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“Evie? What’s going on?”
She squinted. When she realized it was me, she smiled and waved. “Come in! It’s so warm.”
“Why are you in there with all your clothes on?”
“I felt like it.”
I motioned to the twenty or so people in the yard. “Who are all these people?”
“Some old friends from Coopsville.”
Lately, there had been two Evies—depressed and in bed sleeping, or partying like she didn’t have a care in the world. It was one extreme or the other. I’d been encouraging her to get out more, spend time with her old friends or make some new ones, maybe find something to occupy her time. But this wasn’t exactly what I’d been thinking. “Why don’t you come out of the lake?”
“Why don’t you come in?”
“Because I’m dressed, and I just got home from two days on the road.”
“So?” She leaned back and laid on top of the water, floating on her back. “It’s so warm.”
I looked around the yard. To my left there was a woman straddling a guy while they made out. Behind me there were a couple of guys smoking a joint. “How about we tell people it’s time to go?”
Evie lifted her head out of the water and sulked. “Party pooper.”
“I’m going to go take a shower and get changed. I’ll show people the way out if they’re still here when I’m done.”
I didn’t wait for a response before turning around and going inside. There were a few women in the kitchen playing a high-school drinking game. In the living room, a guy was slouched on the couch with one hand down the waistband of his pants and his dirty sneakers up on my coffee table. I kicked his feet off. He startled and jumped up like he was going to have a problem with it, but then stumbled and had to grab the arm of the couch to avoid falling over.
When he got a look at me, he swallowed. “What’s up, man?”
“Party’s over. Get your shit and get out.”
“Who are you?” He tilted his head. “You look familiar.”
“The guy who owns the house.” I thumbed toward the stairs. “I’m going to change. Be gone by the time I get back. And take your friends with you.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond before lifting my bag again and taking the steps two at a time. In the shower, I let the water rain down longer than normal, hoping it would ease some of the tension in my neck. But even after fifteen minutes, I still wasn’t in the mood for a party full of drunken strangers. I wanted Evie to have friends and make a life for herself, but her drinking had me concerned. After I dried off and got dressed, I looked out the window to the yard. Evie was saying goodbye to people, so I stayed upstairs until the last stragglers disappeared. I eventually found her sitting on the steps of the back deck, alone.
She looked up when she heard the screen door open and close. “Are you mad?”
“This is your home, too. So I’m not going to say you can’t have friends over. But walking in to find random drunk guys sleeping on my couch doesn’t feel good, Evie.”
She sniffled. “I didn’t get the job at the rink.”
I sat down next to her on the step. “How come? I thought the interview went well.”
“They hired someone with more experience skating teaching. I mean skating teaching.” She shook her head. “No, I mean…whatever.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what to do with myself for the rest of my life.”
“I wish I had an answer. Only you can figure that out. But I know the answer is not drinking like this.”
“It helps me forget for a while.” She leaned over and rested her head on her soaked jeans. “I just want to go back to when I still had a shot. Even if it was a long shot, there was hope. Now I feel…hopeless.”
“Maybe you should talk to someone? Go see a doctor?”
She frowned. “I just need a plan. Something to do with my life.” A few seconds later, she abruptly stood and stumbled over to the nearest flowerbed, dry heaving at first. I stood behind her and held her hair back as she vomited. When she was done, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I don’t think the tequila agreed with the lake water I swallowed.”
