As we approached, Tom jumped from his chair and rushed to me. Crooking his finger, he motioned me down toward him. I leaned over till he could whisper in my ear.

"Just because I'm having dinner with Katie, doesn't mean I don't still like you best."

I cupped my hand over his ear and whispered back, "I like you best, too."

"Really?"

I nodded my head and Tom shot Luke a triumphant grin. Great. If it didn't work out with... anyone, I had my own nine year-old boyfriend in the wings.

"Amy!" Mrs. Parker waved me around the table to where she sat with her husband. "I'm so glad you stopped by to say h.e.l.lo. This is Mr. Parker." He looked a little more stern than Mrs. Parker. Of course, Care Bears were more stern than she was. "And this is Luke's friend Katie."

Before I'd even pivoted to face her, Katie was bubbling over. "Hi! The guys have told me all about you! I'm so glad they all have a new friend here before they even start school!"

Luke looked physically pained by all her energy. The new inner me couldn't help but laugh a little at that. Inside of course.

Jared broke in before things could get any more awkward. Yeah, because that was possible.

"We're going with Rachel and Amy."

Please note-I had already been relegated to Rachel's sidekick. That would be a record eight minutes.

Jared draped an arm around her shoulder before clarifying our evening for all of us. "Rachel will drive us home."

"I will?" She rolled her eyes, but the smile she gave him let us all know there wasn't an issue. "You're not one of those controlling guys are you?"

"Nah. I just knew you wouldn't be able to get enough of me in the time it takes to buy a phone. You're going to need at least the car ride home to feel content."

Even Justin looked a little ill at this exchange.

Once outside, Justin threw his arm about me, mirroring Jared and Rachel in front of us, before we pa.s.sed the restaurant window. I knew he was teasing, but I gave him the look again.

"Don't mind me," he said. "Like I said. I'm just tweaking my brother. Serves him right getting stuck with the wrong girl. I told him she was trouble and to steer clear."

"You sound like you know her pretty well."

Justin cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah."

"So, she's staying until her parents show up?"

He tugged me around to look up at him. "Amy, he didn't know she was coming. I saw him the day he broke up with her. Even from a distance anyone could tell that was what was going on. She's nuts."

"Well, he should have been up front with her from the beginning. She may have painted him into a corner, but he didn't have to hand her the brush."

"I'm just saying, he isn't a bad guy."

I stopped, slid out from under his arm and faced him.

"Justin, you've been at this from the first day I met you. You aren't listening. It doesn't matter if he's dating someone."

"Yeah, Luke's told me about him. That guy sounds like he's about as good a friend as he is a boyfriend." He threw his arm around my shoulder again and started us down the street. "You should be with someone who respects you. Not leaves you on your own. Who doesn't let his friends know you're his girlfriend."

"Oh?" I laughed at him, knowing he was teasing again. "Like you?"

"Like Luke."

Okay, maybe not in teasing mode.

"We're just friends."

"I don't think that's true. You don't either. I've never seen two people hit it off like you guys. When he showed up with you for lunch... It just worked, you know?"

I jerked my head toward his brother and Rachel.

"I amend that. Two sane people." He gave me that lopsided Parker grin. "Think about it."

"I don't need to think about it. I could never date a guy who treated someone the way he treated Katie."

"Trust me. The Katie thing, not what it appears. And anyway, a guy who pretends he doesn't even know you isn't so bad? "

"Hey, guys. Wait up," Luke shouted as he hurried down the sidewalk behind us, Katie clinging to his arm.

"Yeah, Justin. I can see he's really fighting her off."

Justin's eyes narrowed as they neared. "I think he just needs a little incentive to step up."

The arm about my shoulder tightened and he pulled me into his side. "Even if you aren't interested, you can't blame me for wanting to irk him. A little temper fit wouldn't be such a bad thing, would it?"

The idea of Luke losing his temper in public flitted through my head and was so ridiculous I couldn't even really contemplate it.

"We thought we'd walk with you guys." Katie studied me, her gaze stopping on where Justin's arm rested on my shoulder, his hand toying with my hair. Her smile brightened, a perfect little sunbeam smile. "Luke says there's a shopping plaza down the corner and I forgot my cell charger."

"Well if Luke says-"

I elbowed Justin in the gut. It was becoming abundantly clear he did not like Katie-whether she was Luke's girlfriend or not.

"Justin, there's no need to be rude." She was actually stroking Luke's arm as she spoke. "It isn't like you need to entertain me. You aren't the one I came to see."

"Thank G.o.d."

Luke shut his eyes and tilted his head back. A maneuver I'd never seen him do.

Justin tugged me away from the nauseating pair. "Come on, Amy. Let's catch up with the phone-buying duo."

As we hurried away, I glanced at Justin. "What was that? Don't like her much, huh?"

"You could say that."

"Because she's Luke's girlfriend?"

"Because she used to be my girlfriend."

I stopped short, forcing him to grind to a halt. "Whoa. Luke stole your girlfriend?"

I glanced to where we'd left Luke and Katie. Some type of argument beyond the norm had obviously erupted as soon as we'd escaped.

"Luke didn't steal anything. Katie used me to get to him." Justin's scowl aimed at Katie told me he wasn't just a little put out by her being here. "He wasn't much of a dater. He had a girl he'd kind of dated since junior high but it was more of a best friend thing. Katie used every excuse to come over to the house and only wanted to do stuff if we'd see him."

"I figured out what she was doing pretty quickly and broke things off," he continued. "But she stuck around, pretending we were all buddy-buddy. When she started throwing herself at him in public, Luke didn't want to embarra.s.s her. The more she did it, the more she acted like the perfect girlfriend, the more he had no clue what to do about it. He'd try to break it off, but she was like psycho-girl. Then my parents told us we were moving and the whole family was relieved."

I shook my head, trying to clear it, trying to put it back the way it was that morning. It wasn't fair of Justin to come along and make everything shift again. I thought about Luke working to do the right thing with Katie. I thought about Chris and me. And Chris and Cheryl. A tremor skidded around my heart. I wasn't some type of weird Katie, was I? Chasing after a guy who didn't want me but let himself get caught... for whatever reason.

Justin looked toward them as if his story might summon her to a perky-attack.

"When he showed up at the house with you in tow, I think we all did this internal groan thing. Afraid he'd gotten himself sucked into another bad situation because he didn't know how to be rude. Especially to a girl. But then you hung out and we all liked you. You know. Like, it was all cool."

Wow. That was a lot of words.

"Amy, you may not want to believe it, but I'd place everything I have on the fact that he's into you. Not her. Definitely not her."

Justin glanced toward the pair again. This time my gaze followed his. Luke was shaking his head while Katie bubbled words up at him. While we watched, her expression shifted to Tinker Bell-like fury, her pint-sized hands balling into perfect little fists.

It was funny, watching the kitten pretend she was a tigress. That was, until she slammed that tiny fist into Luke's chest not once, but twice. Justin's arm dropped from my shoulder, but before he could move toward them, Luke wrapped his hand around her wrist and pulled her back into the restaurant. A moment later, he stormed out and glanced around. At the sight of us watching he stilled, his face going slack before he strode down the street in the opposite direction.

We watched Luke go until he rounded the corner.

Taking my arm again, Justin dragged me into the phone store. It was weird to just watch Luke storm out then go shopping. But, I figured the Parkers had to have this family-dynamic thing down to a science by now. Plus, Rachel was an impulsive dater. It looked like Jared was too. Whatever we found in that shop, it was at least going to be interesting.

Jared looked up when the bell over the door clanged and waved us over, taking charge, not even knowing drama had just happened.

"Check this out." He picked up a phone that cost more than I made in a week at the Rec Center. "Press that b.u.t.ton."

On the back, a protective strip flipped out of the way. I pushed it aside and pressed the nearly hidden b.u.t.ton.

"911. What is your emergency?"

"Oh c.r.a.p." Justin punched his brother in the shoulder as I tried to figure out how to answer the phone.

"I'm sorry. There's no emergency. We're just fine here. Promise. Sorry."

By the time my rambling apology had run out of steam, Jared was holding his sides laughing. "It's a panic b.u.t.ton. Isn't that cool? Scares the underworld crime types."

Justin hit him again and looked at me with an apologetic expression. "I often wonder how it is there's still two of us. Shocking that someone hasn't killed him yet, isn't it?"

Jared's distracted gaze followed Rachel and the college-age sales guy discussing the importance of pink versus hot pink phones.

Jared tossed the panic-inducing phone down and picked up a more reasonably priced, less Go-Go-Gadget one. "We're having a celebration tomorrow. Katie should be on the road and gone for good by dinner. Come over and we'll barbeque you a Hallelujah Burger."

Yeah, that's really what I wanted to do. Not. "I don't know. I think we may be doing something."

"Hey, Rachel," Jared called to get her attention. "You doing something tomorrow or are you up for our Katie-has-been-vanquished barbeque?"

"Barbeque. Tomorrow. Got it."

And with that, my day was planned and she'd moved on. I know we were used to following whatever cue she wanted, but would it have hurt to ask what I wanted to do?

"Excellent." Jared grinned and headed toward the pair at the counter.

"It will be good to see Luke freed from the crazy princess's clutches."

Justin looked so sincerely worried at the thought of his brother dealing with the evil pixie, that I reconsidered Luke's maybe-stalker maybe-girlfriend guest. I mean, when I'd fallen he'd taken the time to get me home and clean me up. Maybe he wasn't the one who needed to have the "what makes a good friend" discussion. Maybe it was me.

The sales guy rang-up Rachel's new Hot Sugar Pink phone as we joined them at the counter.

"If you need any help setting that up, here's my card." He handed her a business card. I didn't even know anyone with a business card. "My cell number's on the back. Feel free to use that."

Jared slid up beside her, wrapping his arm around her waist. "Sorry, she's spoken for."

Rachel's head c.o.c.ked up at him, and then she smiled at the sales guy. "Yup. Spoken for."

And that was that.

Seriously.

Forty minutes.

How did I make everything so hard?

Chapter 19.

All that Parker Family Fun Time had me missing my mom more than usual.

Okay, so not true. I still missed her every day. But between the Parkerness going on and the fact that school was starting, the missing became epic.

On the way home I had Rachel drop me off at the school so I could break back into the art room. When I missed my mom the most, I just wanted to paint. It's how I'd started that hazy portrait of her that just kept calling me back.

Sometimes as I painted, I talked as if she were there. And talked and talked. This was one of those times. I talked about everything. Chris and Luke. Rachel being away and coming home. Running and Art.

And Dad. I talked a lot about Dad and how there were days I missed him even more than my mom in a weird way.

Closing my eyes, I lifted the brush from the canvas. I could see her there with me in my mind.

"I wish you were here, Mom. I could really use a parent right now." I tried not to picture the look she would have given me. The c.o.c.ked eyebrow. The quirked lip. "I know. But Dad's never here. I miss him almost as much as I miss you."