Page 9 of The Drummer

“What? I know you, dude. You get lost in your head and shut down.”

Luke snaps a glare at me. “Will you stop? It’s not your business. Not now!”

I flinch at the outburst. So much for keeping things light.

But the more I study his scowl, the more I wonder if maybe being pushed is exactly what he needs. It’s good to seesomethingburning in his eyes, even if it’s anger. If this woman is the ally he’s led me to believe she is, together we might have a chance at getting through to him.

“I’m just looking out for you,” I say, more serious this time. “You have to move on. You can’t keep doing this to yourself. Youscrewed up. We all do. That doesn’t mean everything that happens from that point on is your fault.”

He looks ready to lash out again, and I don’t understand why. How can he not see how much I care about him? Even after what happened a year ago, I dropped everything to be here the second I could. Postponed my entire life to have coffee with a stranger because it was important tohim.

“You agree with me, right?” I ask her, desperate for a breakthrough. God, anything to bring my friend back to life. “He needs to stop punishing himself. It’s been a year. He can’t torture himself forever.”

“Casey!”

“What? I’m just?—”

“She doesn’t know,” he snaps at me.

My blood goes cold. “What?”

“She doesn’t know, okay?”

Shit.

A heavy silence settles over us. She doesn’t know? How could the woman who pierced his impenetrable barrier not know the story that locked him there?

My mind spins as I hide behind the menu, wracking my brain for anything that can fix this. Part of me wants to apologize, but I don’t even know for what. This dynamic is exactly what landed us here in the first place.

Luke shuts down, and I fucking let him.

I drop the menu on the table. “Hey, man, I’m sorry. I just thought, I don’t know, after everything you said about her. I thought you were closer.”

His glare makes it clear none of this is helping, and I swallow the rest of my words.

“Um… Okay. I’m gonna shut up now,” I mumble.

“That would be a good idea,” he returns.

Old anger burns at his hypocrisy. He’s blastingmefor being the asshole when all I’m trying to do is gain an ally in Callie andgive him the best chance he’s had for support in months. But he’s clearly not going to be accepting a lifeline any time soon.

“So, Casey. Are you in Night Shifts Black too?” Callie asks.

I stare at her, not sure if it’s the question itself or the fact that she so effortlessly broke up the tension that surprises me more. Once it becomes clear her question was sincere, the shock turns to amusement.

I bite back a laugh when Luke lifts a brow with atold-you-soexpression.

“What? What did I say?” she asks, scrunching her face in an enchanting mix of innocence and indignation.

Luke shakes his head. “Nothing. You’re fine. It’s just a funny question.”

Her eyes narrow at him. “Why’s it funny?”

He returns a quick shrug. “I don’t know. It’s not, I mean, it’s just that we’re not used to hearing stuff like that except from old people trying to be nice at charity events.”

I snort a laugh at his not-so-random example. “Remember the Morning Star Seniors’ Ball?”

“Don’t,” Luke warns with a threatening look I’m happy to ignore.

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