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A minute later, Joel and Maude stood by Brianna with tall glasses of beer in their hands.
“How you girls doing tonight?” He batted his eyelashes at Brianna, who shook her hand, and Maude giggled.
“We’re doing good,” Brianna answered. “Emilio is holding the empty booth for you all.”
Joel turned his head and gestured “five minutes” to Emilio from across the room. “No rest from the flight, huh?”
“Nope. Pierce picked me up. I dropped my stuff off at home, and showered. He’s staying with me for the rest of the summer. By now, his essential possessions should be at my house.”
My mouth opened a little and I closed it. “Maude, can you take your friends to the table and introduce them to Emilio for me?” Joel asked her.
Nodding, she gave him a light kiss on the check and gestured for her friends to go with her.
“Dang, Mr. Pruitt and him got into it?” Joel asked.
“Pierce told me that Chase got kicked out and fired because of Cassidy. He told his dad that he was in the wrong.”
Joel narrowed his eyes at me. “Yeah, Mr. Pruitt’s got it all wrong.”
My heart pounded in my chest. “Uncle Anton fired Chase because he found out that he was sleeping with Cassidy?” I asked.
“Chase says it didn’t happen,” Joel answered.
Rylan lifted his shoulders. “But who knows if that’s really true?”
Joel grimaced at Rylan. “We gave into Cassidy like most guys, but you haven’t seen how she trips when she doesn’t get what she wants,” he responded to Rylan, and then he shot me a pointed look.
Rylan took his Long Island ice tea and went by Joel’s side. Amberlynn headed to their table and signaled them over. “Come with us,” Rylan said.
“We’ll take a rain check. We’re gonna hit the arcade,” Brianna replied.
***
“You almost got the second highest score! Way to go, girl!” Brianna cheered as I hit the flippers aggressively.
I felt myself beam at the news. I didn’t look up at the scores from the display mounted on the wall above because it’d break my flow. I was feeling competitive tonight. I needed some kind of release from the events of today. My thoughts and feelings were all mixed up.
“You’ve got ten tokens left. I know you wanna give it another go.”
She handed me my five tokens and I slid them into the slot. All of the colors came on as I pressed the buttons on the side, but used the flippers to get the balls to strike every target possible. I wasn’t as fast as I?
?d been the first six times. My last ball hit the drain. I threw my hands up in defeat, but felt really good. I’d played one game after another. Mariska and Jake would’ve been surprised that I’d hit most of my targets in my first two games in under forty seconds. Brianna had timed each of my games.
“Any other game you wanna play?” Brianna asked me.
“How about we take a breather by the speed-racer motorcycles and see in a few,” I answered.
“I know I acted weird when we first met at the thrift shop,” Brianna said. “And it wasn’t because we were there, because many folks go there. I was surprised that you acknowledged me. But when we spent time together I learned that you’re not like Cassidy. You don’t have a stick up your ass.”
Many people didn’t like Cassidy. I’d seen it from Brianna’s and Rylan’s body language earlier. Joel had been very direct with me, but I’d come to expect that from him since our chat on the beach about Chase and I. I’d spoken with Cassidy, but I hadn’t talked to Chase. Even when Cassidy and I had gone to the Paloma bar and restaurant, I’d talked less and had listened to her more. I’d had no intentions of talking to her about Cindy and how I ended up here. And fortunately she hadn’t brought it up, but I had a feeling that she had been eager to address it. I trusted Pierce and I really didn’t trust her, but I didn’t know why. What if Chase had been telling me the truth? And if so, why had she made up a lie that’d resulted in Chase being kicked out and losing his job? Had he lost his friendship with Pierce as well?
“You’ve been dying to tell me that you don’t like her since we were at the thrift shop, huh?”
The corners of her lips tugged up. “Pretty much. I am gonna get another piña colada. Sprite, right?”
I nodded. “You’ve had four piña coladas already. How hasn’t Millie noticed?”
“Millie stepped out for a smoke break. And the boys haven’t been watching me.”
