“Nice, bro,” Lena smirked.
“Now come on, you know that’s not the first time Adam’s lost his pants.” Meg’s entire face lit up. I guess she was enjoying the “humiliate Adam” hour.
“What? This is news. Tell me!” Lena exclaimed gleefully, rubbing her hands together like a Disney villain.
Meg turned to her but gave me an amused look. “It was on the Gravitron.”
I slapped my forehead with my palm. “Fuck. The Gravitron.”
Meg nodded. “Oh, yes. The Gravitron.”
Lena looked back and forth between us. “What’s the Gravitron?”
“The Gravitron is a horrible ride that makes you want to vomit. And it’s also the sight of my greatest humiliation before the half-naked jog Dad just regaled us with.” I looked at my dad, who merely shrugged.
“It’s a good story,” was all he said.
I finished my beer, appreciating the slight alcoholic haze that had descended. “My belt broke. That was not my fault,” I argued good-naturedly.
“I definitely have never heard this one,” Lena proclaimed, clearly excited at the prospect of adding another Embarrassing Adam story to her repertoire.
Meg sat forward, crossing her arms on the table. Her hair fell over her shoulders in tangled waves. I had always liked Meg’s hair. She would complain it was too heavy, too messy. But it framed her face in such a way that she reminded me of some wild pixie in the woods. She didn’t seem to have aged a day. Meg Galloway wore her late twenties well.
“It was the summer fair at school, right?” Meg spoke directly to me without any sarcasm or insults. It was a nice change from the last twenty minutes.
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. The summer before tenth grade.”
Meg grinned, and it was nice to see. It had been a long time since I had seen her eyes sparkle like that. “We were on the Gravitron. I remember not really wanting to go on it because I had seen some kid get sick after getting off. But of course, Adam whined until I agreed.” She rolled her eyes.
“Hey, I didn’t whine. I simply provided a solid argument as to why it was the best ride at the fair,” I countered, laughing.
It was all so familiar. And normal.
Ah, so this is what it felt like to be friends.
It was nice.
“Whatever. You only wanted to go on because Chelsea and her bitches were in line.” Meg’s smile faded, the sparkle extinguished.
The mention of my soon-to-be-ex-wife was like being dunked in ice water. There was a tense silence, which Lena filled with uncomfortable giggling. Dad was completely oblivious, his face in his phone checking the baseball scores.
“Okay, so you went on the Gravitron…” Lena prompted.
“And my belt broke, end of the story,” I said shortly, finished with this particular walk down memory lane.
“Okay…” Lena sighed, looking disappointed.
Meg looked as though she were gnashing her teeth together.
I surreptitiously checked the time on my phone. Crap, I had at least an hour to go before I could get away with excusing myself and heading home.
Meg was also looking at her phone, probably thinking the same thing I was. Feeling my eyes on her, she glanced in my direction.
All ice and cold.
“I’m going to go get the meat and start grilling,” Dad announced, putting his phone in his pocket and getting to his feet.
“Do you need any help?” I asked a little desperately, standing up. The last thing I wanted was to be left with Meghan and Lena. My sister was proving to be a shitty buffer.
Dad held out his hand. “No, you stay here and keep our girls company.” He smiled dotingly down at his daughter and Meg.
Lena made vapid observations about the weather—“We’re in the middle of a heatwave…”—“And the new stoplight on Maple Drive—it’s an accident waiting to happen.”
Meg seemed to be barely listening, and I was in danger of slipping into a coma out of sheer awkwardness and boredom.
“So, what are your plans now that you’re back in Southport?” I asked Meg, interrupting Lena’s diatribe about the best way to get stains out of car upholstery.
Meg lifted her shoulders in a shrug, her expression slightly hostile. “I don’t know. I just got here.”
“You must have a plan. You can’t just hang around your mom’s house all day. That sounds boring as shit. You’re an artist, right? You gonna paint something?” I prodded. I was a little boy poking a snake waiting for it to rear back and bite me. I was getting off on the thrill.
Meg’s green eyes were icy. “What’s it to you, Adam? Why are you so interested in what I’ve got going on? Why don’t you worry about yourself?” She practically spat the words out of her mouth.
“Oh, you should check out the gallery in Montgomery, Meggie. It just opened up. There’s some really great stuff—” Lena began hastily, but I cut her off.
“I can’t ask you questions? Am I supposed to sit here mute? Pretend I don’t have things to say? You’d like that wouldn’t you,” I demanded, my voice rising as my irritation grew. So much for playing it cool.
Meg raised an eyebrow, frustratingly blasé. “Mute is probably your best look.”
I felt my blood pressure rise. “I don’t know what your problem is, Meghan, but if you have something to say to me, then just fucking say it already.” I had never called her Meghan. Not once in our twenty-seven-year history. I was making a point by using it now. I was putting distance between her and me. There was no intimate familiarity, not any longer. But I wasn’t going to sit by idly while she treated me like her personal whipping boy. No one got away with treating me like that.
No one.
“Guys, come on. You two need to chill the hell out,” Lena tried to intercede. She should have known better.
Meg slammed her hands down on the table, causing our glasses to shake. “Are you that stupid, Adam? Do I need to spell it out for you?” she seethed.
I purposefully rolled my eyes, knowing it was like throwing lighter fluid on a raging fire. I could practically hear her growl. “If this is about Chelsea, that’s old news. You might need to find something else to hold against me until I die.”
“You are such an asshole. Do you know that? I can’t believe I ever thought you were worth my time. You’re selfish. You’re insensitive. You’re—”
“Incredibly good looking? Your secret fantasy?” I goaded. Poke, poke, poke.
“You’re such a narcissist. As if I would think about you at all.” She was breathing heavily, and I felt a stirring in my groin.
She was gorgeous when she was worked up. Her pale skin was splashed with color; her full lips were parted as she panted with fury, her wide green eyes smoldered with a heat that would burn me up if I wasn’t careful.
And she hated me. I could feel every ounce of her loathing.
Goddamn, it excited me.
Lena put a hand on Meg’s arm. “Meggie, please,” she pleaded quietly, shooting a nervous glance to the kitchen where our parents were.
“No, let her talk, Lena. It’s important not to bottle up how you really feel. Even if it’s totally unfounded and wrong.” I clenched my fists, breathing deeply. I wouldn’t get a hard-on at my parents’ house. That was the next level messed up.