“I had a great conversation with her, though. She’s a really good friend.”
“I know. I’ve been trying to tell you not to put your dick in her for years.”
“What? If anything you’ve told me the opposite.”
“Have I? I don’t recall. She’s one of your best friends’ wives. That would have been highly inappropriate.”
“Yeah. It would have been.” Seriously, he didn’t remember telling me to hit that on numerous occasions?
“Especially now that you’re even from the whole Blue Parrot Resort fiasco.”
“What you did to me was worse,” I said. “Especially because of Nigel.” I’d never forget the way Nigel had stared at me when Tanner had slipped me boner pills as a joke.
“I don’t understand why you don’t just ignore him,” Tanner said.
“I don’t understand how you think he’s ignorable?”
“Eh, I’ve been stuck with him for so long. He blends into the walls. If you let him.”
What did that even mean? Whatever, it didn’t matter. “Penny really helped me though. I finally said goodbye to Brooklyn tonight. I’m ready to move on. For real this time.”
Tanner nodded. “That’s good. At least it didn’t take you a few hundred years.”
“What?”
“That old saying…” He tapped the top of the wooden bar as he thought. “That heartache takes two lifetimes to get over.”
I didn’t know if that saying actually sounded familiar or if maybe I was a little sleep deprived. But I found myself nodding my head. “It feels like two lifetimes.”
“Exactly.” Tanner slapped me on the back. “So you’re ready to finally embrace the present.” He waved down the bartender and ordered another round for both of us.
“Yes.” More than I even realized. I was ready to embrace it with Kennedy. I felt really good about coming clean to Penny today. For taking that step of saying goodbye to Brooklyn. I didn’t want to talk about what happened with Kennedy right now. Hopefully she’d calm down in the morning. And we could just keep getting stronger.
The bartender slid us our glasses.
Tanner caught his in one hand and lifted it in the air. “To new beginnings!”
I tapped my glass against his.
“Hear, hear! It’s late though, and you really do look unwell. We should probably get home before Nigel starts to worry.” He downed his glass and then patted the front of his suit jacket. “Shoot, do you have two pence I can borrow?”
“Two pence?”
He cleared his throat. “I meant a twenty.”
“I’ll pay for the drinks, you cheap ass.”
He laughed. “I’ll get it next time.”
But we both knew he wouldn’t.
Homecoming - Chapter 4
Saturday
Brooklyn
My father smiled. And for the first time I saw some of his old cruelty there. He was staring at me like I was a little girl with little thoughts. That anything I said was insignificant.
