Emily Calls It (The Emily Series) by Laura Albright.

loudly.
    I looked around to make sure no one heard us. I don’t know w hy I cared, but I did. “Trish… come on! Try not to alert the whole restaurant. It’s not like we’re dating or anything. We just ate our lunches together once.” She looked like she didn’t believe me. “ OK , then there was the benefit.”
    “Benefit? What happened there?” The corners of her mouth turned up.
    “We danced. It was nice.” I sat back in my seat.
    “That was it? What was it like afterwards? You know, working with him.”
    “I don’t know. He wasn’t in the office today. Actually I heard he’s going to be out of town for a while.”
    “Huh. So you DO have a few contenders , then.”
    “I don’t know about that.” I laughed wondering if anything was really in the cards for me .
     

ELEVEN
    Sometimes I’m So Off- Base
     
     
    The weeks that followed went by fast. Each day brought new challenges at my internship and each night brought a soft pillow — solo. I hardly had time to get nervous about starting classes again. In the back of my mind I knew I would run into Graham, but I hoped the campus was big enough that I could avoid him. I needed to move on, and I needed to let him go entirely. Now I had all the tools to do it. But my heart still felt heavy at the thought of him. What made it worse was his obvious remorse and persistence. He continued to leave messages and insist that he wasn’t with Nicole. I didn’t know what to believe. I was trying to move on .
    Work was busy, and during the last weeks I completed the project left by Colin while he was in the Bay Area office. Secretly I wanted him to return to see if there was anything between us, but as the days passed, I continued to forge ahead alone, waiting for school to start again. Alone was never something I relished, and it took some getting used to after being with Graham.
    As a farewell to summer, my brother was having a BBQ and swim party at his place. Allison insisted I come even though part of me was reluctant to be the third wheel again. I hoped I would know a few people, not just the two of them . The thought of another gathering without a date wasn’t appealing.
    When I walked into the gated pool area I scanned the crowd and recognized no one. I knew I would at least see Allison and Ethan at some point, so I tried not to fret. Before I could even reach a chaise to lounge in, I spotted Ethan. He waved for me to join him in the BBQ area.
    “So , have you talked to Mom?” Ethan asked, annoyed, as if he already knew the answer. I wondered why that was the first thing he said.
    “No, she left a message but …” I saw the look on his face and didn’t feel the need to go on.
    “You really should be better about calling people back.” I rolled my eyes at his ability to stick me with guilt at every opportunity. “Mom’s moving.”
    “What? Where? How did that happen?” I was shocked. True, I hadn’t talked with her lately, but I thought there would’ve been some clues.
    “She got a job in the Bay Area.”
    “What about Hunter? She’s just going to uproot him?”
    “Please, you know our little brother. He’s always looking for the next adventure. Moving won’t bother him.” I nodded in agreement. He was probably right about Hunter, but that still didn’t explain her sudden move.
    “So why is she moving? It can’t just be for a job,” I said, still perplexed.
    “It’s a good job. And you know Grandma and Grandpa aren’t getting any younger. Mom wants to be near them. Maybe you should call her to get all the details.” We both heard someone call his name and turned. Ethan nodded to make his point then walked toward the voice.
    A strange feeling came over me. It was almost as if I was the one moving and being uprooted. I knew that wasn’t true, but I still felt off-balance. Not having a reason to visit my home town would be weird. Actually, more than weird. Di sconnected. I would lose my relationship with Two Rivers and…many other