I let out a shaky breath. “Yes, he’s okay. It was appendicitis. And maybe some other worries. But they got his appendix, and he should be going home later today.”
“That’s good news.”
“That’s great news,” I agreed. We stared at each other for a couple of moments. If I thought he would bring up all the kissing last night... I was wrong. And I wasn’t about to be the one to remind him we’d made out until my toes had curled, and it had been amazing and sexy, and all I wanted to do was jump on him right now and start it all over again. Nope, it wasn’t going to be me. When it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything else, I said, “Do you care if we hit the road soon? I told Will I’d be there this morning. He’s probably expecting me in the next ten minutes.”
Jonah nodded. “Of course. I just have to throw my stuff together.”
“Same.”
We got to work bouncing around the small space, finding all our things. What had started as a lovely morning had turned into a crisis and was settling on awkward. The longer we didn’t acknowledge the steamy make-out session, the bigger and bigger it got until I felt pushed up against the wall with my oxygen being slowly squeezed out of me.
“Do you have to check out or anything?” I asked when I was sure I had everything.
“No, I don’t think so.” He looked at me, really looked at me. “Unless you broke something last night? The shower? The bed? The most expensive thing here?”
His teasing made my lips twitch, but I was still too worried about Charlie to laugh. “I actually make it a point to avoid most expensive things.”
“Is that so?”
“As a general rule, I find it’s easier for everyone if I don’t specifically acknowledge the most expensive thing in the room, as I will find it, break it, and then pay for it. So this way, by only allowing myself to be near the cheapest things in the room, I can usually avoid the whole... financial burden of replacing all the shit I broke.”
He laughed. “Remember when you cut the line to Mr. Gamble’s sprinkler system, and then you flooded his entire yard?”
“Hey, okay, first of all, I was seven. And Charlie bet me I couldn’t dig to Australia faster than he could. Obviously, I couldn’t let him win. And how was I supposed to know he wasn’t going to notice that his sprinklers weren’t working properly, keep them on their automatic timers, and ruin his prize-winning zinnias by drowning them in the great neighborhood flood of ’02?”
Jonah laughed harder. “Or the time you drove your car onto wet concrete.”
My cheeks flamed red. I had just gotten my driver’s license a week before. I thought my dad was going to actually kill me. “Several things were wrong with that scenario. Starting with the fact that there were no signs.”
“But there were people. Pouring the concrete.”
“I just want to inform you that you’re playing a dangerous game. Jokes before coffee are not ever going to land like you hope they will.”
“I’m just teasing you,” he said. But it was ruined because he was still laughing.
“Can we go?”
“Lead the way.” And he was still laughing.
I glanced around for something to knock over just so he would have to pay for it but chickened out at the last second. With my luck, I’d somehow knock out the power to the entire distillery, the vodka would be unprotected from whatever cooling and heating system they had, it would rot, they’d be out billions of dollars of spirits, or they’d poison a million people, and I’d have to fake my own death and move to Belize.
It was the only way.
But thankfully, we made it out the door without any incident. And to the car quickly, since we could see our breath, and neither of us was wearing coats warm enough for the morning chill.
Jonah stored my bags and started the car. I jumped in the passenger’s seat and prayed for my brother.
God, Charlie, why?
Any other day that Will was in charge would have been a great day for emergency surgery. If Will had been there, we could have all blamed him. But this was the worst-case scenario. I tried to figure out how Charlie had gotten so sick so quickly, and money had been stolen from the till. Had it just been mass panic after I left?
Will would never trust Charlie or me again. We’d be running this bar without breaks or vacations until I fell over dead at the tender age of thirty-two.
The car ride was silent and tense. I was too anxious to get back home to make small talk. Or normal talk. My phone was a mess. A night full of unanswered texts and calls. I’d put it on silent after leaving Craft last night, assuming everything would be fine. Now there was a graveyard of texts from Ada and Will, even Miles and Case, trying to get ahold of me. I couldn’t look at them now. Even though the damage was done, I wasn’t ready to face the panicked pleas from my friends and family.
“It’s going to be okay,” Jonah said calmly from the driver’s seat as he pulled into the parking lot of a supermarket. It had taken us an hour and a half to get back to town. Will was handling Charlie’s discharge, so Jonah and I were going to meet them at Will’s apartment.
I already felt like a total asshole. The least I could do was show up with gifts.
