to make the flight,” Grant stammered.
“Where the hell did that come from? You still carrying that shit around with you after all this fucking time? You were the one who told me her parents never liked you.”
“It probably was a turning point with Annie. You never showed up to take me to the airport, and with the weather … I couldn’t get another flight, and they all left on a ski vacation. They never approved of me after that,” Grant said.
“Well….”
“I didn’t come from money, like Annie did. She had been groomed to do what she was doing, and they didn’t want someone to derail the plans they had for her, certainly not someone without the background, without the money,” Grant said. Isobelle was standing behind the bar, waiting for Rex to come with her, awkwardly caught in the middle of this heated exchange. Neither Rex nor Grant seemed to take any notice of her.
“Well, it wasn’t hard to fall out of favor with them, because you were never in their favor. You can’t haul that missed plane thing around with you, when it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The cards were already stacked against you. She may have liked you, but they weren’t going to let her be with someone like you,” Rex said.
“Yeah, I suppose … sorry I brought it up.”
“Damn right, we talked about it before, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t that it was you. They had somebody different in mind. Probably would have been nice if she would have told them ‘piss off, it’s my life, and it’s none of your goddamn business,’ but that’s another story.” Rex let out a loud breath. “You think she’s perfect, but she let them get into her fucking head, and that probably did more to shit-can the relationship than any of the creative forms of self-expression you and I came up with.”
Grant let out a loud breath. Rex’s statement made sense. “You and me streaking at that school function that Annie and her parents were at probably didn’t help much either, you think?”
“No, I think that really would have helped if you had told them it was you!” They both started to laugh. “That didn’t help with Annie, maybe we should call them now and tell them,” Rex laughed.
They were both really laughing now.
Isobelle stood silently behind the bar, perplexed. She was trying to follow their conversation, which seemed to go from surprise, to anger, to laughter in a matter of mere seconds.
“Yeah, always making the right decisions back then,” Grant said, shaking his head.
“Think about the time you borrowed that guy’s truck and we went goose hunting,” Rex said.
“And drove off the road and into the lake….”
“I can take you down there now,” Isobelle tried to interrupt again, but Grant and Rex seemed not to hear.
“And you bet me I couldn’t hit that goose while we were sinking. Pretty easy twenty bucks I made. Bet that guy is still pissed about his truck,” Rex said.
“I’m still pissed about having to pay you the twenty bucks.”
“I think I still have that twenty.”
“Cheap bastard,” Grant said.
“No, I just always wanted to have it to rub in your face.”
“How about you stealing the flower shop delivery van?”
“Or you stealing that motorcycle?” Rex asked.
“Saved your ass from the campus cops with that motorcycle.”
“Yeah, that was pretty funny. Driving it through that wedding party in the park was funnier.”
“Felt bad about gettin’ all that mud on the dresses, tuxes and such,” Grant said.
“No you didn’t.”
“I might have.”
“Probably not.”
“It’s funny now.”
“It was funny then,” Rex crunched on the ice from his drink, looking out of the bar and into the hallway.
“I suppose.”
“See, these are the things you need to think about, not that shit with Annie’s parents, or what you did, or didn’t do right with her. After all, Annie is still here, she didn’t leave town after seeing you. And she said she’d meet with us later, which is good and … Oh, here’s your new girlfriend. You play your cards right, you can spend time with your new girlfriend, then spend time with your old girlfriend. Feeling really lucky, maybe you spend time with the two at the end, though I saw ’em first! May need a wingman, I don’t know,” Rex said.
Grant continued to laugh. Isobelle wanted to get Rex out of the way, and down to the other end of the bar, but seeing this Grant finally find the smile that had been eluding him, she could not help but smile herself.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
