Page 134 of Good For Me

There’s so much sympathy in his face it makes my chest ache. “She was looking for me. Tried the bar and someone on the work crew mentioned I was staying with my son during the repairs.”

Jas swallows several times, then licks her lips. “What. Um. Did she say what she wanted?”

I tighten my arm around her waist. She sounds so forlorn, almost childlike. Completely unlike her. I pull her down into the love seat across from her uncle.

Dave sighs, suddenly looking much, much older. “She was looking for you.”

“You didn’t tell her where I am, did you?” she asks, and I hate the fear in her voice.

“Of course not, sweetheart,” he says. “I told her to go to hell. But I thought you should know that she was around.” He pauses. “She’ll probably try to find you. Lou told me she was at the diner earlier.”

Jas stands suddenly, brushing my hand away when I reach for her. “Why would she be looking for me?” she asks, beginning to pace the room. “She’s never given a shit about me before. Why now?”

He shakes his head. “I’m not sure. She just kept saying she missed you, wanted to talk to you.”

Jas snorts in derision. “Oh, I’m so sure.” She rubs her belly in that unconscious way of hers. “She didn’t even show up until a week after Grandpa’s funeral, and now all of a sudden she—” Jas cuts herself off with a little gasp, looking down at the hand still on her stomach. “Oh my God,” she whispers. “Did she say anything about—you don’t think she knows about the baby, do you?”

“She didn’t say anything about that,” he says calmly. “I can’t think of anyone around here who would keep in touch with her to tell her.” He looks thoughtful. “You haven’t put anything on social media, have you?”

Jas shakes her head. “No. I’m barely on there anyhow. I can’t remember the last time I posted.”

“Someone tagged you this week,” I say, and they both turn to me.

“What?”

“One of the kids in your marketing class. Posted a pic of the four of you giving your final presentation.” The notification of a photo of her had showed up on my phone and I spent most of my lunch break looking at it, wishing she would text me, wishing I was at home with her. She was so fucking gorgeous and badass in that picture, all business-like and serious for her presentation.

“How do you know that?” she asks.

I feel my face heat. “I follow you.” I figure there’s no need to explain how I looked up all her social media accounts back when I was still working at Davie’s and she was dating the douchebag. She’s never posted very often, but there were enough photos of her to keep my obsession with her satisfied on the days when I didn’t see her.

Not at all creepy, River.

Jas is chewing her lip. “Could you see my belly in the picture?”

“No. Shoulders up. I don’t think she could have known you were pregnant.”

Her uncle clears his throat. He has his phone out and he’s staring down at it with a grim expression on his face. “It mentions graduation,” he says in a flat voice.

“What?” she whirls around to face him. “What does it say?”

“‘Aced our final,” he reads. “‘Here comes graduation for this crew.’”

Their eyes meet, something passing between them. “So she knows I’m graduating.”

He nods, looking equal parts sad and pissed off. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

Jas shakes her head, eyes locked to the floor. They’re both acting like this is a huge deal, that her mom knows she’s graduating. Was it supposed to be a secret?

“I’m missing something.”

“The money,” Jas says softly, and then it clicks into place. Her grandfather’s money. The trust is supposed to be disbursed to Jas when she graduates from college.

“You think she’s after your money?”

“She wasn’t very happy when the will was read,” Dave says, scowling. “Dad didn’t leave her anything.”

“She’s a piece of shit,” Jas says in a cold voice I’ve never heard from her before. “Of course she wants the money.”