Darcy nodded, a flash of understanding passing across her face. Over the years I’d wondered how much she knew about me. In the Longnecks, women never learned any of the secrets. I’d suspected Darcy knew most of what happened with the Bastards, including where and how they’d found me. Now I had confirmation.
“Can you give me a hand?” she asked. “We’ve got food set up out back, and the first wave has eaten. Now we’re refilling and getting ready for dessert. Just cold cuts tonight, nothing fancy. Ladies, this is Becca.”
Women smiled at me, murmuring their hellos as I washed my hands at the sink. I had just settled in to separate and lay out slices of cheese when Carlie came in through the back door.
“That keg will need changing out soon,” she announced. Then she saw me. My breath caught—obviously there had once been something between her and Puck. Just as obviously it was over. Now what?
“Hey, Becca,” she said brightly. Too brightly? “Deep said you might be here tonight. I hear you and Puck are together now. Good for you.”
Yup, way too bright. She still had a thing for him. That didn’t stop her from walking over and offering me a hug that felt genuine enough. To my surprise, she took the opportunity to whisper something in my ear.
“We’re both big girls, here,” she said. “I’m happy for you and Puck and I’ve got no problem with you. But these bitches are waiting for me to start crying or something, and I’ll be damned if I’ll do it. It would mean a lot to me if you’d treat me like we’ve been friends for a while. Let me save face?”
Then she pulled back, meeting my gaze, and I saw a hint of desperation in her eyes.
“I didn’t realize you knew each other,” someone commented, her voice sly and nasty. I looked over to find Darcy glaring at a girl wearing short shorts and a bikini top. I knew her, of course. Bridget Marks—she’d been a bitch in high school and obviously nothing had changed since then.
I felt sudden compassion for Carlie.
“We go way back,” I said loudly. “Carlie and I haven’t been able to hang out as much recently. Between work and school I’ve been so busy lately, you know? I haven’t seen you forever, either, Bridget. How are you doing? You finish your degree yet?”
Just like that, the power in the room shifted from Bridget to me, because she’d flunked out and everyone knew it. She hadn’t done much else, either, other than getting knocked up twice by two different guys. Not that she was raising the kids—nope, she’d dropped them at her mom’s place and kept right on partying.
Carlie wrapped an arm around my shoulder and laughed. “I’ve missed you, Becca.”
The statement was so ridiculous that I found myself laughing, too. Outmanuevered, Bridget stomped down the hall. I actually liked Carlie, I decided. What a surprise. I polished off my beer with a gulp, thinking maybe things might work out after all.
“Becca, do you have a minute?” Darcy asked.
“Sure,” I said, wondering if she would call us on our little game. Ruh roh. Following her out the door, I found myself in a large, fenced area. There was a bonfire inside a stone ring and big speakers blasted music.
“Over here,” she said, grabbing one side of a trash can next to a table full of food. There was a good-sized crowd out here, although not huge. Maybe thirty people? “Can you help me carry this out?”
I grabbed a handle and we hauled it toward a gate on one side of the fence. A man wearing a Silver Bastards cut opened it for us, frowning.
“You want help with that, Darce?”
“We got it,” she said cheerfully. Then we were out of the fence and walking down the side of the building, cutting down on the noise considerably. “Appreciate the help. I wanted to talk to you, and figured we might as well take care of this at the same time. Only way to get any privacy around this place, you know?”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I replied, hoping I wasn’t about to get in trouble. “What’s up?”
“Just wanted to check on you,” she said. “You and Puck have known each other a long time, but this still happened pretty fast. These guys don’t fuck around when they decide they want a girl. You okay with everything?”
I stumbled on a rock in the darkness and nearly dropped my side of the big plastic bin. We stopped for a minute, catching our breath.
“I think I’m okay,” I said finally. “You know how I wound up in Callup?”
“I know everything Boonie knows, at least when it comes to you,” she admitted. “And I heard what you said the other night at the bar, of course.”
Oops. I’d forgotten about my public confession.
“I’ll bet Carlie’s curious as hell about that one.”
“Carlie’s a good girl,” Darcy replied. “She had a thing for Puck, you know how that goes in a club. He’s not into her and when he realized there was an emotional tie, he cut her loose. Best he could do. You saved her in there. Some of those bitches can’t wait to cut a girl if she falls.”
“Women will do that,” I said slowly. Darcy frowned.
“Not all women,” she replied, her voice hard. “These girls drag in here, fuck one of the guys, and think they’re one of us. I don’t care how many of the brothers you screw—you fuck over the sisters, it’s not gonna end well. We have to stick together. Carlie’s not an old lady yet, but she’s still a sister in my book.”