Chapter 7

“You all right? What can I do?”

Grady studied me for a minute, but let me change the subject. “I’ll be fine. I’ll stay here for another night, then my mom will come get me. The parents will fuss for a while, but that’s okay.”

“Cool. Well, call me if you need anything. I gotta go. Have a bar mitzvah tonight, and it’s a two-hour drive to get to the event.” I got up and clasped his hand briefly before moving to the doorway.

“Jared?” he called out before I left the room.

“Yeah?” I turned to look at him.

“I think there’s more to what’s going on with Joey than he lets on. He hurt me, sure. But now that I think about it, all the time we screwed around, he held something back. I mean, the sex was good, don’t get me wrong, but there was always this wall between that and anything serious.” He shifted on the bed.