Zerbrowski and I took that as our cue and got up to follow Brice. Arnet caught my arm as I went past her. I fought the urge to push her hand off me. She whispered, low and harsh, "Stay away from this one, Blake."
"Happy to," I said, and kept on walking. She had to either let go, or hold on tighter. She let go. Zerbrowski and Brice were looking back at us, waiting for me to join them. I caught up with Zerbrowski and we followed Brice through the tables to the parking lot.
"What did she say to you?" Zerbrowski asked.
"I've been warned off Brice." I moved toward the Jeep and the men followed me.
"Have I made your problem with Arnet worse?" Brice asked.
"I don't know," I said, as I beeped the keys. I took a deep breath of the fresh late-spring air, and let it out slow.
Brice spoke over the roof of the car. "I'm sorry, Blake, I didn't mean to make it worse."
I climbed behind the wheel. Zerbrowski was already in the passenger seat, buckled up and ready to go. Brice got in the back. "You have to go on a date with her; that's punishment enough," I said, as I started the car.
"How did I start the evening trying to avoid Arnet, and end up having a date with her?"
"Welcome to my life," I said, "though it's usually men for me."
"What do you mean?" Brice asked.
I backed up slowly, waiting for someone behind us to vacate their parking space and not hit us. "Most of the men I've dated have been ones I tried not to date. The ones I love the most, I fell in love with kicking and screaming."
"Really?" Brice said.
"Really," Zerbrowski and I said together. We looked at each other, and then he grinned. I smiled back. "Zerbrowski said it earlier: I used to hate being in love."
"Why?" Brice asked.
I finished easing us out past the idiot driver behind us. They couldn't seem to decide if they were parking or leaving. "Not sure, something about giving up too much control, fear of being hurt, pick something."
"I like being in love," Brice said.
"I like being in love with Katie," Zerbrowski said.
I smiled and eased out into the late-night traffic, which was pretty sporadic in St. Louis. "I like being in love with who I'm in love with now," I said.
"Too many men to list?" Brice asked.
"No, just can't honestly list all the men that are living with me on the I love you list, so I'd rather not say the names, in case I hurt someone's feelings."
"We won't tell," Zerbrowski said.
"Neither will I," I said.
"How did you end up living with men you aren't in love with?" Brice asked.
"I don't know you well enough to answer that question, Brice."
"Sorry; have you answered it for Zerbrowski?"
"He hasn't asked."
Zerbrowski held his fist out sideways to me. I touched it gently as I drove. In all the years I'd known Zerbrowski, he'd never asked as many questions as Brice had asked in one evening. I wasn't sure Brice was going to stay on my top-ten list of people I wanted to hang out with, not if he was always this nosy. My life worked, it made me happy, but I didn't owe anyone a diagram of how it worked. Especially not a brand-new U.S. Marshal who had just ridden into town days ago. I realized that it wasn't just Arnet I didn't know much about backgroundwise, but I could fix that. Was Brice just being friendly, or was he fishing? I realized that just by his saying he was gay, I'd let down a lot of my defenses. Zerbrowski and I both had. What if he'd lied? Was I being overly suspicious? Maybe, or maybe until I saw Brice in bed with a man, I'd never really know if he was lying to me, or to Arnet. The only thing I knew for certain was he was lying to somebody.
Chapter Sixteen
ZERBROWSKI'S PHONE RANG. It was a twangy country song, the kind I didn't think they made anymore. He picked it up and cut the down-home song mercifully short. "Hey, Dolph," he said.
Brice and I listened to Zerbrowski say, "Hostage situation?" The rest of his end was mostly ums, and Shit, and SWAT is en route. "Okay, give me the address." He repeated it out loud to me, and I looked for a side street so I could turn us around