Page 45 of Forever Never
“You’ll get home okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” she insisted.
“‘Cause you’re listing pretty hard to the right,” her sister observed.
Remi did her best to straighten up and overcompensated, jostling the plate into her empty glass.
“I’ll make sure she gets home safe,” Brick promised.
“Thanks for taking up babysitting duty,” Kimber said.
Remi was too fuzzy-headed to be properly offended. “Do you know what that’s all about?” she asked Brick after the door closed behind her sister.
He shrugged and turned around to key something into the order screen.
“A fount of information as usual,” she complained, picking up the dredges of her pink flamingo and slurping at the ice.
He turned around and removed the glass from her hand. “Maybe you should have been paying closer attention to things at home.”
“Question. Does everyone on this island have a problem with me, or are you and my sister the only members of the Remi Sucks Club?”
Darius elbowed Brick out of the way.
“So, Ms. Artist. Catch me up. What are you painting? Studly nude gentlemen?” he demanded.
She knew he was redirecting her. But the nice man had given her such good alcohol. It couldn’t hurt to share just a little bit of the truth, could it?
“I’m painting music. Well, what I see when I hear music.”
“Girl! Good for you!”
“Really?” Brick’s mouth was still pursed in a frown, but his eyebrows showed his interest.
“I started to dabble with it in art school. Apparently there’s a market for what weird brains see.”
“What’s the coolest place a Remi Ford original hangs?” Darius demanded, leaning in to snatch a French fry off her plate.
“There’s one in the mayor’s house.”
“Chicago or Mackinac? Because one of those is much more impressive than the other,” he pointed out.
She grinned. “Chicago. The mayor saw it at a gallery and liked it.” Actually, the woman had “fallen in love with it,” according to the gallery curator. But repeating that just felt like bragging.
“I always knew little Remi Ford would be going places,” Darius said as he poured a pint of lager from the tap.
Brick disappeared without a word.
Without his disapproval hovering over her, she snuck a bite of burger. It was so good she ate an entire slider in four neat bites.
She did feel pleasantly woozy. Enough so that she’d forgotten about the envelope and the man who’d sent it. Crap. Now she was remembering it.
“What?” Brick demanded from across the bar.
She jumped, slapping a hand to her heart to make sure it restarted properly.
“Jeez. Warn a girl!”
“Why are you so jumpy? And what’s wrong with your face?”
