At Lyra’s side, Zach said, “Jake and I are the outsiders. You’re the locals. Where do you like to go?”
In the back, Michelle turned to Zach’s brother and said, “Okay, I’m confused. Are you Jay, or Jake, or JJ?”
Zach chuckled.
His brother shrugged. “All of ‘em. I guess it’s family that calls me Jake or Jay. Everybody else calls me Jay or JJ, but I don’t give a fuck. I answer to whatever.”
“So your actual name is Jacob?” Michelle prodded.
“Yeah, but my folks are the only ones who use that one, when they’re pissed. That one gives me a twitch, actually.”
Oh, that was dangerous ammunition to hand to Lyra’s puckish friend.
And Michelle made him pay for it at once. “Okay, Jacob. Good to know.”
Zach laughed with real relish and turned to the back to give Michelle a thumbs up. When he settled in his seat again, he told Lyra, “You still haven’t said where you like to go.”
Truthfully, Lyra thought casinos were loud and tacky, and she didn’t have the personality to find gambling fun. She preferred nature to artifice, the light of the sun to neon, quiet to noise. The thing that made Laughlin better than Vegas, in her mind, was the world around it: river, lakes, desert, mountains, more natural beauty than one’s eyes could hold.
However, as a Laughlin native, she’d been to every casino on the Strip at one time or another. So she knew exactly which one she liked best.
She changed lanes and turned into the Cadence Hotel and Casino.
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~oOo~
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Lyra led her littlefoursome into the Cadence and smiled when Zach looked up and around. As a genre, casinos had an aesthetic that was loud and garish, managing to be both oppressively dark and aggressively bright at the same time. Despite the expansive spaces, she felt claustrophobic in them and attributed that discomfort to the entire lack of natural anything. Not even a window to be found until you got to the guest rooms. Even the air was canned.
But the Cadence here in Laughlin had a ‘woodland’ theme, with rushing waterfalls, a stream meandering through the lobby, lush trees and plants, and the skylights to keep them happy. The water made the place even louder, but with a better kind of sound.
It was still tacky as hell, of course; tackiness seemed to be a requirement in casino design. But Lyra could breathe better here.
“Cool!” Jay said behind her. “Let’s gamble!”
“What’s your game?” Zach asked, leaning down close as if her answer might be a secret.
“I don’t have one. I don’t really like to gamble.”
He frowned. “So why’d we come to a casino?”
Lyra gave him the look that question deserved. “Because you wanted to.”
At that, Zach did a weird little motion that was part grin, part shrug, and part head-tilt, with a dash of shimmy. Altogether, it clearly conveyed the sentimentI guess.
Meanwhile, his brother was striding purposefully toward the slots.
Was he the only one who wanted to be here?
“Can I talk to you please?” Michelle asked, grabbing her arm. “Alone.”
“Excuse us,” Lyra said to Zach.
“No prob. I’ll ... uh, head over and keep tabs on Jay.”
When he was far enough away to make for some privacy, Lyra pulled free of Michelle’s surprisingly hard hold and asked, “You don’t like Jay, do you?”