Page 71 of Bad Luck Club

“Oh, come on,” he said jauntily. “I’m pretty sure we’re all in agreement that we could lose Augusta.”

He’d said it to make her laugh, but she couldn’t laugh, not over this. She was embarrassed to realize there were tears in her eyes.

“Blue,” Harry said, his tone serious now. “Don’t forget the reason we’re doing this. The club is about improving our lives. About turning things around. If you’ve found the guy who’s it for you…even if itisSleeper Agent, then you’re not doing anyone a favor by holding back. The only way you’re succeeding in the Bad Luck Club is if you leave.”

“But—” She glanced up, startled.

“You’re not going to lose us. We’re your friends. That’s something that goes beyond the club. Well, with the aforementioned exception of Augusta.”

“What about Lee? He needs the club too.”

Harry laughed with what sounded like genuine amusement. “Oh, Blue. He’s only coming because ofyou.”

It felt like the air had been knocked out of her.

She didn’t talk much after that, just listened, numbly, as Harry told her about his excruciating challenge, which he had, of course, done anyway.

They got to the meeting spot Bear had set—the circular fountain, currently dry, in front of a bronze sculpture of a man holding an unfurling map, beyond it a view of the mountains that made her breath catch every time she saw it. Except it didn’t today. She was too busy searching for Lee.

Everyone else was there—Augusta bickering with Dee, Nicole rolling her eyes next to them, and Bear and Cal talking beneath the statue—buthewasn’t. One thing she knew about Lee was that he was a man who valued being on time. A man who kept his word.

He’d said he was coming, as recently as yesterday, when she’d informed him of the change in location, but what if he’d changed his mind?

What if he was upset about her date?

A different kind of fear wormed through her, and she was barely paying attention to what the others were saying when Bear nudged her.

“Ready?”

“Huh?”

“I think this’ll be good for Nicole, don’t you think? This wasn’t what Dee had in mind when she sent her this challenge, but it’s an interesting interpretation. Remember, if things go wrong, we’ll meet in the first parking lot.”

That didn’t sound good. If there was a risk things would go south, why had they all worn matching, extremely bright sweatshirts?

She glanced at Harry, but he was of no help. He just lifted his eyebrows, as if that conveyed all that needed to be said, and ambled off to talk to Nicole, the woman of the hour.

Although she was tempted to ask what they were doing here—clearly she’d missed something important—she didn’t get the chance.

“You didn’t tell me how your challenge went, Blueberry.” Bear studied her. “Just that you did it.”

She glanced away, searching the passersby for Lee. There weren’t a lot of people around—the day was somewhat overcast—but it was far from empty. Still, even though one man had the same color hair as Lee and another was a similar height, they all had the misfortune of not being him.

“Max is a nice guy. He really has it together.” Saying that, she felt a tightness in her chest, as if she were being disloyal to Lee.

Bear tilted his head, studying her. “Interesting. So you haven’t broken Rule #4 yet.”

The way he said it, like he expected her to and wasn’t necessarily pissed about it, loosened something inside of her.

She started to say something, but then Augusta clapped her hands, loudly, like she did everything.

“Showtime,” she said. Nicole and Harry exchanged a look—this was Nicole’s challenge, whatever it was, and Augusta had just laid claim to it, but Harry shrugged, and Nicole rolled her eyes and stepped up to the statue.

As she approached it, climbing the two stone steps it stood upon, Dee looked around with a nervous glance before she whipped out her camera to take a video.

“Fred, you absolute waste of life,” Nicole said to the statue. At first she was speaking quietly, almost in an undertone, but her voice rose with every word. “Isn’t it enough that you slept with every other goddamn person I know? You really had to go after my best friend? Screw you.” She punched her fists into the metal of his body, something that had to hurt, but she didn’t back down, instead kicking his metal leg.

Passing tourists had paused to watch, gathering around the big, dry fountain, giving Nicole plenty of space. Someone behind Blue gasped. “She slept with a statue? Wouldn’t that hurt?”

---