Page 14 of The Secrets Behind Us

“Can you blame him?”

“No. I can’t.”

Ricky pats my arm awkwardly. “Don’t worry, Hazel. Everyone in this town knows you guys are meant to be. You’ll find your way back to each other.”

I envy his positivity right now. “I hope so,” I say solemnly.

“Well, that got depressing really fast. How about I get you something to drink? And to answer your earlier question, the smoke is left over from karaoke night. It takes a good two days for it to clear out afterward."

I grin back at his remark and I'm thankful he's willing to change the subject.

“Can I get a margarita? On the rocks?”

He nods. “You want salt with that?”

“Yes, please.”

A second later, hands go around my eyes and my whole body stiffens. But then I hear a sweet feminine voice in my ear. “Guess who?”

I pull her hands off glaring at her. Heat creeps up my neck with embarrassment and anger. “Not cool, Ash.”

She laughs as I’m still trying to recover, but her eyes soften a tiny bit.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you that bad.”

Ricky places my drink down in front of me. Before I can mutter a thank you, my sister softly greets him while twirling the ends of her hair in her fingers. “Hey, Ricky.”

“Hey, Ashley.” His voice sounds rougher than normal, drawing my attention as some type of communication passes between them. Before I can decipher what they could be silently saying, she grabs my wrist and pulls me toward a different corner of the room.

“Come on. Let’s meet my friends.”

I hold on to my drink as I stumble along behind my sister who drags me through the bar. When we finally stop, there are four different faces staring at the two of us, intrigued. Ashley pulls me right up to the table. “Hey, guys. This is my big sister, Hazel.”

The one on the left clears her throat and with a straight face she says, “So you do have a sister?”

Is she serious or is she joking? It's hard to tell until the rest of the women burst out laughing, but my sister just rolls her eyes. “Shut up, Kimberly. You knew I really had a sister.”

“I know. I know. I’m just kidding.” Kimberly then turns to me with a grin. “I’m sorry if I offended you. It’s just Ashley loves to talk about you and since we hadn’t met, I thought maybe she had an imaginary sister. Plus I love to give her shit."

Ashley swats at her arm but smiles. I can tell that these women are good for my little sister and that makes me so happy.

This time it's my turn to take a stab at my sis, “So are you going to introduce me? Or am I just going to stay imaginary?"

Ashley smacks her head. “Duh. Hazel, that’s Kimberly. That’s Colleen and Mya, and you know Sloane." She points to each woman as she says their name. "Our friend Allison is usually here but couldn't make it tonight. We all work together at the hospital."

I turn to look at the end of the table, I hadn’t even noticed her at first with all the joking. She’s the nurse that was helping my mom earlier today.

“Everyone, this is Hazel.”

“Hello, Hazel,” the women say all at once. Oh man, are they this synced all the time?

I wave as a bit of shyness creeps in. Trying to tamp down my anxiety, I take a drink from my margarita while the others start to break off in conversations.

Sloane leans over in my direction, “How’s your mom doing?”

I swallow my sip. “She’s doing okay. My dad and I were able to get her to eat a little bit. She’s going to spend the rest of the night cuddled up with him. They said it was their ritual after a doctor's appointment.”

“Aww, that’s sweet. I hope to find that one day.”

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