“Joey,” she said quickly. “Who’s your favorite girl?”
“Phoebe.”
“Really?”
“No. C’mon. I’m Team Rachel. All the way.”
“That makes me sad. I would have respected you more if you really did like Phoebe.”
“But she’s so dumb,” Garrett protested. “And Rachel was way hotter.”
“Men. You’re all pigs,” she said.
“Do you think you’ll keep working at the Saint? After this summer?”
She pulled on a strand of hair, twisting and twirling it. “Everybody kind of expects me to. I only agreed to work there this summer because Traci convinced me things were pretty dire.”
“How so?”
She shook her head. “I shouldn’t be talking about this stuff. It’s family business.”
“Hey. We’re roommates, right? Don’t you think I deserve to know what’s what?”
She stirred her untouched drink. “Okay, but you can’t tell anyone. Promise?”
“Of course.”
“There are money issues. Big ones. The year before he died, my uncle started this huge renovation and expansion project at the resort.”
“That’s old news. They totally remodeled, added that new wing, and rebuilt the pool house. I almost went broke because the place was closed for, like, fifteen months. I had to get a second job driving for DoorDash.”
“According to my dad, Uncle Hoke got way over his skis, financially. He took out a lot of loans… and then he was killed in that plane crash.”
Parrish’s eyes welled up. “Losing him nearly killed Traci. She and Hoke, they were so in love. A real team.”
Garrett nodded, then emptied his drink. “But there was, like, insurance, right?”
“My dad, Mister Know-it-All, says Hoke should have had key man insurance.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s insurance for the company, that says if, like, the president of the company dies—something that would really hurt, maybe even bankrupt the company—the insurance will pay off the company’s debt. Hoke didn’t have it. And now there’s stillsomuch debt.”
“That shouldn’t hurt your aunt, though, right? I mean, business is good. Like, at the restaurant we’re booked solid all day every day. The pool is packed…”
“It’s not that good. She tries not to show it, but I know Traci’s worried sick.”
“Come on,” Garrett said. “I’ve seen that car she drives. I’ve seen the house she lives in.”
“Appearances can be deceiving,” Parrish insisted. “Her car? Yeah, it’s a Mercedes, but it’s six years old. And Traci’s house is not that big inside. It was my grandparents’ house when they first got married. My grandmother gave it to Hoke. They were finally going to build a bigger house, on one of the ocean lots, but then Hoke died, and Traci told my dad to sell it.”
Garrett jiggled the ice cubes in the glass he’d just drained, and a server magically appeared at their table with another pair of drinks.
“Thanks, Bunny,” he told the girl. “Keep ’em coming.”
Parrish pushed her drink away, untouched. “Jesus, Garrett, you must have a hollow leg.”
He poured the half-melted ice from his empty drink into the full one and gulped half of it. “Practice makes perfect.”
