Page 54 of Part of Forever
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Her voice rises. She’s definitely mad.
“No,” I say, wanting to say more, but there’s nothing else to say. I kept a secret, a big secret, for four months. I feel sick.
“Does Tucker know?” Then she laughs, as if she’s figured it out. “Of course he doesn’t, because he would be treating you even more like a queen than he already does if he’d known. And he would have told me.”
“Yes,” I say. “He knows.”
“Gosh.” She shakes her head. “You’re really unbelievable.”
I look at her. “What do you mean?”
Her face turns red and I’m not sure if she’s about to scream or cry. “What do I mean?” she asks so quietly that it scares me. This is worse than screaming or crying.“I mean that my best friend, who I’ve known since I was TWO DAYS OLD, had a tumor and she didn’t even tell me. She told her boyfriend, but not me!”
She’s angry. Really angry.
I had planned this so differently; we’d talk about it in a few years and laugh about it. She wasn’t supposed to be mad.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“Whatever.” She stands abruptly and walks to my door. “I know that it was probably really scary,” she says, looking at me. “Finding out you had a tumor again—but I can’t believe that you let us think that everything was fine.”
“Grace—” I know I should apologize, but the words catch in my throat.
“You should have told me.” And then she leaves without another word.
I blink several times to focus on the road in front of me as Tucker turns off the freeway.
“Seriously, where are we going?” I ask. Now, it’s not even to know what our surprise date is; it’s to distract myself from the knot inside my stomach.My best friend hates me.
“You’ll see!” He grabs my hand. “You’ll like it.”
“I guess I’ll just have to trust you, then.” I smile, pushing away the memories of Grace and the tumor. I just want to enjoy the night. I can enjoy this surprise and think about how to fix things between me and Grace tomorrow.
“I guess you will.” He winks at me and then starts humming along to the song playing on the radio.
“Why aren’t you talking?” I ask after a moment.
He lets out a laugh. “Mostly because I’m terrible at keeping secrets, so if I don’t talk, I can’t let where we’re going slip. But we’re almost there, so just a few more minutes.”
We’re both quiet when we pull up to a small cabin.
“Did Grace ever tell you about this place?” he asks as he turns off the engine; he doesn’t move to get out though.
“Um, no,” I say, wondering why Grace would ever tell me about a cabin up in the mountains. We’ve been best friends for all of our lives, but I know we still find out new things about each other all the time.
“It’s our grandparents’. They still live down in Costa Mesa, but they wanted something in the mountains; not that you can really call this the mountains, but I guess it sort of works.”
“And it’s ours for the night?” I ask, my heart beating fast in my chest.
“And it’s ours for the night.” He looks nervous, too. “Originally, I wanted to spend the night in the bed of my truck, under the stars, because that seemed more romantic. Until Grace reminded me that it’s still pretty chilly outside, and even though it’s not as cold as I’m used to, it’s too cold to stay out all night.”
I shiver just thinking about it. “The cabin is a great idea.”
He squeezes my hand three times and says, “Let’s go inside.”
I help him with the bags that are in the bed of his truck. “I had Nathan pack you a bag,” he says, and his face is as red as a tomato when he says it. He unlocks the door and we head into the small cabin. There’s a kitchen to our left, and to the right are two couches arranged around a fireplace.
