I’m not not enjoying the movie. I mean I’m sure this remake ofRoad Houseis as good as the guys in our family say it is, but I haven’t been able to focus for more than a few minutes at a time. Every time I see a muscle bulge or an abdomen flex, I think of Crew Westwood and then my mind drifts to that night and the sex. I’ve had sex. With a hot, sought-after, gorgeous man.
“That quirky, sweet kid’s store just went up in smoke.” Tenley lifts a sculpted blonde eyebrow as she points at the fiery scene on the television. “And that made you smile?”
"No of course not. I'm smiling at… The fact that Jake Gyllenhaal will swoop in and save the day." I've been telling so many little white lies lately that I swear to God I should teach a class on how to deceive your relatives and convince yourself it's a good thing.
"Something is going on with her," Tenley tells our cousins.
Harlow and our other cousin Shelby pause the movie on the screen to join the conversation. Harlow and Shelby both live in Silver Bay, our hometown in Maine, but they're here for a long weekend. Shelby is a nurse. Harlow runs our Uncle Cole's bar and has been working out like mother-fucker judging by how sculpted she looks in the cropped tank and leggings.
But my focus isn’t on Harlow’s buff physique. It’s on Tenley and her big mouth. She better not tell them about the attack. I love Shelby and Harlow and would have easily confided in them if they had been here when it happened, but they weren’t. I’ve learned that in our family the more people who know, the shorter the amount of time until your secret is a group chat topic.
Like the time Conner got drafted to the Barons and thirteen-year-old Theo thought it would be an epic tribute to painting the light posts around the parking lot at Last Call, Uncle Cole's bar, in Barons colors. He snuck out and did it in the middle of the night and woke up to a town scandal. Because the light posts were town property, not property of the bar, so the Mayor and city council were furious.
They had no idea who did it and didn't connect the colors to Conner's first NHL team. Theo confided in Grady, who helped him paint them back to white in the middle of the next night. But Grady also told Harlow, who whispered it to Tenley who told God knows which other cousin, and the next thing Theo knew, even though the light posts were white again, he was grounded for two entire months.
I did not want my mom or dad or even my brother and sister hearing a word about this incident through the Garrison family grapevine. It will be so much worse than if I told them. And Iwilltell them, just not until it’s over. The police called last week and said they are awaiting a trial date and my attacker has not made his bail, but he might and they will keep me informed if he does and is released.
Tenley blinks her impossibly long, natural eyelashes and seems to mentally clue into the worried look on my face. She gives her head the teeniest barely visible shake to let me know she isn't about to share that secret.
“So spill it, Livvy,” Shelby urges. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I promise. “I do nothing but go to class, go to my internship, sleep, eat, repeat.”
“You went to Vegas,” Tenley reminds everyone. “That was not classic Liv.”
“Did you get lucky in Vegas?” Harlow wants to know. “Win some money or lose your virginity?”
“Finally!” Shelby joins in and I’m offended now.
“Not you too! You were always my ally,” I complain. “No sex is the safest sex. There is nothing wrong with a slow pace in life and all that.”
Shelby reaches out and lays a hand on my forearm from her position in the bean bag chair by the window. “I promise I am still pro-abstinence. But I assume if you did it, it was because you wanted to and were ready and I’m all for that too.”
“I wish I’d never told any of you about my lack of sexual escapades.”
“You didn’t have totellus,” Tenley reminds me. “We grew up in Silver Bay. The town is the size of a postage stamp. Everybody knows what everyone else is doing, and who they’re doing, and when they’re doing it. Do you think I wanted everyone to know my first time was with Andrew Howlett? I didn’t but word got around anyway.”
“He didn’t want everyone to know either,” Harlow says with a smile. “Because he proceeded to get body checked by every male teenage Garrison for, like, a month after that. On the ice and off.”
“Right, Theo checked him into the lockers in the hallway at school,” Shelby laughs.
"That was after Tate, Conner, and Grady had him eating the boards every time he stepped foot on the ice for months," Harlow adds.
“It’s also why I didn’t have sex again until we left for college,” Tenley sighs.
“So is there a boy?” Harlow asks and leans closer to me from her position snuggled into the crux of the L-shaped couch. Her hazel eyes soften. “Someone serious?”
“No one serious.” I roll my eyes and reach for a handful of the cheddar popcorn in a bright pink bucket on the coffee table. “God why are you all so hyper-focused on my dating life or lack thereof. You guys are all single too, you know.”
“By choice,” Tenley announces.
"Not by choice," Shelby adds and sighs, shoving a piece of her gorgeous red hair behind her ear. "The dating pool in Silver Bay is puddle-deep, girlies. Do not come home without a prospect or you'll end up alone for life."
“You’re not even thirty. Relax.” Harlow waves a hand at Shelby like she’s dispersing something foul in the air. “I don’t have time for a dude right now. I’m drowning with work.”
"And your new fitness regimen?" I ask because Harlow is seriously ripped. Like I think she's got less body fat than her hockey-playing brother, Theo, at this point.
“I’m working out more… for stress management,” Harlow replies and averts her eyes and waves her hand again. Tenley cocks an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything. “Now you said no oneserious, but that doesn’t mean no one. Is there an unserious guy?”