Frustrated, feeling so totally trapped, Joey popped his door open and stepped out into the night. “Jenny. Wait! Where are you going?”
“Away from you.” She wrapped her arms around herself and kept walking.
“Why?”
“Because you lied to me, Joey. If that’s even your real name.”
“C’mon. I didn’t start to work at Kettle O’ Fish under an alias.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“My name really is Joey.” Unable to just leave her, feeling pressured because he’d promised his mom he was going to pick up his little brother, Joey sprinted after her. “I really do have a little brother named Chris. I’ve got pictures.” At his age, he’d thought carrying pictures of his little brother—especially one that got all of the attention—was kind of a dumb thing to do, but Chris was the only little brother he had. Besides, not everybody got to open his wallet so his secret was usually safe.
Jenny kept walking.
In a half-dozen long strides, Joey caught up with Jenny. She swiped at him with a fist. He ducked back, only inches out of her reach. For a girl, she could really throw a punch.
“Would you please look at my wallet?” Joey held it out, open to his driver’s license and base ID. “Look. I’ve got military ID, too.”
“Go away, Joey. Or whatever your name is.”
“This is stupid.” Joey stopped. Let her go, he told himself. You can’t stop stupid people from being stupid. People his age always said that. His anger stirred in him again. “You know, if anybody should be upset about tonight, it should be me. I took you to the club and watched you dance with every guy in the place but me.”
Jenny whirled, then marched back to him, staying carefully back out of his reach. “What?”
“You heard me. You.” Joey pointed at her. “Me.” He pointed at himself. “Not exactly a fun date.”
“Oh, man,” she said. “You are so full of it. What? You think because you ask somebody out you get to own them?”
“No.” Joey sighed. “No, I don’t. But I think it should give those two people a chance to get to know each other.”
“Really?” Jenny arched a brow. “And just exactly who was I supposed to be getting to know? Joey who lives on his own? Or Joey who lives with his mom?”
Joey took a deep, shuddering breath. Man, tonight had been so totally messed up. He sucked on his split lip and offered his wallet. “I’m Joey Holder. My mom is Megan Gander. My stepdad’s name is Sam. Samuel Gander. His friends call him Goose. I call him Goose. He’s the one over in Turkey right now that we saw on the television. My dad, Tony, he lives in L.A. I haven’t seen him in ten years. I haven’t even got a phone call in five years.” He took in a breath and let it out. About the time Chris was born, he realized, and he couldn’t help wondering if his little brother’s birth had something to do with that. He shoved the question out of his mind, knowing it would haunt him later. “I’m seventeen. Not twenty-one.”
She stared at him for a minute. “So you lied about your age?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To meet you.” Joey shrugged. “Things didn’t work out exactly the way I wanted them to.”
Quiet and intense, her arms wrapped around herself, Jenny stared at him.
Joey felt incredibly uncomfortable. He was also suddenly aware of the chill that was in the air. It was March. Even in the South, spring was chilly without a jacket.
“For the record,” Jenny said, “you asked me to go to the club with you.”
“Okay.”
“That’s not asking me for a date. If you want a date from someone, you ask them for a date. I thought maybe you hadn’t been to the club before and wanted someone to go with.”
“I hadn’t,” Joey said.
Jenny sighed and shook her head. “You’re seventeen. Of course you hadn’t.” She held her hand out. “Let’s see your fake ID.”
Reaching into his pocket, Joey produced the fake ID he had been so proud of only a few days ago when his great plan had begun. He put the ID in Jenny’s hand.
She looked at it and smiled a little. “Good picture.”
“Thanks.” Unable to help himself, Joey grinned a little. Suddenly, all the trouble that had been gathering all night didn’t seem so heavy.
“Dumb idea.” Jenny ripped the fake ID into quarters and let the pieces blow away.
“Oh.” Joey’s smile melted.
“Do you really have a little brother?”
Joey opened his wallet and flashed Chris’s picture again.
“Cute kid,” Jenny said.
“Everybody says that,” Joey replied glumly.
“How do I know the picture didn’t come with the wallet?”
Reaching behind the top picture, Joey showed her an older one of him and Chris together.
Peering more closely, Jenny said, “He looks a lot like you.”
Joey almost asked her if that meant he was cute, too. But he didn’t. Tonight, thankfully, he was not going to be that dumb.
“So your little brother,” Jenny said, “he’s still at the child-care place on the base?”
Joey nodded.
“And your stepdad really is over there in all that mess in Turkey?”
Joey nodded again.
Jenny sighed. “Okay. Let’s go get the little brother. I bet your mom is going nuts.”
“Yeah.”
“The curfew thing isn’t helping.”
“No,” Joey agreed.
“You picked a really bad night for all of this, Joey.”
“You’re telling me.”
Jenny started back toward the car. Caught by surprise, Joey had to step quickly to catch up. He reached past her to open the passengerside door. It was something he’d seen Goose do for his mom for years and couldn’t remember his dad ever doing. Few guys did something like that anymore, and Joey had liked the idea of showing that kind of respect. Thinking of that reminded him of Goose, and uncertainty filled him again. He slipped behind the steering wheel and got the car moving again.
He paused at the corner, waiting on the light as traffic passed. “About the seventeen-years-old thing,” he said.
She looked at him. “What?”
“If I’d told you I was seventeen years old and wanted to go
