volunteered.” The Widows Club president glanced toward the bar. “Of course, if you want to be a stickler about it, I could take Priscilla in Lola’s place. She looks pretty tonight, and she mentioned she might be ready for some excitement.”
No way was Drew letting his sister on that stage. He paid Clarice and led Lola away as the next bachelorette was put on the chopping block.
It was a long walk to their booth. People smiled and shouted congratulations as they passed.
Lola lagged half a step behind Drew, ducking her head to avoid attention.
Drew slowed, eased his grip, and leaned close to her ear. “Are you okay? I can take you home if you like.”
Her blue eyes caught his, and she gave him a tentative smile. “I—”
“Hey, Sheriff,” Iggy King called from the bar, tipping back his straw cowboy hat. “Way to take advantage of a fire sale.”
Lola’s smile hardened. She quickened her steps, beelining to their table and the full flutes of champagne, as determined as his twin sisters to find trouble.
Drew was faster and body-blocked her. “You’ve had enough.”
“I’m just beginning.” Lola elbowed Drew out of her way, nothing soft about her now. “This is my date. I call the shots.” She flounced onto the bench seat.
Drew scowled. “Technically, I bought you.”
“Pity purchases don’t count.” She flung her sun-kissed brown hair over one shoulder, radiant in her Watch-Out-World indignation.
“It was a rescue.” Drew bared his teeth in a smile. Lola was exactly the kind of woman he and Becky didn’t need—obstinate and unpredictable.
“He said, she said.” Lola raised her glass. “To the truth.” She drained her bubbly and reached for the bottle.
Drew’s hand got there first. He parked the champagne on the seat next to him.
The crowd laughed at something Mims said, and the bidding began anew. On Wendy.
“If you don’t pour me another glass, I’m going to interrogate you.” Lola fixed Drew with a steely-eyed glare worthy of the finest police detectives in New York City. “You weren’t surprised when I told you about Randy’s laundry habits today. You knew he’d strayed.”
“How much have you had to drink?” Drew countered.
“A couple pregame shots. For courage,” she added. “Did Randy use your house for his dirty deeds?”
The last thing Lola needed right now was the truth about her husband. If Drew told her there’d been two sets of headlights every few nights, she’d grill each woman at Shaw’s who drove a car, including Pris.
Drew’s gaze drifted to his sister. When her marriage had begun to crumble a year or more ago, she’d separated from her husband. His mother had let slip once that Pris had found someone new. That relationship hadn’t panned out, obviously…Because Randy had died?
Pris laughed at something Noah said and ordered a beer.
Drew shook his head, refusing to believe Pris had been Randy’s other woman.
Next to his sister, Iggy stared at Lola as if he were a bird dog and she were a plump pheasant he’d startled from the brush.
Without meaning to, Drew jutted his chin.
“He did cheat at the farmhouse.” Lola sat back and raised her voice. “Did Randy host wild parties? Did you double-date with my husband? Did he dance with blow-up dolls?”
Several passing patrons glanced their way.
“Keep it down.” Drew took a swig of champagne. “Identifying Randy’s lover won’t make you feel any better.”
“Wanna bet?” But Lola’s words lacked fire, and she pressed her eyes closed. When she opened them, she looked at Drew with a vulnerable expression, like the one his sister Eileen got when she lost a stray she’d been trying to save, the one with watery eyes and too much trembling around her mouth. “I just want to know. Was it a long-term affair or something intense and brief that Randy regretted? Did he think I was stupid?” She swiped his glass, raised it to her lips, and then put it back down, untouched. “I have to know.” Her voice dropped to a whisper that Drew had to strain to hear. “Was it real? Did he love me?”
The helplessness in her voice reached deep inside Drew and took hold.
His annoyance with Lola dissipated, and it wasn’t a hardship to meet her tearful gaze, to admire her fragile beauty, to hope she’d find her way past the shock she’d had today. “No one can answer that but Randy.”
Chapter Five
You need to eat.” Drew studied Lola as if she were a perp he was considering arresting. “Shots and champagne don’t sit well on an empty stomach.”
As if on cue, Lola’s stomach