Page 7 of Lady Sings the Blues

“I’m not talking bad about him, so please don’t take it like that. But um—Logan was always jealous of Beau.”

“What?”

“I know. Cousins—practically brothers—and best friends. But it’s true. Logan and I actually broke up for a couple of days because of it.”

“Wow. What was it about, if you don’t mind me askin’?”

“Well, it was the start of our senior year. Beau had already left for UK. He’d been fixing up this sweet Mustang. The thing was a piece of crap when he bought it. Someone had wrecked it. But like I said, get Beau around an engine and magic happened. He restored it to showroom condition. He’d brought it to school with him, storing it at a friend’s garage. When he wasn’t in class or at football practice, he’d work on it. Already had a buyer lined up and everything. Beau and I talked on the phone all the time back then. He missed me and Logan. I missed him, something fierce. Without anyone Hollister enough to keep him in check, Logan’s ego started getting out of control. We were seniors now, after all, and ruled the school anyway.” She stopped talking to take a breath.

But of all the Logan Hollister lore I’ve ever heard, this is new, even to my ears. “Go on.” I urge her.

“The week before homecoming—Beau was our standing King and per tradition, as you probably know, would be handing off the crown to the new king, which everyone knew would be Lo.

“Beau had finished the Mustang and wanted to try it before he sold it. Man, it was beautiful. Cherry red. White soft top. I’d never wanted to take a ride as badly as when I saw him roll up with the top down. Without me even having to ask, he held out his hand. Of course I jumped at the opportunity. Logan preferred muscle to speed in his cars. Funny, as he was the quarterback signed to play for UK the following fall. Speed was his job.”

“There ain’t nothin’ like it.”

“Right?” She agrees.

“I love the feel of the wind on my face,” I tell her, and notice the brief smile which appears and disappears just as quickly.

“Then you can probably picture me plastering myself to his side from the excitement.”

Yep. I could absolutely picture it. In detail.

“Logan saw us. He saw us leave. We were gone for a couple hours, the weather had been perfect that weekend, and the leaves were changing colors. I got to enjoy time with my friend without having to put on a show. Logan loved the show. He wanted everyone to envy us. I just wanted my Lo back. Seems I’d already started losing him.” She shrugs. “But he saw us come back, too. And he was pissed. That was the only day I’d ever been scared of him. Thought he might hit me.”

“Sonofabitch,” I murmur.

Her head snaps up to look at me with wide eyes and face drained of color. “Nothing happened between me and Beau,” she says quickly. “I’d never have cheated on Logan. I’d never cheat on anyone.”

Elise, you say this like I’m judging you, like that’s why I’d say it?

“So he broke up with you?”

“Yeah. Which let me tell you, was awkward. We were each other’s homecoming date. So we went together as expected, but he was hostile to me the whole time. Only danced with me for the required dances. He was crowned king, and I’d made queen. Since he’d shown up, I spent the majority of the evening dancing with Beau. I just couldn’t tell him about me and Lo. I mean, they were cousins. What if he didn’t want me around anymore, either?

“Then Beau took off back to school. He kissed my cheek and took off that night. Lo grabbed my hand and hauled me to his jeep. We ended up at this cabin the families owned off the river on route eight.”

“The family still owns it.” I offer because, well, she’s been gone a while. It might make her feel better to hear the place has yet to leave Hollister hands. “Did he hurt you?”

“What?No. Without the audience, he got real lovey, admitted to me how much my friendship with Beau bothered him because it just came so easy with Beau. He was afraid of losing me to his cousin.”

“Are you serious?”

“As a stroke.”

“I think it’s as a heart attack.”

“Does it matter? They’re both serious.”

Touché.“So what happened next?”

Beautiful Elise bites her lip, lookin’ to her feet, her face reddening to almost strawberry. “We um…got back together.”

“That’s it? Very un-climactic ending to your story.” Yeah, I tease her because I gotta hear how this ends.

“It wasn’t. Trust me.”

We stop at the curb and wait while an old Impala with half its muffler hanging down rumbles by us leaving a trail of thick, black, noxious air for us to choke on. She uses the collar of her shirt as a facemask while we continue on to cross the street, through the smog.

“Then what happened?”

She blows her bangs from her face, exasperated. “I lost my virginity that weekend, if you must know.”

“But I—I mean everyone thought—”

“I know what they thought. Because we’d been together all of junior year. We’d done other stuff. I just wasn’t ready to take that next step. Course, once I let him score the touchdown, it was game on.”

“TMI, Elise. T.M.I.”

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