twenty-eight
“THIS IS YELLOW CAB. Your car will arrive in approximately: Two. Minutes.”
Molly hung up on the computer-modulated voice and tucked her boarding pass inside her purse. She hadn’t even bothered trying to pack everything that belonged to her; she just wanted to go, fast, and she didn’t want to take anything purchased with Brick’s money back to Indiana. It didn’t feel right. As it was, her suitcase still barely closed over the fringes of the blanket stitched together from all of Laurel’s scarves.
Molly set her credit card and the keys to the Lexus on top of Brooke’s laptop and slung her bag over her shoulder. She had been so angry back at school, but now she just felt numb. Soon, she’d be home again, her real home, away from all this endless drama. Where she should have been all along.
From deep in her backpack, she felt her phone buzz again.
“I’m coming,” Molly muttered at it.
She pulled her bulky suitcase down the stairs. It clonked obnoxiously against each marble step, gaining momentum as she got closer to the bottom. Molly considered letting go of the handle and letting gravity do the rest of the work. It seemed appropriately destructive.
The doorbell rang.
“I’m coming,” she repeated.
Molly opened the door. It was not the cabdriver. It was Teddy.
“What are you doing here?”
“Max grabbed me during intermission,” Teddy said. “I came right over.”
“What did she tell you?”
“Probably just the CliffsNotes version, but it was enough,” he said. “I haven’t seen the magazine, but… you know. I was there.”
Molly forced herself to keep some distance from him. She was so glad to see him, yet so upset that he’d come. Teddy, standing on her doorstep, still dressed up from the play and looking adorably concerned, was not helping her resolve to leave.
“I’m sorry if I ruined your night,” she managed.
“You didn’t ruin anything,” Teddy said. “The guy behind me had awful breath, and Julie Newman’s accent was all over the place.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about Arugula?” Molly heard herself ask, hating how petty it sounded.
“What about Arugula?”
“I saw you guys at the play today.”
Comprehension dawned. “Is that what you meant, about ruining my night?” he asked. “That wasn’t a date. That wasn’t… anything. She told me she wanted to talk about our oral report before the play, and then we sat together. That’s it.” He frowned. “She rubbed against me a little more than usual, I guess, but that’s just Arugula.”
A cab pulled into the driveway and its horn blared. Molly held up one finger, as if to beg it to wait.
“I have to go,” Molly said. “I’m going to miss my flight.”
“Wait, what? You’re leaving?” Teddy asked, finally noticing her bag. “Because of some stupid story in a tabloid? You’re stronger than that.”
Molly let go of her suitcase, which immediately gave in to physics and fell forward with a thunk.
“I don’t think I am, Teddy. I really don’t. I can’t… I just can’t take it anymore. And what about Danny?” she asked. “This happened to him, too. How is he going to feel when he sees that picture?”
She could feel tears beginning to burn in her throat.
“You know what the funny thing is?” she said. “He and I had a date to talk tomorrow morning. And I’m pretty sure we were going to break up.”
“But there’s no way he isn’t going to see this, if he hasn’t already,” Molly kept going, on the verge of hysteria. “It’s on the Internet, Teddy. And I look like such a jackass.”
“I’m so sorry, Indiana,” Teddy said.
“I never wanted to be part of some stupid vendetta. I never wanted any of this,” Molly said. “I just wanted to do the last thing my mother ever asked of me, you know?”
“Then don’t give it up,” Teddy said. “Not without a fight.”
“But I don’t have any fight left, Teddy,” Molly explained, wringing her hands. “Coming here was supposed to fix me, but it’s just made everything worse. It feels like my mom died all over again, except this time I have nowhere to go but backward. There’s nothing for me here.”
“There’s me,” Teddy said firmly.
“You have Ari. She obviously likes you.”
“Too bad,” he said. “I like you.”
He reached out and cupped her face, flicking away one of Molly’s tears with his thumb.
“You know I do. Right?” he whispered. “You have to know.”
Molly closed her eyes and allowed herself one second of enjoying the feeling of his hand on her skin. It would be so easy to let him draw her into an embrace, to give in to the way her pulse sped up every time she was around him. The way it was racing right now.
No. Do not get sucked back into this poisonous place. Not even by Teddy McCormack.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I have to go.”
“You don’t, though,” Teddy said almost pleadingly, his face full of otherwise unexpressed emotion. “Don’t give up. Please, just tell me what you need and I’ll be there. I’ll do it. I’ll be it.”
His brown eyes looked so hopeful, and so sad at the same time. Through her tears, Molly reached up and ruffled his hair.
“I need my mom,” she said, another tear running down her cheek.
“What a night, Sunshine!” Brick said as he turned the Range Rover into the driveway and parked it behind Molly’s Lexus.
“Thanks, Daddy,” Brooke answered. She felt a surge of good cheer at the sight of Molly’s car in the driveway. Her sister was probably just upstairs, sitting on the balcony and bitching to Clementine, or whatever her name was, while Brooke’s extensive collection of vintage Marc Jacobs sundresses burned in the bathtub.
Well, she can burn whatever she wants, if it puts her in a good mood.
“I can’t wait to go to the studio tomorrow and tell everyone what a talented daughter I have! Two talented daughters!” Brick said, sliding out of the car. “The costumes were fantastic! Why didn’t Molly stay for the curtain call? You told her I made reservations at Craft, didn’t you? I might even order dessert. Such tremendous accomplishments call for refined sugar.”
Brooke had about twenty minutes before Brick dragged them off for what would surely be the most awful, awkward family dinner ever—worse even than Thanksgiving last year on Lust for Life, when Francesca’s brain fog caused her to serve her own severed hand for dinner, instead of turkey. Brooke had to get to Molly first and make her see reason. See the truth.
“And who is this?” Brick said, crossing the driveway and walking toward the house.
Brooke looked up and noticed Teddy McCormack, who was sitting in the shadow of one of the two giant stone lions framing the front door. He looked bummed out.
This is not a good sign.
“Greetings, young man,” Brick said, reaching out a hand to Teddy. “Are you here to talk to one of my girls?”
Teddy stood, and shook Brick’s hand.
“I was,” he said. “But I was too late.”
Brick looked confused as Brooke’s heart sank to the very soles of her wedges.
“Molly is gone,” Teddy clarified, glancing from Brick to Brooke, and then quickly back to Brick again.
“She’s gone?” Brick parroted. “What do you mean, she’s gone? Where did she go?”
“She went home, sir,” Teddy said. “To Indiana.”
Brooke noticed that Teddy seemed to be having trouble meeting her eyes. Of course. He blames me. I would blame me, too. I do blame me.
Brick turned white underneath his burnished tan.
“What are you talking about?” he said angrily. “What’s going on here? Is this some kind of prank?”
Teddy looked at Brooke. She poured every ounce of sincerity into her eyes and mouthed, “I’ll fix it.”
He nodded, almost imperceptibly.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” he said. “It was nice to meet you, Mr. Berlin.”
“Brooke, I’m confused,” Brick said, turning to look at her as Teddy disappeared down the driveway. “Who was that young person? Has he been binge drinking? Dateline says it’s raping our society.”
Brooke sighed. “No, Daddy, he’s not like that,” she said. “Let’s go inside, okay? There’s something I need to tell you, and you’re not going to like it.”