Page 54 of Big & Lily

“How many have you had?” That could be the worst question to ask. I tense up, waiting for a potential explosive response. I should go find Brick. He’d be better at this than me.

“Third.” He pushes the glass toward me. “Here, take it. Failed at love. Failed at rehab. Story of my life.”

Out of my backpack I pull the moose-droppings cookie I’d bought surreptitiously from the Cafe & Grill bakery counter after I couldn’t stop thinking about the one Xavier had described earlier. “Eat this,” I say, handing it to him.

Dane turns the cookie over in his hands like a poker chip. “I’m in love with her.”

Oh boy.

“I know what you are going to say, that we just met.”

That is not what I was going to say.

“Do you believe in love at first sight, Bridget?”

I do. I fell in love with Lily the first day I saw her, too, but that isn’t going to help him right now. I ask the bartender for two cups of coffee, take the cookie out of Dane’s hands, and break off a piece for each of us.

“She doesn’t feel the same way, does she?”

“It’s more complicated than that, I’m afraid.”

I could share the true story about how we ended up in Alaska, the life my sister was running from and about how I felt responsible to run with her. I could talk about how Lily has a way of making people think they are the only ones who matter, how they are drawn to her in a way she can’t control, about how everyone loves Lily—except the one person who counts. But something stops me. Something is missing. An important piece of this conversation.

“Hey, stay right here. Will you?” I stand and pick up the whiskey. “Drink your coffee. I’ll be right back.” I tip the glass into a tray of dirty dishes at the end of the bar and walk out.

I don’t have to go far. Sitting in the town square, at a picnic table with a balding man sporting long white dreads and a sunburned face, a faded and holey Grateful Dead T-shirt, frayed-bottomed jeans and bare feet, is my sister.

She’s leaning toward him, her elbows on the table, as he talks with his hands. A band is setting up behind them. Two teenagers with scraggly beards play Frisbee. A dog scratches its ear and shakes its head.

“Lily?” I can’t imagine what’s going on here; we don’t have time for this now.

“Big! Oh my God, you’ve got to hear this.”

“Lily, we have to go.”

“This is Wizard Ven Tarion. Wizard, this is my sister.”

“Wizard Ven Tarion the Inquisitor,” says the man. “At your service.”

“Pleased to meet you, your highness, but, Lily—”

“Wait, you’ve got to hear this!” She scoots over and pats the picnic table bench. “Start over,” she says to the Wizard.

Instead of sitting I grab Lily’s arm and pull her off the seat. “I’m sorry, your eminence, we’ve got to be somewhere. Important. Let’s go.”

“But!”

“Nope, let’s go. Excuse us, it’s a... family emergency.”

“What kind of family emergency?” Lily asks as I drag her across the way through the after-dinner crowd. She snarls, “What the hell, Big?”

We stop steps from the bar, and Lily yanks her arm from my grasp.

“Dane is in there. Drinking.” I tell her word for word what happened.

“That’s crazy,” she says. “I swear we were on the same page. A one-time thing. Like, what happens in Alaska stays in Alaska.”

“Listen, this can’t be one of those ‘Big to the rescue’ type things.You’ve got to set him straight. It’s the right thing to do. I don’t care what or how much you tell him. It’s one thing that he has an unrequited a crush... but this is serious. He’s just out of rehab. You can see that, can’t you?”