“There is no try,”Phoebe told him with a dramatic roll of her eyes,“there is only do and do not.”
“Shakespeare?” he shot back. “Let’s go inside, shall we?”
“First, you should know, Kyle and Madison did not invite anyone for brunch,” Jacqueline told them. “Dean couldn’t wait until tomorrow to see them.”
Brooke swatted him. “I knew it! I told Axel there was no way they’d want company after the week they’d had.”
“I didn’t want to wait to see them either,” Thea confessed, the little sweetheart. “I was planning on dropping by the restaurant with my breads earlier than usual today.”
“The only fair thing to do is let them decide on whether they want to let us in,” Sawyer announced in his philosophical way.
“Good idea!” Brooke agreed, taking Dean’s arm and lifting his hand to the call box even though they knew the code. “You ring them.”
Yeah, he’d kind of expected that. Smiling brightly, he pushed the button and waited, hoping Kyle would answer. Madison was trickier, and he feared her cleaver—both the industrial one and the stuffed one he’d given her.
“Yes?”Madison answered.
Great, just his luck. “Hey, it’s Dean. Did you guys change the code?”
The others simply gave him a look. He flashed a bigger smile.
“No. I’m buzzing you in.”
He mimed wiping his brow. “Terrific. See you in a sec.”
Turning to the others, he opened the door and gestured for them to precede him.
Brooke punched him lightly in the shoulder. “You were supposed to ask her about brunch.”
“Oops,” he said with a shrug.
“Dean, I swear, if I didn’t love you.” Brooke hit the button again.
“Dean!” Madison called out. “I punched the button. Open the damn door.”
“Madison, it’s Brooke. Dean had one of his brilliant ideas and invited everyone here for a potluck brunch.”
“I wanted us to celebrate your news!” he cried out, edging in next to Brooke.
“He did what?”Kyle’s voice hummed indistinctly in the background, and then Madison sighed. “Fine. Kyle says you might as well come in.”
The door buzzed again. They all filed down the walkway toward the house. Kyle was standing at the door with Spike wiggling excitedly in his arms. He looked years younger than he had the day before.
“So you pulled a fast one, Dean?” he called out as Spike let out excited puppy barks. “Madison is grabbing her cleaver as we speak.”
His balls shriveled just a little. He knew she’d never maim him, but she got a scary gleam in her eyes when she threatened him that never failed to freak him out. “Come on! I thought we all needed to be together this morning and celebrate. A text wasn’t enough. Besides, Thea was off this morning after another sell-out at the bakery. I decided to capitalize on us all being free. We haven’t hung out enough recently, and with you guys being back together, today seemed like a great time.”
“He couldn’t wait for Sunday dinner,” Brooke informed him, taking charge and stepping toward the front door like she was leading their troops. “We’re glad you’re both all right.”
When Kyle leaned down and kissed both her cheeks, keeping Spike tightly against his chest, Dean caught the roll of emotion on his friend’s face. He and Madison had been through the wringer all right. Yeah, he still wished love could be all champagne and bonbons, but sometimes you had to hold on tightly to the one you loved and ride out the storm. He took Lady Jacs’ hand and stepped up after his friends as they hugged Kyle and had their moment with him.
Everyone seemed still seemed a little raw, which was something he understood all too well. He’d gone on a long walk after the meeting yesterday, kicking random stones on the old path along the Seine, not knowing what to do to help.
Thank God that was over now.
When he reached Kyle, he gripped his shoulder, for once not knowing what to say. In the past, he’d been a little jealous of how perfect Golden Boy and his life always seemed. But over the last few months, he’d seen new sides of his friend and realized his upbringing hadn’t been as charmed as he’d once thought. He’d come to realize they weren’t very different—only Kyle still had better hair, damn him.
“Yeah, I know,” Kyle finally said, taking Pierre from him and handing him Spike. “Here, play with the puppy. And Dean… I’m glad you called our family together.”
