Rowan nodded before he rose to make his way over to the television on the wall. He pushed a button and turned it to a football game. I had no idea who the teams were. That was okay. I’d watch whatever just to hang out here for a while.
“We don’t tend to get kicked out of too many places. Besides, my father has some financial interest in this place. So, yeah, we get in. Whoever is sitting in here moves when we arrive.”
It was like a different world from mine. In that second, Tanner strolled in, his guitar case strapped to his back. “It’s busy tonight. Too busy. The whole gang is in town.” He shut the door to the backroom behind him, essentially shutting us in. “Wanda is going to bring us some drinks.”
“Oh.” This was probably important. “I don’t drink. Obvious reasons. Or maybe not. My mother has a substance abuse problem. I think it’s just better if I don’t.”
I’d actually had plenty of alcohol in my life. My mother started to give me some when I was about ten years old. Maybe earlier, but I didn’t remember it. Around my twelfth birthday I’d stopped taking it. There was nothing funny about her getting me drunk, that much I’d understood by then. I remembered the feeling, but that story was too much for me to share. Some secrets I would keep to myself…probably for always.
“We don’t drink. Better if we’re always in our best headspace. I mean, maybe that’s obvious too.” Rowan winked at me. Man, his blue eyes were so gorgeous. Like really, really gorgeous. “I burn things when I’m not drunk.”
Caesar groaned. “No. None of that. That was a bad one. Just soda, probably. Tanner sometimes orders seltzers that taste like fruit. Yuck.” He made a gagging noise. “No thank you. Just no.”
“For that alone, I am going to go order one and wrestle you to the ground until you drink the whole thing.” Tanner took off his guitar case and set it down, while next to me, Caesar jerked up.
“Number one, you couldn’t take me down to make me drink that shit. Second, are you going to play tonight? Been too long.”
Tanner stretched out on the couch, placing his feet on the coffee table in front of him. “Maci asked.”
“Thanks for asking, Maci.” Ace squeezed my hand. “He had stopped playing. None us were exactly sure why, but it’s great to have him playing again.”
“I…” I cleared my throat. “I can’t take credit for him playing, just for wanting to hear him.”
Ace sighed. “He doesn’t play for us anymore.”
“Here.” Griffin pulled out a board game from under the table. “We haven’t done this in a long while. Let’s play. That is, if you want to, Maci.”
I’d never seen that game before. My board game repertoire had to do with whatever they played with us in school when we were very young. I hadn’t even seen one in more years than I could remember. My mother sometimes played cards, but it was mostly so she could giggle her way through taking off her clothes with whatever bozo she’d brought home for the night, the week, whatever.
He passed me the game, and I looked at the back of the box to read the directions. Scanning the words, I read fast. Basically, we were going to each get cards that would create a character. Then we had to argue why our character could beat the character of the person sitting next to us on the left. In the end, everyone would vote.
It was different than rolling dice and connecting four or whatever. I passed Griffin back the box. “Sure. Looks like fun.”
That must have been what he was hoping for, because his smile was huge. Ace whistled through his teeth. “Ooph. The valedictorian must think that you’re a worthy opponent. Like someone else and his music, he doesn’t play with us anymore.”
“Maybe we’ve all been a little bit bored.” Caesar lounged lazily next to me. His eyes were barely slits.
I touched his knee. “You okay?”
“I don’t sleep very much. Sometimes it catches up to me. I’ll be struck with adrenaline any minute, and then I’ll be more fun.”
I wasn’t concerned with how fun he was or wasn’t. “Maybe you should go home and get some sleep.”
“That’s where I’m the least tired. My father is away for a long time, and I have a hard time sleeping when he’s gone. I don’t sleep that well when he’s there, either, but it’s worse when I know he’s absolutely not around to control the surroundings, so to speak.” He shrugged. “It’s fine. By tomorrow morning, I’ll seem relatively normal. I guess I really don’t need that much.”
We all needed a certain amount of rest, that much I knew. We could go long periods of time without it, but eventually, it caught up in tricky, nasty ways. I knew it from personal experience. “Take a nap now. The couches are comfortable.” More comfortable than my bed, if I were being honest.
“No.” He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “First of all, you’re here with us, and that’s a treat. Second, I don’t sleep in public places. That’s called being vulnerable, and I am never that, if I can avoid it. Only certain people get to see me while I’m not alert, and there are too many people out there in the bar area whom I would never let see me like that.”
The door slid open, and the woman who must have been Wanda came inside carrying a tray with a bunch of sodas. “Sorry it took a few minutes, boys. Big crowd out there tonight. A lot of hopefuls.”
Rowan shook his head. “Not that. Not in here. Not tonight. We’re cutting that off right now. I promised her not to say too many things she couldn’t ask about. That goes for all of us, including you, Wanda.”
She set down the tray and laughed. “Oh, honey, start asking questions and fast. I know they’re cute, but these five are trouble. Good trouble, for now.”
Tanner jumped to his feet. “Thanks for the soda.” He ran a hand through his hair. “We’ll pay you in a bit.”
“Yes, you will.” She waved her hand by her face. “How can you stand how hot it is in here?”