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I scoffed. “There is no way I still fit into something I wore at eighteen.”
“You might.”
“No way. I’ll hulk out of this thing.”
I put it back in her closet carefully. I couldn’t help but remember how Luke looked at me when I wore that dress. Like I wasn’t his scrappy best friend with the holes in her jeans and the dirt under her nails.
“Is he going to be there tonight? Like, at the bar?” I asked, not even bothering to specify thehein that question.
“Probably not. He doesn’t really come out much,” she answered.
“Oh.”
I couldn’t decide if I was relieved or disappointed.
Six
Luke
Around nine thirty Tuesday night, I get a series of frantic texts from my brother Carter.
Carter: Who sings the song that’s like da-da-da-da-daaaa?
Luke: I’m going to need a little more to go on.
Carter: You know da-da-rolling stone.
Carter: Elias says it’s actually the Rolling Stones, but I think that’s too obvious.
Luke: Do you mean the song Like a Rolling Stone?
Carter: Yeah.
Luke: Bob Dylan.
I didn’t mean to brag, but I was really good at thewho sings thisgame. I loved music, especially classic rock, and I took a lot of pride in always knowing who sang which song.
Carter: That’s it. I was about to guess Springsteen.
Luke: Where are you?
Carter: Rook’s. It’s trivia night.
Luke: So I just helped you cheat?
Carter: No. This was our one Text A Friend save.
Carter: But we could really use you if you want to come down here.
Carter: Stephanie is taking her sweet time getting to the bar and she’s our smartest player.
At the mention of Stephanie, I sat up a little straighter. Because maybe she was with Cindy. And maybe she was trying to convince Cindy to come along with her. Maybe I should show up at the bar tonight.
Granted, I had no clue what to say to her. Nothing seemed likeenough.I wanted to see how she was doing and tell her that I was glad she was alive and well. I wanted to know all about her time in the service, even though it would remind me of the life I missed out on. I wanted to tell her that I missed her.
But I also wanted to tell her that I was pissed at her. Ten years and she never answered any of my calls or emails? We were best friends for four years, nearly inseparable the entire time, and after she left for boot camp, she disappeared. I got married, divorced, and lost my dad to cancer and… radio silence. The few years after Cindy left Blue Creek were some of the worst of my life.
Emmeline and I were married about a month after she announced her pregnancy, and we moved into the mother-in-law suite in her parents’ home. Even though she was only eighteen, Emmeline adored being pregnant and choosing names for our baby. She and her mother busied themselves decorating the apartment and the nursery. Sometimes it felt like Emmeline was just playing house, cooking for me and asking how my day was when I got home from working at Kane Construction. I’d force out pleasantries because she was pregnant with my kid and so fucking happy about it, even though I was miserable.
