“Is she here?”
“Who?”He scratched his chest through the T-shirt and casually propped the shotgun he’d been holding against the wall.
“You know who.”
“Erika?”Drew called out toward the back of the trailer, “Stay quiet, sweetheart, he’s found us.”
I charged down the hall and flung open his bedroom door.It smelled like old laundry and regret.No Erika.
Deflated but still steaming, I stomped back out.
“You really think she’d ditch Vinny alone at the house,” Drew said, smirking, “and come out here for some post-funeral fun?”
Right.I forgot about Vinny.And her being his only parental figure now.“You were all up on her at the reception.”
“Right up until you cockblocked me with an argument in your office.You stormed out one door, and she left out the other.”He pulled two beers out of his refrigerator and threw one at me.
I caught it.“I hate Blue Ribbon.”
“Be a good guest.Drink it.”He sat in a chair at the wooden kitchen table and waved his can at the wooden chair across from him.“Sit.”He picked up his cell phone to place a call.“Josh just attacked me in my home.”There was a pause.“He didn’t hit me yet.”Another pause.“I wasn’t even wearing clothes.”He huffed and stared at the phone.
“Who was that?”I sat in the chair he’d directed me toward.
“Are you worried I calledher?”Drew took a deep swig of the beer.
I sipped my beer, which tasted like watered down piss.“Did you?”
My phone rang.Dante’s icon flashed on the screen.I answered.“Yeah?”
Dante asked, “Do I need to drive out there with the lights flashing or are you going to refrain from violence until I get there?”
“I’ll only hurt him a little if he pisses me off.He’s got his gun out.So, it’s more likely he’ll shoot me first.”I hung up.
“She’s not yours,” Drew said.
“She sure as hell won’t ever be yours.If she slept with you now, it wouldn’t be because she liked you.”
“She’d be liking something about me.”Drew grinned lewdly.
I used a fingernail to pick at dried food on the tabletop.“If you want to get laid, you should napalm the bedroom.It stinks.At least put the porn away and get a Glade plug-in or something.”
He slammed his beer can on the table.“I wasn’t planning on entertaining today.”
“Good.She hates Glade, by the way.”
“I thought you didn’t want her in my bedroom.Besides, you don’t know what she likes or dislikes anymore.Maybe she fills her place with Glade plug-ins.”
I pointed toward the back of his trailer.“There’s no way she’d step one foot in there.It smells like ass.”
“Why are you busting my balls about my house?Hell, why the fuck are you here?”
“I didn’t want her to make another mistake.”Which, in hindsight, was rich, considering I’d just stormed into a man’s trailer like a lunatic.I should’ve checked the Chomping farm first to see if her car was there.I hadn’t really expected her to be here.I just couldn’t stand the idea of Drew thinking he had a shot.
He grinned.“So, she already made one today?What happened in the office?”
I pretended interest in the back of the beer can.He’d know something happened if I looked at him.Oh, holy hell, did something happen.“We argued about everything.”I swirled the beer and watched a few bubbles fizz out of the can.“How can you drink this swill?”
“Not all of us make big doctor bucks and can afford premium brew.”
