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“Same goes for me,” Mason added, glancing over at Owen.
“We appreciate you guys,” Owen said, rubbing Sarah’s lower back. “It’ll be a lot easier to get through this with good friends by our side.”
And that’s exactly what we were. Good friends. I saw a lot of nights like this in the future—the four of us having dinner together, with or without Finley in tow. Sarah and Owen were becoming something like family to me, too—which I never could have predicted.
We kept dinner casual, eating around the island and engaging in a garlic bread fight. Finley ate two bites of her pasta and disappeared into the dining room to play with the dog. With her out of earshot, I turned to Sarah and said, “So, I’m dying to ask. What’s going to happen now that you know about—us?” I gestured toward Mason. “Now that you’re an accessory to our crime, can’t you get in trouble if you don’t report us?”
“Report what? You guys being really close friends?” She winked, taking a sip of her water. “I won’t say a word to anyone about it.”
I blinked. “You won’t?”
“Of course not,” she answered with a laugh. “Besides, I feel like I owe you one.”
“Owe me one? For what?”
She gave Owen a quick glance, and he looked down at his plate.
I sighed. “Because of what happened two years ago?”
“Hey, it’s cool,” Mason said, putting his hand on the back of my barstool. “Let her owe you one.”
“Okay,” I said, the relief beginning to settle in. “You don’t ‘owe’ me anything, but I appreciate your discretion, anyway.”
Mason gave my knee a squeeze, his hand hidden from Finley’s line of sight. “Don’t you feel better about this now?”
“I do,” I said with an exhale. “But now we’ve got to deal with Xander.”
“Xander?” Owen asked. “What’d he do?”
“He knows,” Mason answered. “He caught us, actually, and he threatened to tell his ‘buddies’ on the school board. Do you think you could talk to him and, you know, make sure that doesn’t happen?”
Owen snickered. “He doesn’t have buddies on the school board. They despise him for some of the articles he’s written, exposing their hypocrisy. Trust me, they’re not going to listen to a word he says. He was just trying to get under your skin.”
“Okay. Sidenote,” Mason said, crossing his arms. “Can you please explain why you’re friends with that snake?”
“We have a history,” Owen said, shaking his head. Something about this made him smile. “He’s my oldest friend, and I promise there really is a good person beneath that asshole exterior he likes to put out there. That’s not the real him.”
“Uh huh.” Mason didn’t seem all that convinced, and neither did I.
“Xander hasn’t had the easiest life,” Sarah said, exchanging a glance with Owen. “And because of that, he’s got a big chip on his shoulder. But he’s actually harmless. So don’t worry about him, either.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said. “Noah Sherman’s daughter is in my class, and I’m worried about him finding out.”
Mason stiffened. “Let him say something about it. I wonder how the rest of the school board would feel about him sexually harassing a teacher during the apple orchard field trip.”
“What?!” Sarah and Owen exclaimed at the same time, both of them turning to me.
“He got a little touchy-feely,” I admitted, “but it’s not that big of a deal.”
Mason scoffed. “Yes it was. You don’t put your hand on someone’s lower back and whisper in their ear if you’re not trying to—” He glanced into the next room to make sure Finley wasn’t listening before continuing, “—fuck them.”
Owen nodded in agreement, while beside him, Sarah was shaking her head in disgust. “Well, whatever happens, I’ll go to bat for you.”
“And the school board loves her,” Owen said. “So does the superintendent. You guys have nothing to worry about.”
I was feeling much better about the situation after talking to them. If Sarah wasn’t worried about it, I wasn’t going to fret, either.
We helped them clean up, and Finley begged to be taken upstairs to see the robots. Owen agreed to go with her while we finished up, and Sarah smiled watching him take her by the hand and let her pull him toward the stairs. “He’s going to be a great dad someday, Sarah.” I told her.
