Page 40 of Dead Man's Hollow
Rich cuts his eyes toward Chris, then he asks, “Are we gonna play or what?”
“I’ll call.” Mikey adds his chips to the pot.
“Shoulda told Amy to let it go,” Frank says through a mouthful of potato chips. He spews crumbs on the table, which Brett brushes to the floor with a disgusted look.
“Tell us you’re single without telling us you’re single,” Andy ribs his brother. “The surest way to make a woman dig in her heels is to tell her to let something go.”
He’s not wrong. Rich nods and a few of the guys chuckle.
Brett’s laughter fades quickly. “But this podcast’s a problem. The Ryan girls shouldn’t be running their mouths.”
“Those three?” Rich scoffs. “They don’t know anything.” He folds his hands over his cards and leans in. “You idiots are worried about the wrong women.”
His statement has the intended effect of turning their attention away from Amy, Kristy, and Diana.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chris wants to know.
Rich shrugs. “Somebody yapped to Maisy Farley about the fight with Allderdice. And it wasn’t Amy because she didn’t know about it. She asked me about it last night.”
The table falls silent. Andy reaches for the speaker again. This time, he turns the music off entirely with a worried shake of his head. Rich can see Brett’s Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows. Frank is cracking his knuckles. Chris pinches the bridge of his nose like he’s staving off a headache.
Only Mikey is unfazed. “What fight?”
“It’s not important,” Rich tells him. “Whatisimportant is that someone’s talking. I assume it’s nobody in this room.”
He looks around the table at five men he’s known almost his entire life. One by one, they meet his eyes with steady gazes. They haven’t talked to Maisy. He didn’t think they would, but now he knows for sure. It was one of the girls.
“It was one of the girls,” Chris says finally, giving voice to Rich’s thought.
“But which one?” Frank asks.
“Or ones.” They turn their attention to Brett, who elaborates, “You know they still run in a pack, like we do. No way one of them went off on her own and gave Maisy information.”
“I’ll talk to Rachel,” Andy volunteers. “She’s in a group chat with a bunch of the girls. Lynn, Becky, Gina?—”
“Michelle?” Brett asks.
Rich side-eyes him. “You still got a thing for Michelle?”
“Yeah, sure,” Brett snorts. “The same way you still have a thing for Heather.”
Rich clenches his hands into fists. He can feel the heat rising on his skin. He’d told Brett and Frank about Heather, but nobody else. Brett’s eyes go wide as he realizes he screwed up.
“Just jerking you around,” he says lamely.
It’s too late. Rich can see Mikey and Andy pretending not to react. Chris is a better actor than the other two, or, more likely, he already knew. Frank or Brett probably told him long ago. Now, Rich is backed into a corner. He can’t lie—Frank and Brett definitely know he fooled around with Heather his senior year; they covered for him a few times when he was cheating on Julia with her. The only thing to do is to own it, and try to spin it.
“Listen, I was a bonehead in high school. We all were.” He pauses for effect and to give them time to reflect on their personal boneheadedness. “Sure, I messed around with Heather a few times.BeforeI started dating Amy. Amy didn’t know at the time, and with Heather missing, it seemed cruel to tell her. So she still doesn’t know. I’d like to keep it that way.”
“Uh, sure.”
“Yeah, man.”
“Of course.”
“My lips are sealed.”
Finally, Brett says, “There’s no reason she ever needs to know, Rich.”
