Page 100 of Movers and Shakers

“Getting hit on by a weirdo?” Barry asked.

“Ask him about his bar,” I stage-whispered to Wilfred. I glanced at Barry, and my heart sank when I saw his jaw tic. I knew the bar was not a good subject for his usual family, but was it also banned with Wilfred?

“Right, the bar.”

“You know about it?”

“I looked it up, once I figured out how the Google works. It’s one of the few bars on the main strip that isn’t all country, right?”

“Yeah, that’s it. It’s called—‍”

“Movers and Shakers. Cool name. Miriam and Bill have a hard time remembering, but I tried to commit it all to memory.”

“Who?” I asked.

“His grandparents,” Wilfred said. “I’m good friends with them, even after everything. They keep tabs on that bar. They did on all of you kids. You are one impressive bunch.”

“Ruth and Tom are the impressive ones.”

“No,” I said. “You are too.”

“I mean in thenormalway. Owning a bar isn’t really what anyone had in mind for me.”

“It’s amazing, kid. And from what I can tell, you’ve hosted some famous people in those four walls. I want to go, but I, uh . . . don’t know how the website works.”

“You want to go?”

“It sounds like a fun place. I’d like to see what you’ve been up to. You . . . all of you made names for yourselves. I wish I could say that I had a part in your upbringing. That man . . .Todd. . .must have been good for you three.”

Barry’s lips pressed together and I wondered if I should step in to say that Todd had been the opposite of good. He’d been evil.

“Did I say something wrong?” Wilfred asked.

I wondered if Barry would tell him what Todd had done to them. But his eyes fell to the floor, and when he looked up, all the emotion was gone.

Just like when I’d been Lila.

“No, you didn’t. We’re still getting the hang of this, that’s all.”

Wilfred smiled, unaware of how Barry had shoved all of his pain into a box.

But I saw it.

And I hated it even more when it wasn’t directed at Lila.

Barry

“So, Rose”—Wilfred turned to her as she’d been watching me like a hawk—“how did you and Barry meet?”

Rose’s eyes slowly slid from me and I knew she had seen what I’d just done. I didn’t know how she caught it, but she always seemed to.

“His bar,” she said. “It’s a funny story, actually.”

“Something to do with being hit on by a weirdo?”

“She was there one night and a guy came on too hard to her. I kicked him out.”

“And then I followed him like a lost puppy until he talked to me.”

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