“Come on.” Jake led me through the living room, past the football game, into the backyard where a skinny, bearded man was setting up the grill. “That’s asshat,” he said. “He’ll spend most of the day drinking and pretending to get the grill started until wifey has had enough and ends up throwing the whole thing in the oven. We usually don’t eat till late at night, depending on how much alcohol he manages to sneak past wifey.”
“She looks mean.”
“She’s not that bad. I just like giving her a hard time.”
“Lucifer,” his brother called out and walked towards us. “I’m glad you made it.” He looked at me, then back at Jake, and I saw something flash between them. “And you are?”
“Maria.” I held my hand out for him to shake it.
He did. “It’s nice to meet you. How do you know Jake?” Straight to the point. I could see why he bothered Jake so much.
“She’s my girlfriend.”
Elizabeth scoffed behind me. “For the night.” She carried a mountain of chicken. “Andrew.” She looked at the grill. “Why isn’t the fire started yet?”
“I’m coming. Hey, Jake, come help me with this, will ya?”
“Sure.” Jake walked off with his brother, and I took the nearest lawn chair I could find, hoping to remain as inconspicuous as I could. Something grabbed onto the back of my leg, and I jolted up. When I turned back, I stared into the cutest pair of baby blue eyes.
Haylie laid underneath the table, laughing. “Hi.” She waved at me.
“Hello.” I ducked down to her level “What’s your name?”
“Haylie.”
“Haylie, it’s wonderful to meet you.”
“You’re pretty.” She walked out from under the table and put her hands on her hips. “Mm-hmm.” She gave me a nod of approval. I got the sense that she was inspecting me, but she was so young, I didn’t know what to make of it. Before I knew what was happening, she ran off.
Chapter 11
Jake
The second Elizabeth left, Andrew dragged me around the side of the house where he’d hidden a flask in the weeds. He bent down to pick it up and slammed it. Then he stepped forward and backed me up against the wall. “What is this shit?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, you know damn well what I’m talking about. How’d you pull a girlfriend out of your ass?”
“I have a girlfriend. I told you it wasn’t any of your business, but you kept at it. So I brought her with me. Are you happy? Or do you wanna take a look under the hood just to make sure she’s real?”
“So defensive,” he said, taking another drink. “It’s just weird you’ve never mentioned her.”
“I’m mentioning her now. I thought you guys would be happy to meet her.”
“Fine, I’m sorry. I should be happy for you.” He went to take another drink. I grabbed the flask away from him and threw it into the neighbor’s yard.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked miserably. “That’s all I had.”
“Now I won’t have to worry about anything else for the rest of the night, and maybe we’ll eat before sundown.” I turned around and walked back to the party, where Elizabeth had cornered Maria with the rest of the women at the patio table.
She glanced back at me and smiled, then turned back to the conversation with the other ladies, who listened to what she was saying and nodded their heads like it was the juiciest piece of gossip ever heard. I knew well enough not to linger too long in Elizabeth’s presence, so I walked inside, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and stared at the TV with the rest of the men.
“Hear you finally brought a girl to the party?” Andrew’s friend Rick sat on the other side of the couch holding a beer.
“Yup.”
“She a keeper?”