Page 60 of Smooth Sailing

There were smiles, a couple of chuckles, more handshakes, and Diana said to Nicole, “I’ll get Larry a beer and shake you a martini.”

“I’ll love you forever if you do, but I was already going to do that, so just know you have my eternal gratitude for offering that elixir after I had to deal with Mr. Overprotective for the last hour,” Nicole replied.

“So you kept it from him until tonight?” Diana asked as she headed to the kitchen, Nicole following.

Hugger didn’t hear Nicole’s answer.

Suzette mumbled, “I’ll just start clearing,” then she swiftly got into doing that, but more, got out of the slew of men and found a way to get herself to the women.

“She’s okay with you guys?” Larry murmured low, his eyes following Suzette, having missed her ploy with the clearing.

“She is, and she ain’t,” Big Petey replied, also low. “I think I got her okay with me today. She tries to pretend the boys don’t exist. Mostly, I think she’s out of her room, not because she’s comfortable, but because she doesn’t want to disappoint Diana.”

“Not sure that’s good,” Larry muttered.

“Probably not good for her to push herself before she’s ready. But it’s worse, her sittin’ in a dark room by herself and up in her head, where it isn’t a safe place to be,” Pete replied.

Larry nodded.

Diana returned with Larry’s beer, grabbed some plates, and declared, “Suze and I cooked. I’ll take these in, but that means we don’t clean.”

And with that, she strutted back to the kitchen.

“We got our orders,” Eight said, and he grabbed some shit from the table, the rest of the men following suit.

“These boys do this, can I have a word?” Pete asked Larry.

Larry assessed him then jutted his chin in an affirmative.

“Hug, with us,” Big Petey ordered in Hugger’s direction.

They headed to the balcony.

When they got there, Pete’s eyes went right to the coffee place. So did Hugger’s.

It was closed, but there appeared to be no one of concern sitting in the seating outside that place, or in any of the outdoor sections.

“Everything okay?” Larry asked.

Big Petey focused on Larry.

Hugger focused on Pete.

“You know her story? Suzette’s?” Pete asked.

Larry looked surprised. “You don’t?”

“Know what happened to her,” Pete said. “Only got one day in with her, don’t know more. Wondered if you did.”

“Like what do you want to know?” Larry asked.

“She got people? She got things? She got a job? She got a place?” Pete clarified.

Larry shook his head. “Nic says she’s not opening up to Di, and Di doesn’t want to push it.”

Pete pondered this, then stated, “She’s entrenched here, man. I can’t get it. Shit like what happened to her never happened to me. But I also really don’t get it. Even when really bad shit goes down, not a lot of us can put our whole life on hold to hole up and figure it out,” Pete noted.

Big Petey had a point.

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