Chapter 4
4
“ E verything cool?” Kendall slid her glasses to the bridge of her nose, peering up at Joan like a schoolmarm. She normally wore contacts, but Joan thought she donned spectacles sometimes just so she could give everyone stern looks.
“It’s fine. I’m going to stick around after trivia to hang with Lucas.”
Kendall eyed her. “You know what? I think I’ll hang around too.”
“I’m going home,” Maria said. “No offense to Lucas. Jay mentioned something about making his Derby pie.”
“I’m leaving too.” Gwen slid her black leather jacket over her black jumpsuit. She looked ready to engage in a diamond-stealing heist. “I’m completely beat. I’m only here because of peer pressure.”
“You’re both terrible friends,” Joan said.
She and Kendall said goodbye to Gwen and Maria then made their way to the boys’ table.
Lucas grinned at her. His button-up shirt had come undone at his collar, slightly askew, and his chronically disheveled dark hair stood at odd angles. He had the body of a former athlete—still strong, but a bit more padded than he’d been a decade before. A layer of scruffy shadow covered his cleft chin, looking like it would return an hour after he shaved. He was attractive enough if you liked tall, hairy men, but Joan knew that wasn’t what women loved about him. He had a sweet, disarming smile and a carefree attitude. He could get a person to follow him to the ends of the earth if he wanted. They had a lot in common, but she didn’t share his sense of perpetual optimism.
Lucas sat at his table with his friend Eric Takahashi, a teacher at the high school where Lucas coached. Eric had silky dark hair, olive skin, and the whitest teeth Joan had ever seen, like a spot of bleach in an otherwise dingy room. He smiled a lot, too. He pulled Joan in for a side hug when she approached the table.
“Sorry you lost tonight,” he said.
“I mean, we did better than you guys. But who’s tracking?”
Kendall pushed her glasses up her nose before shaking his hand. She had a whole school girl thing going on, with her thick-rimmed black glasses, chestnut braid, and button-up shirt with a couple of buttons undone. Eric managed to smile warmly and shake her hand without checking out her cleavage, and to be fair, it was excellent cleavage.
Kendall chatted with Eric, leaving Joan free to talk to Lucas. She reached over to take a swig of his lukewarm drink, then made a face.
“I don’t know how you drink dark beer.”
“It’s funny, because I don’t remember saying ‘Hey Joan, please try this, you’ll think it’s delicious.’”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said. “I’d love some potato skins, though. Maybe we could share those?”
Lucas motioned for their server. They bumped thighs under the table as he turned, and he shot an apologetic glance at her before he put in their order.
Eric stopped his conversation and frowned at his phone. “This dude is going to drive me nuts,” he muttered.
“Something you want to share with the class?” Joan propped her chin on her hands.
Eric glanced around the table. “It’s another teacher at school. Rowan. He wants me to join some fantasy golf league thing, and I’m not interested, but he’s blowing up my phone about it.”
Kendall pulled her eyebrows together. “Rowan Huffman? Has a wife who’s currently pregnant?”
Eric nodded. “Yeah, that’s him. How do you know him?”
“I met his wife, Annie, at a glassblowing studio, and we hit it off.” At Eric’s laugh, she continued. “Yeah, that sounds weird, I know. We’ve seen each other at the studio a few times since then. She told me her husband’s being an asshole about her pregnancy. He sounds like kind of a dick, honestly.”
“I’ve met him,” Lucas said. “He didn’t seem all that bad.”
Kendall wiped some melted ice off the table before it dripped on her.
“You guys know him better than I do,” she said. “But I’ve seen this before, and this isn’t even the hard part. One of my friend’s husbands cheated after the baby was born, while she was in terrible pain and stitched up, hoping her pelvic organs stayed in place, nursing a little lifeform who depended entirely on her for nutrition.”
Joan tensed. Kendall rarely minced words, and usually Joan enjoyed it, but sometimes others didn’t.
“He can be annoying, but I don’t think he would do that,” Eric said, looking mildly concerned.
Kendall winced, apparently realizing she’d maybe overdone it with her speech. “Sorry,” she said. “Honestly. Like I said, I don’t know him very well. I just hang out with his wife some. And sometimes I get carried away.”
Joan smiled at her, squeezing her shoulder. “That’s why we love you,” she said. She took a bite of a potato skin, which had arrived at the table in time for a welcome distraction. The crunchy skin and cheesy bacon topping was so hot it nearly took the skin off the roof of her mouth, but it was delicious, so she soldiered on. “So, anyone see the new bar with the volleyball courts? Over in St. Matthews, someone said.”
“Don’t let her talk you into playing a game with her,” Lucas said, grinning. He had perked up with the subject change. “Volleyball, softball, Yahtzee. She treats everything like she’s going for an Olympic medal.”
“I’m aware,” Kendall said, laughing. “The last time we had a girls’ game night, she almost lost all her friends.”
Joan felt her face warm from her neck to her hairline. Her competitive spirit was the only thing that could completely override her strong people-pleasing tendencies.
“I feel like I need to witness this.” Eric sat back and looked at her.
Joan buried her face in her hands. “It’s really bad,” she said. “I don’t know how to turn it off.”
“No need,” Kendall said. “I’m in awe of your cutthroat spirit.”
Lucas chuckled, and she realized just how much she’d missed the sound. It cut across her senses like a warm shot of sunshine. Maybe Lucas could help her, if only to improve her mood.
It was too bad she couldn’t share her current source of angst with him. They were best friends, yes, but some things had to be off-limits, and they’d never been anything but platonic. Back in college, after drinking several ill-advised amaretto sours, she’d overheard him say that he “didn’t think of her that way.”
Not that her boyfriends remained chill about him. Besides her “little problem,” as her ex, Chet, had phrased it, Lucas presented the other big obstacle for the men she dated.
He turned and grinned at her, giving her a little nudge.
“Speaking of which, I think we should make our bowling nights happen again.” Lucas shoved a potato skin into his mouth in one bite.
“That was impressive. And I’ll think about the bowling.”
“So how’s it work? Are we talking league rules here?” Eric leaned back in his chair again. His eyes darted between the two of them.
“Nah,” Lucas said. “We call it a league, but mostly it involves bowling in pairs, and we make it into a competition. We’ll have handicaps.”
“So if I suck, I could still play?” Kendall sipped her water, her eyes also flicking back and forth between Joan and Lucas, perhaps trying to determine what was going on between them. Joan’s heart moved up her throat. There was no good reason to say no, but it was still her first instinct, even though she usually loved their competitions.
Lucas nodded at Kendall. He was becoming more enthusiastic now. “For sure. All abilities. What do you guys think?” He looked around. “Thursday nights, whoever can be there can come. I know work will get in the way for some of us at times, but we’ll change up teams as much as we need to.”
“I’m in,” Kendall said. She side-eyed Joan, giving her what the hell is wrong with you? energy.
“Same,” Eric said. “You sold me.”
Lucas looked to Joan. Dammit. If she said no, his hopeful smile would drop like a kid waking up to no Christmas presents. She couldn’t do it.
“Alright,” she said, and Lucas’s eyes sparkled. “Let’s do it.”