"Christ, I don't want to hear about this right now. I'm going to take a shower. I stink to high heaven after mucking out those stalls."
Crunch laughed. "I got ahold of Blaze," he said.
I stopped. "You talked to him?"
He shook his head. "Not on the phone. Emailed him."
"Is that safe?"
He cocked his head to the side, giving me his most patronizing look. "You're going to ask me whether I know what I'm doing, contacting someone securely through email?"
"Fine, whatever. It's secure. What's the deal?"
"They're in Vietnam right now. They'll head back to Cali. It won't be for a few days."
"They're not going to the clubhouse."
He shook his head. "Come on, man. Give them some credit. I assume they'll lie low at Benicio's. It would make the most sense. I didn't ask."
"Okay," I said. "Good to know."
So we'd need to hit the road in a couple days. If I needed a good reason to stop what was going on with June, it just got handed to me on a silver platter.
"You're all coming to the birthday tomorrow night," my dad said. "Pass those peas over here." He took the bowl in his hands, spooning vegetables onto his plate.
"Yay! I love birthdays!" MacKenzie yelled.
"Mac," April said. "Use your inside voice so we don't all lose our hearing in here."
"Don't you even worry about that, Mac," my father said. "I'm half deaf already. Yell all you want. It doesn't bother me one bit."
MacKenzie squealed her approval, and April gave my father a mock look of exasperation. "You're letting her get away with murder, here, Stan."
My dad shrugged. "It's nice to have noise around here," he said. "It's been too quiet in this house for far too long."
"What's this about a birthday?" Crunch asked.
"It's the town birthday," I said. "It's no big deal, and we're not going down there, dad."
"No big deal?" my father asked. "It's only the biggest celebration in West Bend every year."
I laughed. "Yeah, it's the only celebration in West Bend," I said. "But it's just a regular country fair. If you've seen one, you've seen them all."
"But I want to go to the fair!" MacKenzie said.
"Dad..." I warned, tossing him a dirty look. "It's not a great idea."
"Well, it wouldn't be the worst thing," Crunch said. "I mean, we know that no one's looking for us."
"We don't know that for sure," I said. All I could think about was how much I didn't want to see June there. If we could keep our heads down and get out of here, it would be better for everyone.
"I think we can be reasonably sure of it," Crunch said. "I'm still keeping tabs on everything."
"I just don't understand all that technology stuff, you typing away on the computer, how you can track all that," my dad said.
"Well, it's complicated but I can try to -"
I cut him off, before he even got started. "We don't need a lesson in your tech shi - uh, tech stuff, Crunch. Dad, we're not going to the town birthday."
"I'd like to go," Crunch said. I glared at him, my eyes wide.
"What?" he asked. "I would. We've been lying low now, there's no sign of problems with the club. It's not like we're going to roll up there riding the bikes and wearing colors. We'll blend in, lie low."
"It's not a good idea." I cut off a bite of pork chop, popped it into my mouth.
"I think it would be fine," Crunch said. "Besides, I'm sure the whole town will be there. June too."
I took a deep breath. "Then you and dad go."
"Suit yourself," my dad said. "Crunch and I will go down tomorrow night, take the truck. Probably for the best anyway. No sense in you getting all riled up when you see June with someone else."
I sighed. My dad could be a manipulative asshole when he wanted to be. Still, I couldn't help but ask anyway. "With who?"
Dad shrugged, stood up. "I don't know," he said. "June's a smart lady, good catch. But I'm sure she doesn't like the idea of being with the town sheriff anyhow." He stood up, pushed away from the table. "I've got an apple pie in the oven if you want some. Anyone?"
"You know it," Crunch said, patting his belly. He smiled broadly at me, the shit.
"I want pie!" MacKenzie screamed. "And I want to go to the fair! Can we go, mommy?"
April nodded. "We definitely can go," she said, squeezing Crunch's arm. "It'll be good, spending time together as a family."
My dad was being completely manipulative, suggesting June would go to the town birthday with someone else, especially when it had been a town tradition for years. Which meant that it had been me and June's tradition too. It was a transparent attempt to make me jealous, incite me to go to the fair.
And it had worked.