Beth nodded earnestly. “I feel that. Really do. Liquid courage has given me the strength to do a lot of things I never imagined this pastyear.”
There was no way that Beth had done so much just because of liquid courage.
I couldn’t help but stare at her a little. Beth really amazed me. Even though our situations were so similar, she seemed sooverher cheating ex, unlike me. She’d been with her ex for nearlytwentyyears, about as long as I was married. I’d never officially met the guy. Apparently, he was one of the few people who moved from another place to Mystic Hollow, without any ties to the place. But she’d told me enough in our phone calls to know he’d been cheating on her with a younger woman too. She didn’t speak about it often. I assumed it was because it’d hurt too much to discuss, but was it really just that she’d found a way to come to terms with it?
I didn’t have a clue.
But her confident air, and the way she seemed so at home here, made me think maybe she was just doing well. The thought made me happy as she spun on her heel and started pushing through the crowd. It was good that at least one of us had it together.
We headed straight for the bar. “Four shots of your top shelf whiskey,” she shouted and slapped down a fifty. “Keep the change!”
I raised my eyebrows, but she shrugged. “The drinks are ten dollars apiece anyway. It’s just a tenner for him,” she said in my ear.
The bartender nodded and pulled out a stack of shot glasses, the squat, round glasses dripping with moisture as though they'd just been washed. There were plenty of people in the club so it wouldn't surprise me if they were cleaning glasses as fast as people were using them. The large bottle he grabbed from the top shelf behind the bar was already half empty and the liquid inside sloshed around a second before he flipped it upside down over the first shot glass.
As soon as that one was full, he moved to the next, raising and lowering the bottle over each consecutive glass. I knew it was a trick of the eye, something bartenders did to make it seem like they were pouring more when in fact they were all the same amount. He pushed the tiny glasses toward us and spread them out between the two of us.
We each picked up a glass, clinking them together before tapping the bottom on the bar and raising them to our lips, letting the fiery burn of the whiskey work its magic as we each downed our first one then, after a second quick cheers, the second. My whole body felt like it was being warmed from the inside out.
Rick didn't like whiskey and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. He only ever drank vodka or rum. Sure, they were good, but whiskey and I got along like a house on fire.
“Good?” she asked.
I grinned, and I couldn’t seem to wipe the grin off my face. “Better than good. Do you have any idea how awesome you are?”
She laughed. “Are you drunk already? Emma, you need to get out more! Live a little!”
“No, seriously, you’re awesome. I wish I had half your confidence.”
Her smile wavered, then was back. “You’ll get there. I promise.”
I shook my head. “I was never like you. I was--”
“Awesome in your own way. I remember the way you could sing when you thought no one was around. You have the most incredible voice I’ve ever heard.”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “That was all my mom. She had wanted to be a famous singer, but then she got pregnant with me, and she decided to stay in Mystic Hollow. But she never forgot what it felt like to be on a stage. We’d stand out on the back patio and sing together, even though only the birds were listening.”
“I remember your mom,” Beth said, and her smile turned to a sad one. “She was an incredible woman.”
We ordered another shot. I wanted to chase that warm feeling again, not think about my mom turning up the stereo and us belting out songs together. Nor about my dad building Legos with Henry. Those two had covered the living room in Lego sets that no one dared to touch until after the funeral, when Henry took them apart piece-by-piece, tears streaming down his face.
He hadn’t cried at the funeral. Hedidcry then. And when he tossed those boxes of Legos in the trash, we’d both aged years.
Damn it. I grabbed my shot and raised it to Beth.
She spoke, her voice strong and sure. “To every valley we had to overcome to reach the top of this hill.”
I clinked my glass with hers and downed another drink. The warmth inside of me grew hotter, pleasantly so, and my thoughts scattered. Beth was right. We’d been through a lot. Saving Henry? We would do this too, and no one was going to stop us.
“Let’s do this!” I yelled when all the glasses sat empty in front of us.
Beth pointed to a door toward the back of the club. “That’s where we have to go!”
“Then that’s where we’re going!”
Steeling my shoulders and spine, I marched over to a bouncer guarding a door. It didn't look like the rest of the wall, which surprised me, since I thought it would have been more subtle. Instead, it was tufted black leather, looking luxurious and dangerous all at once. I’d even seen people slipping through while we had our drinks. This was the way to the downstairs. I was sure of it.
“Excuse me,” I shouted.
