“Don!” Freddie shouted across the bar to the grizzly bear of a man wiping down the counter. “We’re going to need more ice cream over here.”
“No. No. No more,” I said weakly, waving a hand out. “I’m going to throw up again.” I then gently laid my cheek on the cool wood of the table and took shallow breaths in and out of my mouth. Normally I found the grease-and-beer smell of the Dawg comforting, but today was not most days. Why did I think I could handle ice cream?
“Oh, I thought you threw up on purpose earlier to get out of talking to You Know Who 1 and You Know Who 2.”
“Nope. Not on purpose. Just lucky, I guess.” I lifted my head and slumped back against the faux leather plastic of the booth. “How it is you’ve recovered already? I feel just as bad as I did this morning.” Maybe a little worse.
“Superior genetics,” Freddie said, pushing his glasses up his nose. He had finally peeled his contacts off … but not without a lot of swearing.
Just then Don ambled over with another bowl of tutti-frutti.
“Oh God,” I said, covering my mouth with one hand and waving the other out in front of me. Freddie had thought force-feeding me ice cream was an important first step in dealing with my feelings now that I had finally admitted I was not fine.
“Ah, you’d better take that away,” Freddie said. “Sorry.”
Don did not look impressed, but just when I thought he was going to chew Freddie out, he said, “About time you got another dog, Freddie.”
Freddie beamed at the little dog sitting beside him in the booth.
“Daisy would approve.”
“Hey,” Freddie said, looking back at Don. “Do you think you could bring Stanley something to eat?”
Don nodded.
“Make a good cut of meat, not—”
“You’re pushing it, Freddie,” he said, but I could see the smile on Don’s face as he walked back to the bar.
“We’re celebrating, aren’t we, Stanley?” Freddie said happily.
“What are we celebrating again?”
“The new year!”
“Of course.” I closed my eyes.
“I know what you’re thinking…”
I didn’t answer, just sniffed. Maybe I could fall asleep without Freddie noticing.
“You’re thinking, I’m Erica. I’m so sad—”
“I don’t usually call myself by my first name in my inner monologues.” Not unless I needed a really good talking-to.
“I thought I was getting back together with my ex-boyfriend,” Freddie went on in his Erica voice, “but he said he needed time, so I kissed the first available guy I could, and now he’ll never want me back, and I don’t know how I feel about the other guy, but it doesn’t matter because he’s moving to New York and maybe marrying a vet—if she forgives him for being assaulted by a strange girl who looked like she had fallen off a snowmobile.”
“I’m also thinking I’m going to need to find a new best friend because I killed my old one.”
Freddie chuckled.
“How is your snowmobile by the way?”
“Freaking Tyler’s going to be cleaning my rain gutters for the next forty years,” Freddie said. “But forget all that, my point is you need to start looking at the bright side.”
I cracked one eye open.
“I tried to tell you earlier. You’re a freaking hero! You saved Candace’s life!”
I closed it again.
I had done that. That was pretty cool. Freddie and I had spotted Candace and her werewolf sitting in the town gazebo a little earlier sharing a hot chocolate. It looked really sweet. Not romantic per se. It was a little soon for that. But it definitely looked like something. I kind of liked the idea that my going out onto the roof had made that moment possible. I’d made the world a happier place. The pink ball of fluffy sunshiney things that was Candace would live to brighten the world another day.
We also saw online—Candace had unblocked us from her social media—a pretty cute selfie of Candace and her sister Bethanny hugging cheek to cheek: #shesgoingbacktoschool #sosad #missmysisteralready. Sure, things in real life were usually more complicated than they appeared on social media, but it definitely looked like a step in the right direction. And speaking of social media—that was a big part of Freddie’s good mood. Stanley already had his own Instagram page and nearly a hundred thousand followers. Freddie felt this could mean big things for Otter Lake Security. #OLS.
But I also couldn’t forget the other reason for Freddie’s cheerfulness, Bean.
Freddie didn’t want to talk about it, and I didn’t want to push, but I had seen them exchange contact information.
“You know what else?” Freddie asked.
“What?”
“You are in a much more authentic place than you were twenty-four hours ago.”
“Trying not to throw up tutti-frutti ice cream is authentic?”
“The most authentic,” Freddie said. “But what I mean is that now that you are being honest with your feelings, you can grow.” He made a blooming gesture with his hands … which kind of made me want to punch him. “And I bet you’ll have more luck finding a place now that you and Candace are friends.”
I shrugged. Maybe. That would be nice.
“Oh look,” Freddie said, stretching up in his seat. “Rhonda’s here. Rhonda!”
I grabbed his wrist. “Do not tell her that I kissed Matthew.”
“She’s going to find out eventually, if she hasn’t already.”
“Eventually. Not today.”
He nodded.
“Hey guys,” Rhonda said, coming up to the table. “How are you feeling?”
“Terrific!” Freddie answered.
I groaned and muttered something unpleasant.
Rhonda smiled.
“Where have you been?” I asked.
“I was just helping Jessica move more stuff to her new office. And before that I dropped in at the sheriff’s department. The Arthurs have totally clammed up, and Bryson is freaking out! His lawyer’s flying in, but he’s not here yet.”
Okay, that managed to bring a smile to my face.
“Where is your cousin’s new office, by the way?” Freddie asked.
“Didn’t I tell you? She bought Dr. Lambert’s veterinary practice. He wants to retire.”
Dr. Lambert was the only vet in town. He had a pretty steady practice.
“Did you hear that, Stanley,” Freddie said. “You’re going to keep your vet. Hopefully she doesn’t poison daddy again.”
“Yeah, Jessica feels really bad about the whole Ketamine thing,” Rhonda said. “But just between us, while my cousin is super smart, she’s always been a bit of a space cadet. You know, absentminded professor?” Rhonda twirled some fingers in the air before darting her eyes in my direction. “I hope we’re cool, Erica. I probably should have told you she was coming to the party.”
I felt my face go hot. I mean, I was totally cool with Rhonda, but she wasn’t going to be cool with me after she found out I kissed Matthew. She was very judgmental when it came to my love life. But I didn’t want to lie to her either. “I…”
“Hey,” Freddie said, jumping in. “I heard Matthew was thinking of moving.”
“What?” Rhonda snapped. “Where did you hear that?”
Freddie frowned and shook his head. “Can’t remember.”
“Well, if that was true,” Rhonda said, rocking on her feet, “I’m willing to bet that he’s thinking twice after last night.”
“Maybe,” Freddie said with just the tiniest of smiles.
“I mean you can’t get that kind of excitement in New York,” she added. “Hey, I’m going to get a coffee from the bar,” Rhonda said, jerking a thumb behind her. “You guys want anything?”
“Nope,” I said weakly.
“I’m good,” Freddie said. “But see what’s taking Stanley’s steak so long.”
She nodded and walked off.
“Thank you,” I said, cupping the mug of hot water I had ordered with my ice cream.
“For what?”
“For buying me some more time with Rhonda.”
Freddie waved a hand at me. “You can work it out with her later. Nobody wants you to get all upset and start puking again. And Rhonda will understand. Eventually.”
I rubbed my hands over my face. “I am a terrible person.”
“No you’re not. You were hurt. You thought this would finally be your chance with Grady, and he ripped the rug right out from underneath you,” he said. “And if you’re worried about the architect, don’t be. You kissed him. You didn’t propose. Besides, he’s known all along how you feel about Grady.”
I shook my head.
“But speaking of Grady,” Freddie said carefully, “do you think you two are finally…?”
“Done?” I asked. “I don’t know how Grady feels, but when it comes to me…” I shook my head and tapped the table. “Here’s the problem. If you asked me, right now, to close my eyes and think about what I want my future to look like … I would see Grady and me waking up together, birds singing, sun rising over the lake.” I had left out the part about being in his arms and having a smile on my face, but that was there too.
“That sounds really nice,” Freddie said a moment later. “I kind of want that. With … someone.”
My jaw dropped. That was the first time ever Freddie hadn’t made a snarky joke when I talked about my feelings for Grady. Maybe this really was a new year.
“I’ve been meaning to say,” Freddie said. “I was really impressed with how you held it together last night.”
I squinted at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I was giving you a pretty hard time before the party about losing it with all your bottled-up emotions,” he said, petting Stanley’s head. “But after a rough start, you were like the coolest of us all.”
I blinked. I hadn’t really felt cool …
… but I guess I did keep it together. For the most part. Huh. Go me.
“And you got to admit,” he went on. “Some parts of last night were pretty fun.”
I looked up from the fork I had been spinning on the table. “Exactly what parts are you referring to?”
“You running around in a turban and snow boots? The whole thing with the Blinder 3000—”
“You shouting werewolf! every time you saw Joey!”
We laughed.
It felt good … and nauseating.
“So,” Freddie said once he had regained his composure, “given everything that’s happened this past year, do you regret moving back to Otter Lake?”
All that laughing had made me cry a little. I wiped my eyes and looked at Freddie. Aww, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that he looked just a little bit worried about what my answer might be. “Nope. Not at all. Not even for a second.”
“BFFs forever?”
I sighed. “How many times do I have to say it? The second f—”
“BFFs forever?” Freddie repeated at a much louder volume.
I smiled. “BFFs forever.”