My Unfair Godmother(117)
“The gold enchantment.”
“You gave up your luxury apartment in New York?”
“Well, Stetson needs a yard to run around in … cacti to climb …
whatever it is you do in hick towns.” I had expected Hudson to smile, but he didn’t. His expression stayed serious. “I don’t know how to thank you, Tansy. I can’t ever make it up to you.”
He’d said the same thing about his mother’s death—that no matter what he did, he couldn’t make it up to his father.
“You don’t have to make it up to me,” I said. “I just want you to be happy.” I looked at him more closely. “You are happy, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” He smiled then, a warm and easy grin that I hadn’t seen very often. “After we got home, I talked to my mom for three hours straight. I couldn’t stop. She fell asleep on the couch while I was 347/356
talking. And even after that, I sat there watching her to make sure she didn’t disappear.”
“That’s sweet.”
“It didn’t take her long to figure out that I can’t remember a lot of things—like who my girlfriend is and that I’m on some student-body committee that’s planning the homecoming dance. And I’m a line-backer this year …” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve got games soon, and I don’t know any of the plays.”
“You could tell people that one of the bandits hit your head and say it’s amnesia.”
“I wish I had thought of that at the beginning. Mom thinks it’s post-traumatic stress disorder. She’s got me scheduled for a doctor tomorrow.”
“Well, you’ve got your excuse then.” Hudson left the windowsill and walked the length of my room.
His smile vanished. “While my mom was sleeping, I checked my e-mails, text messages, that sort of stuff—so I’d know a little bit about what I did over the year.”
I waited for him to say more. He didn’t. He paced back the other way.
“So who’s your girlfriend?” I asked.
He gave a short laugh and looked at the ceiling. “I’m embarrassed to tell you.”
“Why? Is she an idiot or something?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” He paused, then said, “Donna Hatch.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know much about her except she was a cheerleader and beautiful and had an entourage following her around in the hallways.
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“You know, in my real last year, she never talked to me after I dropped out of football. She didn’t even tell me she was sorry about my mom or try to reach out to me—and now she’s my girlfriend.”
“Apparently the person you would have been had no taste.” He kept pacing. “It seems like everything I did and said over the last year was stupid and shallow. The girl I dated before Donna—I dumped her in an e-mail. What kind of jerk does that?”
“You wouldn’t. I mean you wouldn’t now.” I sat up straighter.
“Wait a minute, did you come here in person to dump me?” He stopped walking and turned to me. “No, I’m not dumping you.
I’m two-timing Donna until I can dump her later tonight.” He ran his hand through his hair again and went back to pacing. “See, I really am a jerk. I just didn’t realize it until all this happened and I got a good look at myself.”
I stood up, took hold of his hand, and made him sit down beside me so he would stop pacing. “You’re not a jerk. You’re someone who has learned a lot over the last year. That’s not a bad thing, is it? You don’t have to be that other person. You can keep what you’ve learned.” He squeezed my hand. “I’m keeping you. I know that much.” He leaned toward me and brushed a strand of hair away from my face.
“Speaking of two-timing, I’ll have to show you some of the messages you and I sent to each other. They were downright flirty.” That made me smile. “You and I sent flirty messages to each other?”
“Yeah, apparently I started going over to your house to see Nick a lot after you moved in. And you were pretty nice to me, considering you’re still dating Bo.”
I stopped smiling. “I’m what?”
“The library isn’t closing. He never took you to vandalize city hall.”
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I tilted my head back and groaned. “What am I going to tell him when I break up with him? I’m dumping him because I know if we ever did vandalize a building, he’d leave me to face the cops alone?”
“You’ll think of something.” Hudson leaned closer and gave me a look that sent shivers racing down my back. “I’ll help you come up with some reasons right now.”