She laughs. “Thank you.”
Walker and Sadie come up to us too. Sadie hands Lila a glass of rosé champagne before hugging her and wishing her happy birthday. “Lila, I was dying to tell you about the party, but your husband swore us to secrecy.”
Walker says, “We need a picture. This shit’s going on the picture wall at Rosemont. I want all our great-great grandkidslooking at that photo and wondering about their crazy ancestors.”
I hand my phone to Lila’s coworker Sarah to get the photo. She gives us about thirty variations of it before handing it back to me for the group of us to look over.
Tanner shakes his head. “Look at this. Walker is smiling. And Slade too? That’s some powerful Halloween magic at work there. Wives are sorceresses.”
Walker kisses Sadie’s hand. “Happy wife, happy life.”
His eyes meet mine, a silent challenge in them. A silent,how’s that fake marriage going, asshole?
I’m making my wife very happy,I want to snarl at him. Maybe not in every way I want to, but we made a deal. And I’m going to honor the fucking deal. Even if it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and that’s coming from a man who played a Stanley Cup final on a broken ankle.
Sadie taps Lila on the shoulder. “C’mon, I wanted to get your opinion on what to do with Jonah’s room while we’re here. He wants a bunk bed but…”
Walker and I watch our wives walk away, heads bent together, already fast friends. Tanner studies them for just a second, eyes flickering back and forth from them to Walker and me.
Something crosses Tanner’s face. Brief and painful, gone before I can name it. Then he takes a drink and the grin comes back, fake vampire teeth flashing. “Where are my nieces and nephew at, anyway?” he asks.
“Bedtime,” Walker answers. “Dad dropped everyone off with the sitter at our house.”
“And he’s gonna come home to find his house full of drunk people and loud music,” Tanner says. “It’s just like high school.”
“Yeah, except this time he can’t ground us for it,” I say.
Not that I planned the parties, but I didn’t rat out my brothers when they did, so I was complicit, and therefore was punished along with my guilty brothers. Justice has always been swift and sweeping in our family.
I continue off-handedly, “Dad practically jumped for joy when I told him I wanted to have a surprise party for Lila.”
As soon as both pairs of their green eyes zero in on me instantly, I realize my mistake. Drawing attention to myself: classic self-inflicted wound in the Rhodes household.
“How’s married life treating you?” Tanner asks, eyes glittering.
“Yeah,” Walker says. “Do tell.”
“Fine,” I say.
Tanner waits. Walker waits. I take a drink of my beer.
“That’s it?” Tanner says. “Fine?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know, man. You’ve been living like a monk all these years and now you’re a newlywed. Something’s gotta be different. Or are you too busy spending all your time consummating the marriage over and over again?”
“It’s not like that,” I say. “This is still just a legal arrangement. Lila is my friend.”
Walker and Tanner stare at me.
“You’re still not sleeping together?” Tanner blurts.
I think about my hands on her ass. Kneading her soft flesh, my own cock shamefully rock-hard as I acted like it was all just for her benefit. Like I wasn’t leering at her body because I love looking at it, like I wasn’t touching her soft skin just as much for my pleasure as her comfort.
I glare at him. “None of this is any of your business.”
“Slade,” Walker says. “I think it’s great you and your wife are friends. That’s the way it should be. But wives want a littlemore than friendship from their husbands, you get what I’m saying? You got marital duties to fulfill, man.”
