He nodded. “We still hang out there every Friday.”
That was so sad, but it benefitted me. “Then I guess I’ll see you at the bonfire party tonight.” I would be trying to hide from him, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Or we could go together,” he suggested slyly.
Oh, well, now he’d put me on the spot. If I said no, he’d take it as an insult. If I said yes, I’d want to die.
“I promised Alice I would hang out with her tonight,” I lied smoothly. “She said she had plans for a party. I didn’t realize it was a bonfire party. We’ll be there together.”
“Your cousin Alice?” Tristan made a face. “That’s kind of one body too many for what I had in mind.”
That’s exactly what I was afraid of. “I can’t dump her at the last second. It’s rude. I’m sure we’ll see you there.”
I couldn’t get away from the courts fast enough. Apparently some things never change, and Tristan was one of them. If anyone needed to embrace personal growth, he did. For now, I was free of him.
The night ahead was another story.
15
Fifteen
Alice was less than thrilled when I told her my plans for the night.
“I don’t want to drink in a field.” She was incensed. “We’re not in high school.”
She had a point. That didn’t mean I was going to allow her to wiggle out of this. “We ended up sitting on the floor drinking the other night. How is that any different?”
“Because we were inside — and there were no bugs.”
“You need to get over the bugs.”
“They’re going to inherit the Earth when the zombie apocalypse comes.”
Her response made me laugh. “I think that’s cockroaches.”
“Which are bugs.”
I turned back to the mirror and touched up my mascara. This time I wanted to be prepared for a party. “You have to go with me. I told Tristan Carter that you were coming, and you know what a tool he is. If you’re not there, he’ll hit on me.”
“So what?” Alice’s brown eyes were fierce. She was having none of my crap this evening, which meant I was ultimately going to have to order her to accompany me. As older cousin, I had power. “He’s hot. He’s probably selfish in bed, but what does it matter?”
I was mortified. “I’m not sleeping with him.”
“Why not?” Alice was blasé. “If anyone needs a good roll in the hay, it’s you. Since you don’t plan to stay, you might as well go for a guy who you hate. It just makes sense.”
I thought about Hunter, about the discussion we’d had about my future. Then I saw Grandpa’s smug face and felt conflicted. “I’m not dating Tristan.” I was firm on that.
“Then why do you want to go to the bonfire? Is it because Hunter will be there?”
I’d had no confirmation that Hunter would be there. I made a face. “I’m going because Bobby Buttons is supposed to be there.”
The look on Alice’s face was comical. “You can’t be serious.”
“I need to talk to him.”
“Bobby Buttons is definitely bad in bed,” she argued.
I narrowed my eyes, suspicious. “How do you know?”
“Not that way.” She looked disgusted. “I’ve heard from other people. He tries to be the world’s fastest sprinter in a sport that requires technique. You do not want to be with him.”
“I don’t,” I agreed. “I want to pump him for information. He’s Barry Buttons’ son, and Barry had his head bent together with Vera Axe in the restaurant today. They were talking a long time, about money.”
Alice’s expression reflected puzzlement. “Why do you care?”
“Because Roy died in the alley behind my apartment. I want to know who killed him.”
“And this has nothing to do with Hunter?”
I jabbed my mascara tube in her direction. “I don’t want to hear his name come out of your mouth one more time. Do you understand?”
Rather than quaking in fear, she rolled her eyes. “Please. You’re still in love with Hunter. Everybody knows it.”
“I am not!” My cheeks burned.
“You always have been.” Alice clucked sympathetically and patted my arm. “It’s okay. I’ve always known. That’s the reason he and I never hooked up, even though he wanted to.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. Alice, as a child, had an unfortunate habit of developing a crush on whatever guy I happened to be dating. She was much too young for most of them.
I glared at her. “Hunter wouldn’t have dated you.”
“Because he knew it would mean you would never date him again. There were times he was so broken-hearted I’m pretty sure he would’ve risked it.”
That’s not what I wanted to hear. “He wouldn’t have dated you.” That was one thing I knew with absolute certainty. “But this isn’t about Hunter.”
“No?” Alice cocked her head. “Are you sure that you’re not chasing information because you want to help Hunter with his case?”
“That’s absurd. Hunter doesn’t need my help. I’m doing this to clear Grandpa.” Even as the words left my mouth I realized how ridiculous they sounded.
“Grandpa didn’t kill Roy.” Alice stated it as fact. “He’s too lazy. The only way he would kill Roy is if Roy somehow tripped over his lap while Grandpa was taking his afternoon constitution and newspapers were razors.”
She had a point. “Then why is Grandpa hiding from Hunter?”
“He hates the police. Who doesn’t?”
“I don’t.”
“You like just one police officer. Think about the rest you’ve ever met. They’re all jerks. Remember Rod Ventimiglia?”
I frowned at mention of the name. “I remember. He looked like he should be doing porn in the seventies.”
Alice snorted and took the mascara from me. “That’s the guy. He was selling drugs out of the back of his cruiser and was caught, like, five times before they arrested him. He makes cops look bad.”
“Hunter’s not bad.”
She sent me a knowing smirk. “He’s not.”
“I don’t have feelings for him,” I stressed.
“If you say so.” She didn’t look convinced. “I’m not in the mood to drink in a field. Why can’t we drink here? We had fun the other night. We just won’t use the Ouija board this time.”
I’d forgotten about the Ouija board. “Yeah, speaking of that ... .” I searched for the right words to express the unease that had been creeping over me the last few days. “Has anything weird happened to you since we played with that board?”
Alice was fixated on her reflection. “Like what?”
Like waking up floating over your bed ... or intense feelings of being watched. “Like anything.”
Slowly she slid her eyes to me. “No. Should something weird have happened?”
I got the distinct impression she was playing coy. “I guess not.” Now wasn’t the time to pick a fight. I needed her to be my wing woman at the party. “You’re going to the bonfire. I need backup to make sure Tristan stays away.”
Alice sighed. “Fine. If there are any hot guys we don’t know, I have dibs.”
“Fair enough. You can have all the hot guys.”
“Except Hunter, right? He would totally go for me if you weren’t an obstacle.”
I gritted my teeth. “Just get ready. I want to be out there early.” Something occurred to me. “Do we need to take beer with us?”
“They usually have a keg.”
I was flabbergasted. “We really are still stuck in high school, huh?”
“You have no idea. Just wait until the thirty-year-old men start streaking because they think it’s cool.”
I hoped she was exaggerating. Like, really, really hoped.
THE CLEARING WAS ALREADY PACKED WITH people. I tried to count heads but lost the thread around forty.
“This can’t be right.” I clutched my hoodie tighter and studied the faces. “What are all these peop
le doing out here?”
Alice looked amused at my surprise. “There’s nothing to do in Shadow Hills. We really need a movie theater or something. It’s basically this or bowling, and we’re too young to own our own bowling shoes.”
I had news for her. I was never going to be old enough to own my own bowling shoes. “I guess we should find a place to sit.”
“Yeah, I’m not standing all night.”
Alice called out greetings as we cut through the crowd. Several people waved at me, said they couldn’t wait to catch up later, and then went right back to talking to other people. I didn’t recognize most of them. The fact that they remembered me was daunting.
“Should I know who these people are?” I asked as we claimed two nylon chairs on the side of the bonfire out of the line of smoke.
“You did go to school with them,” she said as she flopped into the chair, stretching out her legs in front of her. “Oh, hey, these things have handy-dandy cup holders.” Alice perked up. “We need drinks to put in them.”
I nodded. “You get them. I’ll keep my eyes opened for Bobby.”
She hopped up and took off in the direction of the keg, leaving me to study the crowd. Her seat didn’t remain empty long, because Tristan — who I hadn’t initially seen — slid into it within seconds of her leaving.
“Hello.” He shot me a flirtatious smile as I tried to hide my dismay. “I see you came after all.”
“I said I was coming.” I kept my tone light as I looked anywhere but at his face. “Alice is with me.”
“She is? That’s weird. I didn’t see her.” He kicked back and crossed his ankles, pinning me with a blinding smile. Seriously, if this whole “working for his father” thing didn’t pan out he could have a future in Colgate commercials. “Tell me everything about your life for the past ten years.”
If I had a drink, I would’ve choked. That was such a ridiculous request. “Um ... I graduated from high school, went to college, wrote two books, and now I’m back here.”
“I know that. I want to know the nitty-gritty. I’ve always found you fascinating.”
That was news to me. “I’m not all that interesting.”
“I beg to differ. You’ve always been fascinating. Isn’t that right, Hunter?”
I froze when I realized someone else had joined the party. Very slowly, deliberately, I glanced over my shoulder and found Hunter with Monica glued to his side. I forced myself to swallow because my mouth had gone suddenly dry. “Hey.”
“Hello.” Hunter’s tone was cool. I didn’t miss the icy glare he lobbed in Tristan’s direction. “I didn’t realize you two were spending time together.”
“We’re not,” I offered hurriedly. “I’m here with Alice.”
“But she’s trading up in the world and hanging out with me,” Tristan said pointedly. “We had a charming interlude this afternoon at the basketball courts.”
Hunter’s eyes narrowed. “The basketball courts?” I could practically see the gears of his mind working.
“I stopped by looking for Bobby Buttons,” I explained. I didn’t owe him any justification for my actions, yet I couldn’t seem to shut my mouth. “I ran into Tristan.”
“It was fate.” Tristan’s grin was wide. Unfortunately, the smile had very little to do with me. I realized that almost immediately, because his attention was fixated on Hunter. This was all about him.
“Oh.” I exhaled heavily, realization dawning. “I get it now.”
“What do you get?” Tristan asked, jerking his eyes to me. He looked ready to throw down, which I found interesting ... and mildly distressing. Monica also seemed to sense trouble. She’d begun tugging on Hunter’s arm in an effort to snag his attention.
“I get that ... Alice has my beer.” I was on my feet as fast as I could manage and swooped toward Alice. She seemed surprised by my excited approach. “Thanks so much.” I sucked from the cup, trying not to make a face at the taste of the beer. “Is this Milwaukee’s Best?”
Hunter smirked. “We’re classy. What can I say?”
“It’s terrible, but beggars can’t be choosers,” Alice said, taking the seat I’d just vacated without asking. “What are we talking about?”
“Stormy was going to tell us what she got. She said ‘I get it now,’ but didn’t say what it was that she got,” Tristan prodded.
“Like anyone cares,” Monica muttered, staring into the distance.
Hunter slid her a dark look but said nothing. I was looking for an escape. I caught sight of Bobby.
“I see someone I need to talk to.” I flashed a smile at Monica while steadfastly ignoring Tristan. “It was great seeing you again, Monica. You look really lovely.” With that, I spun on my heel and took off in the opposite direction, leaving Alice to clean up my mess. I knew she would complain about it when next we crossed paths, but I didn’t care. Getting away from Tristan was the most important thing on my immediate to-do list. I could only hope he would find someone else to focus on in my absence.
Bobby was tipsy when I caught up to him.
“Hey.”
He jolted at the sound of my voice, almost tipping over with a clumsy turn. “Um ... hi. Do I know you?”
It wasn’t the greeting I expected, but it was an opening. “Stormy Morgan. We went to high school together. You were a year ahead of me.”
“Oh, right.” Bobby nodded, as if he recognized me, but the vacant expression in his eyes told me that I was just one of many faces he couldn’t put a name to this evening.
“You should probably sit down.” I grabbed Bobby’s arm and led him to a fallen tree, pushing his shoulders so that he sat. “I wonder if they bring water out here.” I was talking more to myself than him, but he answered.
“Water?” He made a face. “Who wants water?”
“I think you should have some water.”
“I think I need some beer.” He made to stand but fell backward with a grunt as he hit the ground.
This wasn’t how I saw the evening going.
“What were you thinking?” Alice hissed as she appeared out of nowhere, making me jump.
I looked over her shoulder to make sure Tristan hadn’t followed. Thankfully, she was alone. “I’m not sure what you mean,” I lied easily.
“Oh, don’t even.” She narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits. “You know exactly what you did.”
“I’m sure you’re mistaken.” I moved around to the other side of the tree and stood over Bobby, who had given up trying to right himself. He remained stretched out on the ground, his legs still propped up on the tree, staring at the darkening sky.
“Sunsets are really pretty,” he noted, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “You’re really pretty, too, Sally.”
“Stormy,” I corrected, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“Is he already drunk?” Alice asked, moving to my side. She seemed to have forgotten she was angry at me in the wake of Bobby’s graceful showing.
“Apparently so, but I don’t see how that’s possible. The party barely started twenty minutes ago.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t have the best reputation.” Alice hunkered down and pressed her finger to the spot between Bobby’s eyebrows, laughing at the way his eyes crossed as he tried to see what she was doing. “This is fun.”
That was so not the word I would use to describe what was happening. “We need to sober him up if we expect to get information out of him.” I would never talk about someone directly in front of them — that’s just bad manners — but it was obvious Bobby wouldn’t remember anything we’d said. He was five quiet minutes away from passing out.
“I thought we wanted him drunk so he would talk,” Alice argued.
“There’s drunk and there’s drunk.” I inclined my head to where Bobby was moving his hands as if making snow angels. “We need him moderately drunk, not doing ... whatever it is he’s doing.”
“I’m making grass angels,” Bobby announced, grinning.
Hi
s response was enough to make Alice laugh. “I see what you mean. I’ll see if I can round up some water.”
“And I’ll see if I can get him in a sitting position.” I grabbed Bobby under his armpits and tugged, easing up when something occurred to me. “Did Hunter say anything after I left you guys?”
Alice was already five feet away but she stopped and turned, the impish dimple in her cheek coming out to play. “How much is it worth to you?”
I scowled. “A real friend would tell me without the blackmail.”
“Hey, you made me come out here against my will. Now you’re making me sober up that idiot. I deserve something for all this effort.”
She had a point. “I’ll take all the morning shifts next week.” Sure, Grandpa had already told me I was stuck with the earliest shifts until I passed probation, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Sold.” She grinned happily. “I hate working morning shifts.”
That made two of us. Resigned to my fate, I blew out a sigh and turned my focus back to Bobby. “You’d better be worth all this effort.”
“We should make dirt angels, too. Or ... wait ... how do mud angels sound?”
Like a nightmare in the making. That’s exactly how they sounded.
16
Sixteen
Sobering up Bobby so we could pump him for information wasn’t easy. Finally, under threat of banning him from beer for life (he was drunk enough to believe we had that power), he agreed to drink his water and talk. He rambled from subject to subject.
“Were you this hot in high school?” His eyes roamed my body in a way that made me uncomfortable.
“I was really hot in high school,” Alice announced. She’d never suffered from low self-esteem, something I greatly admired about her.
Bobby barely flicked his eyes to her before turning back to me. “I was talking to Stormy.”
“Oh, so now you remember my name.” I flashed a smile I didn’t really feel. “That’s ... convenient.”
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