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Aubrey dropped into a nearby seat and pulled me into her lap. The table was covered with a crumpled chip bag, a full one, a two liter of cola, and plastic cups. They’d been at this for at least a few hours.
“It might’ve been, you don’t know.” Evie stepped away from her workbench to join us.
Whatever she—they—were doing—was guaranteed to be more interesting than my never-ending self-flagellation.
Evie pinched together the two plastic pieces she held, and when they clicked I realized it was a small digital camera. She handed it to Aubrey. “Battery was showing dead, but I fixed it.”
“You’re the best, I don’t care what anyone else says.” Aubrey winked. She powered the device on, pressed a button, and leaned back enough to almost get me in the frame. “Say cheese.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. “Not without wine or crackers.”
She snapped a picture, checked the screen, and showed me the photo.
Yup, that was me. Frizzy pink head, bloodshot eyes, and new freckles from too much sun. I’d tell her to delete it, but after more than fifteen years of friendship, I knew she wouldn’t listen.
Instead I pulled my phone out and flashed it at her. “We have these nifty devices now, that take phone calls and pictures. And that don’t have to be soldered to keep them alive.”
“Because they die regardless,” Aubrey said.
“Besides, fixing that thing every few years is fun,” Evie added.
Aubrey tucked the camera into her purse with the kind of reverence typically reserved for sacred relics. “This is vintage and won’t end up in a landfill in a year when the next model comes out. Besides”—she grabbed my phone before I could stop her—“yours is probably full of pictures of your boys.”
Aubrey was convinced I was secretly in love with Maddox and Onyx, and just refused to admit it to anyone, including myself.
Arguing that not everyone in this town was like her with Deacon didn’t do any good. And trying to get my phone back would have similar useless results.
Instead, I slid into my own seat. “It’s not. No more than normal.”
“Uh-huh.” Evie took the phone from Aubrey. “You didn’t show up here at midnight to just see us.” She muttered numbers as she jabbed at my screen.
Evie understood my ghosts better than most anyone. Considering we’d each been the other’s other woman.
I could tell them both I ran into Don, but there was no reason to spread the misery.
I couldn’t tell Onyx because after the first time, he’d been ready to sterilize Don with a pair of bricks. I wouldn’t let Onyx go to jail on my behalf.
“I changed my passcode after the last time you guessed it. I’m not dumb.” Okay, sometimes I was dumb.
“How are Cat and The Hatter?” Aubrey asked.
Like our team name, The Wonderland Crew, we were Alys, Mad Hatter, and the Cheshire Cat. I didn’t mind the comparison, though I did occasionally wish the rabbit holes we tumbled down were more magical unexpected adventure and less that burger says Eat Me, and we shouldn’t ignore the burger. “Hungry. Silly.”
“Sexy,” Aubrey added.
I rolled my eyes. She wasn’t wrong, but agreeing would give her fuel and she didn’t need that. I didn’t need that.
Evie muttered another string of numbers, and I couldn’t hide my wince. “I’m in.” She grinned. “Seventeen-oh-one oh-four. Really?”
“What?” We were all Star Trek fans here.
Aubrey’s look of distaste matched Evie’s. “But Enterprise D?” Aubrey said.
“Here we are.” Evie turned my phone toward us, and flipped through pictures from the last few hours.
“I didn’t take those.” It was true. Maddox was the one who loved the cameras, but his phone battery had been dead.
“How’d the planning go?” Aubrey leaned into flip through more images, lingering on the ones outside her vintage clothing store, and the antique shop next door.
