Page 77 of Love Takes Home

I’ve been looking around the table at everyone and notice that Elle has grown still and quiet. Two traits I would never apply to her. She might also look a little green.

“Elle?” I ask her, trying to be gentle. “What is it? What do you know?”

“I think I can provide you with some information.”

Tiny, her oversized giant of a little brother—by like five minutes—glares at Elle, the pixie. Ranger, on the other hand, just looks mildly curious.

“Explain,” I command.

“I knew Keith in Diamond Cove from years ago.”

“And?”

“And I didn’t like him then. It didn’t seem important or relevant when I ran into him here, but now I think what I know about him might be.”

“None of us liked him. Continue.”

“Hey,” Ginny interrupts, “I liked him at one point.”

“Do you like him now?” I glare at her.

“Well, no.”

“Then it doesn’t matter.” I turn to Elle. “Continue.”

She blows out a breath before speaking, gathering her thoughts. “So, in my younger years, we used to go out all the time and party all night or whatever, right?”

Tiny makes a noise that I would normally laugh at, but I want to hear what she has to say.

“Oh, shut up, little brother. It’s in the past. Can’t change it now.” She turns back to me. “Anyway, I always figured he was trying to climb the social ladder or something, but I started to notice a trend.”

“Why do you think he was trying to climb the social ladder?”

She covers her face and groans. “This is going to make me sound like a stuck-up snob.”

“Don’t care.”

“We know better,” Trish, ever the mom, assures her.

“He would show up and try so hard to act like us. But he never could. His clothes were last year’s trends. His speech was alittle…McDouble compared to Angus beef? I don’t know, he was just—”

“Not as expensive or trendy. Got it,” I assure her. “Go on.”

“Well, he would show up and be charming enough that one of my friends would let him tag along.”

“So, what was the trend you noticed?”

“That on certain nights, he’d bring a girl with him who would immediately get with one of the guys. He introduced her as Karina, but never as a relation. And on those nights, the majority of the group would be…more than drunk?”

“What does more than drunk mean?”

“She’s trying to say that they were higher than a fucking kite,” Ranger gets to the point.

“Thanks, asshole.” Elle smiles at him.

“No problem, Tink.” He smiles back.

“It was around this time that I was starting to pull back from the group, anyway. The studio was fully in the works, and everything with Barty had happened. I decided it wasn’t a good scene for me. I stopped keeping up with what they were doing and forgot about Keith.”

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