When he swung his parka around, his arms smoothly slid in the sleeves. “Yeah, I hold grudges.”
“Isn’t it my grudge to hold?”
“Not so long as you’re my friend,” he declared and, as soon as we were both gloved, looped an elbow through mine and walked me out.
The night was cold, thanks to gusts of wind that rattled naked branches against each other. Gaslights lit the parking lot, which resembled the coat rack in its sparsely filled way. In a far corner were vans of the set-up, take-down crew. My pickup was several spaces from Kevin’s SUV. One row back and several more spaces over was a black Jeep.
15
Edward stood on the sidewalk at the bottom of the steps. Wearing only his barn jacket, he was huddled against the March wind with his collar up and his shoulders hunched.
I stopped, forcing Kevin to as well.
“And there’s another one to begrudge,” he said to me, then called to Edward over a whistle of the wind, “It’s okay, I’m walking her to her truck. You can go home.” Tugging my arm, he got me moving again.
When we were down the steps and close enough to see a nose that was red from the cold, Edward said, “I need to talk with her,” but his eyes were on me.
“It’s late,” Kevin replied. “She’s tired.”
“Just for a minute, Maggie?”
Kevin’s arm tightened in mine. “It’s been a long night,” he informed Edward. “Lots of drama.”
“No drama here,” Edward insisted. “Maggie?”
But Kevin wasn’t done. Over another shush of wind, he told Edward, “It’s freezing out here, and we can’t go back inside because they want to close up. How about tomorrow?”
Edward’s brows met in annoyance. “Can she speak for herself, please?”
“Why should she,” I asked, “when the two of you are so entertaining?” I freed my elbow, pausing only to briefly squeeze Kevin’s arm with a gloved hand. “I’m fine.”
But his eyes were concerned. “I warned him, doll. I told him to leave you alone. I said you had plenty of support here and that he’d be in the way, and what did he do? Stuck to you like glue. He’ll hurt you, hun.”
“I will not,” countered Edward, offended.
“You did.”
“This is not your business.”
“And it’s yours? Last I heard, you two were divorced.”
“Divorced means we were married once, and being married means I shared a hell of a lot more with her than you ever will.”
“Excuuuuse, me,” Kevin sang on an up note, “but that sounded suspiciously like a homophobic remark. Is that your problem?”
I might have laughed, if the two of them hadn’t been so serious.
“Ah, Christ,” swore Edward, who didn’t swear often. “Are you seriously resorting to that? No, I’m not homophobic. I have gay best friends and gay business partners.” Looking at me, he hitched his head toward Kevin. “Tell him, Maggie. Let’s get this off the table right now, because I don’t want to fucking hear it again.”
“He’s right, Kev,” I said quietly. “Try something else.”
“Okayyy. How about his showing up here like he owns the place—”
“Idoown—”
“—like you’re supposed to welcome him with open arms?”
“I didn’t expect open arms,” Edward shouted. He sounded exasperated—competing with Kevin?
