“You’re the weird one,” he managed to croak out.

“Thanks, pumpkin.” She smiled that mischievous Kincaid smile and then grabbed Graham’s hand. “Come and watch practice for a little while. I get to do a solo part this time.” She waggled her eyebrows at him. “The splits are involved.”

Graham groaned and sent a what-can-you-do look to Ash. “Can you cover for me a little while at the store?”

Ash nodded. “I got it.”

It wasn’t like Grace and Charlie were going to fire their own son.

Graham smiled. “You’re the best, Isaacs.”

No, he was the worst, but he managed to keep his expression neutral. “You know it.”

And as they turned and walked away, Kincaid leaning her head on Graham’s shoulder and broadcasting her happiness with every bit of her body language, Ash made a promise to himself to stop acting like this. Kincaid was his best friend. She had never shown one inkling of romantic interest in him. She was happy. Graham was happy. And the Lowells were going to help Kincaid escape this town and her shitty mother.

Ash was not going to get in the way of that.

He pushed down the nagging feelings that had surfaced earlier with Graham and made a decision. He wasn’t going to torture himself with thinking about what couldn’t be anymore. He needed to move on. The first order of business would be finding a prom date so Kincaid would stop asking him about it and making him want things he couldn’t have.

He needed to show her and himself that he was capable of doing more than reading books. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed his lab partner, Evie, from chemistry. She accepted without hesitation.

There. Done. He would go to prom. Be normal. Have fun. Maybe even kiss someone. He was done pining for Kincaid Breslin.

Six

Ash opened the front door of the Lowells’ house to find Kincaid standing on the porch with food containers stacked three high in her arms. She peeked around the tower of food and her eyebrows arched. “Oh, hey. What are you doing here?”

It’d been a few days since Charlie had returned home after an angioplasty and stenting, and Ash had managed to avoid Kincaid during the visits he’d made. He should’ve known his luck would run out sooner or later. He reached out to take the load from her. “I brought over some groceries. Grace didn’t feel comfortable leaving Charlie alone and asked if I could stop by the store for her.”

“Oh,” Kincaid said with a frown. “Well, I could’ve done that. She called me earlier, and I told her I’d be bringing some food by.”

“I didn’t mind.” The bottom casserole dish was warm against his arms. “What is all this?”

“A few dinners for the freezer. Two kinds of muffins.” Her nose wrinkled. “The muffins are an experiment. I’m not used to cooking with all the whole-grain stuff so hopefully they don’t taste like baked dirt.”