Page 57 of The Bartender Special

He reached out to tug on Jack’s shirt.

“Hey, wait a second,” he said. “I need to take this call.”

Jack said something but Benny was already dancing backwards to the driveway.

In all the huff and gruff of the last few days, he’d only talked to his best friend twice. That was mostly on him, partly on Ethan being swamped by the festival prep. Now, though, seemed an odd time to reach out.

“What's wrong?” Benny answered, immediately worried. “Are you okay? Aren’t you in class? What’s⁠—”

“The mayor wants to talk to you.” Ethan always knew when to interrupt to stop a Benny spiral.

His tactic this time, however, was strange.

Benny blinked at the concrete.

“Say again?”

Ethan was whispering. It was probably nap time for his kindergarteners.

“The mayor wants to see you. He pulled me out of class just now to tell me so.”

“He pulled you out of class?” Benny asked, matching his whisper.

“Yeah. I thought I was in trouble somehow but, nope, he wanted you.”

Benny’s panic meter rose a level. He had never been in trouble with an authority figure before. Certainly not an elected official.

“How am I in trouble? I don’t even live here anymore!”

“You’re not in trouble. Apparently he wants to talk about officially sponsoring the kickoff party at Cassidy's. Good optics for him, I suppose. He gave me his card to give to you.”

Oh.

So he wasn’t in trouble.

“Why not come to me instead?” he asked, panic lowering.

“He said he tried to swing by your place earlier and ask, but no one was home. Wait—” Suspicion sprung up into Ethan's voice as quickly as the grumpiness had lit across Jack's face at being left alone on Roger's front porch. “What have you been up to all day if you’re not home? Or did you just not answer because you were writing a new blog post that Rizzie wants?”

Benny turned to the sound of the front door opening.

Roger Norman.

And Jack.

Alone.

Together.

“Just running around, prepping for the festival,” he hurried. “Jack and I are actually seeing a man about a boat right now, so I gotta let you go.”

“Seeing a man about a boat. Is that some kind of sex euphemism?”

Benny didn’t have time to heat at that.

“No, it’s not a sex euphemism. We’re— Wait, what would that even mean if it was one?”

Roger and Jack turned to Benny, who gave an I’ll be over there in a sec wave.