“Heavens no.” Nev perks back to life. “It only takes once for me to learn a sharp lesson, and Rina does like to dole them out sharply. I would never dishonor my ladylove in that way—in any way for that matter. The water closet rules are strict, and mind you I happily abide by them. Which is why I’m truly stumped. I spoke with Master Dudley this morning. He suggested I demand she snap out ofit.”
“Don’t listen tohim.”
“That’s what I informed him, so he suggested I speak with you. He assured me you have vast experience with disappointing women and losing them.” Hefrowns.
I groan at how swift and deeply Dudley hit the disappointing nail on the head. “He is a charmer, isn’the?”
“So, it’s true?” Nevermore seems intrigued by my uniqueabilities.
“Only to an extent. Look, every woman is different. Every relationship is different. What works with Skyla won’t necessarily work withEzrina.”
“So it’s still Skyla you pine for.” He gives a gentle nod as if apologizing for my useless endeavor. “I’m sorry, my friend. In no way have I come to highlight your defeat—excuse the term,disappointment.”
“You had it right the firsttime.”
He rises to leave, and it feels as if our short-lived conversation had turned into a freight train that bumped over my body. I do love Skyla. I very much still pine for her. But she’s not my wife anymore. She belongs to Gage. Heck, she’s had his children and has cemented their familial standing now and forever. A thought comes to me. “Has Ezrina been eating strangethings?”
Nev pauses to consider this. “Only if you consider cheeseburgers by the dozens strange. Rina doesn’t think twice about what she consumes these days.” He lifts his finger. “I’ll see you at the house, my friend.” He takes off, and my mouth fallsopen.
Ezrina is acting erratic and eating a record number of cheeseburgers? She’s emulating Skyla’s behavior to a T for the entire last year—at least while she was with child, children to be exact. If Ezrina and Nev are about to become parents, I think I’ll let them stumble upon that sure-to-be-adorable nugget on theirown.
Ellis comes my way with a giant grin floating on his stoned face. Ellis Harrison truly does believe a joint before noon is the breakfast ofchampions.
“Guess who you are looking at, man?” He tips his head back and lets out a howl that echoes through this cavernous dump on aloop.
“I’m afraid to guess.” True as God. Ellis only ever smiles because he’s chemically altered to do so. If that silly grin on his face is due to the fact he thinks he has a capital idea, then I’d better run for cover. I want nothing to do withit.
“Dude, you are looking at the next Paragon Island millionaire.” He blows on his fingernails. “Not that a few lousy million bucks is what it used to be, but it’s seed money, dude. With my daddy’s money burning a hole in my back pocket, I’m ready to tackle the world,man!”
“Your trust fund finally kicked in.” I stand up and slap him five. “Congratulations, man. I’ll buy you a drink. Sodaokay?”
“Okay for now. But I’m thinking you might want to beef up the menu, add some of the hard stuff, and draw in a crowd that really knows how to spend itsmoney.”
I think on it as I swipe a cup from the dispenser and fill it to the brim with ice and soda before handing it off to Ellis. “I don’t know. When my father opened this place, he didn’t exactly have a liquor store in mind.” My father ran the bowling alley up until he and my mother moved to Oregon to be near her elderly parents. They hadn’t planned on staying long but made the most of their time there by working the farmland. They raised enough pumpkins three years in a row to sell to the public, and that was their final swan song. There was a fire, then—my mother, my father—they were gone. I was burned beyond recognition. Decades of surgeries deemed me functional yet imprisoned in a painfully contractured body. All hopes of a normal life were off the table until a sweet soul with an angel’s face came into my life and fell in love with me and wanted me—for her daughter. Candace Messenger and I do share quite the checkered past. There are details I have yet to share with Skyla about those clandestine visits. Skyla is right. I never tell her the entire truth. There are just some things I don’t want to knowmyself.
“No liquor.” I glance out at the bowling alley with its depressed dim lighting, its empty lanes, the silence that permeates like a cancer eating up any remnants of joy my parents might have envisioned for the place. “Okay, maybe liquor, but what this place really needs is a bulldozer.” I’m only partiallyteasing.
“That’s what I was thinking, man.” Ellis drapes his arm over my shoulder. “I did a little research. You own the land, dude. You’re an effing landbaron.”
“True in theoryonly.”
A shadow darkens the entry, and Liam comes bustling over looking as forlorn and down as Nev did. God forbid he knocked up Miller. I doubt it would end as well forthem.
“What’s stinging your crotch?” I slap my brother over the back in an attempt to shake the sour mood out ofhim.
“I’m useless.” He takes a seat on the edge of the table and slumps. “The seed money Barron gifted me to get my life back on track has done a disappearing act. I’m busted. I’m broke. I need ajob.”
Why do I get the feelingseed moneyis the term of theday?
“Acareer,” Ellis corrects with an alarming amount of enthusiasm. “Logan and I were just discussing our plans to raze this place and resurrect it bigger and better thanbefore.”
“We were?” I’m only half-amused because it sounds like something I might actually be interestedin.
“That’s right,” Ellis booms. “This place will rain booze and chicks. But don’t you worry”— he slings an arm over my shoulder—“we’ll still have a kiddie section, a better kiddie section where your kids canplay.”
“Whatkids?”
“The ones withSkyla.”
