are strong enough to be considered an F-0. But that’s just Wisconsin humor for you.”
I blink a few times at her. “Fart jokes?” my voice starts to rise. “After everything that’s happened, you’re making fart jokes?”
“Anytime is a good time for fart jokes,” Dylan argues. “Look at the positive side. At least at the end of day, we have a really amazing story.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Is that really all you care about? Having a story at the end of the day?”
She nods without hesitating. I look over at the fire and we’re both quiet for a few seconds.
“You should have told me the truth about Rachel,” Dylan speaks up.
“I never lied about it,” I point out.
“You indirectly lied,” she argues. “That’s almost worse than lying because it’s premeditated.”
“You did the same thing,” I say and take a step closer to her. “I was planning on coming clean today, but then we spent all afternoon in police custody since you decided to get us arrested.”