“Heard you and Douglass didn’t have the nicest meet and greet last night. What the hell did you do to get on her bad side? The woman doesn’t even have a bad side. She’s as sweet as they come.”
“Maybe you can shed some light because I honestly have no damn clue. How well do you know her?” I ask him.
Yeah, I’m fishing for any information I can get. I’m also curious to know what she’s been up to these past five years.
“How well doyouknow her?” he rejoins, but I hear the grin in his voice. “Heard she was your ex-witch’s sister.”
Bennett is like a surrogate brother, and like brothers, we tease and prank each other mercilessly. He became part of our family as soon as he started dating Harper. My older half brother Trevor has a saying he loves to repeat ad nauseum:“Sometimes the best families are the ones you create, not the ones you’re born into.”
“I asked first,” I reply.
I hear the opening and closing of a door, then the noise levels drop considerably on his end. “Douglass is a sweetheart. Great friend to Harper. Quiet. So quiet, you’d forget she was there in the room sometimes.”
I smile as an image of Douglass sitting in the quad at school with a book in her hand as she watched the world around her comes into view. “Sounds about right.”
“And sad,” Bennett continues.
Douglass wasn’t happy in North Carolina?
“Why would you think that?”
He inhales sharply as if contemplating his next words. “Gut intuition coupled with the fact that she never smiled or laughed. Well, that’s not entirely true. She laughed with Harper and Mason, but it was rare to hear.”
“Mason?”
I recall Harper asking Douglass last night if she’d talked to Mason recently.
“Yeah. They were tight. Harper and I think they had a thing going, but we could never get either of them to fess up.”
My jaw tightens. “They’re together?”
Bennett laughs. “Hell, no. That I do know for sure. Mason doesn’t do relationships. Harper thinks they were sleeping together. You know, scratching an itch without all the complications.”
Like with what happened with Mike last night, a hot surge of jealousy slams into me.
Needing off this subject, I switch gears. “Has she graduated yet?”
“Who? Douglass?” Bennett inquires.
“Yes, Douglass. Isn’t that who we’ve been talking about, dipshit?”
She must’ve already finished, otherwise she’d be at CU now and not here, since it’s the middle of spring semester. It wouldn’t be a shocker if she graduated early. The girl has always been scary smart.
“Douglass didn’t graduate. She worked at the campus café.”
“Oh. Guess she won’t be sticking around for long. I didn’t think CU’s spring break was until next month.”
“Okay, now I’m confused. Douglass didn’t go to CU. She only worked at the café there.”
While I try to figure out the meaning to his revelation, there’s a loud knock.
“Hey, Jor. I’ve got to head out.”
I stare off into space when we disconnect. I thought Douglass had a full ride to Rice. Why would she turn that down and move to North Carolina just to work behind a counter serving coffee? It makes no sense.
Damn it, Douglass, what the hell happened that night?
I lift my sorry ass up and head back to the house. Rutilio and his crew are already out mowing the grass on the property on those big stand-on mowers. I send a wave as I walk inside the back door that leads directly to the kitchen.
