_OceanofPDF

“That thumb taste good?” she asked, and he nodded a little. “When I
was your age, I sucked these two fingers.” She held up her right pinkie and
ring finger. “I still have a callous right here. See that?”
“Please tell me how you stopped,” Liam said.
“I just stopped, I guess.” Ella shrugged. “But the morning after my
mother died, I woke up with them in my mouth, so I guess I stopped
needing it until I did again.”
“Ah,” Liam said pensively, and a dead weight fell on the conversation.
“We were going to get drinks,” I said to Liam. “Can I get you
anything?”
“No, no, I’d better get this little guy to bed.”
We said our good nights and I pulled Ella toward the bar.
“Make a deal with me,” I hissed under the music and laughter.
“Another one?”
“Don’t offer up anything to anyone in my family. Ever.”
She yanked me back by the hand. “What just happened?”
“You stepped in it.”
“How?”
“Liam’s wife died almost a year ago.” Without waiting for her reaction
or even to see if she’d followed, I strode to the bar.
“Logan,” she said, coming up next to me, “I’m sorry.”
“What can I get you, Mr. Crowne?” the bartender asked, wiping his
hands.
“Macallan and”—I turned to Ella—“Shirley Temple?”
Any happiness we’d felt leading up to the encounter in the garage had
drained out of her. She stood behind a cinderblock wall of hesitance. “Gin
with ice.”
“Coming right up!”
The bartender went to make the drinks, and Ella slid onto a stool, chin
up with a stone-cold profile to prove she didn’t give a single shit what I
thought.
“This isn’t going to work,” I said.
“What’s not going to work?”
“This entire thing. It’s—”
“Shut up,” she hissed. “You shut up right now. This was going to be a
tough night and we both knew it. Don’t you dare bail just because you
forgot to tell me your sister-in-law died.”