Page 120 of Dove
Rev waved her hand as if that hardly matter. “Fine, you’refooled around with buddy.” She gave a tiny gasp as if realizing something. “Wait, does Josh know?”
“He saw us in the barn, remember?”
“Yeah, but does he know you two havehistory?” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“I wouldn’t exactly call ithistory, Rev.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever you want to call it, does Josh know?”
“He does now,” I admitted.
Instead of being sympathetic she looked downright gleeful. “I thought he looked a little murder-y when we pulled up. He’s got itbad, babe.”
“You’re a horrible friend,” I grumbled, but my stomach swooped at her words. I refrained from turning to look back at Josh again.
He wasn’t the only one who had it bad.
She laughed. “I’m a great friend and you know it.” When I didn’t automatically agree she nudged me. “Admit it, or I’ll be forced to fly back to Cali so you miss me and appreciate how awesome of a friend I am again.”
My lips quirked despite myself. “Don’t go booking that plane ticket just yet.”
She made ago ongesture.
I rolled my eyes, sighing exasperatedly, but I was doing it for show more than anything. Really it felt pretty damn good to havemy best friend beside me, even if she’d rather tease me about my problems than solve them.
“You’re a great friend, Rev,” I recited. Then added, “The best.” Because she really was. She knew I needed to be distracted from what just happened, and it worked. The tight, anxious lump that had formed in my stomach during Josh and Torrence’s little tête-a-tête was loosening, and the panic at them potentially fighting over me, of all things, was ebbing.
“Thanks.” She preened. “I know.”
“Modest, too,” I deadpanned.
The slam of Zeke’s tailgate reminded me that they were here to help us, not for Reverie and me to chat about my guy problems. “We should probably help them.”
“It isn’t hard to put gas in a tank, Dove,” she said dryly with a shake of her head. “They’ve got it handled. How about instead you tell meeverything. You were purposefully vague when we last talked,” she accused. “You’ve been keeping vital details hostage from me!”
“Oh yeah?” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the truck. “Don’t you think you owemesomething?”
“What?” She gave me her best innocent look, but Reverie was anything but innocent.
“Don’t ‘what’ me, Reverie Anne Price. You know what. You just causally roll up with Zeke and I’m not supposed to ask questions?”
She glanced across the truck bed to where the guys were putting gas in the tank. “It just kind of… happened.”
It was my turn to give her ago ongesture. For a moment I thought she was going to ignore me until she grabbed my elbow, tugging me towards to the front of the truck, out of earshot from the boys.
In a hush, she explained, “I didn’t know he bounces part-time at Harv’s. I was there and I might have gotten a little…”
“Drunk?” I supplied, knowing Reverie all too well. I’d grown up with her, after all.
“Tipsy,” she swiftly corrected. “You know I hold my alcohol well.”
About as well as a hole-riddled glass, but I didn’t tell her that. Reverie was the kind of girl that knew her limits and still surpassed them. We’d gone to bonfires and backyard ragers throughout high school, but back then she’d had Zeke and I to look out for her; to take whatever she had in her hand and tell her she’d had enough.
L.A. had no limits. No one to watch her back. It had the glitz and glam of celebrity parties that didn’t end until the night sky vanished and the sun was peeking over the Hollywood sign. I’d received enough calls from Reverie lamenting her decision to party the night before, vowing to never drink again, to know something similar had likely happened. Haven wasn’t L.A., though. Not even close, and for as much as Reverie was born and raised a country girl, she was a city girl at heart.
I could only imagine how Rev had acted walking back into Harv’s, where drafts were fifty cents and the most exotic drink you could find was a Malibu Bay Breeze.
“Anyway,” Rev continued, “Zeke took care of me. He helped me sober up and drove me home.”
