Page 66 of The Spite Date (Small Town Sisterhood #1)

My brother grins at me. “Remember that time Griff ate the last Chinese leftovers when you were taking those classes that had you super stressed and you collapsed in the kitchen and cried for an hour and then Ryker drove home from college just to bring you more sweet and sour chicken?”

I flip him off.

He jerks his head to the door, grinning wider. “Yeah, I remember that time too. Let’s go. I want to know what they’re playing. I hope it’s Rocky Horror . Iconic, you know?”

I care less what they’re playing and more who else might be there.

Specifically, if it’s Daphne.

Or if it’s Simon.

Daph’s right.

I need to give him another chance.

Will he hurt me again?

Maybe.

But will it hurt worse if I don’t try?

That’s what I keep falling back on.

I’ve spent the past ten years trying to live up to the example my parents set.

Why would I not take a chance at making things work with a man who’s made me feel more alive, more free, more like myself than I have at any time since I left college?

A man who wants to stand beside me while I figure out what I want to do.

He’s not perfect, but he tries.

He always tries to do right by the people he loves.

Hudson sings along to the radio as we drive out to the theater.

And it is packed .

He giggles.

I don’t, but only because this line is too long and I don’t know if we’ll make it into the drive-in.

“Did Daphne do this?” I ask Hudson. “Did she set this all up? Is she not going to New York?”

“If she did, she kept me totally in the dark. I think she’s really going back for her sister. I think the protest was all she planned. I mean, that and the rumor that Damon Camille is sleeping with his sister, which I can’t prove was Daph, but it sounds like something she’d start.”

My leg bounces.

He shoots me a look. “You wanna get out and walk?”

I blink at him. “Yes.”

“Bea—”

“Call me if you get a spot. I need—I need to go look for something. Lost it in goat yoga.”

“You can’t just?—”

I ignore him, unlock the door, and dash out of the car and onto the shoulder.

He’s still at least twenty cars back from the entrance, and then there are ten more cars lined up before getting to where you pay, and cars are already being directed into the last line in the lot, and it’s getting dark and the movie will be starting in the next five to ten minutes.

So you’re damn right I’m walking.

I start slow, but my pace quickly accelerates as I duck under an open part of the fence and start looking closer.

Black SUVs. I’m looking for black SUVs.

Specifically, Simon’s black SUV.

I can’t find it and it’s getting darker and darker and the cars are packed in here, which is crazy because there are only so many speaker poles—except then I realize what’s different.

The speaker poles are gone.

A giant QR code flickers to life on the screen.

Scan here to be connected to audio . The show will begin momentarily.

I walk even faster.

Row after row.

Black SUVs that aren’t Simon’s.

I’m halfway to the front row when the movie screen flickers again.

It’s not the familiar sight of the beginning of In the Weeds , which would have been so on-brand for Simon to buy a movie theater to show his least-favorite TV show just so that he’d know that I’d know that he was pulling a giant joke on everyone.

Maybe I’m wrong.

Maybe Simon didn’t?—

Chords of familiar music hits my ears, and I gasp.

Ever After .

The inaugural show for the drive-in’s grand re-opening is Ever After .

The movie that I told Simon was my favorite.

Because she saves herself .

I stand there blinking at the screen, feeling my mom with me while the opening scene begins, and then I’m in motion.

Simon’s here.

He has to be.

But where— there .

Of course.

The booth.

I duck and weave around the cars, racing faster and faster toward the booth in the middle of the drive-in.

I reach the booth and I stop at the door long enough to wipe my wet cheeks, and then I charge in.

No knocking.

This isn’t a night for knocking.

This is?—

“ Motherfucker ,” I gasp as a tiny woman with dark blond hair glances up from the computer that’s clearly running the show.

Lana starts, then smiles at me. “Hey, Bea.”

“You—you did this?”

A laugh bursts out of her as she shakes her head. “Bandwidth not there for doing this . Not the this that you mean. I’m just operating the computer.”

“Simon,” I whisper.

She nods.

“Where is he?”

She winces. “Paying a little more for his sins?”

“He’s not—he didn’t—he’s paid enough.”

“You’d think so.”

“I—I love him,” I whisper.

“Good,” she whispers back. “I was really, really hoping you would. He’s needed someone like you.”

“Where is he?”

“Don’t yell.”

“I’m not yelling.”

“I mean when I tell you. You have to let me tell you the whole thing before you yell. And also, I’m blocked in. I can’t leave.”

“Lana. Where. The ever-loving fuck . Is Simon?”

She purses her lips together for a hot second, glances at the screen, and then she answers me.

And she’s right.

I want to yell.

Howl, in fact. And then I want to go save Simon.

But first—first, I need to save myself, and I finally— finally —know how.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Lana asks me.

Oh my god.

I am.

I’m smiling.

“Because I’m going to take down Jake Camille. And then I’m going to save Simon too. And then we’re going to live happily ever after.” I wince. “If he still wants me.”

Her own smile grows. “He still wants you.”

Gah, my heart.

It’s beating in anticipation and hesitant joy.

Running to Simon right now—it’s everything I want to do.

But I told him I needed to find myself. To figure out what I want to do with my life. To not ride his coattails or just follow him around in his own career.

I can’t tell you what I want to do six months from now.

But I can tell you what I need to do today so that I can be free to find what I want to do six months from now.

And before I can go to Simon, I need to put it in motion.

For me.

And for our future as a couple without anything holding us back.