“Let’s go to your house,” I said. “I’ll catch up with him tomorrow.”
Before the words were even out of my mouth, Jules had her phone out to text the others. Besides, from the brief glimpse I’d gotten, it looked like Beck was busy planning his weekend hookup anyway. At least some things hadn’t changed.
Beck and I had always been best friends growing up together, and we’d stayed close since. He was probably wondering, like Jules, if I’d fallen off the face of the earth these past few weeks. Only my parents knew what happened, and it had been hard enough telling them.
“Done. Let’s go,” Jules said, linking arms with me. She lived within walking distance, one of the few benefits of living in Cedar Falls.
Heart heavy, I took one last glance at my parents’ bar. Tomorrow, I’d face the questions. Tonight, I just needed to breathe.
3
BECK
“Need help behind the bar?”
“Nah, I’m good. You can head,” I told Spence. With Cole in town, the four of us would be lingering for a while.
Mason, who showed up after his wife had fallen asleep, spun around on his stool to answer Spencer, or Spence, as we called the kid.
“How’s the geometry coming along?”
Spence made the same face I did when someone ordered Brussels sprouts. How the hell anyone could eat those things was beyond me.
“Better than my love life,” Spence quipped.
Parker chuckled. He was the one who got Spence this job after working a few construction jobs with him. Nineteen at the time, now twenty-one, he quickly learned homebuilding wasn’t his thing. But Spence was good with people and thrived here. Even so, I finally convinced him to go back for his GED.
“Bring your geometry to the bar,” Mason said, waving toward me. “This one will help you.”
My hand moved in circular motions as I wiped down the bar, lingering over a beer ring. People really needed to learn to use coasters.
“Beck?” Spence asked, incredulous.
“Don’t let the glasses,” Parker quipped, nodding to Cole, “and yuppy clothes fool you. Everyone assumes he’s the smart one of our bunch?—”
“Because I am,” Cole said as if it were a foregone conclusion.
“But your boss has a higher IQ than all of us.”
Though I was technically the manager, I considered Mr. O’Malley the boss. Not me. Also… “How the hell do you know my IQ?”
“Jesus.” Cole took a sip of whiskey. “He doesn’t even know what a metaphor is yet you think he’s the smartest of us?”
“I know what a metaphor is.”
Mason sat back in his seat, eyeing toward the door. A former NYC cop and army ranger, he still looked for threats around every corner, forgetting we were in Cedar Falls.
“So what is it?” Cole asked me.
“It’s like… a simile, but without the training wheels.”
Cole let out a bark of laughter.
“I don’t get it,” Spence said.
“Join the club,” Mason assured him.
“Beck’s been reading again,” Cole muttered. “Next thing you know, he’ll start quoting Shakespeare.”
