Tempest. Part 15

"He's a teacher?" Jana asked from my other side.

"No, he's a janitor."

She nodded but didn't say anything. I turned my eyes back to Holly.

"Siblings?" she asked.

I swallowed a big gulp of water from the gla.s.s in front of me before answering. "One sister."

"Older or younger?" Holly asked.

"We're twins, actually, but she died a few years ago."

Her eyes dropped to her hands and she muttered, "I'm sorry."

Hopefully, the family questions would end there. David's eyes darted between the two of us, taking in the uncomfortable air.

The waiter came over and took our order, and then David and Jana jumped into an in-depth a.n.a.lysis of how pathetic this year's football team was. Holly was silent, stirring the small bowl of sweet-and-sour sauce in the center of the table.

"Are you done questioning me already?" I asked.

She lifted her eyes to meet mine and gave me a half smile. "Not even close. What's your favorite book?"

"Um ... Stranger in a Strange Land," I answered.

"I haven't read that. Is it any good?"

"Yeah, it's great. A human's raised on Mars and then returns to Earth."

"Sounds interesting. Favorite song?"

"Hm. I can't pick one. I'll give you my top five in random order. 'Somewhere Only We Know' by Keane, 'Pictures of You' by the Cure, 'Falling Slowly' by Glen Hansard, 'Mad World,' the Gary Jules version, and 'Beast of Burden' by the Rolling Stones."

I had managed to quickly rattle off not only older songs, but ones that brought up vivid memories of me and Holly.

"I don't know if I've heard any of those," she said.

"I'm sure you'd recognize some of them."

"Favorite movie?"

I went with really old again, just to be safe. "Back to the Future."

Adam choked on his water, spraying some on me.

Holly laughed at him. "Okay, odd choice."

"I'm sure your favorite is some sappy eighties movie with a whiny girl for a main character."

Something like ... Sixteen Candles.

Holly rolled her eyes as the waiter set our dinners down on the table. "Not even close."

"What's with the twenty questions, Hol?" David asked.

She picked up her fork and twirled noodles around it. "I'm making new friends."

"Interesting," David said, the corners of his mouth twitching.

When the others were deep in conversation, Holly started talking again. "What was your sister's name?"

"Courtney," I said, lowering my voice. You'd think after all this time it would get easier to say her name, but it never did. "Now can I ask you something?"

"You can ask."

"Why the early morning training sessions, since you've obviously retired your leotard?"

"It's fun. No other reason, really."

"Pure love of the sport. That's inspiring," I said.

She laughed and tossed her napkin across the table at me. "Go ahead and make fun of me. Jump on the trampoline for five minutes sometime and see if you don't get addicted."

"Any other addictions I should know about before I take another ride in your car?"

"Just caffeine," she admitted.

"Me, too."

"So, you really don't mind hanging with kids that are still in school?"

"There you go again, being all judgmental. We can't all be AP students like you. Besides, I pa.s.sed a high school equivalency exam. So, technically, I'm a high school graduate."

"Is it a hard test?" she asked.

"I wouldn't know. I paid someone to take it for me."

Adam almost choked again, this time on a piece of chicken. I slapped him on the back while he coughed.

"Funny. Okay, what about ... your favorite spot in New York?" She pushed the pad thai around her plate, waiting patiently for my answer.

"Central Park."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Well, we have that in common."

"Does that mean you'll give me your number?"

For some reason, the other conversations at the table seemed to stop a split second before I said that. Really bad timing. Everyone paused for a second and then jumped back into eating. Holly kept her eyes on mine and I waited while she took a long drink of water. "I'll give you my email."

"Fair enough."

"When are we going to be done with the bargaining thing?"

I shrugged. "Personally, I think it's fun."

A smile lit up her whole face. "Me, too."

Of course, I already had her number, but I wanted Holly to give it to me.

I told Holly to drive back to her house and I'd walk to the train station from there, and to my surprise, she didn't object. But we pulled up to her house just as her mother parked in the driveway. The blond woman walked over to us as we got out.

"Hey, Holly. Who's your friend?"

She wasn't exactly smiling at me, but I stuck my hand out anyway to shake hers. "I'm Jackson."

Future Katherine didn't really like me too much, so I wasn't expecting a grand welcoming.

"He works at the gym with me." Holly stepped around her mother and yanked the front of my s.h.i.+rt, dragging me behind.

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Flynn," I said.

"Suck-up," Holly muttered.

I laughed and followed her through the front door. "I'll write down my email and you can send me one first, okay?" I asked.

She handed me a piece of paper and a pen from the kitchen table and I jotted it down. "See you Monday?"

She nodded and I grabbed my bag and left before Katherine could ask any more questions.

When I got home, Holly had already sent me an email, but it was only one sentence long. An invitation for a little online chatting.

Do you want to hear a funny story?

I pulled up the instant messenger and typed my reply there since she was already online.

ME: Does it involve me breaking things in the gym or falling off ladders?

HOLLY: You fell off a ladder?

ME: Not yet.

HOLLY: Okay, here it is: my mom just spent twenty minutes drilling me with questions about you. She's sort of a freak when it comes to guys even talking to me. I think it's her Lifetime movie obsession.

ME: So she suspects I may be a bank robber/murderer/con artist?

HOLLY: Don't forget kidnapper and Internet p.o.r.n addict.

ME: Lol! I admit nothing.

HOLLY: All I ever hear is s.h.i.+t like, "Holly, you remember what happened in that one movie when that woman was talking to the nice guy online and decided to meet him in Aruba only to be kidnapped and held for ransom by Caribbean Mafia."

ME: I've heard the Caribbean Mafia hangs out in Jersey ALL the time.

HOLLY: I know. Totally. Do they even have Mafia gangs in Aruba?

My new cell phone rang and I saw that it was Adam calling. "What's up?"

"Your dad's not your dad," he spat out through the phone.

I leaned too far back in my chair and nearly fell off, knocking the laptop off my desk in the process. "What?!"

"I stole some hair samples and there's no match. Unless another man is sleeping in your dad's bed."

"How would you know? I mean...?"

"I have connections at a private DNA lab," he mumbled quietly. "But that's just between you and me."

My heart was pounding. "There must be inaccuracies with those tests sometimes."

"You can get a false positive with paternity tests, but a negative is a negative."

I was silent for so long I'm sure Adam started to get worried. "Do you feel like conducting an experiment?"

My hand shook so much I could barely hold the phone. "Definitely. And I think maybe ... my sister was right. I need to find out more about my mom."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. But wait for me. I have to see this for myself. I mean ... I know I already have, but ... not really ... uh ... because-"

"I get it, Adam, I'll wait." I slammed the phone shut and threw it onto the desk.

After a few minutes of pacing, then sitting in stunned silence, I remembered that I'd left Holly hanging. I picked up the computer from the floor and pulled myself together before responding.

ME: Sorry, Internet problems. I would have called, but ...

HOLLY: Real smooth, Jackson. I'll tell you what, give me your number and then if I don't hear from you and I'm worried that you might be choking on a peanut or something, I can call you and verify that you're alive.

ME: And what if I'm worried you're choking ...

HOLLY: Fine! You can have my number.

ME: I swear I'll only use it in life-or-death situations.

HOLLY: Deal.

I had to end our conversation because Adam called again and decided I needed to come to his house just in case the CIA had installed listening devices in my place. Not only did I agree with him, I made a promise to myself not to roll my eyes or dismiss what I used to call Adam's paranoia ever again.