Page 87 of The Words We Lost

Agreed.

“What are you doing at say 9:01 tonight?”

It took her a second to realize Ryker was speaking to her.

“Um ... I’m not sure.” With any luck, she’d be cheering on a different kind of fight night. One involving a crusty sea captain and her overprotective cousin. This time though, her money would be on Joel. Even with Hal’s weight loss, he still had four inches and a good forty pounds on her cousin, but Joel had spent the majority of these past lovesick years missing Ingrid from inside the hotel gym. Gone was his lanky, adolescent build, and in its place stood a man as dense as he was quick.

Ryker slid a napkin and a ballpoint pen toward her. A ten-digit phone number was scrawled out below a check yes or no box. Those intoxicating dimples were back. “I’m off at nine. Please let me take you out to a late dinner or dessert or to any open establishment willing to serve you bottomless Cecelia Jane Specials for however long you’re willing to keep me company.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Can’t promise they’ll be as good as the ones I’ve made you, but I will promise no sweaty men cursing at a giant TV screen.” His laugh was a cool kind of confident, and Cece made a mental note to add a Ryker-inspired character to her current work in progress. “What do you say, Cecelia Jane?” He picked up the pen and drew four arrows pointing to the yes box all while giving her pleading puppy eyes.

She opened her mouth to answer him, but the sight of her cousin snaking his way through the crowd snapped it shut again. Without an ounce of hesitation, Cece swiped the pen from Ryker’s hand, checked the yes box for him to see, and then jammed the napkin into the pouch of her hoodie.

She slid off the barstool, and Ryker whooped and shouted after her, “Call me! See you tonight!”

She waved a hand in acknowledgment and wove through the herd to catch up to her cousin, who was now only a few tables away from Hal’s.

“Okay,” she said, with her game face on. “So what’s our plan?”

“My planis to take Hal home,” Joel said, eyeing his target with only half as much disdain as she felt the moment required.

“And then what?”

“And then nothing.” He furrowed his brow at her. “I don’t want you involved in this. Ingrid will be...” He shook his head, but Cece knew the fill-in-the-blank for that one.Devastated. Which was precisely why Joel needed to be far more infuriated. “She’s going to need a friend she can talk to when everything comes out, and that friend needs to be you.”

“What are you talking about? What’severything? And last I checked, we’rebothher friends.” She gestured between the two of them. “We can both be there for her.”

Distress creased Joel’s forehead, and the scarily hollow sound of his next words pinged inside her ears. “She’ll need time to work through her anger.”

“Hal’s the one deserving of her anger, not you,” Cece hissed. “You weren’t the one to break the agreement between him and your father;Captain Haldid that all on his own. It’s time he suffered his own consequences.”

“Please, Cece. Just promise me you’ll be the person she can go to when she needs support.” Joel’s jaw ticked twice.

“Sure, fine. I promise,” she huffed out, exasperated.

His nod was curt. “Then it would be best if you were never here tonight.”

Baffled, Cece remained frozen where she stood as Joel continued on alone to Hal’s table. He set a hand onto Hal’s shoulder and bent low to speak directly into his ear while his icy gaze locked on Darius. Cold fear licked up Cece’s spine as she waited on Hal’s next move. She braced for him to come up swinging, to show his true colors and reveal the coward he truly was. But instead, both seated men seemed completely in control of themselves and their surroundings. They shared a knowing glance, then slowly pushedback from the table as Joel flagged down a waitress and left enough cash to cover their bill. Darius exited through a side door without so much as a backward glance. And then, as if this was all a practiced dance, Joel escorted Hal from the sports bar and out into the parking lot.

No big scene. No heated argument. No shock of any kind.

What on earth was going on?

Cece rushed to keep up with them, indignation brewing hot in her center. Surely Joel had a better plan in mind than paying for their beers and playing chauffeur! What kind ofplanwas that? He’d just caught Hal red-handed! It was time he stopped being coddled for his crimes.

Like so many other times in their adolescence, Cece followed after Joel, ducking behind parked cars in order to keep a read on the situation. She crouched low behind a blue Mazda with tinted windows and turned her attention to Hal and Joel, willing her cousin to unleash the hellfire she knew he was capable of when he finally stopped in front of his black Honda but made no attempt to get inside the car. And she knew right then that this was far from over.

Hal spoke first. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“You can save your apologies for Ingrid,” Joel said without looking at him.

“Ingrid doesn’t need to know about this. We can keep it between the two of us.”

“No, we can’t,” Joel fired back. “We tried that once, remember?” His voice was strained. “What happened to you begging me to keep your relapse quiet so you could tell Ingrid yourself? What happened to calling your sponsor when you’re struggling—to attending a meeting? What happened to youstaying sober?” He scrubbed both hands down his face. “That lasted all of what? Ten days? Two weeks?”

Cece’s jaw slacked at the revelation. She’d been right. Hal had fallen off the wagon, and not just recently, either.

“Life’s more complicated than you know.”

“No, it’s not. It’s actually quite simple.” Joel’s frustration continued to rise. “Ingrid is the only thing you should be thinking about right now. Remember her? The daughter you’ve been lying to for I don’t even know how long?” He threw out his arms. “Do you even have a clue what this will doto her when she finds out that not only have you been drinking again, but that you’ve been permanently suspended from chartering for the hotel? That’s not exactly a secret you can keep up for long, Hal.” He grips the back of his neck. “What’s your plan when she shows up here at the end of the semester and you have nothing to your name again but that old tugboat?”

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