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Walt’s was our regular haunt, owned by our friend Nate. I hadn’t been there in ages because of Finn, and when I shook my head, Jude waved his hand. “Come on. Drop Finn off at my house. I’ll have my parents come over.”
Finn was a handful, and I didn’t trust any random babysitter with him.
“We’ll have a few beers and come up with a list for your Mary Poppins,” he added, and the temptation to get away for a night was a big one.
“All right.” I gave in, powering my cell phone back on, the screen immediately filling with alerts for new text messages, voice mails, and emails. I ignored them all and opened my calendar. “Everybody good for Thursday night?”
“I’m good,” Jude said, and Dylan agreed.
“Me too.”
I plugged it into my calendar and slid my phone into my back pocket right as Finn tried to climb into one of the shopping carts. “Hey! Finn, no!”
“Tucker!” Dylan stood because his four-year-old son had his hands wrapped around the handle of the cart, appearing as if he was going to take Finn for a ride. “I don’t think so.”
They both ignored us, and Dylan ran to stop them, the shopping cart ramming into his shins. Tucker grinned impishly with a “Sorry!” then scampered off while his dad’s face turned bright red, and I could imagine the string of curses he was holding back as he limped in a tight circle.
Jude covered his laugh with his hand as I hopped up to take Finn out of the cart. “Whatdya think you’re doing? You coulda taken a header right out of here and busted your face. You wanna go to the hospital for stitches?”
He shook his head.
“Stop climbing on things. It’s not safe.” I set him on the floor and fixed his glasses with the rubber band around his head. “You do it again, and we’re leaving.”
He only wrinkled his nose then took off again.
I caught up to Dylan and clapped his shoulder. “All right?”
He grunted as he closed his eyes for a moment, inhaling. “I love my children.”
I agreed. Sometimes you just didn’t like them.
TWO
KENNEDY
“Hey Nate, could I get another?”
My sister, Taylor, arched her brow. “You really needanother?”
“Yes. I really needanother.”
Every third Thursday of the month, I tagged along with her to Walt’s to watch her boyfriend, Dean, play in his cover band. When I went out, I almost never had more than one or two drinks because of my meds. I couldn’t mess with them and chance a seizure, but today was shit and called for alcohol.
Nate, the cute, bearded, and tattooed owner of this delightful little dive, appeared in front of me with a refill. “How’s it going, ladies?”
Taylor, as per usual, offered him a nod.
My sister was great. Loved her to the moon and back, but she had a raging case of resting bitch face. She knew it and wore it well. It was part of her charm.
“What about you?” he asked me, satisfied with Taylor’s silent answer.
“It’s been a day,” I said, swiping my hand through my hair.
“Yeah?” He leaned his forearms on the bar. “What happened?”
That was what I liked about Nate. He was a genuinely nice guy. You could tell he really cared about people. My sister often called me naïve, said I was too trusting, and maybe I was, but Nate? He was one of the good ones.
“I got fired from my job,” I told him.
