Page 72 of Alonzo

“I don’t know where she is.”

“Then I don’t think we have anything to talk about, Lonnie. But you definitely have something to talk about with Tara. And if you don’t tell her what you did—what you probably still do, and that’s why you’re online catfishing people—then I will.”

“You don’t know enough to tell. And if you start telling her lies, I’ll make sure—”

“You’ll make sure what?”

“Hey. Everything OK here?”

Rosie and I both turn our heads to see that Vann guy walking across my front lawn towards the porch. Someone from the Old Luke Cottage porch laughs loudly and the others join in.

“Everything’s fine, Vann. Just go back to your own cottage.”

He glares at me. “I wasn’t talking to you, Lonnie. I was talking to Belinda.”

I roll my eyes. Belinda. “That’s not even her name.”

Belinda-slash-Rosalie crosses her arms and glares at me. “Anything else, Lonnie? I’m sorta having a party at my place tonight. And you’re really starting to bum me out.”

Just as she says that Luke calls, “OK, everyone. Let’s take this party inside our place. One cottage over, please!”

I have a feeling Tony just texted him and told him to end it or he was gonna go over there and start throwing people out.

A few moments later everyone but Jesse is shuffling inside Luke and Zach’s cottage. Then the front door closes and the neighborhood quiets down.

“You were saying? Belinda?”

“You’re a dick. You know that? And I’m going to make sure Tara knows everything I do.”

And just as she turns to walk down the steps towards Vann, Tara opens the door dressed in the clothes I left on the bed. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, Tare.” Belinda calls this out with a good-natured lilt to her voice. “We’re tired. So Vann and I will just see you tomorrow.” She glares at me one more time. “Good night, Lonnie. Have a good one.”

Then she and Vann are both at their front door. She twiddles her fingers at me in a mock wave, and disappears inside.

Jesse takes Vann’s place at the bottom of my porch. “You… want me to… never mind. I’ll see you tomorrow too. Good night, Tara. I hope we get a chance to talk tomorrow. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Hmm,” Tara says from the other side of the screen door. “What did I just miss?”

I got two new important pieces of information from Tara today.

One. She was a nosy private detective in her past life.

And two. I can use that to my advantage.

After two years of catfishing this girl, I am not only a champion liar, but a champion deflector as well. And yeah, if anyone was spying on this internal conversation I’m having, I’d look like a giant dick—but… it’s all just very complicated.

This is my new plan for Tara Tanner:

My brand-new brother in law comes from a family of notorious bad boys. Bad boys who are most certainly hiding secrets as deep, or even deeper, than mine.

So I start the process of lying and deflecting using Jesse as my bait.

“Hey, you said you were a PI, right? Back in LA?”

“Yeah, why?” She sighs the words just a little. Like they make her tired. Like just the thought of her old life conjures up emotions she’d rather not deal with.

I nod my head at Jesse across the street, just as he pulls open the screen door and turns to wave at us, before disappearing inside. “You ever heard of the Boston brothers?”