Round Thirty-Four
ROSE
“Afraid!?” Raquel helps herself to the dessert fridge inside Alana’s bookstore, sashaying her perfect self around the room like she owns the place and plating up a slice with a price tag in front of the rest—four dollars—but she doesn’t pay.
“Lana! She was ready to fight me!” She laughs and gestures my way.
“Everyone is all ‘she’s so sweet and scared,’ and ‘don’t you dare call the house and demand to speak to her, because she’ll have a heart attack and freak out.
’” She scoffs. “Bullllllshit! She’s got cojones and isn’t afraid to swing ‘em around.”
“I-I’m sorry.” I hover by a set of unused couches, a coffee table placed in the middle for cups and tea, and, probably, a harem of old women who enjoy sitting around and discussing their stories.
“I thought you were looking to give me trouble. I didn’t know Ollie bailed on a date for Valentine’s Day, and you were…
you…” I groan. “God. He bailed on a date on Valentine’s Day? ”
“Oh, but I can see why.” She walks the plated cake across and sets it on the table, then she swings back again and heads to the complimentary coffee machine.
“Oh, girlfriend, I see it now. You’re cuter than a baby bunny on a fresh spring morning.
You didn’t even get your panties in a wad when I latched on and started questioning you.
” She plops a paper cup beneath the coffee spout and mashes the buttons on the screen.
“But I bring her beloved Doctor Darling up, and eeeeesh.” She looks at Alana, giggling. “She was ready to go to war.”
“Her beloved Doctor Darling?” Alana brings her questioning gaze across to me. “Beloved?”
“No.” I stumble forward a step. “He’s just—”
“It doesn’t matter what he is. Or what she says he is.” Raquel holds the coffee cup in one hand, and quickly taps out a message on her phone with the other. “I consider myself quite capable of reading people, especially since I spend thirty million hours a day stuck in my cell, studying amoebas.”
“You study… unicellular organisms? And that helps you read people?”
Smug, she hits send and slips the phone back into her pocket, then she peeks over her shoulder and pins me where I stand.
“Smart, smart girl, Rose DeWitt Bukater. And yes, I sit there day in, day out, dreaming of the outside world and what it must be like to, ya know, exist in it. And since I have all that time, I listen to podcasts about all sorts of whacky off-the-wall shit. It’s how I keep my sanity.
I learned Mandarin for a minute there. And I got caught up in these crazy conspiracy theories about Hitler’s death in the bunker.
” She pauses and makes a face. “He totally didn’t die in the bunker.
But then, I also listen to podcasts about reading people’s body language and understanding what’s not being said.
Which brings me to my point: you, my dear Rose, claim you and Doctor Darling are just friends.
But it’s my professional and personal opinion that’s a big fat lie. ”
“I didn’t say we were just friends.”
She spins, sloshing the coffee to the side, and pokes her finger in my direction. “Ah ha! Gotcha!”
“Good lord.” Alana leans against the front counter and crosses her ankles. “Dramatic much?”
“You’ve just walked willingly into my trap, Ms. Dawson. How does it feel to be so foolish?”
Is it too late to turn around and go back to the house? To lock the door and spend my day by the fire?
“I thought you lived away from here?” I turn on my heels and make a point of perusing Alana’s bookshelves, scouring the stacks and avoiding the bright blue eyes I damn well should’ve recognized immediately.
All three Darling siblings have the same.
“Did you fly out for an emergency save-your-brother adventure? Get the vagrant freak away from him before she causes trouble.”
“Oooh-wee. Vagrant freak, you say?” She wanders back to the couches and places the coffee beside the cake.
Then she flips perfect blonde hair back over her shoulders and pins me with a knowing look.
“Self-conscious, much? If my brother hadn’t been so obviously overcome with distraction last night, I could’ve told him I was flying in.
Which leaves me to wonder… what had him so distracted?
” She comes around the couches and into the row of books I try desperately to study, then she grabs my sleeve and yanks me back the way she came.
“Was it his house guest he’s not just friends with? ”
“What happened?” Alana does nothing to defend me as Raquel practically tosses me onto the couch. “You and Ollie are…?”
Complicated.
Private.
Hopeful!
“Did you and my brother touch each other’s naughty bits, Rose?”
The bookstore door swings open, the bell jingling wildly above. Then Eliza steps in and scowls. “I did not just hear what I think I heard, did I?”
“Oh my God.” I drop my face into my hands and groan. “Make it stop.”
“I think they’re exploring each other’s bathing suit areas,” Alana giggles. “And I feel like a creep saying it like that.”
“You sound like a creep saying it like that! You all sound like freaks.” I reach across the table and snatch the coffee Raquel made. “I’m having this.”
“Joke’s on you, comrade. I made it for you.” She settles on the couch opposite mine, crossing one leg over the other and picking up her original cup of coffee. “Are you going to break my brother’s heart?”
“You’re doing the nasty?” Eliza rushes across the otherwise empty shop and plops onto the couch beside her sister. “Since when?”
“It’s new,” Raquel hums happily. “Do you see her blush? And the…” Snickering, she reaches up and taps the side of her neck.
Horrified, I swing my hand up and clap it over my neck. “He didn’t!?”
“She’s so freakin’ easy,” she cackles. “Jesus. Don’t rob a bank and expect her to provide you with a bullshit alibi. She has absolutely no chill under pressure.”
I whimper. “Are you always this involved in your brother’s love life? This is too much.”
“This is too much,” Alana giggles. “Is that what you said when he took your clothes off and took a bite out of you?”
“Ew.” Eliza scowls. “That’s my brother! But also, yes.
” Abruptly switching her sour expression for a salacious smile, she swings her gaze back my way.
“We’ve always been this involved, especially when he asks us not to be.
However, this is new.” She gestures toward me, waving her hand up and down.
“Dara’s been his go-to not-so-secret bang for a while now. It’s easy, it’s convenient, it’s safe.”
“Dara?”
“Hooooo! See the fire in her eyes?” Raquel barks out a laugh. “Yikes.”
“You’re so loud,” Alana grunts. “Jesus. I always forget while you’re gone how much you are. Then you come back and BAM!”
“Do you mean the paramedic?” I question. “Is that Dara?”
“Mmhm.” Raquel smirks. “Easy peasy. No commitment. No strings. No drama.”
“But then he goes and cancels a Valentine’s Day date,” Eliza whistles. “Valentine’s Day! That’s not casual. That’s not no strings.”
“That’s a woman who was biding her time and putting in the hard work, knowing she was dealing with a wild horse.
One wrong move and he was bound to bolt.
” Raquel clicks her tongue, rotating the cup in her hands.
“She was so close to bagging the whole farm, then you came along and had the audacity to step in front of her grandma’s car. ”
“Her grandma?” My stomach heaves. My vision turns dark. Oh God. “Barbara is Dara’s grandmother?”
“Yeah, but don’t look too deep into it. Everyone’s related to someone around here,” Eliza counters. “Ollie was never gonna commit to that filly, because even if she was perfect in every single way, he was not taking Barbara as his grandma-in-law. Not in a million years.”
“I would’ve killed him if he tried,” Raquel declares. “Because then she becomes my grandma-in-law—ish—and officially a part of my family tree. I wasn’t having it.”
“What are you even telling me? Why are you telling me?” I push off the couch and take my coffee with me, pacing toward the shop door.
“Ollie’s a guy who won’t commit, but will maintain a long-term fuck-fest with a colleague because it’s convenient?
And maybe that colleague likes him more than casual, and she finally secured a Valentine’s Day date, which I unknowingly ruined because I was hit by a car and lost my memories…
and the driver of the car was that chick’s grandmother? ”
“If I were a less mature person, I’d consider it a conspiracy,” Raquel giggles.
“The universe was bringing you toward Plainview, and Dara wasn’t having it.
So she hired her ratchety old grandma to take you out.
Except her plan backfired, and, in the end, you fell into Doctor Douchebag’s loving arms anyway. ”
“You’re giving me a headache.” I lean onto the shop window and press my forehead to the cold glass. “I’m confused and sad and cranky and creeped out and… and…”
“Sulking, because the guy you claim—but don’t claim—to be just your friend, has a history with some other bitch none of us ever liked anyway.” Eliza releases a long, breathy sigh. “Would’ve been cool if Dara was the one who got hit by a car.”
“That’s some inception BS right there,” Raquel insists. Loudly. “Can you imagine?”
“He’s not an uncatchable man-whore afraid of commitment, nor is he incapable of being good to a woman who matters.
” Alana pushes away from the counter and wanders across the shop to stop on my right.
Unlike the Darling sisters, she takes pity on me.
“He’s one of the kindest, sweetest, most selfless men I know, and that’s a tall order, since I know a few of them.
He and Dara have always and only ever been casual, so calm down before you pop the lid straight off that coffee cup and make a mess. ”
Breathing heavily, I look down at my hand and the white-knuckle grip I have on the cup.
“He’s an extremely decent guy who has never led Dara, or any woman, on.
He’s upfront and honest, courteous and bursting with integrity.
He brought you home when you left the hospital, which was all any of us needed to know about you.
If Ollie wanted you in his life, it’s because he saw something special in you. ”
“It’s why we hounded him to be honest,” Eliza adds. “With himself. Because from the moment you arrived in Plainview, he was all in, crossing boundaries, fighting his friends, losing sleep, and neglecting literally every other facet of his life, all so he could be near you.”
My chin quivers, emotion washing through my veins like water lapping at the beach. I turn and plaster my back to the glass. “Really?”
“He was delusional and full of shit,” Raquel states. “Which is basically code for lurrrrve.”
“I mean…” Eliza snickers. “Let’s not toss that word around and wig her out. He’ll tell her when he’s ready to tell her.”
“You two are messy as hell,” Alana huffs. “Jesus. She came in here floating on her just bumped butts with Ollie bliss, and now she thinks he’s a dirty whore who breaks hearts and may have married into Barbara’s family someday, but also, love.”
“Love,” Raquel sighs, and then she gestures toward the street at my back. “Hence, my very slick, extremely productive line of questioning out there. Because if you’re gonna be the woman he hands his heart to, I’ve gotta be sure you’re worthy. Better than Barbara, at least.”
Eliza chokes on Raquel’s pastry, blowing dessert onto the table and into her lap.
“They’re way too involved in each other’s lives,” Alana drawls, walking back to the counter and whipping a handful of tissues from a box. She heads toward Eliza and whacks them into the young fighter’s face. “It’s weird. Bordering on icky, really.”
“It is what it is,” Raquel finishes. “And the fact you were outside, all alone and totally vulnerable, was kismet. The universe wanted me to meet you without someone else acting as your shield. Without Ollie protecting you and rushing me along. Without filters or interruptions.” She flashes a wide, satisfied smile.
“I won’t lie. I like what I’m seeing so far.
Oh!” She swings around and frowns at Eliza’s mess. “That dude told me to tell you hey.”
“The dude?” She wipes her shirt. “Which dude?”
“The horny one. He misses you, Lize. He’s a big ol’ dopey doggy, and he wants his head scratches already.”