“Because she thinks I didn’t take our relationship seriously.” He couldn’t sit a moment longer. He shot up from his desk, then pretended to adjust the shutter slats on the window behind him.

“Is that what she said?” Jada asked.

“Not in so many words, but...” He made himself go over to the small refrigerator next to the bookcases. “She’s extremely competitive. She thinks I am, too.”

She leaned forward like a minishrink. “Aren’t you?”

“Not about her.” He pulled out a Coke and held it up. “Want one?”

Jada shook her head. “Are you going to try to get her back?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t sound too confident.”

“I’m confident.”

“You don’t sound like it.”

She was right. He snapped the Coke’s pull-tab, even though he couldn’t drink anything right now. “She won’t talk to me. She won’t answer my texts or pick up her phone.” He wasn’t exactly sure why he was telling a teenager all this, except that she’d asked, and nobody else had been brave enough.

“You should go to her place and knock on her door,” Jada said. “She’s staying at her friend Amber’s. Or... you could wait by her car and then kind of jump out at her and make her listen to you.”

“That’s okay in the movies, but in real life, it’s called stalking. I want to talk to her, not piss—not make her madder.”

Another knock sounded on his door. “Get lost!”

The door opened anyway. This time it was Deidre Joss. Now he’d need to be polite, if he still remembered how.

“Bad time?” she asked.

“Sorry, Deidre. I thought it was Tony.”

“Poor Tony.”

He turned to Jada. “We can talk later.”

She hopped up from the couch. “Okay, but don’t tell Mom I yelled at you. She doesn’t like anything that upsets you.”

“Too bad everybody doesn’t feel that way,” he muttered.

Deidre closed the door after her. He realized he still had the Coke can and held it out. “Want one?”

“No thanks.” She looked as cool and sleek as ever in a tidy black suit. No rumpled jeans or Bears T-shirt. No blueberry eyes. Her hair was a smooth, dark curtain instead of a crazy muddle meandering here and there.

“How’s the injury?” she said.

“Barely noticeable.” Unless he moved too fast. It hurt then, but he wasn’t complaining.

“I’m glad to hear it.” She came farther into the room. “You haven’t returned my calls.” She said it without any snark, only sympathy. She was too nice. That’s exactly why he could never fall in love with her, and Piper should know him well enough to understand that. “I’ve heard from Noah’s attorney,” she said. “He’s going to plea-bargain.”

Coop got rid of the Coke. “That’ll make it simpler.”