Outside on the long pier behind the bar, stage lights shone on Tell & Show, who started up another song. The bass in their amps made the pine floorboards shake in the most obnoxious way possible. More obnoxious was the couple doing coke at the bar, right where everyone and their makers could see them.
“We arenotsplitting up,” I shouted over the music to Jane. “Let’s just find V and get the hell out.”
Jane nodded.
We were roaming around the pine nightmare searching for Velvet when I got a text from an unknown caller:Where are u?
“Did you text Velvet my number? I think this is her,” I told Jane.
“Finally! My phone still has a little power, so not sure why she texted you instead. Maybe I confused her.”
Easy enough to do. I texted Velvet back:Inside Betty’s.It was all I could do not to add,Looking for you, dumbass.It was crowded and hard to see people, so we decided to stick to the bar. Once a stool cleared, we pounced on it, and Jane got on her knees to look around above people’s heads while I held on to her hips and gave the trashy-ass wrinkled slosh-bucket next to us the evil eye.
“There!” Jane said. “Restrooms!”
“Fuck.” I helped her down, and we shouldered our way back to where we started.
“You can’t go in,” she said. “Ladies’ room.”
“I’m not a peeper. This is an emergency.” I called out, “Velvet Larsen? We’re coming in. Everyone best be decent in there.”
A couple of super-drunk college girls were talking next to the sink, and there was Velvet, sweating like an Olympic runner.
“THANK GOD,” she yelled, tripping into Jane’s arms. “Oh shit, girl, please take me home. Not the lodge. I mean, take me back to L.A. I hate it here.Please.”
“Stand up,” Jane said. “God, you stink. What have you been drinking?”
“Water? I’ve been running. There was a man in a bear head trying to kill people, and Erika abandoned me for some rando summer boy. I don’t have a ride home.”
Holy shitballs, she was high as hell. “How is he trying to kill you?”
One of the girls by the mirror spoke up. “It’s the Grizzly Acrescraft beer mascot. He’s handing out coupons. Erika got bounced after Velvet and her started fighting and left with some tourist. Velvet’s been running around, trying to avoid security.”
“Shut up, Dana,” Velvet said. “No one asked you.”
Jane covered her face and made a noise. “Enough. Let’s just go, okay?”
Velvet was more than happy to go, and she was definitely sloppy, but no sloppier than half the patrons. So we escorted her out before anyone spotted us, going through the kitchen. Everything was fine, other than Velvet talking a bunch of nonsense that made Jane look as if she didn’t blame Erika for abandoning her.
“Hey,” I said, interrupting. “It’s fine. You texted. We came. Let’s go home.”
Velvet wiped her face and blinked at me. “What? I didn’t text you. Did you call me?”
“You texted me,” I said.
She shook her head. “Nope.”
Maybe she was just too loaded to remember. That’s what I told myself as we approached Jane’s hybrid car, and next to it, from a black sedan, a dark figure emerged.
And right then, my gut knew who’d texted.
Because my gut knew that figure coming out of the black sedan.
Tall. Blond-tipped hair. Broad shoulders.
My gut knew before my brain registered the shock of seeing Machiavellian dimples and the most charmed face at Condor Lake.
“Eddie?” Velvet said in dazed voice. “I thought you were in prison.”
