Home to Whiskey Creek (Whiskey Creek #4)(52)
Author: Brenda Novak

The necklace she’d thrown away as soon as she’d learned. Sensing that he might bring up the party in order to jog her memory, she pretended to have figured out who he was. “Oh! Right. I remember you now. Vaguely.” She wrinkled her nose. “Have you put on weight or—”

“I’ve put on at least twenty pounds—all of it muscle.” He flexed his arms to prove it, obviously proud of the work he’d put in at the gym.

“If you say so.” She turned her attention back to Noelle. “Luanne said you wanted to see me?”

“Derek would like to recruit you for that modeling job I told you about. Isn’t that cool?”

Could he really be that obtuse? Or was he trying to torment her?

It had to be the latter.

“I’m afraid I don’t have any time for modeling.”

“That’s too bad.” He gave her a taunting smile. “Even at night?”

Especially at night. She wasn’t going anywhere near him, and certainly not in private. “Sorry.”

He clicked his tongue. “I’m looking for just one more, and you’d be perfect. You’re much prettier than you were in high school.”

“Am I supposed to thank you for that comment?” she asked dryly.

“I’m just being honest,” he said with a laugh.

“He has to be objective,” Noelle explained. “Like the judges on The X Factor when they tell those singers not to quit their day jobs. Anyway, it’s not like he said you look worse. I’d be pissed if he said that to me.”

“You’re a real stunner these days,” he said, winking at Addy. “And I’d love to have you in the calendar. I think maybe it’s time we were friends.”

“Friends?” she repeated.

Although Addy couldn’t see any reason she should, Noelle seemed to adore him. “He’s a great photographer,” she gushed. “Without him I wouldn’t even be in modeling. Didn’t you go to that link I gave you?”

Addy swallowed hard. “I did.”

“And? What’d you think?”

Anger, maybe even hatred, seemed to be getting the best of Addy. Taking care of Gran didn’t mean she had to socialize with one of her attackers, or even Noelle. She resented that Derek had used Noelle to trick her with that necklace, knew he probably found it funny that she’d been wearing it. “Posing naked is not my thing. But I wish you well with it.”

She started to walk off, but Derek’s next words made her freeze.

“This isn’t about what happened at graduation, is it?”

A jolt of panic sent Adelaide’s pulse racing. Had he just referred to the rape in the middle of the restaurant as if it was no big deal?

Acutely conscious of Noelle’s presence, Addy scrambled to defuse the situation. “As far as I’m concerned, nothing happened at graduation, so I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”

“Glad to hear it. I was hoping you didn’t have any hard feelings, because that was all in fun, you know? Kevin just mentioned it to me last night. We were so shitfaced we didn’t know what the hell we were doing.”

“That’s how you both remember it?” Addy asked. With Noelle looking curiously between the two of them, she was crazy to make the situation any more remarkable than it already was, but she was so shocked she couldn’t help it.

He waved a hand. “It’s mostly a blur to us. But I remember how excited you were to be there, how badly you wanted our attention.”

Addy’s ears were ringing so loudly she almost couldn’t hear. He’d held her down. He’d taken his turn. He couldn’t simply excuse that by laughing it off and saying he was “shitfaced.”

Frowning in confusion, Noelle took a sip of her water. “I don’t think I was at that party.”

“Naw, you were too young,” he told her. “But you would’ve liked it.”

“So what happened?”

“What didn’t happen?” He looked to Addy for confirmation, then whistled and shook his head.

A drop of sweat rolled down Addy’s back even though she wasn’t remotely warm. She was holding herself too rigidly, but she couldn’t relax. “Cody Rackham lost his life as a direct consequence of that party. I guess I don’t remember it as fondly as you do,” she said, and walked away.

Her emphasis on “direct” was probably the closest she’d ever come to admitting she’d had a hand, however inadvertently, in Cody’s death. But she desperately wanted Derek to know that the consequences of their actions hadn’t been minimal, as he pretended to believe. That rape had cost them their beloved leader, their most admired friend. It had cost Noah his twin brother. They couldn’t shrug that off, even if they could shrug off how badly they’d hurt and traumatized her.

“Let me know if you change your mind about the calendar,” he called after her.

* * *

Because Gran was sick, Addy didn’t feel she could stay late, but with Darlene gone, she couldn’t leave early, either. Carla, the assistant manager, had opened at eight and gone home at five. She was a single mom with two kids. It wasn’t fair to ask her to pay for extra child care when Darlene had done the scheduling and had slotted herself to close—and then decided to take the day off.

At five-thirty Addy called home and couldn’t get an answer, so she tried Darlene’s number. She was hoping to get her to come in for a few hours, so she could check on Gran and see that she had some dinner.

“It’s Adelaide,” she said when she had Darlene on the phone. “I was wondering if you’d taken care of whatever you needed to do today. Gran’s sick, so I’d like a couple of hours tonight.”

“I’m afraid I can’t help you, Addy. I never dreamed you wouldn’t be able to cover the whole day. I thought it would be the perfect time for me to take care of a few things here.”

The “perfect time” would be on her regular days off. She had two a week. But Addy didn’t say so. Darlene had been around a long time. Addy was still hoping they’d work out their differences. She hadn’t even approached Gran about selling yet. “I was more than happy to fill in and give you a break, but that was yesterday, before Gran got sick. She was fine a little while ago, but now she’s not answering. I really need to get over there and make sure she’s okay.”

“The waitresses know what they’re doing. Just put Luanne in charge while you’re gone.”