Second Look (A New Beginning Book 3) (24 page)

They all nodded yes at her, so she continued. “Then, even if the test result is negative, nothing changes. Things keep going the way they are.” She paused, and then said, “But if the test says he is the father…well, that could just make things even better.”

Jennifer pursed her lips and tapped her cheek and said, “That’s what Adam says.”

Cassandra nodded in agreement. “Exactly. I’m telling you, sweetie, it will be fine.”

“Yeah, that’s all great and all, but I think you’re forgetting what happened last time.”

Kimberly leaned forward and asked, “What happened last time?”

“The test came back negative and he walked out.” Jennifer said and then continued, “No, actually, stormed out is more like it.”

Kimberly gasped and said, “Oh! That’s not good.”

Mandi’s voice was gentle, but she replied, “But that was a bit of a different situation, babe.” She turned towards Kimberly to explain. “He left his bride on the day of their wedding to travel to another state to take a paternity test and then later found out he wasn’t actually a father. He was under a bit of stress at the time. This time is completely different.”

Kimberly’s eyes widened and she said, “You left that part out! I’d have to agree. Totally different.”

Jennifer put her face in her hands again and knew they were right.

It was time to be brave and just open the damn test. But she’d wait until Adam got home.

“So, I’m being stupid?”

Cassandra and Mandi looked at each other and then turned her Jennifer.

Cassandra said, “Yup.”

Mandi, at the exact same time said, “Completely stupid.”

Kimberly just shook her head and said under her breath, “This is worse than Jerry Springer.”

Just then, the really hot guy from the next table walked over with a Bud Light Lime and placed it in front of Cassandra.

“Hi there,” the guy said, his low voice sexy and rumbly. “I’m Brian.”

Cassandra batted her eyelashes. “Is this for me?”

Brian nodded.

“Thanks.”

Cassandra turned to the rest of the girls and smirked.

That bitch just won the bet.

The girls would all have to sing a song of Cassandra’s choice and she had the worst voice ever. She’d be booed off the stage for sure.

Couldn’t they just go back to discussing her horrible decisions about keeping the test results from Adam? That seemed less painful than singing Karaoke.

Cassandra looked over at Brian. “Want to go with me to get a song list? These girls here are going to be singing a song tonight.”

Brian grinned and said, “Sure.”

He stepped back so Cassandra could get down off her bar stool.

Jennifer looked over at Kimberly and Mandi. “See what you’ve done? I’m screwed! I can’t sing a damn thing and people will boo me off the stage. Mark my words.”

“Oh, quit being so dramatic, Jennifer. You’ll be fine.”

Mandi excused herself to run to the restroom and to get them shots.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jennifer could see someone approach their table. A snarky, feminine voice said, “Hey there. Jennifer, right?”

She looked over and cocked her head to the side. It was the woman she met at the baseball field. The one who still texted Adam, although he doesn’t know she was aware of it. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why he didn’t just block her.

“Yeah. What was your name again?”

She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. “Sarah.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Have you seen Adam around?”

Jennifer raised an eyebrow. “He’s away on business.”

“Oh. Could you just let him know I need to talk to him?”

“Uh, sure, I’ll give him the message.”

“It’s important.”

Jennifer narrowed her eyes at Sarah. What is she up to? “Like I said, I’ll give him the message.”

Sarah nodded and gave her a small smile. “Thanks.”

Before she could say another word, Sarah took off and walked out the door.

Jennifer shook her head and wondered what was so important. Even though she didn’t trust the woman as far as she could throw her, Jennifer’s stomach rolled with nerves.

Cassandra got back to the table at the same time as Mandi.

Mandi tilted her head towards the door that Sarah had just walked through. “Who was that?”

“No one important,” replied Jennifer.

Cassandra shrugged and then looked over the song list. “Alrighty, what to choose…”

Brian left her at the table, but not before he slipped her a piece of paper with his name and number on it.

“Before you choose, Cass, how’s Noah? I still haven’t seen him since I’ve been back,” Jennifer said.

“He’s good,” she replied. “He was mad he wasn’t invited tonight, but I told him it was girls night out.”

Mandi muttered, “It sure didn’t stop Jennifer last time.”

“He could have come.” Kimberly shrugged. “I mean, my boyfriend is here. It’s only fair others could have brought theirs too.”

“That’s different, Kimberly,” Mandi insisted. “Peter works here.”

Speaking of the devil, Peter walked over to their table, a deck of cards in his hands. He was wearing a black top hat and black cape. He was a bit eccentric, but that was expected with the bar’s magician. Once a month they hired Peter to come in and perform tricks for the ladies and was a real hit at the bar.

“Hello, ladies. Are you having a good night?”

Peter looked down at Kimberly and gave her a quick peck on her cheek.

Mandi grinned. “Of course we are, Peter. But we’re better now. What new tricks do you have for us?”

“Funny you should ask,” Peter said with a smirk. “Pick a card, any card.”

Mandi chose a card in the middle of the deck.

“Now, write your name on your card with this permanent marker,” he told her, handing her the marker.

Mandi took the marker, but raised her eyebrow. “Really?”

Peter continued to shuffle using one hand and separating the cards multiple times before putting them back together as he answered with a smile, “Yes, really. Go ahead.”

“Oooookayyyy,” Mandi said, writing her name on the card.

Peter took the card back and placed it in the deck and started shuffling again, every which way, and all of the girls kept a watchful eye on the cards.

“Are they shuffled well enough for you?”

“Yep! Good luck finding it,” Mandi replied, laughing.

“It’s not luck, Mandi, it’s magic.” Peter held a straight face.

“Okay, then impress me!”

Jennifer noticed that Kimberly sat in her chair, her mouth turned up slightly, watching her boyfriend and sipping her red wine. Jennifer figured she saw him do these magic tricks about a hundred or more times, but she was almost as fun to watch as Peter because she loved his magic tricks.

“Okay, now I’ll make your card rise to the top.”

Peter took the deck, waved his hand over the cards and then snapped his fingers. By this time, he drew a few other spectators and they hovered around the table.

Then, he turned the top card over and the girls all gasped, looking at Mandi’s signature on the card.

“What? How the hell did you do that? Do it again,” Mandi demanded.

Jennifer clapped her hands.

Cassandra’s mouth and eyes opened wide, looking at the card and then up at Peter, but remained silent.

Peter laughed and stuck the card back into the middle of the deck. He then waved his hand over the cards, snapped his fingers and turned the top card over just like he did the first time. It was her card again, with Mandi written in large black letters.

“Okay, you’ve impressed me,” Mandi told him. “Do you have any other tricks?”

Kimberly started laughing and said, “Oh, believe me, he could do this all night.”

“Okay, here’s another one, but who at this table could promise not to drop any cards in an invisible deck?”

All three girls looked confused, including Kimberly. “Huh, I haven’t seen this one yet!”

Cassandra recovered from her shock and started hopping up and down in her bar stool, yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!”

“Okay, we have a taker,” Peter said. “Now, here’s the invisible deck. It’s in the card package, and is a brand new deck, so take the wrapper off first, take it out of the box, and then very carefully shuffle the deck.”

Peter held out his empty hand to Cassandra as though a real deck were in it.

She laughed, pretended to take the invisible deck and said, “Okay, I’ll do my best.”

Cassandra played along, unwrapping the invisible deck of cards, pretending to take them out of the package, and pretending to shuffle. She giggled as the hot guy who earlier bought her the drink watched her in fascination.

Peter held out his hand. “Be very careful with that deck, Cassandra. If you drop any of them, I’ll never be able to find them.”

The entire table started laughing, while Peter’s face remained completely straight. “What? I’m serious.”

“Okay, I’ll be extra careful, Peter,” Cassandra said, humoring him as she finished shuffling and pretending to cut the deck in half twice before saying, “Okay, they’re pretty well shuffled.”

“Perfect! Well done, Cassandra,” Peter told her. “Now, choose a card, any card, and turn it upside down in the deck and put the cards back in the box.”

Cassandra just nodded, concentrating on taking an invisible card out of the center of the deck, looking at it and turning it upside down in the middle of the deck before putting it back in the box. She was extra careful not to let any fall on the ground, as Peter had suggested, but pretended to drop an invisible card and catch it, which drew another laugh from the crowd.

“You’re the only one in this bar who knows what card you chose. Now tell everyone what it was.”

“Seven of Spades.”

“Okay, now, when I count to three, throw me the deck of cards, okay?”

Peter waited for her to nod, and then started counting. By this time, there were even more people crowded around them.

“One…two…three!”

As he got to number three, Cassandra threw the invisible deck of cards and a real deck of cards magically appeared in Peter’s hands. That drew another gasp from the crowd, and Peter’s face held an amused, confident grin.

“Now, here comes the best part.”

He opened the deck of cards, and then spread them out in his hands. The crowd saw that only one card was flipped over in the deck and the rest were face up. He walked back over to Cassandra and had her pull out the card that was upside down.

Jennifer watched as Cassandra turned over the card, and then she yelled, “Oh my gosh!!! It’s the seven of spades! How did you do that?”

Mandi’s eyes were wide open. “Holy. Shit.”

“Like I said, magic.”

Peter took his top hat off and gave a bow.

“I don’t believe it,” Jennifer told him. “You need to repeat that one for me.”

“Oh good. I was really hoping for a doubting Tomas,” he told them, laughing. “Okay, I’m going to turn this card back over so they are all the same way. See?”

He showed the group that all cards were all face up. He then put the cards behind his back and turned over one of the cards in the deck.

“Now, Thomas, I mean Jennifer, name a card, the one you think I turned over.”

“Hmm, how about four of hearts.”

Jennifer gave him a knowing smile. There was no way that card was the one turned over in his hand.

He took the cards from behind his back, showed them with the one card flipped over and walked over to Jennifer.

“Go ahead, turn it over.”

Peter’s voice held an air of confidence.

Jennifer narrowed her eyes and teased him, “Alright. But if that’s my card, you’re the best magician in Zimmerman.”

Jennifer turned over her card, looked up at Peter with wide eyes and screamed, “No waaaaay! The four of hearts! How did you do that?”

Peter’s face transformed with a cocky grin and he said, “I believe you said if I got the right card, I was the best magician in Zimmerman?”

“Yep. Hands down. That was awesome!”

Mandi’s mouth was gaping. “How the hell did you do that?”

Peter slyly looked to the left and then to the right, leaned down and whispered to the girls, “Can you keep a secret?”

They all nodded their heads at the same time and leaned in close.

Peter smirked and said, “So can I.”

Then, he walked away after taking one last bow.

“Holy shit, Kimberly, he’s amazing!” Mandi exclaimed. In a bit softer voice, she turned to Jennifer, cupped her mouth with her hand and said in an exaggerated voice, “Sorta makes me wonder what kind of tricks he does in bed.”

Kimberly turned a brilliant shade of red and raised an eyebrow.

Mandi’s started laughing, “Looks like we have our answer.”

Cassandra shook her head. “Jeez, Mandi, really? Totally inappropriate.”

“What? Like you weren’t wondering…”

“Mandi, you’re bad. Control yourself.”

“I won’t tell.” Kimberly laughed. “Now it’s time for another round of drinks before the losers have to sing. This round is on me.”

Kimberly got up and headed towards the bar, ending that part of the conversation.

Cassandra grabbed the song list that was abandoned earlier. Jennifer watched Cassandra scan each song, her stomach in knots because she wasn’t looking forward to singing. She finally wrote down three songs on three different sheets and didn’t even tell them what songs she chose before she walked them up to the front of the bar to hand them in.

By the end of the night, Jennifer was tipsy and her cheeks were red from the drinks she consumed and from being booed off the stage.

Jennifer would never forgive Cassandra for choosing the famous Madonna song, “Like a Virgin.”

Someday, somehow, she vowed, she’d get Cass back for embarrassing the hell out of her.

Chapter Seventeen