Page 21 of Wrecked

There’s a dramatic air to her speech that causes me to stop what I’m doing as I swivel my head.

I point my pen at her. “You’re being facetious.”

She pushes her glasses up her slim nose and shrugs one shoulder up to her ear. “And we haven’t even touched on him rescuing you from being attacked by Nico.”

“Rescued? I shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I could sue the town for that.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Because…” I try to think of a reason. Not coming up with one, I tap my foot in frustration and toss her a frustrated glare. “Shove it.”

Suzanne laughs, her shiny pink lipstick spread across her widened grin. “Even though Adam’s kind of a dick, he should know you by now. Your reputation precedes you. Hell, you’ve made me drive some way-too-tipsy girls you were concerned about home because you were short-staffed and couldn’t leave.”

I shake my head. My eyes focus on the laces of my sneakers. “I don’t think he pays attention.”

“No, I suppose he doesn’t,” she says.

There’s a moment of silence as I move on to the bottles of rum and make notes on my clipboard.

“You never talk about Brad.”

My pen stops moving on the paper. “What’s there to talk about?”

“Nothing. Everything. It’s kind of nice that you and Adam are working together. I think you need to hash that out.”

“You want us to talk about how someone we were both incredibly close to had a heroin addiction that we were so damn blind to that he died as soon as it started?” I close my eyes and bite the inside of my cheek hard. “Speaking of which, did you have any clue Victoria did drugs?”

Suzanne’s hands quickly rise in defense. “Absolutely not.” She lets out a huff in disbelief. “And no one’s heard from her since Saturday night. I’ve asked around. She made some random post yesterday about her new leggings, so I know she’s alive. Where exactly is the question.”

This town is going to hell.

Emma says she’ll never return. She wants to live in a city, any city. Cedar Ridge is just too small for her.

Dad always says to her, “Big city, big problems.”

The opposite isn’t the same for small towns. Our issues seem to become magnified under the microscope we put each other under. Brad died seven years ago, and here we are, still trying to keep the bad stuff away. Doesn’t seem to be working.

“You don’t think Victoria took her hit inside my bar, do you?” I ask as soon as the thought pops in my head.

Suzanne ponders that for a second. “I never saw her leave.”

I kick the shelf in front of me, making it sway, and rub my hand over my face. If anyone is dealing in my bar, I am going to have huge problems, and I won’t be the only one paying for them.

Shaking my legs and then my arms, I do a McConaughey shimmy-shake dance and get the bad vibes out. Knowing there’s a problem is the biggest part of the battle. I’ll have Juice and Ron, our other bouncer, screen everyone who comes in. The staff will be vigilant. I’ll talk to Paulie and find out what else we can do.

“Let’s talk about something else. How was your night with Rory?”

She blushes rosy red but reels it in and gives me a nonchalant, “It was cool.”

I nod my head and act disinterested in her response as I tally up the bottles of Bacardi. “Sounds good. So, you’re not gonna give him another shot, right?”

“I didn’t say that.”

I can’t help but smile. Suzanne is the worst when she falls for a guy. She thinks, if she says it out loud, she’ll jinx it.

“What about you?” she asks. “Ready to give someone a chance?”

“No,” I answer with an exaggerated O. I note on my paper that we need more Captain Morgan.