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“Didn’t you have your first kiss there?” Emily asks. “What was that boy’s name?”
Zara lowers her cards. Four of a kind, but with only twos.
“I didn’t kiss Eddie there. And I hardly think that kiss counts. We were in fourth grade.” I squirm at the memory of how Lucas and I did kiss by the stream. Many, many times. And then I squirm some more at what else he and I did there.
My elbow accidentally knocks into his arm, and I turn to apologize. My gaze lands on the light in Lucas’s eyes, and I can tell he’s also remembering those times. The apology stalls on my lips.
I quickly turn away from him and grab my wineglass.
We play another hand, which Troy wins.
“So, what’s next, Lucas? Are you actually waiting to see if the cops figure out how the drugs ended up in your house?” Emily’s questioning eyes shift to each of the brothers and settle on her boss: Kellan.
“That’s probably not a good idea,” Zara says. “As far as they’re concerned, they’ve arrested the guilty party. So unless they know their case isn’t rock solid against Lucas, they won’t be pushing hard, if at all, to figure out who hid the drugs in his house. We should—”
“You aren’t doing anything,” Garrett practically growls as Jerome says, “Forget it, sis.”
“This isn’t a fucking Nancy Drew novel,” Garrett continues as if her brother hadn’t said anything. “This is real life. So you leave this to the men.”
Zara, Emily, Kim, and I exchange grinning glances and burst out laughing.
“I hope you left your caveman bat at the door when you came into the apartment.” Zara crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow at Garrett.
He doesn’t bother to take a moment to look sheepish. He just keeps scowling at her until she rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Fine, what are you cavemen planning to do to prove Lucas is innocent?”
“We’re looking into the people who have a reason to want Lucas locked away for a long time.”
“And how’s that going?”
“It would be simpler if I hadn’t been fired from the Veterans Center,” Lucas grumbles, pain and frustration in his tone.
But it’s not just because he lost his job due to the drug bust. I sense there’s more to it.
“But since I’m now unemployed,” he says, “I have all the time in the world to figure out who set me up and why.”
I take a sip of my wine. “That’s going to be a little hard, isn’t it? Whoever did this won’t be thrilled with you nosing in their business. They’ll be expecting you to try to figure out who framed you.”
I mean, the jerks seriously didn’t expect him to take this lying down and wait for the cops to figure things out, did they?
And if they did, they underestimated Lucas—because that doesn’t describe the man I used to know. Nor does it describe his brothers.
“So if I happen to overhear something at the café that might provide a lead,” Zara says, a stubborn gleam in her eyes, “you don’t want me to mention it to you?”
Garrett pinches the bridge of his nose. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was counting to ten so he doesn’t tell her what he thinks of that idea. “No, you can pass on that information to us.”
“But that’s all,” Troy adds. “Whoever is responsible for this means business. As much as you four women like to believe you’re badasses, Lucas, Garrett, Kellan, and I are the ones who served in the Marine Corps. We know all about being badasses.”
“And asses, too, it would seem,” Zara mutters. Kim snorts a laugh.
“Yeah, that, too.” Garrett’s smug expression is met by a look from Zara that makes me think she’s going to give him a good ass-kicking later. Kim, Emily, and I snicker.
With that settled, as far as the men are concerned, we play another game of poker. I deal this time, and Emily wins.
Tonight feels like I’ve stepped back in time. It’s painfully familiar, but it’s also the most fun I’ve had in a while.
Lucas laughs at something Garrett said, and a gnawing emptiness stretches and twists inside me. The emptiness that took root following the accident that claimed my unborn child. The same emptiness that grows like a patch of deforestation, consuming but never given time to heal.
The loss of my brother only compounded it.
