Page 46 of Strip Search

I could picture him making the gesture.

“Why did you do it?” There wasn’t any accusation in my voice. Just curiosity. He had hit rock bottom when I was in highschool and spent the better part of a year in rehab. It had nearly torn our family apart. Lisa had taken Mom’s side, while I was firmly convinced she had driven him to drink. I didn’t want to think about that now. We had moved beyond it. Or at least I hoped we had.

He sighed. “I wanted to feel normal. I was playing cards with the guys and they were all drinking the first batch of winter ale. I just wanted a taste. I stopped at one bottle.”

I was angrier with his friends than I was with him. They’d been playing cards every Friday all my life. They knew the history.

“I’m proud of you. It must not have been easy to stop at one.”

“Well, that was all they had,” he admitted. “Your mother caught me because I bought a six-pack coming home and tried to sneak it in.”

I winced. “Well, I hope you learned your lesson.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Leave it in the car until she falls asleep.”

“Da-ad,” I groaned, but I knew he was just joking. I heard my mother in the background.

“Is that Lisa?”

“Tell her yes and that she’s doing fine.”

“Is that the truth?”

I hesitated too long in my answer and my mother came on the line. “Lisa, honey. I’ve been worried sick.”

“It’s me,” I said, resting my forehead against the window. I should be given brownie points for not banging my head against it.

“Well, where is she?”

“She’s left Las Vegas.”

“Good. There’s too much temptation in that town.”

She wasn’t wrong. My mind wandered over to Miles. I wanted to spend a lot more time with him, but I was on vacation this week and he wasn’t. I needed to understand that. It’s justthat he made me feel like I was important to him, a priority in his life. That was more seductive to me than his talented tongue. Well, maybe not. I had to have a little more of that to make sure.

“Where is she?” my mother repeated.

Good question. “I’ve tracked her down to a . . . um . . . bar in Pahrump, Nevada.” Here’s hoping she didn’t Google it. “I’m going out there today.”

“Pahrump? I’ve never heard of it. I wonder if it’s the new indie dance scene.”

“Maybe,” I drawled out.

“So you’re going to see her today.”

I doubted it. “Hopefully, but she’s not making this easy. She knows I’m here. She could pick up the phone and have a five-minute phone conversation with me.”

“If she’s getting your messages,” my mother said ominously. “Maybe she lost her phone.” That seemed to brighten her day. And since it was better than telling her that Lisa had gone from a bartender to an exotic dancer, and that my current theory was she was now a legal prostitute, I let her believe that.

“I’ll call you when I find her,” I said.

I took a quick shower and got dressed. Mags called back while I was eating breakfast in the buffet in the casino after losing ten bucks on black twenty-two. It had come up red twelve. So close and yet so far.

“Sorry it took so long,” Mags said.

“Bad news. We lost.”

“Easy come, easy go.” I could picture her shrugging. “Anyway, I’ve got good news and bad news.”