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“Oh, we’re engaged.” Jamie grinned. “Didn’t I mention that part?”
“Where’s your ring?” Rob asked. “Or is old Darby still as tight as a USC cheerleader’s bottom?”
“Rob, really?” Arianna’s mouth pursed the way it did when she was irritated. She wasn’t so far gone that she could not see when Rob was behaving like a jerk.
“It’s being sized,” Jamie said. “He found the most exquisite vintage ring for me. I like pieces that have history, and he found the perfect one.”
Was that true? Did she like vintage? I’d have to ask her about that. We hadn’t covered that during our preparation.
Our drinks came, and I took a grateful sip from my beer. We then spent a few minutes looking over the menu. Jamie and I both decided on the steak. Arianna said she’d do the fish. “Trying to keep my girlish figure for the wedding.”
“Babe, no, not the fish,” Rob said. “I’m ordering a cabernet.”
“Right.” She smiled, but this time the varnish wasn’t quite as shiny. “I’ll get the steak too.”
She hated beef. Strictly fish and chicken for health reasons. I remembered even if she’d forgotten who she used to be.
“Yes, good. I’ll get the ribs then,” Rob said as he picked up the wine menu and made a great show of looking through the options. “This isn’t a bad list. Better than I thought it would be out here.”
“People come from all over the world to ski here.” Jamie squeezed my knee under the table. “All winter we see the rich and famous walking in town, spending money. This town was built around this mountain, and people come from far and wide to enjoy what the Barnes family started all those years ago. It’s quite a fascinating history, actually.”
Rob seemed not to hear her, because he didn’t look up from the menu. My hands balled into fists. To keep myself steady, I reached over and laid my hand lightly on Jamie’s thigh.
He must have decided on what wine he wanted to order because he slammed the leather-bound menu shut and picked up his drink. “So, should we talk about what’s really going on here?”
“Babe, not here,” Arianna said. “We’re having a nice dinner.”
“No, old Darby doesn’t mind hashing it all out over a drink, do you, buddy?” Rob gestured at me with his glass.
“What are we hashing out exactly?” I asked. “There’s not much to say. You were screwing around with my girlfriend behind my back. Which is basically how you roll, isn’t it? Didn’t you steal the idea for the game from Mikey?”
“Don’t be absurd,” Rob said. “That was always my idea. He may have written some of the code, but that’s my baby.”
“And he’s been compensated for his contribution,” Arianna said. “There’s no bad blood there.”
“Good for him,” I said, enjoying myself. “But that’s not really the case here. There’s bad blood between us, and we all know it. If you want to talk about it, let’s go. What do you have to say for yourself? Either of you?”
Arianna had paled. Her hand trembled when she picked up her glass of scotch. “We didn’t mean to hurt you. It just happened. The heart wants what it wants, all that. One day, I just knew I couldn’t live without him. I didn’t feel that way about you, Darby, and for that I’m sorry.”
My stomach hollowed and filled with an ache, that old familiar pain from her betrayal slamming back into my body. She didn’t have to say it that way. We all knew she hadn’t loved me as she obviously did Rob. Why had she felt the need to do that?
Next to me, Jamie radiated heat. She was mad. This amused me, distracting me from the humiliation for a moment.
“Listen, dude,” Rob said. “It’s like she said. We fell hard. Did it help that I could give her what you couldn’t? She says no. It’s just me she wants, not my money. She and I, you know, fit together. Soulmates. And when that happens—when a man meets his destiny, there’s nothing either of us could do to stop it.”
“Actually, there was something,” Jamie said. “You could either have walked away or told Darby the truth before you acted on your feelings. At least be honest. Both of you. You behaved badly and now you want to make it seem like Darby did something wrong. It doesn’t work that way.”
“No one said that,” Arianna said. “I know you didn’t do anything wrong, Darby. And she’s right. We should have told you the truth instead of sneaking around behind your back.”
“How could you do that?” I asked. “Pretend like you still loved me? Let me buy that ring and take you to the beach. Didn’t you know I was going to propose?”
“I did.” Arianna’s knuckles whitened as she clasped her hand around her water glass. “Have you ever started down a path and not known how to get off and go a different direction? I cared about you and believe it or not, dreaded hurting you. I let it go on for too long. I know that. And I’m sorry.”
“There you have it.” Rob splayed his hands onto the tabletop as if to push it deeper into the floor. “All right then, there it was—the big apology. Now, let’s move on. Darbs, I’d love to hear more about your life here in the country.”
Darbs. My old nickname. I’d almost forgotten he used to call me that. His mouth smirked every time he said it, as if it were ironic somehow.
“Did you just call him Darbs?” Jamie asked.
