“This.” I gestured back and forth with my beer bottle. “You’re not, like . . .”
“Hitting on you?” He looked mildly horrified. “No. Oh, damn, Emily, I’m sorry. Did you think . . . ?”
“No!” Now that I had my answer, I wanted to shut down the conversation as fast as possible. “No, I didn’t. I wanted to make sure you didn’t . . .”
“No. No, not at all.” Neither of us seemed keen on letting the other finish a sentence in our haste to get our own words out. He ran a hand through his hair and put down his beer. I’d never seen him look so serious before. “I like you, Emily. You’re fun to hang out with. Stace and I thought . . . I dunno, you’ve been doing a lot to take care of your sister, and we wanted to make sure you had some fun.”
My heart skipped an unexpected beat. “That’s . . . that’s nice of you. Of both of you. Thanks.”
He picked up his beer again and clinked the neck of it against mine. “Of course. That’s what friends do.”
Friends. Yeah. I’d spent the past few years in a whirlwind of multiple jobs, taking care of an asshole of a law student, keeping my eyes on the future. I hadn’t had a lot of time for friends. For hanging out. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it until this moment, when the feeling of belonging warmed my chest and I knew what I’d been missing for a long time.
Mitch looked me up and down. “You look cute tonight, though.” He shrugged. “We could make out if you want.”
I choked on my beer and concentrated on not letting it spew out of my nose. “No,” I finally said after my coughing fit had subsided. “Thank you. Tempting offer, but no, thanks.” I looked up in time to catch his smirk.
He shrugged around another sip of beer. “Just as well. I don’t want to get between you and your pirate.”
“My . . . what?” My heart froze, and every nerve ending came alive at the oblique mention of Simon.
Mitch scoffed. “Please. You two have been dancing around each other since day one. Has he seriously not done anything about that yet? Faire’s half over. I thought he’d make a move by now.”
“Um.” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk about my love life with Mitch Malone in the middle of a bar. Especially since I didn’t have a love life. “I’m not sure there’s been any . . . dancing . . .”
“Oh, I am. I’ve known Simon since . . .” He thought for a moment. “I don’t actually remember meeting him, that’s how long it’s been. I know when he’s smitten. Believe me, he’s got it bad.”
“Really?” I narrowed my eyes, and not only because Mitch didn’t seem like the type of guy to use the word “smitten.” “Then why did you just hit on me?”
His grin was slow and lazy. “I had to make sure you felt the same way about him.”
“So that was a test?” I shook my head. “You’re a weirdo.”
“Guilty,” he said with a grin. “But I think you knew that before now.”
My chuckle died off as nervousness overwhelmed me again. “So you really think Simon . . . ?”
Mitch shrugged, clearly already bored with the conversation. Probably because it didn’t involve him hooking up with anyone. “You should go ask him.”
My heart froze in my chest, and I looked around the bar. Had Simon come in while we were talking? Worse, had he seen Mitch and me standing together? Even worse than that, had he heard us talking about him?
But no. If he were going to be here, he would have shown up by now. “Go ask him,” I repeated. My hand wandered to my pocket, and the fortune therein. Ask. “Yeah. I should do that.”
“Here.” Mitch held out his hand. “Give me your phone.” He pulled up the maps app, entered in an address, and handed the phone back to me.
I looked down at the address he entered. “So this is . . .”
“Yeah. He’s lived in the same place since we were kids. I know exactly where it is.”
I raised alarmed eyes to Mitch. “Wait. He lives with his parents?”
Mitch barked out a laugh. “No! No, his parents left town a couple years ago. Not long after Sean died. But Simon already had the teaching job, so he stayed behind. Plus I don’t think he wanted to leave the Faire. It was like he had an obligation to keep it going.”
The word “obligation” hit me in the heart. “That’s what I thought too.” Hadn’t I almost said something to Chris? Wondered if Simon worked so hard every summer because he wanted to, or because he felt like he had to? “Does anyone else see that? Has anyone said anything to him?”
“I doubt it. I mean, I figure he doesn’t mind so much. If he did, he’d just stop doing it, right? Simple.” He shrugged, but I frowned. I was pretty sure it wasn’t that simple. Mitch took another swig of beer. “The thing about this town is . . . well, it’s a small town, you know?”
“Yeah.” I nodded even though I really didn’t get where he was going with that.
“I mean . . .” He picked at the label on his beer bottle. “When you live in a place like this, like when you grow up and then you stay, who you were in high school is who you are now. I mean, I’m cool with that because . . .” He spread his arms in a well, look at me gesture. “But Simon? When we were kids?”
A corner of my mouth kicked up. “Lacked your confidence?”
Mitch snorted. “Something like that. Nah, he’s a great guy, but he was too busy following his brother around to realize it. To be, like, his own person. Then his brother died, you know? But he’s still the same Simon he’s always been. So busy paying attention to other people and what they need from him that he doesn’t go after what he wants for himself.” He sent me a pointed look. “I don’t know. Maybe you know what that’s like.”
“I . . .” I cleared my throat. “Maybe a little.” My mind reeled. Mitch was way more astute than I’d given him credit for. What happened to the goofy meathead that was supposed to be a fun, mindless hookup for the summer? I’d misjudged him from the beginning.
Just like I’d misjudged Simon. I’d thought he was just like Jake: judgmental and dismissive. I thought he’d never want someone like me. And I’d never want him. I was wrong about that too, wasn’t I? I looked down at my phone again. At Simon’s address. Suddenly I yearned to be there with all my heart. Was there a teleportation app I could download?
Mitch noticed where my attention had gone and glanced down at my phone too. “Look. What I think is, Simon’s in a rut. And he needs to be shaken out of it.” He looked up at me with a sidelong smirk. “I bet a cute girl in a yellow sundress will do the trick.”