Romeo Fails by Amy Briant Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t think the owners meant it as such when they named it The Hamlet. It just turned out that way.”
    Good intoned, “Two beers or not two beers…”
    Dorsey joined him on the punch line. “That is the question.” They clinked their glasses together. Sarah laughed, more at their interaction than the lame joke. She took a small sip of her wine, then wrinkled her nose again as smoke from the 4-Hers’ booth eddied over their table.
    “Sorry about that,” said Good, waving a big hand in the air as if that would chase away the smoke. “You’re from Chicago, right? I hear you can’t smoke in the bars up there anymore, is that right?”
    “That’s true. That’s one thing I hate about small towns. Oh, sorry!” Sarah caught herself with a rueful grin. “That came out kind of rude. I’m sorry—Romeo Falls is lovely, really. I’ve always wanted to come here. I heard so much about it when I was a kid from Maggie that I kind of pictured it like…like…I don’t know, like a perfect little slice of heaven, I guess.” She laughed, as if at herself and her childhood vision of a midwestern paradise.
    “Well, I was hoping there wouldn’t be feedlots in heaven,” Good chuckled. “But I guess it is pretty nice. I like it, anyhow.”
    “What about you?” Sarah asked Dorsey, who’d gone quiet in her corner while the two of them talked. She was enjoying the chance to observe Sarah while she spoke with Good. Her slender wrists. The hint of triceps tone in her upper arm when she raised her wineglass. The way she gracefully gestured with her hands sometimes when she talked. The way the subdued lighting in the bar made subtle highlights in her soft, straight, coal-black hair. Hair she wanted to run her hands through, right there, right then…
    “Dorsey?”
    Dorsey realized both Sarah and Good were looking right at her, apparently expecting a reply to some question she’d missed. Before she could respond, Luke Bergstrom called out to Good to come play pool. Good gulped down the rest of his beer, made his excuses to Sarah and Dorsey, then joined Luke at the pool table.
    “Who’s his buddy? The big good-looking guy?” Sarah wanted to know.
    “That’s Luke Bergstrom, our chief of police. Husband of our waitress from brunch this morning, if you recall.”
    If you dug deep enough, practically everybody in Romeo Falls was somehow related to everybody else, by marriage if not by blood.
    “Wait—Bergstrom? As in Maggie’s ex-husband Bergstrom?”
    “Right. She’s divorced from Dwayne—thank God—and that’s his older brother Luke, who is nothing like Dwayne, by the way. Luke and Good played football together in high school. Luke was the nose tackle and Good was the center. But I don’t know if you follow football…” Dorsey trailed off.
    “Are you kidding me? Da Bearz!” Sarah said with a grin, making her allegiance plain.
    Courtney Flugelmeyer had noticed the two of them sitting next to each other and was staring at them with narrowed eyes. Dorsey saw Courtney elbow Tanya. Tanya looked over at Dorsey and Sarah and then said something to Courtney that made them both laugh and go back to drinking. They were doing a round of shots now and getting louder by the minute.
    “So Luke and Good played football together…” Sarah prompted her, unaware of the scrutiny from one table over. She inched a little closer to hear Dorsey’s reply over the barroom noise.
    “Right. And hunted and fished together. Luke used to be over at our house all the time when we were kids and even when he was first on the force, but he’s cut back on socializing a lot since he became chief. It must be hard for him,” she mused.
    “And how about your socializing?” Sarah asked. “Is that hard for you?” Her knee brushed Dorsey’s under the table.
    “What do you mean?” Dorsey said, a little wary of this personal turn to the conversation.
    “Well, you know, small town… not a lot of fish in the pond…”
    Dorsey silently eyed