Move the Stars (Something in the Way 3)

I hadn’t noticed him wake up, and I wondered how long he’d been listening. I knew Lydia and Gary’s PDA would make him uncomfortable, so I shifted over to answer him. “I’ve spotted one while I was in town,” I said. “But it’s old news. I doubt he’d even recognize me.”

“He might,” Lydia said. “You’re not a forgettable man.”

“When it comes to that whole thing, I wish I were.”

“Remember how you thought Bucky was involved?” Gary said. “He got fired for going through campers’ stuff, so maybe you were right.”

“Who’s Bucky?” Henry asked.

“Camp chef who had it out for Manning for no reason,” Gary said. “Weird guy.”

“He had a thing for Tiffany,” I said. “That was the reason.”

“You think?” Gary asked.

“I know.” I stretched my legs out in front of me. When it came to my dad or Maddy or Lake, I had a problem moving on from the past, but that wasn’t the case with Tiffany. When our marriage ended, that’d been it. I didn’t rehash what went wrong or how badly either of us had fucked up. Neither of us had known our last fight would be just that, but it’d been bad enough that I wouldn’t forget it. Tiffany had wanted to hurt me, and if I was honest, I’d encouraged her. I’d already checked out of the marriage, and I’d needed her to realize it was over, so I’d taken all her anger in stride.

“Bucky hit on Tiffany several times that week we were up here. She told me.”

“I doubt he was the only one,” Gary said. “I mean, she’s not my type, but those kids and their hormones . . .”

“Bucky wasn’t a kid,” I reminded him. “He was just a thirty-something creep batting outside his league. Maybe the lack of oxygen up here got to him or something, but Tiff told me he tried to kiss her the same night I was arrested.”

“How?” Gary asked. “Bucky was with us. We were all drinking around the fire long after Tiffany and the underage counselors had gone to bed.”

“She came looking for me right as I was leaving on the alcohol run but she ran into Bucky instead. He tried to kiss her, and when she shot him down, he told her I’d gone out to the bars to meet women.”

“She never mentioned that,” Lydia said.

That was because what Bucky had actually told Tiffany was that he’d seen her sister, Lake, getting into the truck in a skimpy outfit. Tiffany had confessed to me that she’d been more worried than angry until she’d realized that skimpy outfit had come from her suitcase. It’d clicked for Tiffany in that moment—Lake didn’t just have a harmless crush. She’d been actively trying to seduce me away from Tiffany.

Henry scratched under his nose, looking tired. I figured it was definitely past his bedtime, but he was a detective at heart and instantly read between the lines. “Those two got something to do with your arrest?” he asked.

“Not really.” That last fight, Tiffany had needed to be pushed. On top of everything else we were dealing with, as soon as she’d admitted her involvement, she’d known we were over. “You know how Tiffany is. She was hurt that I’d left, but instead of dealing with it like a normal person, she lashed out. Bucky took her to the dining hall and they called the station to report a drunk driver on the highway. They gave him the description of Vern’s truck.”

Tiffany had wanted both me and Lake to get caught red-handed, but she’d never stopped to consider the kind of trouble we’d get in. For all she knew, Lake and I were having sex, which would’ve been a noble thing to put a stop to—if I didn’t know Tiffany’s reasons weren’t exactly selfless.

“You passed the sobriety test, though,” Henry pointed out.

“Yeah, but that cop was looking for me. If he hadn’t found me on the side of the road and called it in, the police might’ve believed I’d gone right back to camp from the bar. Instead, they were able to place me at the bar, then driving around the neighborhood, and then nothing until almost two hours later, when I was pulled over.” All this was making me crave another beer, but I was already buzzed, and I had to be up early to make a big delivery in Los Angeles. I rubbed my jaw. “Nobody knew where I was from around eleven to one in the morning. Plenty of time for a robbery.”

“If not for Tiffany’s phone call, your chances of getting off would’ve been better,” Lydia said. “It’s almost like she set things in motion.”

If only Lydia understood how true that was. All of our actions over the years had changed the courses of our lives, but it was no more true than with Tiffany and me.