Page 65 of Stand
The sparklers were fizzing out, and Matt’s smug grin was fading. “Ah, young love!” Tammy sighed, which was rich, given she had to be barely college age. “Congratulations, you guys.”
“Let’s take our dessert to go,” Sam said, her lips stiff.
“Good idea.”
Their waiter was still close by, so Ty asked for boxes. While the waiter went off to find them, Tammy exclaimed, “You leaving already?”
“We had a long drive today,” Ty said.
“I understand.” Tammy nodded, her blue eyes darting between the two of them. “Hey,” she said over her shoulder. “You got a bottle of champagne back there for them, Steve?”
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” Sam tried to protest, but Ty could have told her not to bother. Tammy’s baby face hid a spine of steel.
“On us!” she cooed. Ty still didn’t know who “us” referred to, but he thanked her, and they bundled themselves out of Joe Cobra’s.
“Matthew,” Ty said as soon as they were out of earshot, “one more stunt and I’ll leave you behind tomorrow.”
“Stunt?” Matt echoed, widening his eyes—then wincing and holding a hand up to his black eye. “I thought you’d be glad of the excuse. Apparently, you guys have had something going on this whole—”
“We havenot,” Sam said.
Then how was she going to explaintwokisses Matt had now witnessed? Ty wasn’t that good an actor. Something was definitely going on. What it was, he couldn’t say.
“Just… go to bed,” he said, not keeping the tiredness out of his voice.
Matt and Alyssa used their keys to enter their rooms, leaving a heartbeat or two for Sam and Ty to follow. He wanted to say something, to… apologize? Tell her those kisses had meant something? Or would she rather they hadn’t?
Sam answered the question by collapsing her long limbs into the plastic chair outside her room and holding out the champagne. “They already opened it. Might as well have some.”
Ty had to laugh at her resignation. Life was chaos. Drink the champagne.
He went into his room to get the coffee cups next to the tiny machine and joined her, taking his own plastic chair to sit next to her. She poured, and he passed her a plastic cup.
“To Midwestern hospitality,” Sam said.
“It’s terrifying,” Ty said, smiling. Sam blew out a laugh, and they clicked and drank.
“Damn,” she said and looked harder at the label. “That’s Veuve Clicquot.”
It was good. Light, sparkly. Incongruous in the parking lot of a modest hotel and somehow more delicious because of it. “To Tammy,” he said, and they toasted their host.
Alyssa came out with Cairo on his leash and began to walk past the cars to the grass. “Thanks, Lyss,” Sam called.
“No problem,” she called back.
“I’ll walk him later,” Sam said to Ty. Or to herself. Ty finished his cup and held it out for more. It went down easy, this Veuve Clicquot.
“We should eat our desserts,” he reminded her, so they balanced their cardboard boxes on their knees and ate. Alyssa came back, rolled her eyes at them, and took her own box and Matt’s. She handed Sam Cairo’s leash, and he immediately settled under Sam’s chair.
Both kids’ doors closed, and there was silence.
Ty’s hands began to get itchy to do something. Not with Sam, for once. “You mind if I get my woodwork?” he said.
“Your what?”
“It’s my… hobby. Just whittling. Gives me something to do with my hands.”
“Let me see.”