By the end of the day, I was tired, but I was also thrilled school was over. Jake and I headed out to the parking lot. “Hey,” he said. “Were there roses yesterday? None of you said.”
“No,” I told him. “I haven’t heard from…” Oh wait.
“You haven’t heard from him?” Jake clarified. “Since the party?”
“No, there was an envelope on the windshield yesterday, but with everything going on—I thought it might be something else.” Then I’d utterly forgotten about it.
“Do you still have it?” Jake asked as he pushed the door open.
“Not sure, actually.” It might be in the car. Or Coop might have it.
Coop and Ian were already there. And Coop had a big envelope in his hand that he tapped against his thigh.
“Is that from yesterday?” Jake asked.
“Nope,” Coop said. “Today. You want me to get rid of this one, too?” The last he directed at me.
“Did you throw out yesterday’s?” Guilt hit me, it never occurred to me it might have been from Mr. Thorns.
“No,” Coop said with a sigh. “It’s still in my backpack.”
After unlocking my car and shoving my backpack inside, I held out my hand and Coop passed them over.
Ian moved to stand at my shoulder while Jake leaned against the car and looked down at the envelopes.
“Just in case,” Jake offered. “Solidarity.”
“Yeah,” Ian said. “Solidarity.”
The first was just a greeting card with the picture of a bar of chocolate on the front. Inside it said:The supply of available swear words is insufficient to meet the demands, but chocolate is forever. Have some on me. Keep your chin up.
It had a gift card to a frozen yogurt place not far from the school.
I laughed. “Okay.” The second card was similar to the first, only there were chocolate roses on the front and inside they’d written:Don’t be so serious. If you can't laugh at yourself, call me... I'll laugh at you. Better yet, laugh at everyone else or eat chocolate. Trust me, you’re awesome, choose chocolate.
The gift card was for Starbuck’s, and I glanced at the guys.
“I really want to know who this is…”
“Me too,” Coop said. “Cause he made you laugh.”
“Yeah,” Ian exhaled. “That’s pretty awesome.”
“Still not any of you?” I verified, and they shook their heads one at a time. I glanced around the lot and then tucked the cards away. Whoever my admirer was, they had all the power. But maybe I could get a message to them.
“You following us?” I checked with Ian, and he smiled.
“Can’t wait.”
Neither could I, but I really wanted to talk to Mr. Thorns, if for no other reason than to say thank you. He had been a bright spot over the last few days, and he was still doing it.
That was pretty awesome.
Chapter Fourteen
Just Want to Kiss You
Instead of heading directly back to his place, Ian took us for a ride around the lake. Between the wind against my face, the rumble of the motorcycle between my legs, and the ripple of his muscles under my hands as we flew down the winding road, the day kind of faded away. Not that it had been a bad day, but by the end of it, I’d been exhausted.