The group assembles into a line in record time. In a minute we’re all back at the table with our plates piled high with spaghetti and meatballs. Abby starts shoveling it into her mouth. She doesn’t even bother to try to talk anymore.

“What do you think?” Nick asks as I try not to pig out myself. “Satisfactory?”

It’s easily the best spaghetti and meatballs I’ve ever tasted.

“Delectable,” I say, and he laughs.

He has sauce on his chin. “So what are you two going to do when we get back to the hotel?”

“Ukulele lessons,” I tell him.

Abby claps her hands together. “Yay! Uku-lei-lei!”

“You’ve probably got to rush back to your lonely, utterly abandoned phone before it implodes from lack of use,” I rib him.

“Stop.” His mouth splits into that crooked smile he has. I know, all the guys in romance novels have crooked smiles. But when I say that Nick’s is crooked, it’s because his teeth are crooked. And I’m starting to get why that’s a thing people like.

“I’m feeling the call of duty this afternoon,” he says.

It takes me a second, but I catch on. “Which is a game that you play on your PS4.”

“You should really try it with me sometime.”

I can’t imagine myself doing that, pretending to shoot people. Although maybe, given how angry I’ve been feeling lately, it could be therapeutic.

“I have a better idea,” I say. “Come to ukulele lessons with us.”

His mouth opens in surprise. “Why?”

“So we can hang out more. Because you’re a boy who’s my friend.”

Abby immediately understands what needs to be done here. “Please, Nick, come with us! Please!”

“You need to get uku-lei’d,” I say with as straight a face as I can manage.

“Okay.”

“Yay!” Abby jumps up and down.

“Yay,” I say, too.

Chapter 34

34

Abby ditches me on the ride home. She wants to sit with Josie again, so I pick a seat in the back of the bus. I’m flipping through my photos, deciding which ones I will send to Nick, when someone says, “Can I sit here?” and I smile and say, “Go right ahead.”

But it isn’t Nick. It’s Michael Wong.

I frown up at him. “Don’t you want to sit with my sister? Work things out?”

He makes a quick little grimace. “She and I need to give each other some space.”

We ride for a while in silence until I can’t hold back the obvious question. “What’d you do?” Although I feel like I can guess. Like Leo, Michael Wong’s a cheater. And he made Afton an accomplice.

“Do?” Michael repeats, like he has no idea.

“To get Afton mad at you?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing. I told her—” He stops himself. “She’s crazy, that’s all.”