Page 68 of Bar Down Baby!
“Tara!”
Tara backed away, laughing at her own joke and my indignation.
“Let him treat you right, Hannah Banana. He’s begging to.”
“Bye, Tara,” I said, sounding more annoyed than my face betrayed me to be. With one last wink, she was off down the hall, and I pushed open one of the doors to the chilly rink. I watched Barry a little longer from the bench until he noticed me with a start. A warm smile took over his face and he skated toward me.
He hadn’t turned on all the lights, leaving the spaces outside the rink mostly in shadow. From the large windows overhead, I saw that the sky was just beginning to lighten in earnest.
“How’d it go today?” he asked, leaning on the wall in front of me.
“Someone left a mess on one of the lounge tables, so that was a little exciting.”
“Thrilling,” he mused, but his eyes were on my mouth. I bit my lower lip to keep from grinning. This was going to be a problem, wasn’t it? “I have to go to Nashville today.”
“I saw.” Both on the calendar in our kitchen and the bigger version up in the locker room.
“Only till Thursday.” Barry sighed and kept staring at me, eyes all soft.
“Not even long enough to get through all the chia pudding you made yesterday. Unless Jeremy comes over, then it’s anyone’s guess how long anything in that fridge lasts.”
Barry reached in his pocket and withdrew his keys, which held a Columbus keychain, his car keys, and my extra house key, the one I gave him with Hello Kitty and pink rhinestones. He dangled them in front of him until I tentatively swiped them from his fingers.
“Please use my car when I’m gone,” he said. “Please. No bus.”
“No bus,” I echoed. “Fine.”
Worry crossed his face, darkening that light in his eyes. He looked a little sick about the trip, even though, as he said, it was less than a week. He’d be back before the weekend.
“Worried I’ll crash it while you’re gone?” I asked, trying to lighten his now cloudy mood.
Barry closed his eyes and gave something like a laugh, then took a heavy breath.
“I just get worried,” he said. “In general. I don’t like to leave you alone.”
“Good thing I have fifty annoying family members that are always buzzing around, then.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. He seemed to shake himself, pushing off the wall and skating in a circle. “You’re right.”
He gathered the pucks into the bucket, then met me on the bench to change out of his skates. He took my purse and slung it over his shoulder before leading me to the car, holding my hand as we walked. He shouldn’t, really, really shouldn’t, and I shouldn’t let him, but I kept thinking of the haunted sort of look he got thinking about what could happen to me if he left me alone.
I’d let him hold my hand, squeezing my fingers intermittently like he wanted to make sure I was still there, just for now.
I’d worry about the rest of it later.
Jeremy showed up unannounced around dinnertime to scoop Junior’s litter box.
“What compelled you to be so generous with your evening?” I asked as he scooped clumps of litter into the receptacle.
“Barry paid me to do this. To be clear, I would not have volunteered.”
Ah, of course he did. Kate had been scooping it when she came over since I got pregnant, or Barry since he moved in, but I figured there were lots of single mothers with cats, so sometimes I did it and just really washed my hands after.
“Reddit tells me it’s dangerous,” I said, leaning on the door frame.
“Yeah, I looked it up after Barry called me just to see if he was full of it.” My little brother washed his hands before he scooted past me in the doorway and beelined for the kitchen.
“How much is he paying you?” I asked.
