Some Loves (16 page)

“I don’t know,” he finally said. “But last year, you did a lot of things that I didn’t think you would. There were a lot of times that you weren’t upfront and honest. I mean, if this had happened a year ago, I’d trust you in a heartbeat. I’m sorry, but right now, I just don’t know what to think.”

“Noah
,” I shook my head, momentarily speechless. This couldn’t be happening. It didn’t even make sense. Noah was right; Drew had no reason to lie. So maybe he wasn’t lying. “Drew is wrong. I don’t know what he thought he saw, but he’s mistaken.”

I took a step toward Noah and reached for his hand.
I held it in mine for only a moment before he tugged it away. He turned away from me and I reached for him again. My hand landed on his shoulder this time and he shrugged me off as he took a step toward the door.

“There has to be some other explanation for this.”

He turned to face me and his expression looked carefully controlled. “I want to believe you but…,” he shrugged.

“But you don’t?” I asked. My tone had bounced up a few notches. I was starting to feel defensive.
“You think I’m lying?”

He looked conflicted for a moment. “Either you’re not telling me the truth, or Drew isn’t.”

I let his words sink in. “You believe Drew. Why would I meet with Caleb, Noah,
why
?”

“It sounds to me like the question is,
Why are you sneaking around with him
?”

“I’m not! I swear,” I said firmly.

He looked unmoved.

I let out a scoff of frustration. “You really don’t believe me.” He said nothing. “So, what? You think I’ve just been sneaking around with Caleb this whole time?”

He threw his hands up in the air. “It wouldn’t be the first time that you’d been spending time with him behind my back.”

“That was different!” I argued. “That was…before. You asked me not to spend time with him! I’ve honored that!”

“You’ve honored that,” he said flatly. “Just how long did you honor that? Until tonight?” He shook his head. “Drew got the impression that this has been going on for awhile. What was really going on the night of the baseball game when you were together? Just taking advantage of a few stolen moments?”

“
No, I didn’t even know he was going to be at the baseball game!” I shook my head, unable to believe that he’d even accuse me of such a thing. “As for what Drew said, he’s wrong!”

Noah scraped a hand over his face. “I want to believe you, Emory. I do.”

“But you don’t.” That much was obvious.

He shook his head. “Drew knows what he saw.
He has no reason to lie to me, or make anything up. Why would he?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’m telling you, it wasn’t me.”

“Would you admit it if it was?” he demanded.

“It
wasn’t
!”

“You made a fool out of me once already,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to let you do it again.”

“Noah!” I cried as he reached for the door.

He let himself out without looking back.

I pulled my hair into a ponytail to keep it from sticking to my tear streaked face. What in the hell was Drew thinking? What was Noah thinking? How could Noah sound so sure? The doorbell chimed, cutting into my thoughts.

I trudged down the
stairs; sure that it was Riley at the door.

“What happened?” Riley asked.
Her eyes widened as she took in the state of my face. I was not a pretty crier. My pale skin was red and blotchy. I was sure my eyes were bloodshot. I had a tissue in my hand because my nose wouldn’t stop running.

“Noah,” I said as I choked down a sob. “He broke up with me.”

“What? Why?” she demanded as she pushed past me.

I shook my head as I tried to gain control of my emotions. My throat was so tightly constricted I couldn’t have spoken even if I wanted to. After a few moments I finally pulled in a breath and tried to pull myself together.

“He thinks I’m seeing Caleb,” I said.

She stared at me blank-faced for a few silent moments.

“I know!” I shot out. “That’s ridiculous!”

“Why would he think that?” Riley finally asked.

I pulled in a shuddering breath. “Drew claims he heard me talking with Caleb at Clarice’s. He told Noah that Caleb was telling me that he wasn’t willing to keep our relationship a secret much longer. Noah thinks I’ve been seeing Caleb this whole time. I know that Noah’s really insecure when it comes to Caleb, but this is ridiculous. And coming from Drew? I just don’t get.”

“Oh shit,” Riley said as she leaned up against the wall.
We hadn’t made it any further than the foyer. She crossed her arms over her chest and bit her lip.

“What?!” I asked as I tossed my hands up in the air.

She shook her head. “This is my fault.”

“Yours?” I asked. “Not hardly. This is all on Drew. In fact,” I said as I headed toward the front door, “I’m going to go talk to him right now.” I slid my feet into my sandals as Riley hurried along behind me. “I thought Drew liked me,” I said, my voice full of disbelief. “I thought we were friends.
I’ve known him for years. I thought he wanted Noah and me to get back together. He’s the one who dropped Noah off here in the middle of the night and told Noah that we needed to work things out. I just don’t understand why he would feed Noah a lie like that. I can hardly blame Noah for believing Drew. I mean, Drew’s his best friend. But still! What the hell?!”

“Em—”

“I don’t understand why he would try to sabotage us this way!” I said as I pulled the front door open. Riley followed me out and I pulled the door shut. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Emory,” Riley tried again.

“What?” I asked as I stalked toward my car.

She grabbed onto my elbow and spun me around. “
Emory
!”

I raised my eyebrows at her and slammed my fists onto my hips. “
What
?” I repeated.

She made a pained face at me. “I think maybe I should go with you.”

“Why?” I asked. “I can handle Drew on my own.” I should’ve thought of doing that in the first place but calling Riley in a crisis was second nature to me.

She hesitated before glancing away, then back at me again. Something about her was…
not right. I was hit with the distinct impression that she was keeping something from me.

“What’s going on? I mean, what’s really going on? Do you know something I don’t? Did Drew say something to you?” I demanded.

She pulled her hands over her face and for just a moment, I thought she wasn’t going to answer. Finally she said, “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“So tell me.”

“This is something I should’ve told you awhile ago,” she said quietly. “Can we go back in the house?”

“I don’t mean to be rude,” I began, “but if you have something to say, please say it.” I wanted to get to Drew’s sooner rather than later. I wanted to get this mess cleared up immediately. If I talked to Drew, surely we could figure this out.

There was one thing I knew with absolute certainty: I’d never had that discussion with Caleb.

“It was me!” Riley shot out. She winced as she said the words. Then her explanation tumbled out at warp speed. “I was with Caleb at Clarice’s. I’ve been seeing him for awhile. At first, we were just friends. I ran into him at the hospital after Ty’s accident. Remember? You were in Ty’s room with Noah. Caleb hadn’t wanted to interrupt you guys so he sat out in the waiting room. I felt bad because I knew how worried he was. I sat with him. I fact, I sat with him for hours as we waited for an update on Ty. When you and Noah didn’t come out of the room, Caleb finally left but he gave me his number. He’d asked me to call him with any updates.” She paused as she gave me an apologetic look.

She had been seeing Caleb? Almost this entire time?

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I asked.

She shrugged miserably. “Because the two of you had just ended something messy. I felt really bad because I wasn’t sure at that point if you still had feelings for him. But mostly, I didn’t say anything because I
knew
that he still had feelings for you. I didn’t know if our relationship was going to go anywhere. At first, it didn’t. Not for the first few months anyway. I was just a friend, someone he could talk to.”

I thought back to a few conversations with Riley. She’d mentioned that she was interested in Caleb, but I’d never taken her seriously.
Riley was always interested in any hot, single guy. Besides, those conversations had happened before Caleb and I had gotten together. It had never occurred to me that she’d be interested in him after what had happened between us.

“I was going to tell you but then Melanie started going off on how you should never date your friend’s exes. And maybe you and Caleb didn’t actually date but you were close. You spent a lot of time together. You slept together. You agreed with her and I wasn’t sure how to tell you. I wasn’t sure that it even mattered because like I said, at first, he still had feelings for you.”

I shook my head but she cut me off before I could argue.

“He did, Emory. He didn’t want to complicate things with you and Noah. But trust me, he did. He cares about you a lot. More than cares about you. Or at least he did. I think now…maybe our relationship is getting a little more serious.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. I wasn’t sure what to say. Riley was staring at me with a pained look on her face. She shuffled her feet nervously.

“You’re pissed,” she finally surmised.

I dropped my hand to my side. “I’m not pissed that you’re dating Caleb. I am pissed that you kept it from me!”

She shrugged
helplessly. “Honestly? I felt guilty. Okay? That’s why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to know. I felt guilty because I felt like it was wrong. But I do really like him. The more time I spend with him, the more I get to know him, I just think…I don’t know. I think he might be the one.”

“So how long have you been together?”

“Officially dating? A few months. I mean, we may have messed around a few times before that.”

“So Dr. Douglas…?” I started. “You kind of led me to believe you had a thing for him.”

“The guy
is
hot,” she argued. “That’s all I ever
really
said. I guess I did let you think it was more though. I was just afraid you’d figure out it was Caleb I was interested in.”

“What exactly did you think I was going to do?” I demanded.

“Get mad at me?” she asked with a grimace. “Tell me you didn’t want me to see him? I don’t know.”

I shook my head in irritation.

“I know, I know,” she said. “You’re mad because I didn’t tell you. I handled this whole situation horribly. Forgive me?”

“Riley…I’m not mad. I’m just shocked. I mean, I don’t like that you basically lied to me, or that you shut me out. I really don’t like that you shared everything with Casey, because you did, didn’t you?”

She nodded. “It was impossible not to. I was living with her in that tiny space.
She knew every time I got a call or a text. So yeah, she knew. But it’s not like you tell me everything.”

I narrowed my eyes at her.  I didn’t like that she wanted to turn this around on me. She did have a point though. I did keep things from her last fall.

“If you want to date Caleb, then go for it. I’m…happy for the two of you.”

“Really?”
she asked suspiciously.

Was I?

“I will be as soon as I wrap my head around it,” I decided. “But right now, you really created a mess for me. I don’t see how Drew could possibly think you were me!”

“I don’t know either but I think we need to talk to him. We can straighten this out. I’ll just tell him that
it was me at Clarice’s. He’s reasonable, isn’t he? We can go over there right now.”

I
hesitated; my mind felt like it was stuck in reverse. “You and Caleb? Really?” I was going to need more than a few minutes to get used to the thought of them together.

She gave me a hesitant smile. “Really.”

“And it’s serious.”

“I think it could be. Maybe it will be now.”

“Because you don’t have to sneak around on my account?” I asked. I was unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. If she hadn’t been sneaking around, Noah would’ve been aware that Riley was dating Caleb. It might’ve eased some of the tension between us these past few months.

“Yes,” she admitted.

I shook my head. “Let’s go talk to Drew.”

***

Riley marched up the steps of Drew and Noah’s house. Noah’s truck was gone but Drew’s car was parked in the driveway. This was exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted this straightened out but I’d been worried that if Noah was home, Drew wouldn’t hear us out.

Riley knocked on the door as she gave me an apologetic look over her shoulder. Music pounded from the other side. Riley knocked again, with more determination this time. A few seconds later, the music quieted.

The front door swung open and Drew’s face appeared. He towered over both of us. His dark brown hair was rumpled and his eyes filled with surprise.

“Hey,” he said by way of greeting. His eyebrows bunched up in confusion. “Noah’s not here. So…?”

“I came to talk to you,” Riley said. She carefully pushed past him and I followed. “You made a mistake.”

Drew crossed his arms defiantly over his chest. His expression was hard as he looked from Riley to me and back again.
No wonder Noah was convinced. It was clear that Drew believed I had betrayed his best friend.

“It was me,” Riley said
without preamble. “Talking to Caleb at Clarice’s? It was me. I’m the one that’s been seeing him. Not Emory.”

Drew scoffed as he tossed himself down on the couch. “Look, I know it was Emory. And I’m sure it sucks to be her now that she was caught. You’re her BFF or whatever so yeah, I could see how you would want me to think that.”

Riley reached over and smacked him on the head. “It was me, Drew. I swear it. Why in the world would you think it was Emory?”

“Because I saw her!”

“Did you talk to me?” I demanded, knowing that he hadn’t.

He cocked his head to the side. “You know I didn’t.”

“Apparently you should have,” Riley said. 

“Hey,” Drew said as he leaned forward, “I’ve known Emory forever. I know it was her.”

“Excuse me, I’m right here,” I said. “
Why
do you think it was me?”

“You couldn’t have looked too closely if you thought it was her with Caleb,” Riley said. “Did you?” He hesitated. “Come on Drew, think about it. Don’t you think that maybe there’s a chance you could be wrong
?”

His gaze swung
back and forth between my cousin and me. “You two look a lot alike,” he grudgingly admitted. “And when did you start wearing your hair like that?”

I glanced at Riley. Her hair was curly today. Her curls were big and bouncy, the result of rollers.
It was a completely different look from her normally sleek style.

“I’ve been wearing my hair like this for awhile. Caleb likes it this way,” she admitted. She cast an embarrassed glance my way. “Is that why you jumped to the conclusion that it was Emory? Because of curly hair?”
She sounded as incredulous as I felt.

“No,” Drew scoffed. He turned to me. “You were wearing that purple jacket. The one you always wear.”

“I wasn’t wearing the jacket. I gave that jacket to Riley
months
ago,” I said. It was all so clear now. “Where were you? I mean, how close were you? You obviously didn’t get a good look at Riley’s face.” We did look alike but not
that
much alike. People who knew us never mixed us up.

“I just saw you from the
side. Your hair was maybe hanging in front of your face. I guess. I don’t know,” Drew said. Apparently he wasn’t convinced yet. “I recognized your jacket and I know who Caleb is. I know the history you two have,” he said as he gave me a sour look.