Linc scowled.
“I sure feel dead.” Noah stretched his neck to one side, then the other. “But the upstairs renovations are finally done and the inn is starting to get booked.”
“Probably largely due to Elisa’s recent social media efforts.” Owen joined Linc near the edge of the pier with his pole. “She’s making the Blue Pirogue look good.”
“She makes everything look good.” Noah grinned back before turning up his drink can. “Now if I can get all the rooms booked…” He tipped his head toward Cade. “Hint, hint.”
“Magnolia Days will bring in plenty of tourists, trust me.” Cade relaxed as he rigged his own bait. As always, the guys had talked themselves into a new subject, so maybe he’d be off the hook with the Rosalyn stuff. The last thing he needed was them trying to pressure?—
“Back to asking Rosalyn out.” Noah cast his line into the water.
Cade suddenly felt a lot like Linc—grumpy. “Don’t hold your breath.”
“What happened to long tanned legs and country songs?” Linc smirked as he reeled in his empty line.
“Who is Rosalyn?” Owen abruptly turned, forgetting he was holding his pole, and nearly clocked Linc in the ribs. He corrected and dodged the glower Linc sent his way. “Is she the aerialist?”
“Famous aerialist.” Noah arched a brow. “You don’t remember her from high school?”
“I home schooled, remember?” Owen shuffled a few feet away from Linc. “If they didn’t attend youth group, I didn’t know them.”
“She didn’t. Her family was more Christmas and Easter churchgoers.” Cade had secured his bait a minute ago, but messing with it again gave him a reason not to look up while he talked. “Then she graduated and went to Harvard.”
The rest of the story burned in his throat. Which was silly. Was so long ago.
“Is this week the first time you’ve seen her since high school?” Owen asked.
“No. I saw her perform a while back, which gave me the idea to invite her.” See? Not hard to say. Why couldn’t he have been that nonchalant about it with Rosalyn earlier? Cade shook his head. “And I ran into her after a rival game at the Lazy Spoon back in college.”
He also said that nonchalantly, as if the memory wasn’t burned in long-term storage.
“What happened? Did Rosalyn shoot you down that night?” Linc cast, the lure sparkling in the setting sun as it arched through the sky.
“No.” Cade watched the fishing line sink, the bobber start to float. “I never asked.”
“So what I’m hearing is that you were as dumb then as you are now?” Noah snorted.
“Easy for you to say, Romeo.” Cade glared at his friend. “You’ve got Elisa.”
“Romeo?” Noah shook his head. “Nah. You were the one with two prom dates.”
“How did you even know that? You were living in Shreveport then.” Literally no one would let him live that down. “Besides, it’s not like I took both girls. I thought one girl had said no, so I asked someone else, and then…” Well.
“Somethinghappened at the Lazy Spoon.” Linc cut his eyes to Cade.
He sighed. Leave it to the hulk with a man-bun to notice what he’d hoped the guys wouldn’t. “It’s not a big deal. I just saved her from a jerk with the wrong idea.”
Owen’s eyes bugged. “You got into a fight?”
Cade hesitated. “Sort of.” It’d been a little one-sided. His jaw still clicked now and then when a storm was coming. “He wasn’t taking no for an answer from Rosalyn. So I politely tried to talk him down. He got in a sucker punch. Then some of my friends jumped in and thenhisfriends jumped in…I snuck Rosalyn outside, away from it all. Then we talked in the alley, caught up.” The words had been on his tongue.Wanna get out of here?Or maybe something less cliché than that.
“Talked, huh?” Noah grinned as he reeled in his line.
“Yes.Talked. Maybe had a…moment, or whatever. But that was it. End of story.” The details, though, the ones he wouldn’t share with these guys, were permanently seared in his brain. The humid night air and smell of the dumpster—that part maybe he wished he could forget—but mostly the way Rosalyn’s hair shimmered under the security light beaming from the side of the building and the feel of her fingers grazing his jaw as she pressed her cold mug against the bruise forming on his cheek.
“Ironic, isn’t it?” She’d rolled in her bottom lip but couldn’t stop the grin.
“What? This?” He reached his hand up to cover hers, help support the mug.
