Page 85 of Wide-Eyed
Butterflies were twisting and flipping in my gut. After all this work, I was so close to being able to build my dream in the town I loved.
Oz was on Hodges’s left, so he got to vote next. It didn’t matter to me if he voted no, I’d expected that. But his behavior in the meeting had surprised me. Maybe he would be decent and vote yes, for old times’ sake? Oz and I had spent many hours at the pub together when we first turned eighteen, keeping our livers and Jase busy. What was one little punch between old friends, after all?
“Are you sure, Oz?” Hodges asked, not asking him exactly what he was sure about, which was inconsiderate to eavesdroppers. “Absolutely sure?”
“I don’t think we can trust Mike with fifty thousand dollars,” Oz said.
Piece of shit. I should have punched him harder.
“Sure, he remembers some dumb stories from our childhoods,” Oz continued, “but we remember stories about him too. Recent stories. A few weeks ago, Keri pulled him over for public indecency with that American girl he’s moved into his house. Did you all hear about that? And yesterday, Tom saw them at the public fair; he was feeling her up in front of the whole damn town. She straddled him. In public!” There was the sound of a hand meeting the thick kind of puffer jacket Oz was wearing. “Ow, Sarnia! Don’t slap, it’s true. Not to mention, Mike decked me after our last rugby game because he couldn’t take a joke. I was going to let it go because I’m not a grudge-holding kind of guy—Sarnia! No!” he warned, suggesting she was threatening violence again. “Look, I know Mike’s a charming guy and we all like him. Everyone likes him. But we also know he’s a loose cannon, and the moment a pretty girl gives him the eye, he loses his shit. He’s like Hodges’s stud bull when one of the heifers is in season. We like him, but we can’t trust him.”
There were murmurs. I couldn’t hear the specifics, but I knew it wasn’t good. A sinking feeling of defeat was threatening to settle on my shoulders.
Still, I pressed closer to the door, straining to hear Lily’s soft voice. Hers was the only opinion that mattered now. Everything rested on her angular little postie shoulders.
Oz went for the jugular. “Mike Holliday is a PR disaster. Do I need to remind you all about the incident with the destination wedding bride?”
Finally I heard Lily’s voice. She finished the rest of the story. “Mike had sex with the bride on the morning of her wedding.”
Like that, I knew I’d lost her vote.
It was over.
That particular incident hadn’t even been my fault! I didn’t know the woman was getting married that fucking afternoon; she neglected to mention it. But Oz had high-fived me and acted like it was a race between us to fuck every Woodville tourist, and so everyone had thought I’d deliberately set out to nail a bride.
I should have left the Woodville School Hall at that moment—I should have turned on my heel and made a dignified exit, holding on to whatever shreds of self-respect I had left.
But I didn’t.
The stage door flew open under my shove, and I was striding to the front of the hall before I could think better of it.
“That’s how it is, huh?”
Hodges stood. “Mike, calm down?—”
“It’s all good, I hear you, loud and clear. I just want to say something to Oz real quick.”
The two-bit asshole looked at me, satisfaction written all over his face.
“You’re an absolute stain, mate.”
But the words weren’t strong enough. Some of Lyssa’s popped into my head and I drew myself up to my full height.
“Oscar Wylie, you are a villainous pigeon turd. A crusty-faced goon. Away, you bull’s pizzle!”
Then I left.
CHAPTER 22
LYSSA
On my way back from Cilla’s, I picked up a bottle of champagne and stopped by the café, hoping to find Mike there having a celebratory beer with his dad. But Kev was out back in the parking lot, raking over divots in the gravel, and hadn’t seen his son.
Kev waved off my concern about the absence of his crutches and leaned on his rake instead. “You’ll be here by six tomorrow, right, kiddo? Family dinner. All the trimmings.”
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat and smiled my welcome back to my channel! smile. “That’s okay, Kev. You don’t need to worry about including me. I can fix myself something at home at Mike’s. The Hollidays haven’t been together around a table for such a long time and I don’t want to intrude.”
Kev looked stern. “It’s family dinner. Doesn’t matter what your last name is. You and Mike need to be here by six, and your job is setting the table.”
