Logan and Shane discussing a new custom bike that had just been ordered from some bigwig in LA. It all blurred into mush and Bobbi threw her napkin down on the table, her chest tight and her breathing irregular.
“Are you okay?” Shane asked, his voice low as he turned to her.
“Am I okay?” she asked incredulously. “That’s all you’ve got? You’ve been sitting beside me for over an hour and that’s all you’ve got.” She shook her head and muttered. “Am I okay.”
She grabbed her wine glass, fingers gripped tight, and knuckles white from the pressure.
“Are you sure you should be drinking that?”
Wait. What? Bobbi glared at Shane, suddenly, infuriatingly, pissed off at him. “Since when do you care whether or not I drink wine?”
Shane’s face darkened and he leaned so close she could count every single eyelash, every single goddamn one. “Do you want to get into this right now?”
“Get into what?” Her heart was pounding so hard she was sure every person at the table could hear her.
“Put the glass down, Bobbi.”
He reached over to take it from her but she snatched it away. “What the hell is wrong with you, Shane?”
He stared at her for so long that her insides went hot and then achingly cold. Something shifted in his eyes. Something she hadn’t seen in a very long time. Something that made her sick to her stomach.
“Shane,” she whispered, “what the hell is going on?” She took a sip of wine, not really a conscious move, but more or less because the glass was in her hand and she needed to do something.
“You’re unbelievable.”
What?
“Who ordered a bike?”
Betty’s voice cut through the din and Bobbi glanced at her sister, noticing for the first time that she was as pale as the ivory linens covering the table.
“Who did you say ordered a bike from you?” Betty’s eyes were trained onto Logan and if it was possible she was even whiter than she had been a few seconds earlier.
“Beau Simon.”
“The actor, director guy?” Eden asked incredulously? “The one who was married to Jess Hartley?”
“Yes,” Logan answered with a smile. “That’s the one.”
“Is he,” Eden was literally bouncing up and down in her seat. “Is he going to come here, you know to see the bike? Like would he do that?”
Logan shook his head. “I doubt it. I’ve already met with him. Once the bike is done we’ll ship it out to California.”
“Oh my god! He’s so hot! I’ve seen Blind Justice like, twenty-five times.”!”
Conversations erupted once more, filling Bobbi’s ears and filling her head. Yet she couldn’t look away from Betty. Her sister’s eyes were vacant and she stared at the dinner table as if the most important thing in the world were the white china plates with little pink roses bordering the edge.
Betty looked as if she’d seen a ghost. She looked as if her very soul had been sucked dry and with Bobbi’s own ghosts circling hard it became too much.
Bobbi pushed her chair back. She couldn’t breathe.
If I can just get outside for some air.
She grabbed her wine glass. “Excuse me guys, I’ve got to ah, check on dessert.”
“Not with that,” Shane said pointedly, his hand on her arm, his dark eyes glaring at her.
“What the hell is your problem?” she said under her breath.