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Whirling away from him before I completely break down and start sobbing in the middle of his kitchen, I stomp around him and over to the key hooks hanging on the wall, snatching my golf cart keys off one of them.
“Where are you going?” Ryan finally asks in a panicked voice when I head down the entryway and open the front door.
“Out. Try not to choke on the lasagna. Thanks for the sign,” I mutter, slamming the door closed behind me.
“She needs anotherboozy slush.”
“She’s had five. She can’t feel anything from the neck down right now.”
“Has anyone checked to see if she’s still breathing?”
“I didn’t even know the nerd had it in him to make someone so upset.”
“Here, you want to light something on fire?”
With my cheek still pressed against the top of the purple picnic table at the Dip and Twist, I grab the BIC lighter out of Tess’s hand when she pushes it in front of my face, while my new friends talk about me like I can’t hear them. Clicking the lighter a few times, it finally flickers to life, and I set fire to the napkin Tess is also holding in front of me. Keeping my warm cheek against the cool wood on top of the picnic table, I watch it burn in her fingers for a few seconds until she has to drop it into a cup filled with water before it lights her hand on fire.
“That was fun,” I mumble as Tess reaches over and pats me on the back.
“Sorry I’m late! What did I miss?”
I lift my head too quickly when a new voice joins us at the picnic tables under the awning of the Dip and Twist, closing my eyes when everything around me starts to spin.
I’ve definitely had too much to drink.
“Ryan was a jerk and assumed Danny was a selfish bitch, conspiring against her behind her back with her douchebag brother to try to get her to leave the island and go back to Chicago, when all she wanted to do was make out with him,” I hear one of the girls give a long-winded explanation to the newcomer.
I have to open one eye and squint around the table to see it was Wren who gave the Cliff’s notes, since I’m still not familiar with all their voices yet. Along with Tess, I finally met Laura’s two daughters, Birdie and Wren, and they were all very welcoming to not only me, but to Melanie when she showed up as well. And they haveallbeen amazing since I got here and immediately unloaded on them as soon as I sat down right after introductions were made. I don’t know these women at all, but I just feel comfortable with them, have from the first moment I met them. They quickly got me a cherry slush filled with vodka and continued to feed me alcohol for the last hour, while I cried about my life.
“Someone wants to make out with Ryan? Oooh, this just got interesting!” the newcomer says as she takes a seat at the table across from me. “Wait, doesn’t he have a girlfriend?”
“They broke up because she travels a lot for her job, and they decided it wasn’t working and parted ways, but she’s still a lovely woman, and they’re going to remain friends, but not that good of friends that she’ll ever come to the island,” I quickly speak with my eyes closed, slurring my words but making sure Ryan’s secret stays safe, even through the pools of vodka sloshing around in my brain.
“Yep, that sounds like Ryan.” The new woman laughs. “Hi, I’m Emily!”
I manage to open my other eye without tipping off the back of the picnic table bench as everything around me continues to spin, while I reach across the table and sloppily shake her hand.
“Emily was Ryan’s girlfriend off and on for, like,ever,until he finally broke things off. She’s an expert on all things Ryan and will definitely be able to help,” Wren tells me as I quickly drop the woman’s hand.
“You’reRyan’s ex? The one he broke up with so you could…. Because he…. Oh,fuck,” I mutter, dropping my head back down to the table with athunk.“Of course she looks likethat.”
Melanie grabs the back of my hoodie and yanks me back up.
“Why didn’t you tell me his ex looks like Malibu Barbie and Ariel fucked and had a baby?” I complain as soon as I’m upright again, flinging my arm in the general direction of the absolutely stunning redhead sitting across from me.
“Um, thanks?” Emily laughs.
Even her fucking laugh sounds like a choir of angels singing.
“You knew his ex used to be a professional cheerleader, is now the coach for the Virginia Sharks Cheerleaders, and is dating Quinn Bagley, the quarterback for the Sharks, right? I mean,everyoneknows this,” Melanie leans over and whispers in my ear.
“Nope! This is brand-new information!” I shout back, wondering why I’m shouting, because it’s making my head hurt. “And in case you’re forgetting, I just got here a few weeks ago.”
“You didn’t have to live here to know this; it was all over the news a while back. Did you seriously not google Ryan before you moved in with him?” Melanie laughs.
“Why would I?” I complain, looking around the table for my phone and then groaning when I remember I left it back at Ryan’s cottage when I stormed out. Quickly grabbing Melanie’s phone, I squint at the screen as I try to type his name into her search engine. “He’s my brother’s friend! I had no reason to google the guy. Oh, for fuck’s sake. I should have googled the guy.”
After the fifth attempt of trying to see through my vodka goggles, I finally get Ryan’s name typed in and hit Search. Three pages of articles immediately pop up, each one mentioning the “poor sap” Emily left brokenhearted when she started dating the famous quarterback named Quinn. I hate sports and never follow anything about them, but now I’m wishing I would have at least paid attention to sports entertainment news. Technically, I know she isn’t the one who broke up with him, but I’m sure he really was brokenhearted. And probably still is. It says they dated off and on since freaking high school!
