“Stop laughing,” Jaci hissed, throwing the pillow at Amanda and glancing at the door between the two hotel rooms. “You’ll wake your father.”
“Sorry,” Amanda said, putting a hand to her mouth to muffle the mirth that shook her shoulders. “It’s just too funny. Your father telling you to fake that you’re in love with some Swiss guy and refuse to come home? Who’s going to buy it?”
Jaci scowled. Indeed, who? Not her mother. She knew Jaci was crazy in love with Ricky. Not to mention she’d just gotten over Joey.
But maybe the Joey angle was the way to play it . . .
“People just snap sometimes, right?” Jaci said. “Especially after a really stressful, self-defining experience.”
“Yeah, I suppose sometimes they do,” Amanda said. “And you think you can pretend like you snapped?”
“Why not?” Jaci shrugged. “I’ve already proven myself to be a bit impetuous under duress. Like chopping all of my hair off or kissing a boy while I’m dating another.” She grinned, even though the memory of the latter still shamed her.
“Yeah, but your mom doesn’t know about all that.”
Jaci waved a hand. “Besides the point. Maybe I really am impulsive. I don’t care about school anymore, I’m not even sure I want to go to college. I’ve snuck off to Switzerland to see my father without telling my mom. Is meeting a boy and running away such a big stretch? Maybe that’s what’s next.”
Amanda eyed her. “Are you going to include Ricky in these plans?”
Oh. Ricky was bound to find out. Her stomach twisted. “I’m talking with him online later tonight. I can tell him then.”
“Is your dad okay with you telling him?”
Jaci hadn’t asked permission and didn’t plan to. “Ricky won’t tell anyone.”
“So he already knows you were meeting your dad here?”
“Well, no,” she admitted. “I’ll just have to let him in on everything.”
It was the only way. Because her mom would be tracking Ricky down as soon as this whole thing broke loose and interrogating him.
----------------------------------------
With an eight-hour time difference between Idaho and Switzerland, Jaci quickly set up the Wi-Fi on her laptop so she could call home before her mom left for work. It was a little after seven a.m. there. Today she could play it cool and normal; she hadn’t done anything wrong yet.
“Hi, girls!” Mrs. Rivera said, smiling at the camera. Cesar waved in the background, munching on a bowl of cereal. “How is Switzerland?”
“My dad’s still asleep, so we’ve just stayed up here in the hotel room,” Amanda said over Jaci’s shoulder. “It’s really safe and clean, though!”
“That’s good, you wait for him to be awake and with you. Don’t wander the streets by yourselves.”
Jaci shot Amanda a look. “Mom, we’re not babies anymore.”
“But you can still be hurt. You stay with him.”
“Yes, Mom,” Amanda said, popping a chip in her mouth and winking at Jaci.
It didn’t really matter what her mom said. It was all about to hit the fan, anyway.
She hated to put her mom through hell.
Again.
“What are your plans tomorrow?” Mrs. Rivera asked.
Jaci pulled up the calendar app on her phone. “If the weather’s nice, we’re going to Lake Zürich for a boat ride, maybe walk around the Old Town. Otherwise we’ll do the Museum of Art, maybe the mall.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. We’re pretty flexible.”
“Send me lots of photos, okay?”
“You got it,” Amanda said. “I’m helping Jaci so she can post her pictures online. I’ll send you her account name so you can follow her.”
Cesar started yelling from the kitchen, and Mrs. Rivera cast a glance over her shoulder at him. “I have to finish getting ready and leave for work. I love you, be careful.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Guilt twisted in Jaci’s gut, and she was glad the camera image wasn’t so good. “We will, Mom. Love you too.”
She disconnected the call and exhaled.
“Not so bad, right?” Amanda murmured, holding the bag of chips out to Jaci. “Tomorrow you get to tell her you met a guy and are so in love you’re running off with him.”
Jaci ignored the chips and dropped her head into her hands. “I don’t know how I can do this to her.”
“Just make it sound like you’re so very happy and everything’s great.”
“But she won’t be happy. She’ll hate herself for letting me come.”
Amanda tilted her head, considering. “I guess you could tell her the truth.”
Jaci tried to imagine what would happen if she did. It wasn’t like her mom could stop her from seeing her dad, any more than she could stop her from running off with some boy. Then she shook her head. “No. If she knows my father is here, it will open a whole can of worms for her. She might even tell the cops.”
Amanda nodded. “I’m sure you know best.”
Ricky’s name popped up on the contact list as online, and both of them stared at it.
Amanda tossed another chip into her mouth. “These are really good, by the way. You gonna call him?”
“Yeah.” Jaci sighed. “May as well.”
Before Jaci could, Mr. Murphy groaned loudly in the other room. The floor thumped as he rolled out of bed, and a moment later he poked his head inside their room. “Did you girls want to go out tonight? See the city a bit, catch a meal at a restaurant?”
“Sure!” Amanda said, her interest in Jaci’s conversation with Ricky dissipating.
“We should get going, then. It’s already dark out, and this city gives new definition to the word ‘cold.’”
“In a minute,” Jaci said. “I need to call my boyfriend.”
“He’s not going anywhere,” Amanda said, nudging her. “Come on. Put something warm on and let’s head out.”
Jaci typed out a quick apology and told Ricky she’d call him later. Then she grabbed her hat and jacket and followed Amanda out.
Although it was early evening, the city continued to hustle and bustle as it had during the day. Cars honked and jostled past each other, their headlights illuminating the tall buildings and pedestrians making their way down the sidewalks. Jaci looked up at the sky, wondering if she’d see different stars, but to her surprise she didn’t see any stars at all. Quite unlike the small farming community in Shelley, Idaho. She recalled quite clearly the evening she’d spent with Joey in the back of his truck, looking at the stars, right before their first kiss.
Her heart twisted so painfully that she gasped and stopped walking.
Amanda halted and came back to her. “What is it? Is it your ankle?”
“No.” Jaci waved her off, the cold wind stinging her eyes where tears threatened. “I’m fine. Let’s keep going.”
They walked around the block to get away from the hotels. As soon as the buildings no longer shielded them, however, a biting wind blew in off the waterfront, nipping Jaci’s nose and ears. She shivered and huddled closer into her parka, wishing she’d grabbed her gloves.
They took their time inside the restaurant, enjoying the rich dish of cheese fondue and sausage and bread. Jaci kept checking her phone, anxious to get back to the hotel room, but Amanda and her father were enjoying their time in a foreign country.
They finished dinner two hours later and finally headed back toward the hotel. But then Mr. Murphy saw an open chocolate shop, and even Jaci was not adverse to going inside.
Amanda picked up a sweater from a display shelf inside. She gasped. “Dude! This is the prettiest, softest fabric I’ve ever seen.” She pressed it to her cheek and closed her eyes, then held it to her torso. “How does it look?”
“Really nice,” Jaci said.
“I need something from Switzerland. They don’t make sweaters like this in Idaho.” Amanda fished around for a price tag, then uttered another gasp and shoved the sweater back. “It’ll have to be something else.”
Jaci couldn’t help laughing. “I’m sure we’ll find something.”
“Yeah.” Amanda cast one last wistful look in the direction of the sweater before turning away.
It wasn’t quite nine o’clock yet, but the traveling had taken its toll. Jaci could sleep for two days.
The moment they pushed opened the doors from the chocolate shop to the sidewalk, the shocking chill knocked the breath out of her. The sun had taken all the warmth of the day with it when it went down. She linked her arm with Amanda’s, and they walked as closely together as they could, shivering until they ducked into the hotel lobby. The young man still stood behind the check-in desk, and he offered a grin.
“It’s cold, neh?” he said, his perfect English accented. Or was it accented perfectly? Either way, Jaci knew from the way Amanda straightened and tossed her hair that it hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“Very cold,” Amanda said. “It gets cold where we live, but we don’t usually walk around in it.”
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“I’ll be in the room, girls,” Mr. Murphy said, surprising Jaci. “Don’t dawdle.”
Amanda stepped closer to the desk. “California,” she said.
Jaci slipped her arm away and started for the elevator, and then she hesitated. What if she left Amanda here alone and something happened? Nothing’s going to happen, she told herself. It’s just a cute boy flirting with Amanda.
And yet—she cursed herself for her paranoia, and even worse because she had reason for it. She stood by the elevator, tapping her foot and eventually clearing her throat until Amanda got the hint.
“Well,” Amanda said, breezing past her into the open elevator, “this trip just got more interesting.”
“Like it wasn’t already interesting?”
“Maybe for you with your imaginary boyfriend. I might be able to land me a real one.”
“Just don’t really run off with him,” Jaci muttered.
Amanda laughed. “That’s something you would do, remember?”
Nearly four hours had passed. Jaci sighed as soon as she sat down at the computer. Ricky’s icon was offline now. She stared at the dormant icon. Didn’t he get off work around six? Just four more hours, then.
The soft voices from the television filtered into the room, but Amanda kept the volume down. Mr. Murphy knocked on the door to say he was going to bed, and then all was silent on his end.
Jaci’s eyes burned, and she fought the urge to curl up in bed and sleep. Instead she pulled open the directory to the jump drive Joey had given her, her heart thumping harder as she stared at the file tree. Do it, she told herself.
She clicked on the next document.
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