MacKenzie Fire(72)

“Which are …?”

He shrugs, still not looking at me. “Mack leaving the bachelor party to be with her, and then Ginny jumping to the wrong conclusions and her and Mack …”

“Her and Mack? You mean her and her. Mack had nothing to do with it.”

Tate shrugs. “Believe what you want. Some say he did, some say he didn’t.” He looks up at me.

I’m instantly enraged. “How dare they!”

When he doesn’t jump to agreeing with me, I notch down my righteous indignation. “What do you think? Do you think he asked for it?”

He shrugs again. “Probably not. I haven’t thought that much about it, to be honest. I could care less what the MacKenzies do or don’t do.”

“But knowing Mack as I assume you do, is he the type to go after his brother’s fiancée?”

Tate shakes his head. “Nope. Not that I can see.”

“Good. But I know that’s kind of past history, so what does that have to do with Andie now?”

Tate glances over at Hannah before he answers. “I’m not sure you’d understand this coming from a big city like you do, but here, things are kind of different.”

I lean in closer and lower my voice. “How are they different? Explain it to me.”

He leans in too. “For example, people get ideas in their heads about other people, and even when things aren’t going according to plan, they have a hard time accepting it.”

“Give me something specific.” I’m keeping Hannah in my sights using my peripheral vision. If she tries to come over and interrupt us I’m going to have to cause a distraction or something. Maybe I’ll throw something across the room. That should work. I could probably bury one of these butter knives in the wall if I had to.

“Take Ginny, for example. She’s one of those girls who had it in her head that Ian was hers, lock, stock and barrel, from the time they were kids. But he was never that into it.”

“How do you know that?” It’s like everyone but Ian and Ginny knew that Ian wasn’t in love with her. I guess that’s not too unbelievable, though. I’ve seen it enough times with my own friends. It happened with Andie and her ridiculous boyfriends all the time. She could never see what total d-bags they were, even when it was pointed out in very plain English, like me saying the more obvious things like Hey, Andie, a guy who buys you plastic surgery gift certificates for Valentine’s Day is a total dirtbag. Bradley was nearly the cause of the end of our friendship. Thank God Mack came along when he did…

“How did I know?” He shrugs. “I don’t know. You could just see it. Everyone could see it, not just me. Whenever she was around he would just kind of disappear. I mean, he was there, but not there. Know what I mean? Like a ghost. The ghost of Ian MacKenzie.”

“Yes, I think so.” It sounds very much like what Ian was trying to describe to me himself, how he was always in the background with Ginny out in front.

“But did that stop her?” Tate asks. “No. It just made her more determined. Kind of like Hannah is with Mack.”

I look over at her and see her sending nervous glances our way.

“Tell me,” I urge him. “All of it.”

He shrugs. “I’m sure you know it. She had her hooks in Mack from the start. He never gave her the time of day, really. I mean, he was polite and all, but never encouraging. Hannah figured he was hers, and since he never dated anyone around town, people thought she had a right to believe that. She moved into his place sometime after he came back from Vegas and lots of people just assumed they were a couple.”

“They weren’t. He was just being nice.”

“That’s what he says. It’s not what she says.”

I glare at him and then Hannah. “She’s a lying little bitch is what she is.” If I had lasers in my eyes, she’d be smoke right now.

Tate puts his hands up. “Hey, don’t look at me. I’m just telling the story.”

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” I say, nodding at him.

“I hear you shot Ian.” Tate smiles. “Pretty funny if you ask me.”

“Don’t change the subject. How does all this relate to Andie?”

He sighs. “The way people see it around here, she’s the reason for all of it. If she hadn’t come into the picture, Ginny would have her man, Hannah would have her man, and everyone would be happy.”

“Not Ian or Mack!” I say way too loudly.

Tate glances around nervously. “Relax, okay? I told you you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh, I understand perfectly.” I shake my head. “Some people are just clueless.”

“It’s not that easy, really, though is it?” Tate’s staring at me, all seriousness in his expression. It calms me considerably.

I shrug, not understanding what he’s trying to say. “Why not? Seems pretty easy to me. Someone doesn’t like you, move on. Game over.”

“Maybe in a big city where you have a thousand guys to choose from, but around here, it’s not that way. You have your eye set on one guy for more than half your life and then he kind of lets you know it’s on, that’s what you focus on. And when it’s not good, you just keep focusing on it. It’s not like you have a lot of options. Being alone is … lonely.”