We drove for the next several minutes in silence. My head was racing. I really did care about Grace. I wanted to be with her. Maybe I needed to prove that to her? But how?
Hell, I’d been running, too. My anger. Drinking.
Brodie finally interrupted my thoughts with a long exhale. “I sure am gonna miss riding around in your Jeep with the doors off.”
“Yeah, same, man.” I was going to miss him, too, when he left for college.
“I saw the mail yesterday. Did you get another acceptance letter?”
“Yeah, from Fox Bay Community College.”
“UW-Madison, UW-LaCrosse, Fox Bay, and a couple of other community colleges nearby. That’s good. You’ve got options.”
“Still no money, though.” I shook my head and pulled off the highway.
“Student loans…lots of people do it.” Brodie shrugged.
“Ifwe can get any with Mom’s credit scores…” I glanced at Brodie, and he looked at me, confused. “I overheard them talking.”
“You could always take them out on your own.”
“Yeah, that might be my only option.” The thought of going into thousands of dollars in debt was terrifying. I’d never really thought a lot about money until we didn’t have any.
“No matter what, your family will think of something. You’ll figure it out.” He smiled. “So, what’s your move with Grace gonna be?”
He wouldn’t let it go, would he? We came to a stop at the light a few blocks from Annie’s Coffee Shop.
“I hope Pax isn’t too messed up,” I said.
“Nice try.” He backhanded me in the chest. “Grace. Game plan. Go.”
My turn to shrug. The light turned green, and I took off. “Why are you pushing so hard?”
“Because you guys are good together.” He clapped his hands together, then rubbed them like a villain would. All that was missing was the evil laugh. “Roses. I suggest roses.” Then he shot up in his seat. “Wait. Willow showed me this YouTube video. Best grand gesture ever. For real, it’s legit.”
I steered the Jeep to the curb. I’d lucked out, and there was a spot right in front of Annie’s Coffee Shop. I clicked the engine off and faced Brodie more.
“This chick from Twin River did a flash mob–type thing for one of the football players. Jace Rovers.”
“The writer? Like with fifteen billion readers onScribbles?”
“You’ve heard of him?” Brodie’s eyebrows shot up.
“Everyone’sheard of him.”
“Well, anyway, his girl, McKenna, what she pulled off was epic. During halftime of a football game, she organized this massive flash mob based on theKingdom of Swordsstory he wrote.”
“I heard about that, but I don’t think Grace is really the flash-mob type.” I shoved his shoulder, then hopped out of the car. “Come on.”
“You don’t have to do the same thing, but take her lead, man.” Brodie followed after me, saying, “She put it all out there. Got her guy back!”
“I dunno.” I scanned the coffee shop as the door shut behind us. “You see Pax?”
Almost every table was full. I recognized a couple familiar faces, one them being Matthew Halliday, the dumbass hockey player from Woodhaven who used Willow to try and get to our hockey playbook. I skimmed right past him, more worried about Pax.
“Oh look, it’s the Woodhaven Wolverines hockey stars.” Matthew overdramatically flinched. “Well, one of them anyway. How’s the head, Preachie-Pooh?”
“Ignore him,” Brodie said.