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“Doubtful,” I laughed. “I don’t have her number. But you can try calling Claire Halstead. Of course, that’s where Lana is staying. Or that Tony jerk, but I don’t see why either one of them would give you her number.”
“Because I’m not you,” he fired back.
I opened my contacts and slid the phone across the table. “Knock yourself out.”
It took nearly a half hour for him to call around and find someone who actually had Lana’s number and was actually willing to give it to him. It would have been easier if we were trying to reach anyone else in town. But since she had been away for so long, she wasn’t as connected in the town as she used to be. Finally, I saw him scribble down a number, then plug it into my phone to save it in the contacts.
“Who gave it to you?” I asked.
“Molly Roberts,” he smirked. “On one condition. That I make you give her a call.”
“Oh no,” I groaned. “You didn’t actually tell her I would, did you?”
“Do you want to get Lana off your back or not?”
“Fine, whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll call her. Some time. When I get around to it.”
“Keith, I’m a man of my word,” he said sternly. “You better not make a liar out of me.”
I eased into a smile. “This just proves my point. What did I tell you? They all act like they hate me so much, and yet they’re still clamoring for my attention.”
“Well, if you’re so damn charming, then why don’t you work that magic on Lana Miller?” he retorted.
“Just call her,” I said with a defeated sigh.
“Let me show you how it’s done.” He flashed a cocky grin and leaned back in his chair, putting the phone to his ear.
Em had gotten bored with us and took Hank into the front yard to play. Melody crossed her arms and watched us with an amused twinkle in her eyes. She really seemed to be getting a kick out of all this.
“Yeah, is this Lana?… Hey there, Lana. This is Derek Mullins. You might remember me from…” His tone suddenly changed. He deflated a little, but quickly recovered—trying to lay on his southern charms. “Yeah, that’s right. Keith’s brother. Listen, he told me what was going on with the marina, and I was hoping…Uh-huh. Yes, ma’am, he did mention that to me, and that’s why I was…” He sat straight up, and an angry look washed over his face. “Come again?” He laughed. “Now you listen here, I don’t really care what they do in LA. This is…Excuse me?” His eyes widened with disbelief. “Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face?… Oh yeah? Well, you can take your offer and all your California snobbery and shove it right up…”
He looked at the phone, then looked back to me and Mel in shock. “She hung up on me!”
I buried my face in my palm, trying to hide my laughter, but I couldn’t.
“I take it that didn’t go too well?” Melody asked.
That was it. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I burst into laughter, and Derek had no choice but to just sit there and bear it while eating his words. It was contagious, and Mel couldn’t help but start cracking up, too.
“Alright, laugh it up all you want. But it won’t be so funny if she manages to get her hands on the deed to our land somehow,” he huffed.
I threw my hands up and snickered. “But you’re so good at talking to people. Way better than me, apparently. So, why don’t you just call her back and smooth it over?”
“Hell no. That woman is mean as a snake. I don’t want to talk to her again.”
That only made us laugh harder, but after a while…the laughter faded. Derek was right. There was nothing funny about Lana’s determination to snatch our land up out from under us. I wondered if we’d have any luck getting more people like George on our side to try and stop her.
After having some delicious peach pie for dessert, I had a beer with Derek on the front porch and then decided to head out. As I left, I reminded myself of one important thing I had that he didn’t. Freedom. He was stuck at home with a kid and a woman, and I was free to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. That had to be consolation enough for the time being.
Of course, there weren’t many ways to exercise that kind of freedom in Silver Point because there wasn’t much to do. So, I went for the usual and headed over to Jake’s bar. It was slow like it always was on a weeknight, but that just meant Jake would have more time to stand around and shoot the shit with me. He was the one I usually came in to see anyway.
I sat at the bar and downed two beers in a row, telling him all about the latest developments with the marina. He got a good laugh about it all, especially Derek’s pitiful attempt at winning Lana over, which only blew up in his face. Deep down, we both knew how sad the whole thing was, but what else could we do but find some way to laugh about it?
“Maybe the trick really is to give Molly Roberts a call,” he suggested after a while. “Aren’t she and Lana friends? If Molly’s on your side, she’ll put the pressure on Lana to back off.”
“While that’s not a bad idea,” I replied. “I just don’t think I’m willing to fake a relationship to get Lana to leave me alone. Molly would only turn on me in the end anyway, and we’d be back to square one.”
He shook his head. “I guess you’ll have to marry her then.”
