The Girl Who Stopped Swimming - By Joshilyn Jackson Page 0,73
version of good cop/drunk cop on him. Not poor Bunny. Laurel grabbed the coffeepot and started running water into it.
“Where’s Shelby?” Bunny said, peering around.
“She’s at my parents’,” Laurel said, thanking God for small favors.
“Oh,” said Barb, and she released a mournful exhale. “She’s a sweet girl.”
“Finest kind,” said Thalia.
“We could put the rum in fruit juice and not wait. Be easier,” Bunny said. “Or we could just put the rum in some rum.”
“It’s perking,” Laurel said, pressing the button. “I think the coffee is a great idea.”
“I could sure use a drink,” Bunny said, and drifted her eyelids down into another of those painfully slow blinks. “Chuck went back to work today. Can you fathom? Sent the boys to camp and then to their soccer. Like normal. And me all by my own self. Doing not so well.”
“Come get the rum down for me,” Laurel said to Thalia, her voice tight. “It’s up in that little cabinet over the china hutch in the dining room. I’m not tall enough.”
Thalia boosted herself carefully off the sofa and came around the counter that separated the kitchen from the keeping room. They walked single file, leaving Bunny in a sodden heap on the sofa. Laurel held her tongue until they were through the dining room’s swinging door, but the second they were out of Bunny’s sight, she wheeled on Thalia and hissed, “I can’t believe you drove in this state.”
“Oh, please,” said Thalia. She twitched her shoulders, and all that drunk went slithering down off her to puddle at her feet. “As soon as Bunny went to break the seal, I got the bartender to stop putting any gin in my G and T’s. I’ve had so much tonic, I bet my next pee comes out carbonated. I snatched the tab so Bunny wouldn’t see I’d pulled that old dance-hall-girl trick on her and paid it—or rather, you did. When I got the Amex out of your purse for Mother, I may have nicked your Visa, too.” Thalia pulled Laurel’s credit card out of her pocket and handed it over along with a receipt. Laurel’s eyes widened at the total. “Blame Bunny. She was drinking nine-dollar tropi-tinis. For a scrawny lady, she sure can pack it in.”
“You’ve got to get her home,” Laurel said, still angry.
“Not yet,” said Thalia. “There was this window between mighty-drunk and oops-too-drunk when she was talking. Did you know Chuck moved into a guest room? He’s threatening divorce. Because of the drinking, I suspect, though she didn’t pony up to that. I was right, Bug, there was some kind of fresh hell starting at the Dufresne house. We’ve got to sober Bunny back up to lucid.” Thalia opened up the high cabinet and felt around until she found the rum bottle. “We can pretend to put this in and try and get as much coffee down her gullet as possible in the next hour. You need to make her a damn sandwich.” She pulled down the bottle and then turned back to Laurel. “Why are you still glaring at me?”
“Take Barb home,” Laurel said. “You’re playing in her life now, for no reason. We need to focus on Stan Webelow, like I told you and told you. I saw him, Thalia. I confronted him, and he ran at me. He was there that night. He admitted it.”
Thalia, for once in her life, looked surprised, her mouth pursing into a small O. “Bug, when exactly did you grow a pair? I didn’t get the memo.”
Laurel said, “We need to get Bunny out of here and safe home. Now. Before David comes home.”
“David’s not here? I thought after we so flagrantly interrupted his delicto, he—”
“We interrupted lunch, Thalia,” Laurel said, her voice gone icy.
“Oh, are we still pretending to believe that?” Thalia asked, quirking an eyebrow. “His car is here, I thought—”
“He gave me his car because you stole mine,” Laurel said.
“Right. So he got a ride on Kaitlyn?” Thalia said.
“Stop it,” Laurel said, her voice kept low but so fierce it rasped in her throat. She grabbed Thalia’s upper arm, hard. “I’m not discussing David with you. Ever. Stan was there that night. It’s him. We have to take poor Barb Dufresne home and put her to bed. I don’t want David to see what you did here. What I let you do.”
Thalia said, “Did you not hear me? She’s feeling guilty as all hell, and right now she’s in a state to tell us anything.”