Page 120 of The Other Side of Green

Was that a thing?

Luca held his hand out to Jack, and we all watched. My breath caught in my throat waiting for him to accept. When he did, I let out a shaky sigh.

“I think we had inside help at the precinct,” Luca said, his focus on Jack.

“That would be Jack’s new dad. I’m Evan. I didn’t get a chance to meet you properly before.”

Luca shook his hand—lots of hand shaking—and then looked up at the bar.

“So this is the bar you got a job in. Jeez, Lyra. What a dump.”

“Hey! That’s my dump.” Jack scowled and I waited again with bated breath for a punch to be thrown. “Well, it was.”

“So why you all standing outside?” Luca asked him and I scrunched my face.

“It’s a really, really long story.”

“Well, I’ve got time. I’ve been sacked.”

“What?”

“Yeah, turns out being arrested for attempted homicide does not a junior accountant make.” Luca shrugged. “Probably a good job. It was fucking boring.”

I clasped my hand across my mouth. “You just swore in front of me.”

Luca winked. “I think I can see you’re a grown-up now.” He smirked. “Well, nearly.” And then to prove the point, he rubbed the crown of my head making a halo of frizz.

“You ass.”

Alex who’d been watching all this interrupted. “Lovely as this is, what exactly has happened to the bar?”

Jack said nothing, but raised his eyebrow and I watched at the penny dropped inside Alex’s gray matter. “Oh. Shit. What can I do?”

“Other than make your sister not the world’s biggest bitch, I don’t know.” Jack shoved his hands in his pockets, a look of vulnerability I hadn’t seen in a long time on his face. Whatever the secret he wasn’t letting slip in front of the crowd, it was eating him up. I could see it whittle him down to his core.

“Right then, this is all lovely, and I’m always one for a family reunion with tears and weird static hair tricks, but I’ll be off.” Simon glanced up from his cell screen, his fingers still tapping away. Wow, he had problems with screen time and then some.

“Not so fast,” said Evan, eyeing the building.

Jack shot a glance at Evan. “What?”

“Well, we are going to have some punters turning up soon looking for their music.”

“And?”

“And we have the main event standing right here.” He pointed directly at me.

“Evan,” I winced out, “You know how I feel about singing.”

Simon’s gaze shot to my face, reading something there I didn’t know I was saying.

“Humor me?” Evan nudged me with his elbow. “Just this once.”

“What do you mean once, I’ve been doing that since we met.”

“Evan, I hate to burst your bubble, but we don’t have any instruments.” Jack pointed around us.

“I’ve got a guitar in the boot,” Alex offered up. “It’s the least I can do.” Turning to me, he added, “Lyra, I’m sorry. I can’t help but think if I hadn’t leaked that list this might not have happened.”