“I don’t know. Some club with fancy cocktails and a dance floor and some shit. Honestly, I might have tuned out on some of the details.”
“It doesn’t bother you? Your wife going out drinking in some club without you?”
Aidan gave him a what the fuck is wrong with you look. “First, I don’t tell Lydia what to do. Ever. People think Scott is the hardheaded Kincaid, but his sisters make him look like a puppy dog if they get pissed. Second, I trust my wife. And third, she works in a bar. Drunk guys hitting on her is just another day for Lydia. She can handle herself.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Yeah, but nothing,” Scotty interrupted. “You don’t care if Lydia goes to a club. You want Aidan and I to try to talk our wives out of it so the girls’ night out will fall apart and Wren won’t be out at a club without you.”
“No.” Fuck. “Okay, maybe.”
“Food’s ready,” they heard Chris yell from the kitchen.
Of course, once they were all gathered around the table, eating some of the finest pulled pork sandwiches in the city, Scotty made sure everybody knew Grant was tied up in knots about Wren going out on the town.
“How much trouble can she get into with those ladies? Oh wait...” Chris said, and then he laughed like he’d made the funniest joke ever.
Grant didn’t laugh. “When a group of married—or as good as married—women go out with one single friend in a mix, they want to find her a guy. It’s a thing they do.”
“It’s a thing they do?” Rick snorted. “I had no idea you were such a fountain of feminine knowledge, kid.”
“They’re probably going to buy some overpriced pink drinks in tiny glasses and sit around complaining about their men,” Gavin said. “Well, Cait won’t. But the rest of them will.”
They laughed when Danny, who’d been on his way to the fridge, cuffed him upside the head as he walked by.
“And least Lydia and Jamie won’t be buying overpriced cocktails, since neither of them can drink. As a bonus, they’ve got the designated drivers covered,” Scotty said with a chuckle.
Everybody looked at him like they were trying to figure out what he was talking about, except for Aidan, who elbowed him in the ribs. “Asshole.”
“Shit.”
“I just won twenty bucks,” Danny said. “Ashley said Aidan would accidentally spill the beans first, but I knew it would be Scotty.”
“Wait. Jamie and Lydia are both pregnant?” Rick scrubbed his hand over his jaw. “So we’re getting a Kincaid baby and a Hunt baby let loose on the world at the same time?”
“About a month apart, give or take.” Scott held up his hands. “And, no, it wasn’t planned.”
“Jesus, every elementary school teacher in the city’s going to be doing the math to figure out how long they have to transfer or retire.”
“And the hockey coaches,” Rick added.
“We don’t know if they’re boys or girls yet,” Chris pointed out.
Aidan laughed. “Shit, it don’t matter. If you think either Scotty or I will have a daughter who won’t throw a hard check, you haven’t been paying attention.”
“And you certainly don’t know our wives,” Scott said.
There were congratulations and jokes, but Grant tuned most of it out. He was thrilled for the other guys, but hearing about the babies on the way caused a weird twinge in his gut.
One of the theories he’d come up with while lying awake in the dark in the time after Wren had disappeared was that she’d gotten pregnant and was upset and didn’t want to tell him. It was an unlikely theory, not only because he always used protection, but they both wanted kids. Not immediately, of course, but children had come up in conversation and neither of them had ever said they didn’t want to be a parent.
And because he’d been emotionally battered and his walls were down, he’d stupidly allowed himself to picture what that would look like. In his imaginings, she’d changed her mind and returned to him, and they’d had a baby together. A little girl with blonde hair, who looked like her mom.
The painful what-if thoughts hadn’t helped him sleep at night.
“Hey, Grant,” Gavin said as they started clearing the table. “Since they’re having a girls’ night out, we should hit Kincaid’s and shoot some pool or something.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
