When we got to Benny’s, Jaz’s Volkswagen was sitting in the driveway, and dark electropop thumped from the backyard. Punkin took off, and we followed her around the side of the house to the double-decker dock at the riverbank, where Benny and Lulu were opening boxes of food delivery atop a long outdoor dining table on the lower deck.
“The crew is all here,” Lulu announced jubilantly, wearinga yellow SpongeBob SquarePants swimsuit that made me do a double take. “Hope you’re hungry. I ordered from three different places.”
“Sup,” Benny said, leaning down to scratch Punkin behind the ear. Questioning eyes flicked from Seb’s face to mine. “Everything okay?”
“Yup,” Seb confirmed, inhaling warm steam from the food as he hiked a leg over the long bench on the far side of the table. “Are those containers from Pete’s Vegan?”
Pete’s Vegan was everyone’s favorite restaurant in town, meat eaters and tree huggers alike. I’m not sure what they put in their food—jokes abounded—but everything on their menu was a home run.
“Did you get those potato wedges with that coconut sauce?” Seb asked. “I could inhale all of this, I’m so hungry...”
I was, too. And it was nice to be out here on a day like this. I’d forgotten how sweet Benny’s double-decker dock was, strung with lights and boasting a wicked stereo system and an outdoor kitchen that was far nicer than the one inside the cottage. A stone trail led from the dock to the back patio of the house, where I spotted Jazmine in her red bikini top and shorts, backing out of French doors while juggling two additional bags of food with one good arm. I jogged over to her, causing her to jump when she turned around and spotted me.
“Good God,” she said. “Scared the crap out of me.”
“Sorry. Need some help?”
She gave me a smile and nodded, handing me one of the bags. “This just got delivered. Lulu seems to think we’re all one step away from starvation. Or maybe it’s that she went nuts with Benny’s American Express card.”
“I’ve known him all my life and he’s never once let me use it.”
Jazmine snorted. “Youdon’t have a cartoon swimsuit.”
“Right?” I said, looking over my shoulder. “I can’t figure out why it bothers me so much. I guess she’s wearing it ironically, but it makes her look...”
“Like a ding-dong?”
“Old.”
When Jazmine raised a brow, I said, “Like someone who’s trying to look younger.”
We both glanced at her. Maybe I was wrong and just needed to accept that Lulu was in Benny’s life now, cartoon swimsuits and all.
“Hey,” Jaz said in a low voice, setting down her bag of food. “So, this isn’t the most ideal place to talk about last night ...”
“Thank you for texting me that you were safe.”
She nodded. “Thankyoufor not freaking out.”
“Oh, I freaked out, trust me. But I’m trying to keep an open mind. And fair warning, Seb already told me about breaking you out of the Vanderburg compound and the confrontation with Paul in the parking lot that got him that black eye.”
“Ah,” she said, squinching up her mouth. “So you’re up to speed.”
“AmI?”
An awkward moment passed, then we both started talking at the same time.
“Look—”
“Hey—”
We chuckled nervously, then I said, “You first.”
She blew out a hard breath. “Okay, so if you talked to Seb, I guess you know that I haven’t really been able to sit down andhave a polite conversation with Paul since Seb got me out of the compound that day. There’s only been shouting and black eyes. So I felt like I owed him an explanation about what I saw that day at the compound, and why I ended... our relationship.”
Heck,Iwanted an explanation about what she saw that day, but she didn’t volunteer any information.
“So, anyway,” she said, lashes blinking. “We talked. I told him my side of the story, and he listened. And hopefully we both got a little closure. Hard to know because it’s just so messy, this thing between us. And when everything’s on the table, I just can’t see any kind of future with him—”
