“Nah, not right now.” Jenni shrugged. “What about you? I heard that you and Charlie were getting close.”

  “Of course, you did,” Emma rolled her eyes. “I’m surprised you didn’t hear how many times we slept together and what positions we did and where.”

  Jenni’s eyes grew wide. “You did sleep with him. We were wondering if the man had taken a chastity vow or something.”

  “Really?” Emma’s mouth was getting sore from the salt and vinegar chips and she pushed the bowl away and sucked the salt from her fingers. “He’s a bartender. And you’re telling me he’s not a player?”

  “Charlie?” Jenni shook her head. “I haven’t seen him with anyone since I’ve lived here – and from what I hear it’s been years since he’s had a girlfriend. Apparently, his ex cheated on him, she banged some Aussie dude in Charlie’s van.”

  Emma knew firsthand how it felt to be cheated on, and it made sense that Charlie was gun shy in the love department. “I was engaged once.” She took a sip of her wine. She hadn’t planned on talking about this, but the wine had loosened up her lips. “He cheated on me.”

  “No,” Jenni said.

  “Yeah,” Emma sighed. “With my best friend.”

  “NO.” Jenni practically shouted. “What a piece of shit.”

  “A total turd.” Emma finished her glass of wine and went to pour another, but a lone drip fell from the bottle.

  “Should we open another?” she asked.

  Jenni nodded and as she laughed a tear slipped from her eye. “A turd? Do you ever swear?”

  Emma laughed. “My ex used to call me Ned Flanders. He always wanted me to dirty talk in bed and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t muster the f word let alone any of the c words.”

  “Like Chardonnay?” Jenni opened the fridge and held up a bottle.

  Emma laughed. “Exactly.” She rested her chin on her knee. “Like, ooh, your chardonnay feels so good.” Emma didn’t know if Jenni could hear the slur she was trying to keep from her voice. Her crappy week was fading away into a bottle of Chardonnay and giggles with a new friend.

  Jenni plopped back down onto the leather pouf beside Emma. She turned up the music and filled the glasses. “Or, fuck me with your giant throbbing chardonnay.”

  Emma sipped the wine. “Fudge me,” Emma corrected Jenni.

  This sent her into a fit of laughter. “Okay. Fudge me harder. Ram me with that Chardonnay.”

  Emma laughed. “You manage to make that sound dirty.” She held up the glass. “This one is the best so far.”

  Jenni reached for her glass but instead of grabbing it, hit it with her fingertips. The wine spilled all over the bridal magazine. “Shit.” She hopped up and ran to the kitchen, returning with a towel. “I mean shoot.”

  “This is serious,” Emma pointed to the river of wine snaking away from the bridal magazine. “I might even go with shootskisitis.”

  “You and your filthy mouth.” Jenni wiped up the wine with the towel and went to the kitchen to squeeze it over the sink.

  “Let me help,” Emma followed Jenni into the kitchen and grabbed a roll of paper towels. When the two of them were finished sopping up the wine, Jenni held up the bottle, her eyes slightly crossed as she shook it to see how much was left.

  “We might have to go out.” She poured the last of the bottle into their glasses.

  Emma wondered if her eyes were as glazed as Jenni’s and realized that she didn’t care. Her hike with Serena had been amazing, and now she was bonding with Jenni over wine. “Screw you, Charlie.” She whispered.

  “Whoa,” Jenni said.

  “What?” Emma felt her cheeks burn. “I thought I whispered that.”

  “Well, you didn’t.” Jenni giggled. “I’ll swear for you. Fuck you, Charlie.” She raised her glass in the air. Emma clinked her glass to Jenni’s. “You know, I swore at him when he broke up with me.”

  “You did?” Jenni held her hand to her chest like she was aghast.

  “I did. I even said the f word twice.” Emma felt like she was divulging a huge secret.

  A hush fell between the two girls. “He must have hurt you,” Jenni whispered.

  “He did,” Emma sighed.

  “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Jenni’s eyes searched Emma’s.

  “Sure. I mean, there’s not much to talk about. He asked me some weird questions about money and then told me he was too busy to ‘hang out’ anymore.” She used air quotes. “Then I swore at him and left, and that’s the last time I spoke with him.”

  “That’s really weird.” Jenni mused.

  “Part of me hoped that he would send me a message, or apologize, or at least tell me what the hell he was talking about, and I hate to admit that I might have texted him a few times, but he never responded.” Emma was ashamed to admit that she had sent him three texts that remained unanswered.

  “We should get you an answer,” Jenni said.

  Emma shrugged. “I don’t know how you’ll do that. Serena already tried and he gave her some cryptic bull crap answer saying that I knew what I’d done. Jenni, the only thing I’d done was fall in love with him.” Fueled with wine, the tears came fast and furiously. “I’m sorry.” She wiped at her cheeks with a piece of paper towel. When she looked at Jenni, her friend’s eyes matched her own.

  “Come on.” She held out her hand.

  Emma let herself be hauled up from the floor. “Come on what?”

  Jenni shoved her arms into a jean jacket. “We’re getting you an answer.” She tossed a sweater at Emma and slung her fringed purse over her shoulder.

  Emma looked at the Cowichan sweater in her hands, confused about its role. “What? What are we doing?”

  Jenni pointed at Emma. “Put on the damn—I mean put on the gosh darn sweater. I know exactly where to find Charlie. You need some closure.” Before Emma could protest, or even put on the sweater, Jenni grabbed her by the hand and pulled her into the hallway outside her apartment.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on.” Emma shrugged into the warm sweater and zipped it up. “Where is Charlie? What are we doing?”

  “We’re crashing a bachelor party.”

  Eighteen

  Music shook the walls of the Last Chance Tavern, the windows rattled with the reverberation from the heavy bass. Charlie hadn’t heard of the DJ, but he was apparently some big shot from the city. He looked around the main room of the Tavern where he’d bartended at for the past eight years and didn’t recognize it. The stripper pole, which had sat dormant for the past two years, was seeing solid action, with some very talented dancers. There were lasers, shooter girls – specializing in hooter shooters, and even dry ice.

  “What do you think, bro?” Jason jumped to Charlie’s side the minute he stepped in the door.

  “It sure is something…” Charlie glanced at the bar where his replacement, a ski bum named Landon was doing his best Tom Cruise impersonation. Charlie winced as Landon spun the bottle in his hand, waiting for the crash – but the guy tossed the bottle into the air, caught it behind his back, and then ran it along the twenty or so shot glasses lined up along the bar.

  “He’s good.” Jason scream shouted in Charlie’s ear.

  “He better be. I trained him,” Charlie said. He had slowly been giving over shifts to Landon and at the end of the week would hand over the keys to The Last Chance entirely.

  “Where’s Adam?” Charlie asked. He scanned the room, wondering if he would recognize his childhood friend.

  “Over there,” Jason hooked his arm around Charlie’s neck and pointed to the guy lying on the small stripper pole platform, money in his mouth while the dancer slid down the pole upside down, her huge fake breasts inching their way towards his face.

  Looking around the room, Charlie recognized more than a few local faces. “Is this an open party?” he asked. He couldn’t imagine that half the search and rescue guys knew his childhood friend Adam.

  “I sold tickets,” Jason grinned. “We’re going to make some serious cash for our brother.” Charlie glanced at the pole where the dancer was now gyrating over Adam’s crotch. His eyes were fixated on the woman’s ass, his hands hovering inches away. Charlie looked away, disgusted. Jason and Adam were more like brothers than he and Adam. “He must really be in love.” Charlie rolled his eyes.

  “Oh, come on. Let him have some fun before his life is ruined.” Jason slapped Charlie on the back.

  “Hi, boys.” Charlie stiffened as the smell of cigarette smoke hit him from behind and an arm slithered across his lower back.

  “Pammy.” Jason turned. “You made it.”

  The hand slid from Charlie’s back and Pamela hugged Jason. “Are you kidding? We wouldn’t miss this for the world.” She pointed behind her with her thumb like she was hitchhiking. Charlie’s gaze followed the gesture and he saw Stacy and their friend Angie, all in their pleather glory.

  Charlie pulled Jason aside. “I don’t want a repeat from last time.”

  Jason removed Charlie’s hand from his shoulder and dropped it. “You worry too much. Why don’t you try and have fun for once in your life?” Jason turned and slid his arm over Pamela’s shoulder and the two of them headed to the bar.

  “Chuckie!” Charlie recognized the voice and was instantly transported back in time to his high school days. He turned and Adam had a huge grin on his face and his arms were outstretched wide. Charlie embraced his old friend.

  “Congratulations, buddy,” Charlie said, once their bear hug was finished. “She’s a lucky lady.” Charlie’s eyes flashed to the debauchery behind Adam and wondered if he picked up on the slight sarcasm in his voice.

  “She is.” The sarcasm flew a mile over Adam’s head. He leaned in close. “Wait until you see the strippers we’ve got scheduled to come in later. They’re going to offer up a little more than dances if you know what I mean.” Adam smacked Charlie’s abs and gave him a used car salesman wink. The idea that Emma had been with Adam seemed absurd, and it also made Charlie’s stomach a little queasy. There were moments when he’d wondered if Jason had been telling the truth about Adam and Emma. But the Emma he knew was way too classy and smart to be with a popped collar wearing bro like Adam. There were many layers to the woman, and he felt relieved that he had stopped peeling them back. Who knows what he would’ve discovered if he’d stayed with her.

  “I’ve got to get a drink,” Charlie said. “Do you need one?” He wanted to get away from Adam and his prostitute talk. His experience in dealing with obnoxious drunks had taught him that buying a drink was basically a peace offering.

  “I’m good. I’ll take you up on that one later.”

  Charlie squeezed his way through the crowd and waved to get Landon’s attention. “I’ll take a Chance Verbena,” he shouted.

  Landon shook his head. “We’re discontinuing the craft stuff,” he shouted. “Domestic bottles only.”

  “I’ll take a whiskey, straight up then.” Charlie was fuming. The owner of the Last Chance, a businessman named Richard told him he’d still order in Charlie’s small-batch craft beer, the stuff he was going to be brewing on-site at the Brew Pub. He wondered when Richard had changed his mind, and when he planned on telling Charlie.

  He parked himself in a dark corner and checked his watch. He had shown his face and congratulated the groom. That was good enough. He was going to finish his whiskey and get out of this hellhole. He scanned the room. The professionals were taking a break and Stacy was taking a turn on the grimy brass pole. He shuddered and looked away. He couldn’t get that whiskey down fast enough, and the second it was gone he set down the glass and made his way to the door.

  “Where are you going?” Jason stepped in front of him. “The party is just getting started.”

  “I’ve got to get some painting done.”

  “Ah, come on. Just one more. Adam’s one of your best friends.” Jason was already slurring and wavering on his feet.

  “No.” Charlie shook his head. “Adam is YOUR best friend, not mine.”

  “Whoa,” Jason held up his hands in front of him. “What’s your problem? The guy hasn’t seen you in years and he’s invited you to his wedding.” Jason leaned in so close Charlie could feel the warmth of his alcohol-fueled breath on his ear. “And I didn’t tell him about you banging his ex.” Jason stood back and crossed his arms across his chest like he had done Charlie a huge favor.

  “I don’t even care anymore. I’m leaving.” Charlie sidestepped around his brother. “I’ll see you tomorrow. You owe me breakfast.” He started to walk away, but Jason grabbed him by the wrist.

  “Holy shit,” Jason whispered.

  Charlie turned to look at what Jason was seeing.

  “Holy shit.” He echoed his sentiment when he saw who had just walked into the bar.

  It was Jenni.

  And Emma.

  Nineteen

  Emma pulled the sweater tight around her chest. Even though it was summer, the nights in the mountains were still chilly, and the fresh air was sobering her up, just a little. The first stars had appeared over the dark triangular blocks on the horizon that she could now identify as the mountains. A lone light shone brightly on top of Sugar Peaks.

  They could feel and hear the music as they approached The Last Chance. A woman in heels and a skin-tight club dress was standing smoking outside the bar.

  Emma looked down at her sweater and running shoes and wished that she had worn something different to work that day. The doorman collected twenty dollars from each of them and then dabbed their hands with a smiley face stamp.

  They stepped inside the bar, and even though Emma had only lived in Chance Rapids for a short time, she had never seen the Last Chance look like it did that night. Sequins, gambling tables, strippers, extremely intoxicated men stumbling around. Jenni leaned in and tried to whisper something to Emma, but everything around her ceased to exist. The music faded away, the lights went dull, and her breath caught in her throat when she saw him.

  And he saw her.

  “Emma, we should leave.” Emma finally heard her friend’s voice but didn’t know what she was talking about.

  On their walk to the bar, Emma and Jenni had role played all kinds of scenarios with Charlie. Emma’s favorite was taking the drink from his hand and throwing it in his face, but when she saw him all the anger faded. She just wanted to know what went wrong.

  “It’s okay,” she said to Jenni and headed off into the crowd to find Charlie. She wasn’t going to throw a drink in his face, nor lob any of the snide comments they’d jokingly made up on the way over. In her tipsy state, it only made sense to go up to Charlie and straight out ask him. He stood taller than most of the people in the bar, and every so often she’d catch a glimpse of his plaid shirt through the sea of strangers. She couldn’t tell if he was heading towards her, but it didn’t matter. She was a woman on a mission.

  She elbowed her way past some guys waving money at the woman on the pole and it was like she was no longer under control of her hand. She saw it reach in front of her and saw her finger tap the shoulder of the man she thought she loved. He turned, but as he did, someone grabbed her wrist hard enough to jerk her backward.

  “Ow.” She turned and yanked her hand away.

  “What are you doing here?” Jason said. “Haven’t you done enough already?”

  Emma rubbed her wrist. “What are you talking about? I’m here to talk to someone.”

  Jason glanced behind Emma’s shoulder. “Who? Charlie or Adam?”

  “Adam? Why would I want to talk to him?” Emma hadn’t thought about Adam since the day she left the city. Now, his best friend had shown up in Chance Rapids, not once, but twice. “Why the hell would I want to talk to Adam,” she repeated.

  Emma turned and saw Charlie’s shirt getting further and further away. “Jason, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I have to go.”

  “Wait.” She stopped. “How do you know Charlie?”

  Jenni arrived at Emma’s side. “Emma, we should go.”

  Emma was thoroughly confused. “Why? You’re the one who made me come here.”

  Jason crossed his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes at Emma. “You already ruined my best friend’s life; I’m not going to let you ruin my brother’s.”

  “Brother?” Emma took a step back. “Charlie is your brother?” She felt like she had been slapped. There was no resemblance at all between Charlie and Jason.

  Jenni grabbed Emma’s bicep. “We have to go now.”

  “Hey, drunk girl. Listen to your friend,” Jason said.

  Jenni pulled Emma away hard enough to bruise her arm. “I just found out why the groom fired you from the wedding,” Jenni whispered as she escorted her through the crowd. “The groom of the bachelor party is Adam. Your ex.”

  The room seemed to tilt on its side, and she knew it wasn’t from the wine. As the duo made their way to the exit, Emma tried to put the pieces into place. But even if she were stone-cold sober she still wouldn’t have been able to make sense of what had just happened. Her ex-fiancé was getting married in Chance Rapids. Her new boyfriend was going to the wedding.

  Oh my god.

  Emma felt like she was going to throw up. She had almost been a guest at her ex’s wedding.

  The flowers, the setting, there was a reason that wedding felt so perfect like she knew it, it was everything that she had planned. Alison had stolen her fiancé and her wedding.

  “I need to get out of here.” All of a sudden Jenni’s urgency made a lot more sense.

  As they reached the exit Emma did a glance looking for Charlie, but her heart sank in disappointment when she couldn’t spot his dark hair or beard anywhere in the crowd.

  They burst into the crisp night air and Emma put her hands on her knees. “What the heck just happened.” She was breathing faster than she was breathing out. “I don’t feel very good.”

  Jenni slipped her arm behind Emma and draped Emma’s arm over her shoulder. “Come on, you need to walk.”