“Hardly,” I interrupted.
Sighing, Derrik rolled his eyes. “He’s good at everything. It’s bullshit. Imagine growing up constantly compared to”—he gestured in my direction—“that.”
I froze under Sadie’s stare, her eyes roaming my arms and down my jean covered legs, my weight evenly balancedwith my feet shoulder width apart. In the side-by-side comparison between me and my much more charming cousin, how did I stand up? Suddenly, nothing mattered more than what she thought of me.
Placing his drink on the table, Mike shook his head. “No one made as big a deal out of this as you two did.”
“No, I get that though.” June pointed a finger between her and Sadie. “There was built in comparison with us too, and we’re really so different.”
Sadie leaned toward her sister. “You think so?”
“I do, but maybe it was just that I wanted to be just like you, because you were my cooler older sister.”
“So much cooler.”
“So much older.”
They giggled scrunching their nose up in the same way. Mike rubbed a hand across June’s shoulders, and I recognized the tender feeling that must have settled into his chest the same way it had in mine. But unlike him, I couldn’t express it. Instead, I sent a quiet gratitude that Sadie had a sister she loved and who loved her.
“At least between me and Gene, I’m the cool one,” Derrik said. He sat back in his chair swinging an arm over the backrest, with an exaggerated suave energy. Giving the impression that he was joking, but he and I both knew it was true.
I lifted my drink to my lips. “Can’t fight that.”
“You’re cool,” Sadie insisted, and a fire lit behind her big blue eyes.
Aw, don’t do this to me. I’m fighting for my life to keep my hands off you.
“Like, I bet you know something completely random about this place right now.” She looked up at me expectantly. I was on the spot, but she wasn’t wrong.
“I probably do.”
She lifted her eyebrows.
I inhaled, then began, “So, this bar is called The Poison Place”—I pointed out the window where the rain had stopped falling on the garden, but the leaves still glistened in the exterior lights of the building—”and that’s The Poison Garden and all those plants are poisonous to something, right?”
“Yeah, but that’s common knowledge about the resort,” Derrik argued.
“But have you looked into how they get away with it legally?” Feeling more in my element, I spoke comfortably gesturing with the drink in my hand as I talked. “So, previous to the 1980s they had local poisonous plants, but that became a concern with the public. In a PR push, they completely replanted choosing plants that could only be poisonous to things not found in Southern California. Pretty much every plant out there is non-indigenous, and every year local activist petition for the garden to be removed and be replaced with native plants. So, the legal fees that that garden costs the resort well surpasses any amount of tending costs.”
After a beat of silence, Sadie turned to Derrik. “See, he is cool.”
Kill me. I want you in my bed. Right. Now.
“Aw, shit.” He grimaced. “You have a thing for nerds, huh?”
“She totally does!” June leaned forward. “She has this one guy, his ‘You up’ text is some random fact—”
“Shut up!” Sadie stared at her sister with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open.
“This one guy,”so it hadn’t been just me ever. Apparently, I wasn’t even the only one with the technique to initiate conversations. I took a rather large drink of my beverage letting it burn down my throat.
June covered her mouth with both hands, speaking a muffled, “Sorry.”
“Yeah, we are not drunk enough to be laying out my dirt. Also, you make it sound like I have a roster. I don’t”—she turned to look directly up at me—”not that there’s anything wrong with having one.”
“Oh, she pegged ya,” Mike said, and I almost did a spit take all over the table.
Forcing myself to swallow, I winced. “Pegged me, what?”
