Miles looks to me with a solemn nod. “I’ll make sure everyone plays nice.”
“Please and thank you! I’ll owe you if we make it out of here in one piece!”
He salutes me, and I laugh before turning to the girls.
“Okay, now tell me everything,” Sutton says low, eyes eager as she cracks open a drink for me and she hands it over. I take a long chug, needing the courage to survive the next hour.
Then I tell my best friends everything.
The afternoon is great. Perfect, even, with everybody getting along and smiling and joking. At some point, Miles gets a football and starts tossing it with Graham, which is when we learn that his high school team went to States when he was a kid and that he was the quarterback.
“Oh, I need those pictures,” I say low. “Do you have them?”
“No way,” Graham says, not even bothering to look at me. “They’re buried deep where you’re never going to find them.”
“That’s probably what June said last night,” Claire says, and Graham chokes, missing the ball Deck threw his way.
“Jesus, fuck, Claire, can you not?” Grant groans, turning a bit green. “I’m trying to be cool, but it’s really hard.”
“Also, what she—” Thankfully, Miles slams his hand on Claire’s mouth, muffling her words. I’m sure he’s going to get an earful later from her, but I’m grateful.
“Are they buried because you’re so old and they didn’t have technology back then?” I ask, trying to shift the focus.
“He’s what, a year older than me?” Grant says, oddly and unexpectedly, sticking up for Graham. I knew they would eventually get along, since they are very similar in both personality and work ethic, but this came sooner than expected. Though I suppose that, with this crew being very much boys-versus-girls, another person on his team would be a relief.
“Exactly. Old.” Lainey says deadpan. I really need to figure out what’s going on there.
“Tomorrow I’ll get Josie on it. If anyone can find them, she can,” Sutton says.
“I’m so intrigued by this woman. A secret spy, apparently hot as shit, nailed down Rowan…I need to meet her. I think I want to be her when I grow up,” Claire says.
“She’ll be here with Rowan early next week,” Graham says.
“Really?” I ask, clasping my hands together. I’ve heard a lot about Josie, the undercover PI who works for a super-secret firm that you can’t just contact, but you have to know people who know people. They call her the Maneater because she’s so hot and a huge flirt, and she has a personal skill for getting men to tell her whatever information she needs to solve a case. She met Rowan last year while undercover as a vacationer at the Keys location to figure out who was sabotaging it.
“Yeah, he’ll be here Monday after the grand opening.”
“How are you feeling about that?” Grant asks, and Graham shrugs.
“Opening day is different for each location, but I fully anticipate at least a few hiccups.”
I knock on the wood table, a long, picnic-style table built years ago after our crew kept on growing. It could probably fit ten more people, and a part of me has always pictured Lainey and me sitting here with our partners and our kids when we’re older, carrying on the tradition of summers behind the Seabreeze.
“Don’t jinx it!” I say, and he puts an arm around me, pulling me into his side and pressing his lips to my hair.
“Not jinxing it. It’s my job to prepare for anything.”
I lift an eyebrow at him.
“Who’s superstitious now?” I ask, and he smiles at me. My own melts off my face with Claire’s words, though.
“Since we’re talking about work stuff, how’s the proposal coming?”
My entire body stills.
“Claire—”
“What proposal?” Graham asks.
