“Whoa, slow down.” I took it from her and drank it myself.
Joe did the same, slamming the other one.
“I’m just trying to keep up,” Grace said in a cutesy voice.
Char rolled her eyes.
“Don’t try to keep up. Set your own pace. That’s the key to life.” I tilted my head.
“Let’s play pool,” Joe said. “Teams. Grace, you can be on mine.”
“Sounds good to me. Calvin and I are undefeated. Aren’t we, Calv?” Charlotte smiled.
I brought the glass to my lips and took a big drink. “We actually are.”
A couple of hours later, we were on our third game of pool. Char and I had won the first, but Grace surprised us all by pocketing six balls in one turn. I got the feeling she was holding back on the first game, a true shark. We were neck and neck on game three, which would decide the winning team. Joe’s words slurred and his eyes were about three-quarters open.
“You’re up, Charlotte,” Grace said, taking a sip of her beer. Her eyes were glassy.
“I know.” Char stepped up to the table.
When she went to shoot, her pool cue slipped off the white cue ball and it only moved an inch. “Damn it.” She had drunk a little too much. I’m the only one that slowed down because I knew I had to get Joe and Grace home in one piece.
Joe placed his stick behind the cue ball. “Let me show you how it’s done.” He shot and knocked in a solid.
“Knocking in the other team’s balls? That’s how it’s done?” Grace teased.
“Shit.” Joe rubbed his brow.
Charlotte laughed and fell into me, but I held her up. “Easy there,” I said. Her hand rested on my chest and she looked up at me with a small smile.
The song “Save a Horse （Ride a Cowboy）” ended, and Char’s face lit up as her mind registered the next song the jukebox started playing. “Amazed” by Lonestar.
“I love this song. Come dance with me.” Before I could answer, Char was pulling me toward the dance floor where several couples had already started dancing. I was about to protest because I didn’t want Grace to get the wrong idea about us. We were just friends. But before the words left my mouth, Joe was asking Grace to dance.
We were all on the dance floor in a matter of seconds. I rested a hand above Char’s hip and took her other hand in mine—just a friendly dance. But I knew she thought it was something more. I thought I made it clear there was nothing between us, but it was obvious it fell on deaf ears. My eyes went to Joe and Grace. They were positioned the same way as us. Grace looked like she was having fun. She was smiling and laughing while Joe clumsily tripped over his own feet and hers. He was going to make a fool of himself.
“Hey,” Char said.
“Hay is for horses,” I said.
She pulled me in a little closer. “This is nice.”
“Yeah, tonight’s been fun.” I looked at her and then back at Grace.
“No, this,” she said, caressing my shoulder.
I raised an eyebrow. She was clearly drunk. Her eyes were glazed, and I was sure she was seeing two of me. A sudden movement off to the side caught my attention. I turned to see Grace pull away from Joe and then give him a hard push. I couldn’t hear what they were saying over the music. He looked stunned, and he stumbled back toward her, closing the new distance between them. Grace slapped him right across the face, leaving a red mark where her hand connected with his skin. I dropped Char’s hand, and in three big steps, I was in front of Joe.
I pushed him back so hard that he nearly fell over. “What the hell are you doing?” I yelled. He got to his feet, staggering toward us. Anger took hold of me like a volcano erupting all at once. I pulled my fist back and thrust it forward, connecting with Joe’s jaw. Something cracked, and he fell to the ground like a pile of bricks.
“Out!” Maxie screamed from the bar. “I won’t have that in here.”
My head snapped in her direction, and I mouthed, I’m sorry. Whispered conversations ensued and all eyes were on us.
I turned to Grace. “Are you okay?”
Her eyes were clouded with rage, something I hadn’t seen from her. If looks could kill, well, Grace’s would have blown up that whole damn bar. It was like she was in a trance.
“I’m fine. It was just a misunderstanding,” she finally said, shaking her head slightly and massaging the hand that had slapped Joe. I shook out my own. My knuckles were raw and beet red.
Joe spit blood on the ground as he got to his feet. Blood wasn’t always thicker than water. He rubbed his swollen jaw.
“You’re drunk, Joe. Let me take you home.” I tried to guide him to the exit but he pushed me away.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” he seethed and unceremoniously made his way out of the bar. All eyes followed him. Maxie shook her head and tossed a rag on the bar. She was right. I should have kept Joe away from Grace.
23.
Grace
The winding dark road was lit up by the headlights of the truck. The moon illuminated the mountainous backdrop, shimmering along part of the Wind River. It was all a dark blur around me. Everything had been a blur since I got here. I was seated in the front while Charlotte sat quietly in the back. No one had said a word since we got in the vehicle. I knew Calvin wanted to ask what Joe did to piss me off but he stayed quiet instead. He pulled into a gravel driveway. From what I could see by the glow of a dim porch light, Charlotte took good care of her property. The nicely pruned shrubbery, colorful flower beds, and array of trees all distracted from how dumpy the actual house looked—clearly a fixer-upper that hadn’t been fixed up.
“I’m gonna help get her inside,” he said to me.
I didn’t say anything.
Calvin walked Charlotte up the sidewalk. His hand hovered by the small of her back. She stumbled a little, but he was careful to keep her upright. At the door, she struggled with the keys and ended up dropping them. Calvin bent down, scooped them up, and unlocked the door. The house slowly lit up as they made their way from one room to the next.
Something about their dynamic was strange. It was clear Charlotte was in love with Calvin, but was Calvin in love with her?
The outlines of their bodies came back into view through the large living room window. Charlotte’s body leaned into Calvin’s and his arms wrapped around her. Then they disappeared again. Another light flicked on, then off. Something must have happened between them at some point.
I looked at my cell phone. I had one bar of service but just as I typed in my password, the bar went away, replaced with the words No Service. Of course. I just wanted to check some emails but I couldn’t even do that. At the start of the trip, I liked the isolation. But now, I didn’t know how to feel about it. Ten minutes had passed since Calvin went inside with Charlotte. Just as I placed my hand on the steering wheel to blare the horn, he exited the house, gently closing the front door behind him. He jogged back to the truck and hopped in.
“Sorry that took so long.” Calvin slid the key into the ignition and started it up. “She was pretty drunk, and I wanted to make sure she was all right. I’ve never seen her like that.” The vehicle backed out smoothly onto the main road.