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I sit up eagerly. “I think it’s some form of a dry spell the main characters go through,” I say, since Charlie isn’t keen on conversation right now.
But I have to hand it to her, when I showed up at her doorstep on Sunday morning asking her to come with me on a little girl getaway, she silently packed a bag and hopped into Levi’s truck.
She hasn’t said much since we left. Chase told me that she lost her job at the library and is pretty upset about it. I’d worked up enough courage to ask her why, and she told me if I didn’t drop it, she’d tell the cowboy to turn the car around.
Levi was pretty quiet too.
Things certainly seemed odd the last twenty-four hours. Levi’s usual laidback and flirtatious demeanor was suddenly reserved and edgy. I wonder if he was just annoyed at being the one driving us out of town since Noah and Chase had to run some mystery errand for Aiden.
“Not exactly,” Charlie corrects dryly.
Lonnie shoots me a glance and holds out a margarita for our quiet friend. “Lighten up, Blondie.”
Charlie reaches for it and slurps on the straw like lemonade on a hot summer day.
“Slow down, you’re going to get a brain freeze.”
Charlie settles back into the couch cushion. “Got any barbeque chips?”
Lonnie smirks. “Coming right up.”
Charlie sits up. “Sorry, I’m just trying to figure out what I’m going to do for work now that I don’t have the library. I’ve been there five years.”
“They had to give you a reason,” I insist. “Hey, why doesn’t Noah help you? He’s a lawyer. I’m sure he can—”
“Noah’s the one that got me fired.”
“What?”
She sighs. “He reported me for stealing books. They didn’t even question me about it. They just said ‘a trusted citizen reported you for theft suspicion’ and one of my colleagues texted me later to tell me who it was. Can you believe that?”
I feel like the question might be directed at me, but I’m on my feet. This is the third unexplainable event since Jackson’s party, and my intuition is spiking. My fear.
Chase leaving town. Sending me away. Insisting I take Charlie with me. “Something’s going on,” I mutter.
“Hey, how about more margaritas?” Lonnie chirps uncharacteristically. “Blondie here is going to leave us dry if we don’t supplement her quickly.”
I narrow my eyes across the room. “Good idea, Lon. Start some more and we’ll find something to watch.” I click play on a random selection under holiday romance.
Charlie frowns and picks up another margarita. “Oh good, more coming. You wouldn’t mind if I grab yours here.”
I turn up the volume on the television, even with the blender going behind us, and stop Charlie from drinking.
She jerks forward. “Hey, I thought you wanted me to loosen up.”
“Shh. Something’s up and I have a feeling Lonnie’s in on it.”
She glances back. “What makes you say that?”
“Because Lonnie’s not a girls’ night in hosting kind of gal. She’s distracting us.”
“What do you mean? It was your idea to come here.”
“Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Chase kind of suggested I get out of town and insisted I take you with me. He also failed to tell me how you lost your job at the library.”
“He was there when I confronted Noah.”
“Last night?” I ask, barely posing it as a question.
