Chapter 10
Alex

“Where y’all goin’?” Mama asked.

Alex looked at Caleb, who just shrugged. “Boat work,” Caleb said.

“And you?” Mama looked hard at Alex, who slumped his shoulders. He thought attending breakfast would have been enough to keep her off his back.

“Onto the mainland for the day, ma’am,” he said somberly.

“The mainland?” Faith perked up. She sat beside his mama at the breakfast table, nursing her second cup of coffee. “Can I come?”

“I don’t know—”

“Alex,” Mama said sharply. “Of course, he’d love to take you,” she told Faith.

“Since when do you go to the mainland?” Caleb asked.

“Since now,” Alex said.

“Where you goin’?” Matt called from the sitting room.

Jesus Christ, doesn’t anyone have anything better to do? Alex thought.

“Mainland!” Caleb hollered back. “You wanna go?”

 

“Miss Jolie, ma’am,” the ferry worker said with a wide smile as he took their tickets. “Y’all goin’ to raise some hell?”

“How’d you know?” Caleb replied.

“It’s Friday. Why else go inland?”

“So what’s the plan?” Faith asked. She tied a loose braid into her waist-length hair to keep it at bay in the breeze.

“My plan was to go into town and have a couple of low-key drinks. Alone,” Alex said.

“Don’t be such a party pooper,” she told him.

“He was goin’ to Redskin,” Caleb said and nudged Alex in the ribs.

“Redskin? Isn’t that racist?” Faith asked in a whisper.

Caleb burst out laughing. “Maybe so. But the bar was named after the peach. So I guess if whoever named the peach was racist . . . round and round it goes.”

“It’s Georgia. Of course they are racist,” Matt said with a sniff.

“So what kind of bar is this?” Faith asked.

“You’ll see,” Caleb promised.

Alex didn’t like sharing his bar with anyone. When he, Caleb, and Lee turned twenty-one, they’d favored the slick lounges in the city, while Alex always found himself pulled in by the neon glow of the roadside Redskin.

“Wow,” Faith said as they walked in through the saloon doors. “This is just like the bar in True Blood.”

He looked at her with her wide eyes as she took it all in. Alex could see it coloring her perspective. The place was a bit of a dive. A touch dangerous. “You know, they say every time someone tells you a ‘walked into the bar’ joke, you always picture the same one. Whatever that might be.”

“Really?” Faith asked. “I never thought about it. I guess I do. Mine’s like the one in Desperado.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Matt said with a grimace as he surveyed the crowd. It was largely mixed. Rednecks, city college kids who thought they could slum it, retirees, and underage travelers.

“Hey, darts!” Faith said. “Y’all game?”

“Y’all?” Caleb asked. “Didn’t take Georgia long to rub off on you.”

“I’ll get the first round,” Alex said. “Y’all get set up. What’ll it be?”

“Beer—”

“Whiskey,” Faith interrupted Caleb. “On the rocks.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Alex said. The guys looked at him strangely—he never drank whiskey. “Lady’s choice,” he said with a shrug.

By the second round, it was clear that Faith was in her element. “You’re a shark!” Caleb said, tipsy before he took the last pull of the amber liquid.

Faith laughed and covered that beautiful mouth with her hand. “Hardly,” she said. “I can just hold my liquor better than you guys.”

“Speak for yourself,” Matt said. He still worked at the first round and made a face with every sip.

“Sorry, they don’t serve appletinis here for you,” Alex said. “I asked.”

Faith grinned at him.

The combination of the whiskey that warmed him from the inside and her smile that lit up the room was undeniable. He stood up from the barstool to take his turn at darts and felt the room start to shift. It had been a long time since he’d let himself get buzzed like this.

“Okay, final round!” Caleb said. “Winner takes all. Or chooses the next game. You know, same thing. Alex, make this round so Faith doesn’t make us play truth or dare or some girly shit.”

“Hey!” Faith said.

He took the dart, but it was as if his arms were simultaneously too heavy and hollow as a bird’s. He barely made it onto the dartboard at all.

“We win!” Faith said and gave Matt a side hug.

“Yay,” Matt said, underwhelmed.

“All right, all right,” Caleb said. “What’s it gonna be, Faith? Makeover madness in the bathroom?”

“You wish,” she said. “No, the billiards table just opened up. Let’s do classic pool, stripes versus solids.”

“Works for me,” Alex said. Finally, a game he actually liked. As he started to walk toward the cue sticks, Faith put her hand on his arm and stopped him.

“And truth or dare,” she said.

Caleb groaned. “I knew it.”

“You’re the one who gave me the idea!”

“Fine,” Caleb said. “How is this going to work?”

“Alex and I are stripes, you two are solids,” she said. “Whoever misses, scratches, whatever has to take a truth or dare from someone on the opposite team.”

“This is stupid,” Alex said under his breath.

“You’re stupid,” Faith shot back. But with that smile, he couldn’t be mad at her.

Matt was the first to scratch, to no one’s surprise. “Yes!” Faith said. “Okay, Matt, truth or dare?”

“Truth, I guess.” He gripped the cue stick like it would save his life.

“Hmm, let’s see,” she said. “How old were you when you had your first real kiss?”

Matt turned bright red. “I don’t remember,” he mumbled.

“Bullshit!” Caleb said. “Everyone remembers.”

“I don’t—”

“C’mon!” Caleb said.

“Fine! Nineteen. Okay?”

Caleb burst out laughing. “Shit, man, what were you doing hanging all over . . . what was her name? Vicky? That whole time in high school for?”

“Vicky was just a friend!”

“Well, obviously,” Caleb said with an eye roll.

Faith banked three solids before she missed the fourth by a hair. “Yes!” Caleb said. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” she said. Faith picked up her third whiskey, which had started to sweat.

“Oh, come on!” Caleb said.

“Lady’s choice,” she said with a smile.

“Okay, fine. Have you ever had a one-night stand?”

“Sure,” Faith said as she put the glass down.

“Really?” Caleb asked. Clearly, he’d expected a different answer. “How’d it happen? What did—”

“That’s two questions,” she said. “I don’t have to answer the second.”

“Cheater!” Caleb said as he shook his head.

“First rule of truth or dare. Always ask an open-ended question,” she said.

“Women and their manipulations,” Caleb said under his breath.

Pool was usually Alex’s game, but the pressure of the children’s game over it put him on edge. He didn’t just miss the first stripe he tried to bank—he put a solid away for the other team. “Damn, Alex, out of practice much?” Caleb asked.

“Out of practice when drinking three glasses of whiskey? Yeah. I’d say so,” he said.

“What’s it Gonna be?” Caleb asked. “Truth or dare?”

“Shouldn’t Matt ask me?”

Before Matt could respond, Caleb cut him off. “Nah, you know it’d be lame. C’mon.”

“Fine,” Alex said. He looked hard into Caleb’s eyes that were so much like his own. Caleb knew him better than anyone, and they were on dangerous ground. He didn’t like the direction the questions were going. “Dare.”

“Oh! We got a live one!” Caleb said. “Hold on a minute. I need to confer with my partner.” He pulled Matt aside and put their backs to Alex and Faith.

“What do you think they’re going to do?” she asked him.

“I have no idea. It’s like they’re at their first slumber party and on a sugar high. Maybe make me take my bra off so they can freeze it. Or a pillow fight.”

She slapped him lightly. “You have no idea what girls really do at sleepovers, do you?”

“Okay! We got it,” Caleb said. “I dare you . . . to kiss . . . Faith.” There was a devilish look in his eye that Alex hadn’t seen in a long time.

“What? Hell, no. Are you crazy?” Alex asked.

“Hey!” Faith said. “Rude.”

“Not about . . . not about you,” he said.

“Oh, come on! You know the rules,” Caleb said.

“This is childish.”

“Come on!”

“It’s stupid!”

“Oh my God, just come here,” Faith said.

Alex wasn’t sure if she kissed him or if he kissed her. All he knew was that suddenly his lips were on hers, and they were softer and sweeter than he could have ever dreamed. Somewhere far in the distance there were whoops, hollers, and an old jukebox hummed. He felt her hands on his chest, and somehow his arms were around her waist. They fit perfectly in that deep curve right above her hips. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he felt the tip of her tongue against his. Alex let out a noise in the back of his throat.

Faith pulled back, unable to look at him. Alex could feel his face as it burned.

“That was something,” Caleb said. All the play had drained out of him. Matt stared at a television in the far corner.

Faith picked up her drink and downed it, while Alex and Caleb followed suit. “Should we keep playing?” Faith asked. They have to know this is a terrible idea, Alex thought, but everyone picked up their cue sticks.

The next couple of truth or dares were much milder. It made Alex think maybe whatever strangeness had happened was over. Still, the next time it was his turn to choose, he picked truth.

“Truth, huh?” Matt asked. He scratched his chin. “Okay. Do you feel like you’re over Rebecca?”

“Matt,” Caleb hissed.

“What? I’m curious.”

Alex looked at Faith. How much does she know? He didn’t have a clue what Mama or the guys had told her.

She looked back at him. A soft expression spread across her face. “I know about Rebecca,” she said.

He was taken aback but also flooded with relief. “Yes,” he told Matt, though he still looked at Faith. “I’m over her.”

In one pull, Alex finished the nearly full drink they’d poured two questions ago. “I’ll be at the boat when y’all are done drinking.”

“Ferry’s gone, man,” Caleb said.

“Our boat, idiot,” Alex said.

He didn’t make it far toward the Saint Rose community dock before he heard steps behind him. “Hey!” Faith called. “Wait up.”

Alex glanced behind him but picked up his pace.

“Alex! I’m sorry,” she said as she caught up to him. “I didn’t mean to make things awkward.”

“It’s fine,” Alex said. “Really. You’re not the one who made it awkward anyway.”

“Will you stop?” she asked out of breath. “Just for a second.”

Alex halted sharply and looked down at her. “What?” he finally barked.

“Are we . . . are we good?” Faith asked. “Because I thought, back there at the bar when you kissed me—”

“I kissed you?” he asked.

“Or when I kissed you! Whatever! I just . . . you didn’t feel anything? Because I—”

“You’re drunk. Go back to the bar.”

“I’m drunk? Not any more than you! And you and I both know we’re nowhere near buzzed enough to—”

“Faith! Please,” he said.

“You don’t get to do that!” she said. “You don’t get to pretend you didn’t feel anything. Or blame it on the drinks or the game or whatever.”

“It was a stupid game,” he said.

“Yeah! It was. Okay? I was just playing around. I didn’t think Caleb and Matt would, you know. But how can you deny what was there when—”

“Faith, seriously. Go back to the bar.”

She looked at him with big eyes, lips partially parted. Most of him wanted nothing more than to lean down and kiss her again, but he stopped himself. She was clearly frustrated, but she’d just have to stay like that.

“I can’t believe you,” she said. She licked her lips, and that just made him want her more.

Alex didn’t say anything. He knew if he started to walk away, she might follow. This was a showdown, and one he’d have to wait out.

Faith stared down at the grass. The pink neon from the bar lit up her skin and made her glow like something magical. “Fine,” she said finally, and turned on her heel. He watched her leave and listened to her Converse sneakers in the gravel.

Alex didn’t turn toward the boat until she was out of sight. I can’t think about how it felt to kiss her, he told himself. Don’t be an asshole. Or how it felt when she said Rebecca’s name.

No. It was all too much, and it was better not to think about right now.