“Who?”
He shook his head. “Never mind.”
“Who were you going to ask me about?”
“Shit. I can’t recall her name. Anyway, I heard she was married.”
“How could you know someone is married if you can’t remember her name?”
“I can picture her. What the hell was her name?”
I was so relieved he didn’t ask me if it was Sloane that he could give me shit all night about women whose names he couldn’t remember.
I was about to get into the car when something caught my eye. I looked up and saw Sloane watching us from her bedroom window. I waited until Halo got in before I raised my hand. By then, she was gone.
The place we called the grill’s real name was the Biltmore, and it had been around since prohibition days. Back then, it was a speakeasy. Now, it was a dive bar, but with great food. Not that I was hungry.
Halo and I made our way through the crowd until we got to the back, where guys we knew from high school usually hung out.
“Tony, how the hell are you?” I asked, shaking the hand of a guy I’d played football with when he approached to say hello.
“Hey, Tackle. I’m good.” He leaned in closer than necessary in the noisy jam-packed bar. “My dad said he heard you and Halo had a close call.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about, my friend,” I said, gripping his shoulder in a way that answered him, yet warned him not to continue talking about it.
“I’m glad you’re both okay.”
“Appreciate it. Whatcha drinkin’?”
“Same ol’ Sammy,” he said, holding up a bottle of Sam Adams.
“Hey, Halo?” I pointed at Tony’s bottle, and he gave me a thumbs-up.
An hour later, my phone and Halo’s both lit up with text messages. “Onyx is awake,” I yelled, pumping my fist in the air. I looked at Halo, whose eyes were brimming with tears like mine were.
“It says he’s bitching about how Monk never shut up the whole time he was out. What do you think that means?”
“No idea, but if he’s talking, we should be celebrating.”
“Agreed. Shots for the house on Tackle and me,” Halo shouted to the bartender. It would cost us a fortune, given how packed the place was, but who gave a shit. Onyx, our brother-in-arms, was awake.
By the end of the night, I’d had too many beers, listened to too much bullshit, but felt better than I had in months. “We should call a cab,” I said to Halo, who was just as lit as I was. “I’ll come get my car tomorrow.”
“Nah, I called Sloane.”
“Say what? You called your sister? She’s sick, asshole.”
Halo shook his head and took another swig of his beer. “She said she felt better.”
“It’s snowing, and it’s two in the morning. God, you’re a jerk.”
“What’s your problem? Have you forgotten all the other times Sloane picked us up from this very same bar?”
Had she? I guess so. Damn, I was just as much of a jerk as he was. “She know I’m with you?”
Halo looked over at me with scrunched eyes. “Who the fuck else would I be with? I’m beginning to think you got some kind of brain damage when that plane crashed.”
“I’m taking a cab.” I pulled out my phone to call one when I saw a familiar car drive up.
Sloane didn’t look at either her brother or me when we climbed in: him in the front seat, me in the back.
“Tackle said I was an asshole for calling you, sis. Forgive me?”
“If he’s as drunk as you are, I’d much rather you call me than try to drive. Then, you would be an asshole.”
My eyes met hers in the rearview, and I wished so much that we were alone and I could get her to talk to me. I rested my head against the seat and closed my eyes, remembering in vivid detail—which was surprising in my inebriated state—how every inch of her body looked naked. “God, Sloane,” I groaned.
“Tackle!” I heard her yell. “Wake the hell up and get out of the car.” I raised my head and saw she was parked in front of my parents’ house.
“Sorry ’bout this,” I said, reaching over the seat to pat her shoulder. Halo was slouched up against the passenger door, mouth hanging open, and snoring. “And I’m sorry about the condom.”
“What did you say?” she asked as I was opening the door to climb out.
“I sure wish you hadn’t left that day,” I slurred, suddenly realizing I was a lot more drunk than I’d thought. I looked back over at Halo to make sure he was still asleep, and touched her neck with the tip of my finger.
When she shuddered and leaned her head against my hand, I knew she wished she hadn’t, either.
“Take him home and come back.”
She moved away from me. “You’ve lost your mind.”
“You know you want me again, Sloane. Just as much as I want you.”
She turned and looked at me over the seat. “You’re off-your-ass drunk, Tackle.”
“So?”
“Get the hell out of my car.”
When she turned around to face the front again, I could see the glimmer of a smile. I moved her hair out of my way and put my lips where my fingertip had been.
“Where are we?” groaned Halo, trying to sit up.
“Unblock me,” I whispered before getting out of the car and watching her drive away.
8
Sloane
When I woke the next morning feeling just as sick as I had the day before, I cursed both my brother and Tackle for calling me in the middle of the night to give them a ride home. I meant what I said, though. I was glad they had rather than try to drive themselves.
I rolled over and went back to sleep, thankful that I didn’t have to get up and go to work for the rest of the week.
“How are you this morning, mija?” my mother asked, coming into my bedroom and sitting on the side of my bed. She felt my forehead. “Still no
