Trial & Error ✓

21 | louisa & jacob

2 1

lousia & jacob

—

THE ART SHOW was finally over.

I was honestly relieved after such a tiring night, but that didn't exactly mean all my problems were solved forever. No, that just meant me coming home late at night, only to be fiercely interrogated by Delaney Cooke who was scared sick about me. And that just meant me feeling horrible about keeping her in the dark about what had been going on in my life for the past weeks. So I had told her everything that wasn't very personal — like the story of how I met Teddy when I thought he was a crook and threw a rock at him, the possibility of George and Selena's dabbles in white collar crime, and the fact that I was working with Teddy to determine their legitimacy. I even threw in some other details like my art just for good measure.

And she told me that I needed to take care of her little cousin Louisa because she and Kevin were driving to New Jersey for the weekend and didn't want to take her with them. Also it was as atonement on my end for keeping such an important thing in my life a secret from her.

Which was how I ended up dusting Selena's cabinets with a teenager who wasn't Jacob or Sadie watching me. It was a bit awkward since she wasn't saying anything, just looking up from her phone every now and then to watch me work before diving back into the virtual and more interesting world happening on her screen.

"So," I said awkwardly. "What are you? Like fifteen?"

I turned my head to see Louisa look up from her phone and nod. "Yes, I'm fifteen and I'll be turning sixteen in August."

"That's good to know," I said to myself under my breath. There was nothing wrong with Louisa, like as a person, it's just that she wasn't very easy to get along with. We didn't mesh like I did with her older cousin. She was either anti-social, disinterested, or both.

So I was quite grateful to see Jacob strolling into the living room, especially since he was carrying Jack in his arms. I put my duster down and walked up to meet them halfway. "Hey, boys," I said excitedly, "what's going on?"

"We just got back from school," Jack said with equal excitement.

"Yeah and my little brother here needs to take a bath," Jacob said, thrusting him into my arms. "His teacher told mom he was rolling in some dog crap during recess and they weren't allowed to thoroughly wash him."

"Oh," I said, almost dropping him before realizing that would be wrong and possibly dangerous as well. "Well, I'll get right to it, then."

Jacob nodded and turned to leave, but it only took a second before he turned back to face me. "Who's the chick over there? She's pretty cute, to be honest."

"How about 'who's the well-educated young woman of stature over there,' for starters," I crossed my arms across my chest.

Jacob just shrugged. "Too long and I don't even know if it's true yet," he said.

I sighed in defeat, knowing that ignoring that comment would've made my job just slightly easier. "Well, that's my friend's cousin, not just some chick."

"Do you think she'd mind if I talked to her," he asked, leaning in towards me. "Put on the old Gates family charm on her for a minute?"

"Sure," I scoffed. "If she can spare a minute to talk to you. She's been on her phone all day and she said she has a little tablet in her purse too for when that runs out of battery."

Jacob's eyes gleamed with excitement, as if the prospect of a challenge gave him new energy. I would never understand boys.

"Watch and learn," he said before walking over to Louisa. She was still solely focused on her tablet, so I had little hope for this interaction to go as he hoped for it to, but she suddenly looked up at him and smiled in acknowledgement. I couldn't believe it. And not only that, but she scooted over on the couch so he could sit down next to her as if it wasn't already the largest couch I had the luxury of sitting on.