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WITH MY LEG FINALLY feeling a little better, I made myself at home again upstairs at Billy’s Place. I had a bathroom with a shower, a desk, a couch to sleep on, and a restaurant with a full bar downstairs.
What more did I need?
I made my way down to the bar. Billy slid a glass in front of me and poured me a Jack Daniels with two cubes. The thing about Billy was he understood how to pour a drink. You’d think any bartender could give me a simple Jack with two cubes. But most—if not all—would pour Old Number 7 over a full glass of ice, even after I’d said, “Just two cubes.” Not a glass full of cubes that’d turn my drink into Kentucky-whiskey flavored water. Not even four cubes. Two. That’s all I asked, but few bartenders could do the math.
“Where’d you find that shirt?” Billy said, his hands on his hips, looking down at me in my stool.
“Why? Do you like it?” I said.
“Short sleeves and buttons? And a cute little pocket for your pencils?”
“It’s all I have.”
“All you have? I wouldn’t say you’re the sharpest dresser, but you usually do a little better than coming down dressed like a school boy.” Billy shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s fine.” He leaned on the counter, both hands spread out wide in front of him. “You heading out for the night?”
I sipped my Jack. “You remember the woman from Ocracoke?”
“The good looking one, was in here earlier looking for you?”
I looked at my watch and nodded. “I’m meeting her out for a couple of drinks.”
“Just to refresh my memory...she left you high-and-dry out in Ocracoke with a pretty hefty bar bill. Is that the one?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“But I could see what you’re thinking. With looks like that, I’d give her a few extra chances.” Billy’s eyes went back to my shirt. “Well, then on second thought, not a bad idea you find something else to wear. You show up in that thing, might be the second time she ditches you.” Billy looked over his shoulder, pulled two wine glasses down from the rack overhead and filled them with red wine.
“Give me a minute,” he said, and delivered drinks to two very attractive women. I heard Billy ask them what they thought of my shirt. The three of them looked my way, the two women shrugged.
Billy walked back over.
“No. The shirt’s fine.” He sipped from a glass bottle of Perrier. “You tell Alex you had a date?”
“I was out with her, having lunch, when Kathleen showed up.”
“Was that a little uncomfortable?”
“Why?”
Billy looked down at me. “For someone so perceptive, you have trouble seeing what’s right in front of you.”
I sipped my Jack and looked up at him over the glass, waiting for him to say more.
“She stopped in a little while ago.”
“Alex?”
Billy nodded, wiping the inside of a glass with his towel. “She was pretty upset.” He waved his hand at me. “I don’t mean she was crying. Not Alex. But she was, I guess...pretty annoyed you’d give this woman the time of day.”
“So what’re you saying?”
Billy shrugged. “Alex thinks a lot of you. I guess you know that. But sometimes...I don’t know what I’m trying to say, it’s just...”
Billy didn’t finish.
I shot back what remained in my glass and stood up from my stool. I threw a bill down on the bar. “Alex and I have been through it all before.”
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KATHLEEN WAS ALREADY at the Sand Dollar, waiting for me at the bar. She sipped from a wine glass and waved for me as I walked through the door.
She stood from her seat and gave me a hug as I approached, then held onto my hand for a moment longer as we pulled apart from each other.
I took the seat next to her at the bar.
“I love your shirt,” she said.
“Oh, thanks. I don’t have much left. Lost some of my things. I don’t know if you heard about what happened?”
She shook her head. “Happened to what?”
“Remember me telling you about the boat I lived on? The one my friend Philip owned?”
“Philip? He was the one who owned the house you stayed in?”
“Yes, that’s him.”
“Is everything all right?”
I waved down the bartender and ordered a Jack Daniels with two pieces of ice.
“You want it on the rocks?” he said.
“I want it neat. But with two cubes.”
He stared back at me for a moment, turned and reached for a glass.
“Philip is missing. He was on the boat—the one I used to live on—and there was an explosion. As unbelievable as that may sound.”
She kept her eyes on me, her mouth hung open. “He’s alive?”
Even though I figured I could trust Kathleen, I didn’t think it’d make any sense to let her know the full story. I paused for a moment. “They haven’t been able to find him or his body. But right now, it’s likely he didn’t survive.”
Kathleen put her hand over her open mouth. “Oh, Henry. I’m so sorry.”
The bartender slid my glass in front of me. Sure enough, I got a Jack Daniels on the rocks, more ice than whisky. I grabbed a spoon and scooped the ice from the glass and left it on top of a cocktail napkin. The bartender walked by and I said, “Here are the extra cubes I don’t need.”
Kathleen and I reminisced about the time we’d spent together on Ocracoke. Most of it was somewhat hard to remember, since we spent most days with a drink in our hands.
Her knees touched my legs as I turned in my seat to face her. I looked past her for a moment, out toward the Saint Johns.
“Are you okay?” she said. She put her hand on my leg.
I looked down and noticed a white line on the skin of her ring finger. It seemed to be the only part of her body that wasn’t tan. Although it was hard to say for sure, being that she was fully clothed.
I put my drink down on the bar. “So what is it you’re really doing here? I’m flattered if you came all the way here to see me. But I’m not sure I buy it.”
My question hung in the air.
She looked down into her glass of wine, moved closer to me in her stool, her bare knees pressed up against my thigh. Her eyes met mine. “I was married when we met.” Her stare was deep, like she was trying to find my soul somewhere behind my eyes. She again put her hand on my leg. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. That’s why I had to leave.”
“Married, huh?” I nodded, turning toward the bar. “I guess I should’ve asked.”
She shrugged. “Why?”
“It crossed my mind. You snuck away to make those phone calls. I was like a middle-school boy, the way I acted. I told you everything about me. Too much, maybe. And you told me nothing about you.”
“You didn’t ask.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I even noticed you had a little white on your ring finger. Like you do right now. So you could say I knew, but chose to ignore it.”
I finished my drink in one straight shot and pushed my glass toward the far edge of the bar. The bartender came by and held up the bottle of Jack. I gave him a nod. “Make it a double. Neat this time with rocks on the side.”
Kathleen continued. “We weren’t together when I was with you.”
“You weren’t together? But you went home to him, didn’t you?”
She nodded as she looked away. “He begged me to come home. We tried to make it work.” She looked down into her glass, quiet for a moment. “I never stopped thinking of you.”
The bartender poured my drink, put the glass of rocks down in front of me and brought Kathleen another glass of white wine.
“Did he know about me?”
Kathleen closed her eyes. With both hands on her glass, down on the bar in front of her, she nodded.
“And now? Are you back together?”
She shook her head, still quiet as she looked down toward the floor. “We’re separated.”
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AFTER A FEW DRINKS with Kathleen, I drove out to see Alex and parked behind her Jeep.
As I walked up the walkway toward her porch, her dog Raz let out a loud bark from behind the window. But then he whimpered as he saw it was me.
Alex opened the door with a bottle of beer in each hand and handed me one as she stepped out onto the porch. Raz ran out past her, foregoing his normal crotch greeting to instead sniff my wounded leg.
“How was the date?” Alex said.
I gave her a quick glance but didn’t answer her. Not right away.
We both sat down on the top step, both of us quiet for a moment. Raz sat between us, his head rested on his big paws hanging over the edge.
“It wasn’t a date,” I said.
“Just catching up with someone who was such a big part of your life?” She sipped her beer, her eyes coming at me from over the bottle. “Remind me again...how many hours did you know her?”
I turned and gave her a look. “I’ve never seen you like this before.”
“Like what?”
“Jealous. It’s not like you.”
Alex pushed me away from her and got up from the stair. “Don’t flatter yourself.” She walked through the door and went inside.
I looked down at Raz and rubbed the top of his big head. “I don’t know what to tell you, Raz.” He looked up at me, turned his head as much as he could to look toward the door, then put his head back down on top of his paws.
Alex came back out onto the porch and cracked the cap off another beer. She sat down again on the top step next to Raz.
“What if those men who came after me had something to do with Kathleen?” I said. “What if it had nothing to do with Philip?”
“You mean someone’s after you?” Alex shrugged.
I waited a moment. “Kathleen was married.”
Alex acted surprised, her mouth wide open. “Really? No way.” She laughed. “First thing I noticed was the white band of skin on her ring finger.”