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“You had your opportunity. You blew it. Fuck off.”
With his hand at the small of my back, Barrett led me past Lenny and Lucky, sparing not another second for Sarah. When we made it back to our group it was to see Rhys’s signature smirk.
“I guess your nickname for him suits,” he said. “I mean, I realize he looks like a Viking, but I’ve never seen him act like one before.”
I laughed. “Right?”
Zale relaxed in the face of my laughter, but his eyes remained steady on my face for several more moments before he was fully satisfied that I was all right. Mara, however, was still fit to be tied. Zale turned away from me and flinched at the raw distress still evident on his wife’s face. He pulled her against his chest and held her tightly. After several moments, her body melted against his.
He kissed the side of her face. “Enough excitement for tonight?”
She nodded and pulled away. “Barrett, you were awesome. I loved seeing you play. It was almost as good as the whole Viking act at the end.”
Barrett dropped his head to look at the floor. “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”
Mara grinned up into his face. “Not in this lifetime, Thor.”
Everyone cleared out except for Lenny, Junie, Barrett, and me. We sat down at an empty table and ordered a few drinks. We were trying to find our equilibrium, get back to the happy celebration of the end of summer we felt sure this performance would have been. I’d just taken my first sip when Vanessa placed her manicured hand on Lenny’s shoulder.
He turned to see who touched him.
“Oh, hey Vanessa,” he greeted her easily, “would you like to sit down?”
She shook her head apologetically. “No, thank you, I don’t want to interrupt, but could I just talk with you for a moment?”
As the minutes ticked on with Lenny across the bar listening intently to Vanessa, Junie’s unease grew and morphed into anger and her chatting slowed to a stop.
“This is the second time in the past week,” she broke her silence.
“The second time for what?” I asked.
“The second time she has interrupted our date,” Junie bit out.
Junie rarely got angry with a man. If she was attracted to a man, he got his shot with her. As soon as he screwed up, she tossed him. It was harsh but she was usually correct. In this case, I hoped her patience meant he was worth it.
“What do you mean, interrupted?”
“She calls, he gets wrapped up on the phone with her. We had to cancel a reservation one night, and he was two hours late picking me up on Sunday.”
“He was super angry about Sarah,” I said, “He’s not going to miss what Vanessa is doing.”
“She has a violent past,” Barrett interjected, his eyes on Junie. “I’m not defending what she’s doing, I’m giving you an explanation for why Lenny is giving her his time.”
Just then Lenny came back to the table, sitting down beside Junie and putting his arms around her.
“I’m sorry, honey.”
Junie remained stiff in his arms, her eyes hard on mine.
“What are you sorry for, Lenny?” she asked coldly.
Lenny sighed and pulled a couple of inches away, looking at her face. “I’m going to have to take her home.”
Junie twisted her head to look at him incredulously. She wasn’t worried about Vanessa seeing her disquiet, she never cared to hide her feelings.
“Have to? Has she misplaced her vehicle? Have her friends abandoned her? This requires you to leave me here with no vehicle depending on our friends to bring me home? It’s just you who needs to drop her off, not us? We can’t drop her home on our fucking way back to my place?”
Lenny’s eyebrows met in the middle, and I saw hints of that famous Irish temper in his black eyes.
