“Yeah,” I agreed, my entire attention focused on that tongue. “Do you want to—?” I gestured vaguely over my shoulder to the bank of elevators that led to our rooms.
“Let’s get a drink,” he blurted, then winced. “I, um, have heard that I talk better under the influence of tequila, and we have a lot of things to say.”
I nodded, and we headed to the bar, where we managed to snag a little table outside in a shadowed corner close to the parking lot. Jay kept his hat pulled low at first, but he relaxed when the waitress didn’t recognize him either.
I waited patiently until she’d brought us each a tequila flight and a beer, but Jay still wasn’t talking. “So… Aimee’s good, you said?” I prompted.
“Yeah. I think so.” Jay downed a shot of tequila, then another in quick succession. “She had a sore throat and was out of breath, a little, but she sounded like herself. And she said she’s getting better. And she said…” He shook his head. “Well. She said alotof things. But mostly she said I was an idiot for walking away from you, and—”
My head went back. “Aimee saidyouwere an idiot for walking away when she did the same thing herself?” I sipped at my own tequila. “Hmm.”
“She was right, though,” Jay said in that dreamy, husky voice of his. He tilted his head back to the sky. “You know, I remember you telling me that myth about the guy and his wife—”
“Orpheus and Eurydice,” I whispered.
“Yeah. They were finally gonna be reunited, as long as he trusted and believed that she’d stick with him. But he didn’t trust enough. And he lost her for good. You don’t know how many times I’ve looked up at the sky and thought of you and summer stargazing. Thought of that myth. But I was too blind to see myself in it.”
He took another drink, then set the shot glass down on the table with a clack. His eyes met mine, and he blurted, “I’m sorry, Rafe. I’m sorry I stopped returning your calls. I’m sorry I wasn’t at your wedding. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. But it was never because I didn’t have room in my life for you. It was because I thought you didn’t have room in your life forme. I told myself you wouldn’t need me as your friend anymore once you had Aimee. You… our friendship… it was so important to me. And I was jealous, so I let myself believe—”
“Lies?” I gave him a wry smile. “Same. Like you were never as invested in our friendship as I was.”
“I was way invested! I wassuperinvested!”
Without thinking, I laid my hand over his on the table. “And you need to know, you couldnevernot be important to me. Hell, you were themostimportant person. You were the reason I—” I swallowed. “See, Aimee and I—”
I broke off and downed a shot of my own, because Jay was right. Pulling back half a lifetime of misunderstandings to get to the truth wasnoteasy, and I had a feeling this wasn’t gonna go well.
But then Jay twisted his hand under mine, twining our fingers together, and looked at me with so much heat and affection in his eyes that I realized that the alternative, the one in which I might lose him again, wasn’t even worth contemplating.
So I’d talk.
And I’d keep talking.
“Three years ago,” I began, “Aimee came to the Key, and—”
“Hey! Watch where you’re driving, man!”
In the parking lot just a few feet away, a horn blared and someone yelled out some choice obscenities that had both Jay and me turning our heads. As we watched, a white passenger van swerved around a little convertible and peeled out of the lot, blasting a heavy metal version of Jayd’s “Broken River.”
I blinked and tightened my fingers on Jay’s. “This is gonna sound crazy, but…” I forced a laugh. “Did the guy driving that van look like…?”
“No! It didn’t look a single thing like Chet.Pfft. I mean. What are the chances?”
Our eyes widened simultaneously, and we both bolted for the parking lot because onthisroad trip?
The chances of something bizarre and life-changing happening were way too high.
* * *
“Thanks again, Mr. Rollins!” a way too earnest sheriff’s deputy with way too many freckles wearing a way too big belt buckle told Jay, tucking away a napkin Jay had autographed for him. Then he slid a fresh, blank napkin across the bar table. “Could I maybe get one more for my little sister? She’s a huge fan—”
“And maybe one for me?” one of the people who’d circled the table called out.
“I want a selfie, like the cheek kiss you did with Mabel!” an elderly woman with a walker piped up. “But if I give you five bucks, can you slip me some tongue?”
Jay hardly sighed at all as he pulled the deputy’s napkin toward him. “What’s your sister’s—”
“No. Absolutely not.” I pushed the napkin away, crumpled it up, and gave a severe look to the assembled lookie-loosandto Deputy Freckles. “This is ridiculous. No more autographs. Anddefinitelynotongue.” I gave the octogenarian seductress a reproving glance. “Mr. Rollins has already signed twenty-three napkins, taken fourteen selfies, and recorded a happy birthday message for the sheriff’s wife. The next thing that gets signed over here is going to be a formal complaint to your department. Now, how about you tell me where our freakin’ van is!”
