Page 59 of The Triple Threat

“Well, yeah. I’ll stay over at Mom and Dad’s as per, get up around ten for Dad’s pancakes, eggs and bacon and then I’ll sit and watch TV with Dad, drinking beer, while Mom and Ellie make dinner.”

I slowly blinked, twice. “Carter, you did that when we were teenagers. You don’t still do that do you?”

He didn’t answer but shrugged again.

“How the fuck did you even graduate Kindergarten, never mind High School or Veterinary School?”

He grinned at me and winked. “That my friend is a total fucking mystery.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at him, feeling myself relax a little. That was until my phone buzzed and I saw it was Ellie with instructions for her diabolical plan.

She was like a damn chicken pecking at my head.

Ellie: Okay, I’m with Bronte. Send a text from Carter’s phone saying something nice to her so I can gauge how she reacts. He has her number under Annoying Blonde

I sighed and was just about to put my phone back in my pocket when another text came in.

Ellie: And make it snappy

Why the hell I had thought for one second that I wanted to talk to her and suggest we could date, I had no damn idea. Maybe I’d wanted to talk to her about it at the hospital, but that idea was now something I’d filed under ‘Bad move, don’t fucking think about it’, in my head. She was bossy enough without me being romantically involved with her. I imagined if we did date, she’d be ten times worse. Shit, I’d be visiting garden centers and shopping malls every weekend without any choice in the matter.

I looked up at Carter, who funnily enough was scrolling through his own phone. I guessed it was as good a time as any.

“Hey, can I check your phone out? I want to see if I should get one.”

He frowned, pressed at his screen, and passed it to me. “You do know that Cell Center at the mall lets you try them out? And they have experts who know abso-fucking-lutely everything there is to know about phones.”

“Yeah, but I can get it online if I know what I want. You want to get another beer by the way?” I showed him my half empty bottle.

“Okay, Mr. Impatient.”

Once he’d left the table I clicked on the screen, only to find he’d locked it. I thought about what he might have as his passcode and typed it in.

Blake Lively’s birthday. It had to be. He’d told me often enough what it was and that they were compatible star signs. He was obsessed with her and even had a framed picture of her next to his bed. At times I wondered why I was actually friends with the damn weirdo.

I typed in 08-25-87. Bingo!

I didn’t have much time, so typed out the text message to Bronte, the first thing that came into my head.

Carter: Bronte, I really liked the shoes you were wearing last time we spoke

Quickly, I put the phone back onto the table and then realized I’d better delete the message, so snatched it back up again.

“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered to myself, not for the first time wondering how I’d let Ellie get me involved in her crap.

Anxious at being caught, I looked up, but Carter was still at the bar. He’d been stopped by Jim Wickerson, a local pig farmer. He was no doubt discussing his veterinary bills and trying to get Carter to give him a discount. The mean old coot did it every time we saw him. Grateful for once that Jim was as tight as a newborn’s exit path, I put Carter’s phone down, determined not to touch it again.

I wasn’t so damn lucky. My phone buzzed.

Ellie: Shoes! Shoes! Frickin’ Shoes. You dick!

“I’m a dick?” I muttered as I stared down at my phone.

“Kinda,” Carter said, surprising me. “Not all the time, but why’d you ask?”

My gaze shot up to him and I ground out a smile. “Oh nothing, just thinking about something I said to my pop.”

Carter frowned, like he really didn’t believe me, but like the self-centered prick he could be, he didn’t question me any further and started going on about how busy his day had been. His commentary of his last twelve hours had reached between the hours of ten a.m. and eleven when both of our phones buzzed at the same time. Instantly I knew it had to be Ellie. Eyeing Carter warily, I picked up my phone and read the text.